Dongfeng Race Team is still in the lead and has been in pole position for at least the past 17 days. Within the next five days they will reach Sanya if all goes well and the weather holds. Speaking about whether, for the past few days the sailors on all the boats were all emotionally moved because of intermittent wind conditions in the Malacca straits and with the strong currents dragging them in reverse causing them to down anchors and loose time and distance. Considering the moon was almost full, its gravitational pull of springtide made sailing conditions even less ideal. Not to mention the heat of the equatorial conditions. The yachts were all between 4 nautical miles to 10 nautical miles of one another. The mood onboard Dongfeng was especially grim since their GPS showed their speed, going backwards. This could mean that the rest of the fleet may catch up or they could drift onto a sand bank. But regardless of conditions, Dongfeng has managed to enter the South China Sea between the Islands of Malaysia and heading towards the Spratly Islands north west of Brunei whilst the rest of the fleet is still at Singapore.
The Malacca Strait is one of the largest areas for shipping in the world and the route for 80% of Oil tankers as can be seen in the images below. Shipping traffic near Singapore is really intense and the straits of Malacca is renown for abundance of fishing boats, floating plastic debris, chunks of Styrofoam. There are even floating tree trunks and planks which could damage a rudder irreparably.
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| The Picturesque Sanya Hotel Phoenix Island Hainan China |
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| The 108 meter tall Guanyin Statue of NanHai Sanya Hainan Island China |
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| Dongfeng GPS readings showing their speed is going backwards. |
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| Dongfeng entering into the Malacca Straits. |
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| Calm water and no wind in equatorial waters with fishing boat in background |
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| The Doldrums, no waves, to tide, no wind. |
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| Mapfre in close proximity to a fishing vessel dragging a net, in the Straits of Malacca. |
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| The fleet sailing through the shipping lanes. |
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| Fishing nets of these fishing vesels are of great concern to the yacht fleet |
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