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It was back into the Southern Ocean and everyone was prepared for a right old battering though it came sooner than anticipated. The all-women crew on EF Education, who had had their fair share of bad luck from the outset, had to take emergency action to avoid a catastrophic dismasting. It was dark and the conditions were atrocious, but Bridget Suckling and Lisa Charles were forced to venture up the mast in a bid to fix a rod back into its rivet just above the top spreader. They were unsuccessful so a makeshift repair was made and the shore crew were mobilised to organise full-scale repairs in the Argentinian port of Ushuaia, which meant crawling gingerly towards Cape Horn.

Once that crisis had subsided, the ice reports started to filter through. The leader EF Language sighted a one-nm-long iceberg just off her lee side, which was scary enough in itself, but combined with the turbulent seas, left many of the crew rooted to the spot. Mark Rudiger was stuck in his nav station, fearful that if he ventured 3 meters forward to fetch a cup of coffee, the weight in the boat might be displaced and the bow would nose dive catastrophically into the approaching waves.

Smith’s Silk Cut, in dire need of a good result on the fifth leg, were next to radio in to HQ, but the news was worse than expected. While running hard in 30 knots of wind with a masthead kite up, the crew heard a loud bang and a section of mast, above the second set of spreaders, disappeared over the horizon. So they too were required to erect a jury-rig and decided to head for Ushuaia. The mast on EF Education followed suit a couple of days later having been unable to withstand the loads imposed by 35 knots of wind.

Meanwhile, Cayard was having a fabulous time, having enjoyed the best of the conditions to grab a 350-nm lead. When the breezes were favourable, he was right in the middle of them. By the time they died, he had long since moved on and the mood on Swedish Match, Toshiba, Innovation Kvaerner and Merit Cup grew increasingly tetchy as navigators tried to find a way of getting their speeds above four knots.

Roy Heiner on BrunelSunergy found a solution. While the gang of four headed west round the Falklands, navigator Stuart Quarrie suggested a detour, and they headed east. Leaving the islands to port was not the done thing since the winds and weather on the eastern side were notoriously hard to fathom, so it was a massive gamble. But it could not have worked out finer for Heiner. BrunelSunergy leap-frogged the four and moved into second.

"I always knew we would get it right some day," he reported. "It is difficult to imagine that we thought to have lost it all as we lay becalmed before the Horn."

Dee Smith on Chessie Racing decided to try the same tactic and moved into fourth, just behind Innovation Kvaerner, but none of them had an earthly of catching EF Language, who by now were rampaging towards the finish some 500 nm ahead.

Cayard was wearing the broadest, smuggest grin when he appeared at the wheel in Sao Sebastiao and conceded his success was down to the lessons he learned during his first, bungled foray into the Southern Ocean.

Rudiger agreed. "This time he listened to the guys who had been there before."

Three boats failed to register any points from the leg. Both Silk Cut and EF Education were forced to retire after they were left with no option but to switch on their engines after realising the Ushaia repairs and passage to Sao Sebastiao could not be completed in time for the restart. More shockingly, Toshiba were also stripped of their points.

After finishing fifth, Toshiba were protested by the Race Committee who discovered the engine had been used, but there was no record of it in the log. Standbridge argued the case, claiming they had switched it on to get the boat into reverse, to remove some kelp from the keel and rudder. As to why they didn’t follow the strict rules governing such an eventuality remained a mystery and Toshiba was duly disqualified.