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Despite the lively start and some amazing speeds in the first few hours, the weather gods decided to take a snooze for most of the month, stirring just occasionally to deliver a violent squall or fluky gust.

A leg that was supposed to take 30 days ended up, in some cases, taking a lot longer, leaving many crews short on rations. Anxious to save weight and maximise speed potential, the skippers had allowed only bare essentials on board, but this fixation was starting to look a little misguided as the pounds started to drop off the beefcake sailors and cries of hunger resonated across the South Atlantic.

Half way down, fresh winds having filled in after the Doldrums, it was Frostad’s Innovation Kvaerner who was up front with EF Language second and closing, and Dalton’s Merit Cup third, but it wasn’t long before Cayard struck out and took off.

The business of keeping a constant 15 knots on the speedometer had the articulate Cayard firing off an email describing the experience as "a cross between really scary and really fun." It marked the start of a new era in communication as the gifted EF Language skipper assiduously recorded every emotion throughout 32,000 nm of racing. The rawness of his expression struck a chord among the thousands of armchair followers of the race who embraced his updates as an important part of their daily routines. By Day 28, Cayard had taken the lead and extended the advantage over Merit Cup to 113 nm. Not bad for a novice.

The other skippers were fast realising what an opponent Cayard was shaping up to be.

"No one has slept for 24 hours," Dalton reported. "We've been on deck for all that time. At least it has temporarily stopped them moaning about food! But Cayard is sailing well and he will be difficult to catch."

He was impossible to catch as it turned out and EF Language crossed the finish line in Cape Town first, some 20 hours ahead of Merit Cup with Innovation Kvaerner coming in third two hours later.