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Things on Toshiba were looking like the hokey-kokey as Conner once again displaced Standbridge for the 870 nm dash north to the newest stopover on the race track Baltimore.

Otherwise, the crews concentrated on what lay ahead though only one, George Collins on Chessie Racing, had any real idea of what Chesapeake Bay would throw at them since this was his back yard and years of racing at weekends had given him an idea of how crab pots and tides could slow down progress.

In fact, this local knowledge offered little advantage. As the fleet approached Baltimore Collins was back in seventh place, but he still commanded the lion’s share of attention since he was engaged in a supreme battle with his main American adversary, Conner, who to everyone’s great shock, was bringing up the rear.

Taking the advice of his tactician Stuart Quarrie, BrunelSunergy skipper Roy Heiner had headed east as soon as they left the sunshine state to find more breeze and flat seas which is exactly what they found, while the rest of the fleet was blasted by strong headwinds nearer the coast.

For a while, the decision looked like being a winning one as their lead extended to 40 nm, but as they approached Baltimore the others started to catch up and it was the other American, the mighty Cayard who cranked up the pressure in closing the gap.

Heiner held him off for as long as possible and crossed the finish line, with a 21 minute advantage over…… over Swedish Match, since Cayard, despite gibing every 90 seconds, had fallen behind the Swedes to the tune of 30 desperate seconds. Cayard was gutted, but the clogs on board BrunelSunergy were dancing, having recorded their first win of the race.

As soon as the leaders were in, the TV crews headed back out on the water to watch the climax of the Collins v Conner head-banger.

They were neck and neck in seventh place, but despite the loudest cheers ringing out for Chessie Racing, it was Conner who squeezed over the line first. He made it by just ten seconds in what was the closest finish in Whitbread history.

He might not have tried so hard had he known that the next five hours would be spent in the protest room, after EF Education skipper Christine Guillou claimed that Conner had sailed ‘recklessly’ on the first night out of Fort Lauderdale, resulting in a port-starboard incident that happened after dark.

Conner countered, saying that as soon as he was made aware of Guillou's protest that night he had performed a 720-degree penalty turn in accordance with the rules, which in theory exonerated him. But the jury were not convinced since there was no way of knowing whether Toshiba had actually made the penalty turn so they upheld Guillou’s protest and Toshiba were relegated to last in the leg, having been penalised two places.

The gnashing of teeth did not stop there for Conner. A few hours later, he was stunned when his navigator Andrew Cape resigned. It came like a bolt out of the blue, but Cape was clearly disenchanted by the Toshiba experience. It had "been a very hard race and I have not especially enjoyed it,” was his only comment.