Volvo Ocean Race: Restart in the Doldrums: "Fighting with everything we've got"

From a sailor's point of view, it is a cruel game: with a speed of no more than one or two knots in some places, the crews are tormented by the Doldrums on the fourth leg to Hong Kong, north-east of the Solomon Islands. This time, unlike on the leg to Cape Town, the squid belt lives up to its name. Crews and observers eagerly await the position reports, which are updated every six hours. Finally, there are a lot of position changes. On Tuesday morning, Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic had taken the lead, while the co-favourites Dongfeng and Mapfre had slipped back to fifth and sixth place and Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel had almost made up the 50 nautical mile gap from a few days ago and worked their way up to fourth place.

However, too much importance should not be attached to the current positions, as the first six boats are separated by only ten nautical miles in the doldrums. In search of any hint of wind, the fleet is heading for Hong Kong and the equator. They all have the same goal: at the exit of the Doldrums they want to sail in the leading group, because then the game of "the rich get richer" begins again, as the freshening winds mean that the leading boats are the first to make faster progress. A beaming Dee Caffari explains: "If we can stay in the lead now and get through the doldrums with the front runners, reach the new wind first and also have some luck with the cloud activity in the Doldrums, then we have a chance in the displacement race on the way to the finish, with the rich getting richer."

At the moment, it's the other way round: the tension has grown as boat speeds have dropped. Who will escape the doldrums trap the quickest and reach the north-easterly trade winds, which are still a few hundred nautical miles away, first? "We're fighting with everything we've got," explained AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont. He made it clear after the many setbacks for his team: "Of course Dongfeng must have felt some pressure from us over the past few days. We have the same boats and I have great sailors in my team. I see no reason why we can't fight with them all the way to Hong Kong. That's why we're here."