We are now within 50 miles of Singapore – one of my favourite cities in the world. It is going to be very hard not to stop in for a visit! Right now we could all do with a cool, soft drink and a freshwater shower.

In my mind this represents the end of the second stage of leg 3B… i.e. the Malacca Straits. I have to say that with the exception of a period of getting stuck in the shipping lane with little or no wind to manoeuvre, the Straits have held very few of the perils we feared. No pirates, no collisions, far less debris in the water than I remember last time, fewer thunder storms and fewer periods of calm.

Having said that, the waters off Singapore will offer lots more shipping and some strong adverse currents so we are not out of the woods yet.

The Straits have been very interesting tactically with Camper, and our traditional move to the Malaysian coast, failing to produce the rewards we hoped for. Although we are closer to the leaders than we have been in days, and have also had great fun trading places with Camper for the last 24 hours.

We finally got passed them yesterday evening after a day spent chasing hard, only to lose the place back when the wind becalmed before the onset of the land breeze. We passed them back rounding a headland with strong adverse current in the night only to lose out again upwind today.

Right now they are 200 metres ahead of us and we have just hoisted our spinnaker, which is when we normally start to make gains. We are in for a busy night again for sure in one of the busiest waterways in the world. Right now the top five boats are within 25 miles of each other after eight days racing.

Looking ahead it would be fair to say that nobody onboard is looking forward to the last part of this leg. It’s 1,200 miles upwind to China with some certain rough conditions off the Vietnamese coast. Now is the time to be checking things over, doing any small maintenance bits and any other chores before the sea conditions deteriorate in the South China Sea.