After weeks of upwind sailing following the start and a nerve-wracking lull in the Doldrums, the sailors in the Golden Globe Race now have to decide on their tactics for the South Atlantic and the route to the Cape of Good Hope.
Simon Curwen maintains his lead over the rest of the fleet, although a broken genoa halyard briefly slowed him down. He sought the shelter of the Brazilian volcanic island of Trindade for the repair - the swell did not allow him to stay in the mast on the open sea.
Damien Guillou continues to catch up after its restart and is working his way up to the group of five leaders. After a good six weeks at sea, they are: Simon Curwen, Abhilash Tomy, Tapio Lethinen, Pat Lawless and Kirsten Neuschäfer.
The Indian skipper Tomy, who has caught up strongly with the leader, has recently sailed the fastest times.
In the meantime, nobody can set a direct course for Cape Town yet - with an easterly wind, this would mean endless upwind sailing on the more than 2,000 nautical miles to the southern tip of Africa. The weather situation therefore dictates that we should initially continue on our current course and then head south of the South Atlantic High towards the Indian Ocean - with the wind.
However, this requires heading south for at least another 1,000 nautical miles. The sailors are in urgent need of weather information and try to receive weather fax charts off the coast of Brazil.
Kirsten Neuschäfer has chosen the closest course along the coast in the leading quintet. She has spent more time in the South Atlantic than most during her time on board the "Pelagic" of the famous Skip Novak. But even for her, the number of nautical miles still to be sailed is awe-inspiring: when this regatta update was published, she still had 21,868 to go before returning to Les Sables-d'Olonne.
