Rasmus has not been kind to Team Dongfeng recently: after the mast broke and the stopover in Ushuaia, the transfer crew is now chugging along to Itajai under engine power. Estimated arrival at a distance of less than 900 nautical miles: Monday at the earliest. Now it all comes down to Murphy and his famous law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Dongfeng's hopes are pinned on Murphy's good behaviour: The biggest concern at the moment is whether the diesel will last. Because without engine support from a makeshift sail on the broken mast, the arrival in Itajai would be delayed even further, which would ultimately jeopardise participation in the next stage start on 19 April.
The new mast is due to arrive in Itajai on Monday at the same time as the boat - and once again the motto is: If everything works out and Murphy plays along. The mast is currently on a flight from Amsterdam to São Paolo, after which it will be loaded onto a lorry and transported the 600 kilometres or so south as quickly as possible. It is currently unclear whether the Brazilian lorry drivers are willing to work at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Team Vestas is breathing a cautious sigh of relief: the boat, which ran aground on a reef 250 nautical miles north-east of Mauritius in November, has been repaired under high pressure at the Italian shipyard Persico Marine in Bergamo in recent months. It now came out of the hangar at Easter. There is still a lot of work to be done, but a return to the race for the planned leg from Lisbon currently seems possible.
