Volvo Ocean Race: Brunel skipper Bekking: "The best sailing so far"

"Today was one of those sailing days when you realise how lucky you are to be able to take part in these races. When the northerly winds reached us in the morning, we enjoyed the best sailing ever on this boat: 30 knots of wind and smooth water. We were just racing along, reaching average speeds of 26.5 knots. Why can't it always be like this? These boats are made for smooth water, not waves." Team Brunel's skipper Bouwe Bekking enthused about the conditions on Sunday before rain and adversity caught up with him again during his watch on Monday night. Brunel's crew is still struggling to repair the media station, which they are constantly being asked to do by the race management headquarters. "It's super annoying to get these messages from race control asking us to just switch the media station back on. That's so easy to say when you're sitting in a dry office on land somewhere. They have no idea how hard we are fighting to get the station back up and running. Yann and Capey have been banging on about it all day. I'm sure the guys will find a way once things calm down."

Little has changed in the battle for the top places in the fleet over the weekend. Although Mapfre initially took the lead, the previously dominant quartet continues to sail mostly within sight of each other. Just behind Mapfre, Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team, Bekking's Team Brunel and Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic put the pressure on on Monday morning. The four leading boats were separated by just three and a half nautical miles on day six of the sixth leg before Monday morning greeted them again with harsh and wet conditions.

And the two chasing teams, Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag and AkzoNobel, have also been able to reduce their gap after initially taking a more extreme northerly course, because the northerly winds reached them first - as hoped. However, the duo are still more than 30 nautical miles behind the leaders Mapfre. Click here for the tracker with the current positions.

This sixth leg will also take the boats towards the halfway point of the race, which will be reached after around two thirds of the leg from Hong Kong to Auckland with just under 20,000 nautical miles sailed. So far, everything indicates that the currently leading teams Mapfre and Dongfeng will fight the expected duel for overall victory in this 13th edition of the ocean marathon. However, it remains to be seen which of the two red boats will come out on top in The Hague at the end of June. Mapfre currently has a 4-point lead over Dongfeng in the overall standings with 34 points. Click here for the intermediate ranking.