Volvo Ocean Race: Will the decision be made in the eye of the depression off Gothenburg?

The eagerly awaited 10th stage has so far been a rollercoaster ride through all conditions. After a flat start, there was initially a little more wind, then a slow-motion passage along the picturesque Irish coast. The fleet has now reached the northern tip of Scotland and is rushing through cool regions towards the rounding of the Emerald Isle before the North Sea passage on course for Gothenburg will present new challenges for the teams. According to current forecasts, the boats can expect a strong area of low pressure as they approach the Swedish stage harbour. The navigators assume that they will have to sail through it before the wind drops significantly one last time. So there are plenty of reasons to expect that the crews' current positions in the intermediate classification will continue to change over the course of this breathless and sleepless leg. This has been the case so intensively over the past 24 hours that reporting has hardly been possible. No sooner had a report been written than the changed positions had already turned the story upside down again.

In the meantime, the volatile standings have calmed down for the time being. On Wednesday lunchtime, the Spanish team Mapfre, second in the overall standings, initially took command. A few nautical miles behind them, Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team, the front runners, were fighting to catch up with their big rivals and sparring partners. The third team, which still has a chance of overall victory in the final phase of this 13th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, had fallen back somewhat in the positioning battles from Tuesday to Wednesday, but has since been able to make up ground: Brunel with Bouwe Bekking sailed into fourth place behind Dee Caffari's team Turn the Tide on Plastic after around two days and 20 hours at sea, just under 10 nautical miles behind Mapfre.

According to current forecasts, the fastest boats will reach Gothenburg on Thursday at the earliest. Until then, this leg from Cardiff to Gothenburg will remain relentless as almost all teams try to squeeze every tenth of a knot of speed out of their boats in almost constant sight of each other. AkzoNobel sailor Emily Nagel noted in a message from on board that chocolate, coffee and coffee beans wrapped in chocolate are regular companions in the sailors' fight against fatigue. Nagel calls them "the secrets of staying awake when you are called on deck once every hour".

Click here for the live tracker and the interim results.