Wrapped up in heavy oilskins and thick underwear, the Groupama and Puma teams dive further south along the drift ice edge to shorten the route to Cape Horn. The gap is currently around 50 miles, which is academic, however, as there is nothing behind them for a long time. They can slow down and wait for better weather before taking their boats in again.
Telefonica, now almost 400 miles astern, also has to take a diversion because the glue is being mixed in the Argentinian Cape village of Ushuaia to repair damage in the bow area. Cold and damp as it is on board, the epoxy cannot harden properly, which means that the makeshift repair is not strong enough, and certainly not for Cape Horn. According to skipper Iker Martinez, the delaminated area has been reinforced against the deck, but the problem is that nothing can dry properly, which is why the area keeps opening up: "In the harbour, a repair like this is child's play, but out here in the cold at sea it's pretty tricky." Camper has similar plans, as she makes her way towards Chile at an almost creeping pace, apparently doing a bit of fishing on the way to meet the ground crew there, who are preparing a mid-intervention by the carbon fibre surgeons.
The way things are developing, the first casualty of the leg, Abu Dhabi, which had already ticked off and repaired the seemingly obligatory broken bulkhead at the very beginning, could quickly sail to the podium from behind, provided the undercarriage holds and Telefonica has to park for longer. At the moment, there are still around 1000 miles to go, which would be two to three days of sailing with a decent shifting wind.
In the meantime, Sanya has arrived at Tauranga loading station in New Zealand and is travelling on to Savannah in the USA by freighter today, where the boat has to be prepared for the stage after next. This means that Mike Sanderson and his colleagues will not be ready for action again until the In-Port Race in Miami. Officially, this means the start of leg 7, but if you do the maths, Sanya has so far completed exactly one leg, namely the fourth, under her own steam and without stopping for repairs.
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