First things first: Alex Gaugh is safely back on board with his team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag. The 24-year-old Australian was catapulted overboard by a wave during a sail change on Sunday afternoon in winds of 15 to 20 knots. Gaugh was not wearing a leash or lifejacket at the time. "I was pretty stupid," Gaugh admitted after the incident, "but luckily the guys had the situation under control quickly. They turned round pretty damn quickly. I'm okay. I'm fine. It was a little scary, but I'm moving on now."
A stroke of luck: Alex Gaugh was brought back on board by his crew within seven minutes. He had been catapulted overboard by a wave without a lifebelt and lifejacket. Nevertheless, the team was able to maintain its lead in the current fourth leg to Hong Kong
His team immediately initiated the man-overboard manoeuvre and was able to get Alex Gaugh back on board within seven minutes. Nevertheless, skipper David Witt, who was at the helm at the time of the accident, said: "The most important thing is that we got him back on board safely. But I think the incident demonstrated to everyone how difficult it is to spot someone in the water. Even on a sunny day in 18 knots of wind. You certainly don't want to do that in 20 knots and at night." Witt said Gaugh should have been on a leash or told the helmsman what he was going to do. In the heat of the Doldrums, many sailors had been working bare-chested on board, but the majority were leashed.
The underdog team flying the Hong Kong flag is in the lead on leg four, heading for its home port of Hong Kong. Around 2300 nautical miles before the finish, David Witt's team had a lead of almost 20 nautical miles over Simeon Tienpont's Team AkzoNobel and around 22 nautical miles over the Dongfeng Race Team with skipper Charles Caudrelier. The big losers of the past two days are currently the Spanish leaders from Team Mapfre (133 nautical miles behind), Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic (165 nautical miles behind) and Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel (168 nautical miles behind).
The chasing trio had suffered dramatic setbacks in the mid-course doldrums and thunderstorm poker game between the west-positioned team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag and the east-positioned teams Dongfeng, Vestas and AkzoNobel, and within 40 hours were up to 180 nautical miles behind. The "golden mean" turned out to be a brutal doldrums trap for the chasing trio. Bouwe Bekking wrote: "It will be very difficult to catch up with the other boats because they will always sail in increasingly more wind than us. But let's start with the closest boat: Our goal is TTT!" The record participant is referring to the attack on Caffari's team Turn the Tide on Plastic.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
