Abu Dhabi: The sun was beating down hard on the sparkling turquoise waters by the Abu Dhabi corniche when team Brunel crossed the finish line, at half past noon, amidst cheers from the fans to clinch the 6125-mile gruelling second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday between Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean to the UAE.

No sooner did the weary but ecstatic Brunel crew step on the shores of the Capital led by skipper Bouwe Bekking, marking the end of a 23-day voyage through unchartered territories, they were immediately draped in the traditional Arab bisht and given a royal welcome by sasha and Yola dancers.

The next boat to come in to dock on second place, 16 minutes behind Team Brunel, was Dongfeng from China led by Charles Caudrelier, who traded the lead with the winning team several times during the race that started on November 19.

“It was difficult but we sailed well and so did the second-placed team. We both had a similar way of approaching the weather and had similar speeds. They (Dongfeng) passed us last night and at one stage we were 0.6 nautical miles behind them and out of the blue we got 20-25knots of breeze and we were just smoking them,” said a jubilant Bekking, whose team finished the leg in 23days 16h 25m 20s.

With the news spreading that the Abu Dhabi team was next, a sea of yellow hats of home fans anxiously lined up to get a first glimpse of their boat ‘Azzam’. A good two-and-half-hours later, a huge yellow sail burst out in the distance with the letters Abu Dhabi prominently printed in red.

Fluttering the national flag, out stepped local hero Adil Khalid sporting a broad smile and expressing his excitement, the Emirati said: “Wow! Good to get back home with a third-place finish. It was a bit difficult for us and tricky because the wind was up and down. It’s a proud moment for us, for our followers and great day for Abu Dhabi.”

It was topsy-turvy towards the finish line with first the Dutch, and then the Chinese boat, looking favourite to take the top honours. Caudrelier looked to have secured the advantage for Dongfeng and his mix of experienced French and rookie Chinese sailors. Bekking and his experienced teammate Andrew Cape had some luck going their way as they found some timely wind pressure, apparently from nowhere, to streak past Dongfeng and secure a crucial one-mile advantage and held on to it till the end.

“We’re not so happy about finishing second. We always want to improve, but for sure it’s good news for Dongfeng. We try to do the leg and try to improve it every leg. We showed that we can play the match with the best, and we’re proud of that,” said Caudrelier, adding that the Brunel team was much faster than them since the past few days and he couldn’t gauge why.

“We’re a bit disappointed because we did a good job to pass them, but they kept passing us. You have to do well, but you also have to be fast. If you’re not fast, it’s difficult to win a leg.”

With this result, all three - Team Brunel, Dongfeng and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing share the top spot in the overall standing with 4 points each. The boats depart for the third leg to Sanya, China, on January 3 after an in-port race scheduled the day before.