Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s lead in the Volvo Ocean Race was short-lived as they slipped back to fourth place in the early hours of this morning.

The fleet are currently only sepa­rated by 38 nautical miles as the second leg to Abu Dhabi starts to get serious with around 4,000 miles to go.

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The crews are facing the first big strategic decision of this leg, either going further east at right angles to the route keeping the wind for long­er, or head north directly.

For Dongfeng this choice has been in lots of small bites, moving with the oscillations of the wind and the tide to the north.

ADOR, however, went east and it initially paid off when they jumped from fifth to take the lead yester­day.

“Last night (Saturday) we were out of sight of everyone and were worried that we were too far east with everyone gybing north,” wrote Ian Walker yesterday morning.

 

 

The first leg was relatively smooth sailing for Azzam, while the likes of Dongfeng and Mapfre endured torrid times.

But, having suffered from a ripped A3 and a broken steering system in the past days, the Emirati crew had been hoping to make the most of the remains of the Agulhas Current to tackle the high-pressure system sitting north of the fleet.

But Walker and crew didn’t expect the other six teams to take their time.

“The last thing we were planning on was leaving ourselves so exposed all alone,” admitted Walker.

With the wind dropping as the high-pressure gets closer, the fleet regrouped once more over the course of yesterday.

Brunel lead the fleet, with Dongfeng (6.9nm) and Mapfre (7.7) in second and third.

ADOR are slightly back again (12.8nm) in fourth, two miles ahead of Team Alvimedica, while Team Vestas Wind and Team SCA 31 and 38 miles adrift.

There is plenty more ahead to worry about though, with a tropical cyclone developing off the Mauri­tius Island, as well as the Doldrums to cross shortly after.

Corinna Halloran, Team SCA’s onboard reporter, said: “I’m not going to sugar coat it: the last few days have been tough – really tough.

“Waves catapult us into each other, the deck, deck hardware tan­gle us in sheets. Add fighting con­stant exhaustion to the mix and life is far from pleasant.”