Southampton sailors Ian Walker and Simon Fisher have retaken the lead in the Volvo Round the World Ocean Race after temporarily losing it yesterday.

Morning reports from the 39,000 nautical mile trip, where the fleet are five days into leg one between Alicante in Spain to Cape Town on the southern tip of South Africa, have told that Walker, the skipper of the Azzam Abu Dhabi boat, has taken back the lead from the Dongfeng Race Team, who led the pack yesterday evening.

The narrow gap could mean that the Dongfeng and Abu Dhabi crafts could swap places at the front at any point.

Such is the competitiveness of this opening stint that only six nautical miles separate first and last place, meaning anyone could realisitcally take the lead.

VIDEO: Double Olympic silver medalist Walker chats before the start of the race.

The seven identical Volvo Ocean 65s are now south of Fuerteventura and will soon leave the Canary Islands behind off the northern part of the west coast of Africa.

An experts report on the event’s official website said: “The light breeze from the coast of Africa was pushing the boats on their way south very slowly and will continue to do so until they take the shift of trade winds that will propel them west across the Atlantic.”

Fellow Hamshire sailors Dee Caffari and Sam Davies, on board the all-female Team SCA boat, are near the back of the fleet after leading through the Strait of Gibraltar on Monday.

Meanwhile, Sam Goodchild on the Spanish MAPFRE vessel was last reported in fourth place.