Virtual fleet on the home straight to Hong Kong
Frontrunners opted for conventional route east of Australia.Standard strategy was thrown out of the window by some players during Leg 4 from Melbourne to Hong Kong when they forged a course west of Australia. Others chose to pick their way through the islands of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Borneo in a bid to shorten the distance.
But after 14 days on intense gaming, those players who chose the most recognised route north to the trade winds, just like the real Volvo Ocean Race teams, have come to the fore.
Swedish player Tessa94 currently leads the virtual fleet with just under 640 miles of race track remaining. Fellow Swede XC Race trails in second by 11.8 miles, with nicobaiona from France in third 13 miles back.
The top ten of the 61,000-strong fleet is split by 25 miles, and the top 50 by 52 miles. It's a reasonably healthy lead for Tessa94 at this stage of the game – but with at least another day at sea the final leg results are far from decided.
From here to the finish line the players must focus purely on speed as they try to eek out every last knot from their virtual Volvo 65s. Lying between the frontrunners and the finish are strong winds of more than 25 knots, but, rather than pose any real problems, this should just blast them to the finish line quicker.