Dongfeng Race Team back in the chocolates

As chasing pack suffers an overnight park-up in the Volvo Ocean Race

If ever there was an example of 'the elastic band' effect in offshore yacht racing, then it is the fate of Dongfeng Race Team's over the last 48 hours.

Yesterday morning misery had set in for the Franco-Chinese team and its fans as the perennial leg 3 race leader's advantage had evaporated from 106 miles to just 26 over the course of just 24 hours as they were becalmed in adverse tide in the Strait of Malacca. But over the last 24 hours, the wind gods have once again smiled on skipper Charles Caudrelier and his crew.

Having moved into the narrow channel between the Traffic Separation Scheme south of Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian coast yesterday mid-afternoon, Dongfeng managed to recover a small part of her lead yesterday evening, but has managed to increase this back up to 80 miles at the latest sched this morning, after the chasing pack was becalmed at midnight UTC for around three hours, no doubt requiring some kedging.

Image below (click to enlarge) courtesy of Expedition and Predictwind

Mercifully the wind appears to have backed into the southwest so the boats are able to reach, rather than short tack, down the channel to the northeast of the TSS, which where they are at present is as narrow as 5 miles across. Rather alarmingly the GRIB files are showing the wind being light and from the northeast, which coiuld mean the boats will have to endure yet another transition phase.

At the latest sched Dongfeng has around 45 more miles to sail before she can turn the corner into Singapore Strait. There's then a further 45 miles to sail before she can break out into South China Sea and open water. 

Assuming the wind does eventually fill in from the NNE as forecast, for Dongfeng this would mean that once they turn the corner they will be hard pressed on port. Thankfully the forecast has the wind set to increase once Dongfeng emerges into the South China Sea, but the hike north to Sanya looks set to be a long slog on the nose.

Meanwhile the 'chasing pack' remains close with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing nominally up to second but only 2.5 miles ahead of Team Alvimedica, back down to fifth place following last night's reshuffle south of Kuala Lumpur.