What a blast

As Amer Sports One peels off to collect medical supplies the rest of the fleet is reaching a critical point in the race

It's a similar story aboard fourth placed djuice. "Sorry to be late today. Just as the wind started to drop and we thought we where safely through the worst part of this ocean, things started to happen again," says skipper Knut Frostad.

"As the wind got lifted a lot, we ended up spinaker sailing again, the waves remained the same size, and now against us. Bouncing up and down in the waves is not very good for the sails. First we broke our mainsheet, then the outhaul and finally our mainsail ripped again, this time even more critical from the leech and forward, right in the middle of the sail."

It took three sail makers, nearly four hours to fix the mainsail with webbing and Kevlar material. If this sound hard, remember it was all done in pitch black darkness, with lots of headlamps all over the deck.

"I wasn't very happy, as you know for sure as with the mainsail down, you are loosing, at least compared to your optimal speed," said Frostad, adding with surprise, "however at the last sked we actually gained on everyone, and that with the mainsail down for a couple of hours."