Drag Racing Volvo style for Green Dragon

5:15 AM Thu 18 Dec 2008 GMT

'Damian Foxall onboard Green Dragon, at the start of leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race' Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race &copy Click Here to view large photo

It has been a day of snakes and ladders for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet as they continue to move north in search of stronger wind and away from the adverse currents to the south. The last boat to make the move was current leg leaders Telefonica Blue, who remain the most southerly boat at the 1600 GMT positions.

Green Dragon have been involved in a drag race with Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Black all day. They made progress this morning as they moved to joint fourth alongside Telefonica Black at the 1300 GMT positions. By 1600 GMT they had squeezed ahead to third past Ericsson 3, holding a fragile one mile lead.

Elsewhere the gap to the back of the fleet continues to grow with Delta Lloyd 107 miles behind Bouwe Bekking and his crew. After five days of sailing the fleet have nearly covered half the distance to Singapore. But the upwind conditions towards the scoring gate will remain challenging, and alongside the increased possibility of squalls, the remaining passage through the Malacca Straits and Singapore is likely to be slow and frustrating. Christmas at sea still looks a possibility for much of the fleet.

Race Meteorologist , Jennifer Lilly filled us in on the forecast ahead;

Looking ahead, the winds are expected to slowly increase over the next 48 hours. After a light patch on Tuesday night, the winds are expected to build slightly on Wednesday, veering right to E'ly or even ESE'ly flow. This right shift will not last long, but it will give the teams an opportunity to sail north, getting into the area of stronger winds. In addition to building winds, the fleet is likely to see an increased chance of squalls. These squalls will develop on Wednesday afternoon and continue through Thursday, with the winds shifting to a more NE'ly flow as high pressure builds over Bangladesh/Myanmar. Friday and Saturday should see some clearing; however, as the fleet approaches the Malacca Strait they can once again expect increasing showers and squalls.

Update from Watch leader Damian Foxall, read his full update click here
After several days at sea on this leg, we've decided that booms are a good thing! Even though we coped reasonably well without the last one, we think we'll keep this one. Our new sails, which arrived and we tested in India, are looking great too so we're very optimistic about the rest of the race. Unlike us, most of the other teams in the fleet had quite a lot of time prior to the start of the race in Alicante to develop their sails, so we feel like we're sort of catching up with sail development as the race progresses. We've still got a lot of work to do because certainly on some points of sail we can see that E4 and Puma are still faster than us, but we do feel we're closing the gap down on every leg.

www.greendragonracing.com