Volvo Ocean Race

Around midday today the leading boats will round the island of Pulau We and turn south east to take on the notorious Malacca Strait between Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra.

The top four boats, Telefónica, CAMPER, PUMA and Groupama are in a streetfight off the north Sumatran coast for the chance to lead the fleet into the strait where the teams will have to take on one of the busiest and most treacherous watereways in the world.

Race fans can follow the action live right now via an enhanced tracker on volvooceanrace.com which will be updating the boats' position every 60 seconds.

To access the live data open the tracker as normal and press the red ‘Live’ button. The boats' positions will be updated automatically each minute.

After over a thousand nautical miles (nm) of open ocean sailing from the leg re-start in the Maldives, by contrast the fleet now takes one of the most congested and treacherous stretches of water on the planet.

In previous races the uncertain conditions of the Malacca Strait have turned the leaderboard on its head -- frustrating the leading pack and giving trailing teams a lifeline back into contention.

At around 500 nautical miles from north to south the Malacca Strait is the longest in the world used for international navigation. Linking the Indian Ocean with the China Sea the strait is the preferred route for bulk of large scale commercial shipping in the region with more than 500 vessels passing through each day.

As well as keeping well clear of the tankers and cargo ships the crews will also have to dodge huge fleets tiny local fishing boats. Difficult enough to spot in the daytime, at night the boats and nets are often unlit and will pose a truly horrendous challenge to the teams.

The strait is over 200 nautical across at its widest point but narrows to less than 15 nm in the south where the fleet will exit into the South China Sea through the bustling Singapore Strait.

Deep water channels run through the strait but the seabed shelves rapidly to as little as 10 metres in places and is riddled with un-marked wrecks and shoals throughout. To complicate matters further complex tidal flows run up and down the strait at as much as five knots.

Tomorrow the leading pack look likely to enter within miles of each other and early decisions on which way to go could prove critical over the next two days to determine who emerges on top when the boats pass Singapore on their way into the South China Sea.

Approaching Pulau We from the north west the crews will have to time their tack into the strait perfectly to avoid a windless divergence zone close to the north Sumatra coast. Tack too early and they could be becalmed for hours, tack too late and they risk losing precious miles to their rivals.

Despite the challenges the 500 nm strait presents all the teams will be looking to turn in a strong performance there to set them up for the final section of Leg 3 Stage 2 in the South China Sea where tough weather conditions are expected on the final beat up to Sanya.