Just when they were beginning to wonder if this was going to be a relatively benign second half of the voyage around the bottom of the world, the Southern Ocean still has a sting in its tail. Now 26 days since they departed Cape Town, and for the past week 11th Hour Racing Team has been engaged in an extremely tight battle with the other three boats still competing on the mammoth Leg 3, at 12,750 nautical miles, the longest ever leg in the 50-year history of the race. The five-strong international crew onboard Mālama, has completed more than 11,235 nautical miles, leaving approximately 3,000 to go to Itajaí in Brazil.
It has been tight, tactical racing, as the boats have often been sailing within sight of each other, in quite light airs by the stormy standards of the Southern Ocean. However the weather has just taken a turn for the worse as they draw close to Cape Horn at the bottom of the American continent.
