Hampshire sailors on the Volvo Ocean Race are currently making their way down the English Channel as they set their sights on a pit-stop in The Hague, Netherlands, on the last stage of the round-the-world competition.

As they approached the Dover straits TSS exclusion zone, three boats headed north, to cling to the UK coastline, and the other four decided to stay near the French coast.

From the latest location reports it suggests that keeping closer to the south coast of England may well have paid off for Hamble's Rob Greenhalgh, who is currently second on the MAPFRE boat, the Dongfeng Race Team in first and Team Brunel in third.

The other four, including Hamble skipper Sam Davies on the Team SCA and champion elect Ian Walker on the Abu Dhabi boat, are lagging behind on the French side of the exclusion zone.

"The north or the south is always going to be a tricky decision," said Hamble sailor and Rob's sister, Libby Greenhalgh, who is the navigator on the Team SCA boat that won leg eight of the race. 

"But it seemed like south was going to be the safest way for us.

"While it’s easy to get to the north, because you don’t need to do as many gybes, it may be tricky trying to get back south again. It’s just a higher risk factor.

"On the other hand, the wind hasn’t gone around as much as we expected so we are doing a lot of gybes already, which isn’t so great."

Slow progress has continued this morning, but it is set to pick up with the boats being propelled toward The Hague by the north flowing tide, where they are set to arrive this evening.