Volvo Ocean Race

A leg packed from day one with drama, near disaster and daring deeds has brought out the very best of our Media Crew Members - and left judges for the Inmarsat MCM Award with their toughest job yet.

Hamish Hooper/CAMPER ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Yann Riou/Groupama Sailing Team/Volvo Ocean Race

We've seen skyscraper seas and winds strong enough to scare the wits out of the bravest men.

Those Southern Ocean and Cape Horn conditions have lived up to their fearsome reputation leaving our crews and boats bashed, bruised and even broken but a long, long way from beaten.

We've been able to watch from the comfort of our sofas and offices thanks to the skills and courage of the six MCMs who have not flinched to deliver the drama through their daily feeds of video, stills pictures and blogs.

"All six of these guys are my heroes," said Inmarsat's Vice-President, External Affairs, Chris McLaughlin, whose company is the Technical Race Partner of the Race and responsible for the satellite technology and services which allow the MCMs to stay in contact from the world's most inhospitable spots.

"If I had my way all of them would receive a prize for their work on Leg 5 but rules are rules and we've had the hardest of tasks in trying to figure out just who should be nominated for victory this time."

He paid a special tribute to Team Telefónica's Diego Fructuoso whose video of a huge wave knocking his crewmates clean off their feet went viral online and was shown by dozens of TV stations as Race fans and millions of others new to ocean racing saw exactly what our boats were contending with in the South Pacific.

"We've seen some of the most amazing images off the boats during this edition but my goodness, that was one of the very, very best of them," said McLaughlin.

However, after reviewing all the content once more, McLaughlin and his fellow judges on the Volvo Ocean Race communications team opted for a final shortlist of (in no particular order) Yann Riou (Groupama sailing team), Hamish Hooper (CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand) and Amory Ross (PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG).

The final decision will be made on Thursday, April 19 and announced at that evening's gala prize-giving at the Itajaí Stopover in southern Brazil.