For the Volvo Ocean Race fleet and the army of virtual skippers playing the Volvo Ocean Race game, there's another long, testing leg on the horizon – Leg 6 from Hong Kong to Auckland.
© Virtual Regatta
At 6,100 nautical miles it's the third-longest leg so far, and will see the race cross the South China Sea and back past the Philippines, retracing the steps of the leg from Melbourne to Hong Kong.
From there the fleet will burst into the Pacific and sprint for Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.
It's another leg that will be dominated mainly by strategy but first the six teams – and more than 148,000 game players – must face the Northeast Monsoon. The breeze that brought them flying into Hong Kong will now become a challenge as the real-life and virtual fleets battle upwind in potentially boat-breaking conditions.
Once free of the Northeast Monsoon they will transit from the north east trade winds, through the Doldrums for the third time in this edition and across the Equator, back into the Southern Hemisphere. Then begins the drag race past the Pacific Islands of Vanuatu and Fiji to Auckland, City of Sails.
With four points-scoring legs complete, Swedish player Tessa94 – aka 23-year-old student Martin Baerveldt – currently leads the Volvo Ocean Race game with 9,556 points. Second-placed Charlie2010 from the Netherlands has 7,982 points, while in third France's tame bird has 7,950.
However there are still six legs still remaining, so it's not too late to enter and begin your quest for gaming glory.
Leg 6 starts on February 7 – sign up and play!
