Holding a 13-point lead over Bouwe Bekking's Telefonica Blue boat, the Ericsson 4 crew, led by the legendary Torben Greal, look set for overall race victory, barring a major catastrophe. Victory in the Leg 7 race from Boston to Galway extended their advantage over Bekking's crew, but a disappointing fifth place in last weekend's in-port race has closed the gap once more.

Before the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race to Galway, leaving a legacy behind was sighted as the main aim for the festival. Now, with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people and millions of euro to the city, a real legacy can remain. The Even Keel project hopes to be part of that. Galwegian PJ Mealey is the face of the Even Keel project in Galway. He has spend huge chunks of the festival trying to get disabled sailors out on the water to experience the sailing buzz around the harbour.

Galway sailing fans will wave goodbye to the Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Saturday, as they head to the Swedish town of Marstrand for their next stopover. Originally, the route was planned to head North along the Irish coast past the coast of Mayo, Sligo and Donegal and across the dangerous waters of the North Sea. However, a decision was made to change the route to increase the viewing points for the public on mainland Europe along the 1,250 nautical miles course.

Galway will bid a fond farewell to the Volvo Ocean Race this Saturday and organisers are calling on both residents and visitors to turn out in force at 11.30am to wish the sailors a safe journey as they depart from the harbour. Galway welcomed the Volvo Ocean Race in spectacular style over the weekend of 23 and 24 May and has continued to show incredible warmth and hospitality over the past ten days.

The entertainment and fun on the Docks has been non-stop since the launch of the festival and is showing no signs of slowing down. From the initial arrival of the boats on Saturday 23 May night to the 60,000 people dancing and singing along to Sharon Shannon and guests at the weekend, it has been an event to remember. However, while people may be forgiven for thinking that the best has come and gone, there are some great events still to come before the boats depart this weekend.

NUI Galway is hosting a photography exhibition to coincide with the Galway Volvo Ocean Race. 'Safety for all' features photographs of Irish lighthouses that were taken at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibition is taking place in the James Hardiman library at NUI Galway and will continue until Tuesday 30 June.

To celebrate United Nations World Ocean Day, Galway Atlantaquaria in Salthill will host a series of diving events on Saturday 6 June and Sunday 7 June. The aquarium, in association with the Marine Institute, will kick off the festivities at noon on Saturday with a 24-hour dive in their ocean tank with divers from the NUIG/GMIT sub aqua club.

Friday is always a good day to start or close a deal so the offer of a six-month old, 'one careful owner', 'genuine reason for selling', very fast machine at HALF PRICE was worth a look. Only problem is that while it is available in a month's time for half the price paid for it last year, you would still need to cough up €2.5 million to buy the Green Dragon.

"This is like Greece," said my 12-year-old son on Sunday morning, as he awoke to glorious sunshine yet again. The gods have certainly looked down favourably on the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover and the positive vibe created by the weather and all our performers around the village can be felt by all visitors. The harbour area most certainly looked more like a Mediterranean port than the west of Ireland and the selection of quality food and drink on offer added to the ambience.

When the Volvo Ocean Race committee decide to award the stopover to Galway, they could never have imagined the success that the event would be. More than 300,000 thousand people have padded through the race village in the first nine days of the festival and an estimated 150,000 crammed into every available viewing point along the bay to see the in-port racing and the Red Arrows aerobatic display on Saturday.