Despite being mid-race on leg three of the fiercely competitive Volvo Ocean Race, two Southampton sailors have done everything to ensure they don’t move anywhere – by deploying their anchor.

Simon Fisher and skipper Ian Walker on board the Abu Dhabi Azzam on the round the world race have made ground on leaders Dongfeng in the last 48 hours.

After being in fourth out of six boats on Monday, they played the conditions well and moved into second.

As of last night they were just under 35 nautical miles off top spot in the stage between Abu Dhabi in the United Emirates and Chinese port of Sanya.

But as they made their way through the Strait of Malacca between Indonesian island of Sumatra and the coast of Malaysia, the adverse current and the lack of wind forced the Abu Dhabi crew to set out their anchor to prevent regressing.