Difficult going trying to navigate the littered straits

SAILING/VOLVO OCEAN RACE RACE DIARY WEEK 11: DROPPING ANCHOR at sea to stop yourself drifting backwards is not what you expect from one of the world's fastest yacht races, but that's been the scenario in the final hours on this leg from India to Singapore.

The current is so strong against us and at times the wind is so light that we've had to prepare to drop anchor several times. Some of the leading pack have actually had to take this step as they started moving backwards.

It's been a fight to the end trying to capture every inch of breeze, but we're in a pretty miserable position right now, battling to hold on to sixth place with Team Russia snapping at our heels.

They are just a few miles behind us now and in these fickle conditions we know anything could happen, but we're determined we won't let them overtake us.

As we entered the Malacca Straits we felt really positive as we dived much further south than the rest of the fleet and picked up much stronger wind conditions. At one point we were sailing eight knots faster than the leading pack. The front-runners sailed into a hole with no wind and as the fleet started to compress we were very hopeful things were going our way.

It was quite nerve-racking as the conditions were so unpredictable and our weather routing information has so often been wrong on this leg. We knew that there was a possibility once we slowed up that the boats further north would get the new breeze first and that's exactly what happened. The teams that went right into the Malaysian coastline ended up the real winners.

We've all spent a lot of time on this leg trapped in little wind, knowing it could be hours before we get going again. We've also felt quite vulnerable at times as in light wind it's very tricky to sail out of the path of the hundreds of ships who use the Straits every day. We knew it was one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, but you have to see it to believe it.

There's also so much debris in the water that it's a minefield. This area is littered with everything from entire trees, some six metres long, to steel barrels and all sorts of rubbish. It's not too bad navigating around the obstacles during the day (especially when we're hardly moving), but we've had a few hairy nights when we've been sailing between 15 to 27 knots hoping against hope we can dodge the rubbish as we're all aware this kind of debris could at best damage our keel or rudders and, at worst, sink the yacht.

We were having a good leg, making good tactical decisions and keeping in touch with the opposition, but on Wednesday night it all started to go wrong for us. There were a lot of convection clouds building around us and they literally suck the air for miles around, at times increasing or decreasing the wind by as much as 20 knots. On Wednesday night we used some of these clouds to make great gains, but there was one that just didn't go our way and we dropped from fourth to sixth position.

Sailing upwind (into the wind) in these light airs, you are chasing every inch of breeze and that means you may have to tack (manoeuvre) often. This means moving tonnes of sails and other gear from one side of the boat to the other. If you are off-watch and sleeping you have to wake up and move to the other side of the boat as well, so you don't get much rest. It can then take up to 20 minutes to get back up to speed. Tacking in these conditions can be very expensive in terms of time and effort so it needs to be worth while.

It can be pretty disheartening working non-stop through the night like this and then getting a position report which shows you've had a shocker and have fallen behind in the race.

Upwind is without doubt everyone's least enjoyable point of sailing and in general the slowest for these V70 yachts, so it's not a lot of fun. Life down below is not much of a picnic with the yacht heeled over 18 degrees - up on its side slamming off the waves.

The off-watch crew sleep on bunks two deep on the high side of the boat with all the spares, food and gear stacked neatly underneath them. Below is just an empty stripped-out hull so if you were to fall you could tumble four to five metres downhill to the other side of the boat. You need to keep your wits about you.

Right now, we're doing all we can to hold off Team Russia. Fighting for sixth place is not a position we'd like to be in, but the only good news is at least we'll be with our families for Christmas. I'm looking forward to getting some rest before we set sail again for China and hope to earn some serious points.