[Source: Camper] It has been a complex game of cat and mouse for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet since the re-start from the Maldives last Sunday.  CAMPER has been working hard to stay in touch with the leading pack over the last few days, carefully positioning themselves to prepare for the tack towards Indonesia.  At 2140 GMT last night CAMPER made the tack north, a move which saw them overtake leg leader PUMA and take pole position.  Nicholson and his crew continued to make gains on the rest of the fleet over the next twelve hours, and at 1630 GMT they held a 4.1 mile lead over their nearest competitor Telefonica, with 62 miles separating the fleet.

Navigator and skipper Will Oxley and Chris Nicholson also have another reason to celebrate today, as MCM Hamish Hooper reported from onboard; “Nico and Will, our two proud Australians on board, have been celebrating the day pretty much the same way as they did Christmas Day, birthdays and every other day… sailing hard, and trying to win the Volvo Ocean race. This does not make them ‘unaustralian’, just ultra focused on achieving what they set out to do. Racing out here is still incredibly close, there continues to be only a matter of miles in the race and its looking like whoever choses the best time to tack back onto port in next 12 hours is likely to lead around the top of Indonesia. Last night saw us, Puma and Groupama, tack north on a right hand shift at varying times. The shift was only expected to be relatively short term, but it’s still with us this morning, which raises the million dollar question, ‘when will it shift left and when is it best to tack?” The grib files are saying we should be seeing breeze 40 degrees left of where we have it, so it’s all on red alert standing by. The two diggers have been spending a lot of time in the nav station today trying to get some data that will help answer these questions and paint a clearer picture of the scenario.”

Daryl Wislang and Adam Minoprio on the rail with Telefonica & Puma on the horizon to windward from onboard CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand during leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Abu Dhabi, UAE to Sanya, China. Photo copyright Hamish Hooper/CAMPER ETNZ/

The weather forecasts continue to be complex and are often anything but consistent, CAMPER navigator Will Oxley commented; “The navigators are all scratching their heads as the grib files are far from dealing with the present situation, the winds are 40 degrees out on the current direction. Everyone is trying to decide when to tack back onto port to head toward Indonesia. If you tack too early you could sail too far south and run out of wind, you wait too long and the other boats will tack and you will get there last. The next 12 hours will be very interesting.”

The battle to get to the top of Indonesia first and lead into the Malacca Straits will be tight. Speaking onboard this morning skipper Chris Nicholson said: ” We tacked over about four hours ago that first hour and certainly the last three have been pretty telling for us. We’ve been doing pretty similar speeds as Telefonica as we try and to get to the next corner.  In terms of the leverage they have a lot over us but that will take several days to turn into a gain. It can be difficult to translate that leverage into miles, it’s a bit horses for courses,  sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s difficult.  We are trying to get close into the Indonesian shore to get another right hand shift, if we manage to do that it will be hard for them to capitalise on this leverage. Of course it would be great to be in the lead going in to the Malacca Straits or to be with the front runners, but you just never know when you can make a break. Ideally it would be be good to be able to make a break and get away, but it is important for us to be there in good shape and in good spirits. Everyone is well rested, that’s for sure, but it’s business as usual.  It is nice not to get firehosed down every four hours which is pretty nice, but our world is about to change over the next few days…”