Eight boats competing in the Volvo Ocean Race will be arriving in Singapore in less than 10 hours as they sprint for the finishing line in the Singapore leg of the world tour.
The finishing line is just across the Malaysian border at the western end of the island.
The race has been a very close one so far, with the latest updates showing four boats separated by just two nautical miles or about 1.8 kilometres.
Team Erisson 4 from Sweden is currently leading the pack in the overall standing.
Saifulbahri Ismail with more :
11 ports.
8 teams.
1 race.
The Volvo Occean Race described as the equivalent of the Formula One race in the sport of professional yachting will be sailing into Singapore shores.
This is the first time in the race's more than 40 years history that the boats will be stopping over here.
In Singapore, the boats will undergo a complete overhaul to prepare them for the next leg begining January the 18th.
The boats have been battling fierce storms, total isolation and icebergs since the fleet left the port of Alicante, in Spain in October.
But according to Marcus Hutchinson, communications director for the race, they're facing a different kind of risk in this region :
"The challenges are obviously a huge amount of shipping, there's an awful lot more debris in the water, both from washouts from rivers, from monsoons and things like that, but also rubbish, litters and containers, regrettably, the sea is not as clean as we would like them to be. There's also the risk of collision with small unlit fishing boats of which there are huge amounts in these parts of the world."
Another challenge the teams went through is the threat of sea piracy.
This year alone there were more than 120 attacks by Somali pirates on shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Mr Hutchinson explains how they have been coping with this threat :
"So the organisation has made various arrangements in terms of briefing the crews and the maritime organisations as to what to expect. It has also re-routed the course as much as possible away from the hot areas where there's high risk areas of piracy and more importantly we monitor the fleet's position every 15 minutes. We have very accurate positions of all of the boats, we know exactly where they are."
While in Singapore, organisers have prepared a Race Festival begining on the 8th of next month at ONE degree 15 Marina Club, Sentosa.
During the festival, the public can witness an in-port race among all the teams along the waters of East Coast.
The Volvo Ocean race will finish in St Petersburg, Russia in late June next year.
--938Live