© Photo Richard Konkolski
© Photo Richard Konkolski
At 12:45 a.m. local time (0345 GMT) defeated Brad Van Liew reached Punta del Este with his dismasted boat. If he could have his boat, with a new mast, back in the water in 12 to 13 days he could make the finish in time. But no longer would he be competing for second place. Instead he was in the running for third place, competing against Russian Viktor Yazykov. Viktor was 23 days behind Van Liew because of a time penalty for arriving late to Charleston at the start of the race last September.
In the morning at 0940 GMT, Giovanni Soldini passed Marc Thiercelin and took the Class I lead. He was finally able to ease his sheets. Giovanni was doing a fleet-best average speed of 12 knots. At the same time Class II leader Mike Garside was holding a slim two-mile advantage over J.P. Mouligne. Viktor Yazykov was in third, about 50 miles behind JP.
Soldini's Fila © Photo Billy Black
Mouligne was sailing along the Brazilian coast at good speed with a southwest wind of 20 knots. He was finally, after a difficult start, feeling better and getting in the groove. "The first 2 days were among the most difficult sailing conditions I have ever encountered and I feel lucky to have kept my rig.", he sent.
Neal Petersen was trailing the fleet 15 miles astern of Paladin II, but closing the gap. His water ballast tank on port side was leaking badly, dumping its contents into the bilge. He had been pumping out water every 2 hours and filling ballast.
Neil Hunter reported: "The seas and wind slowly settled down yesterday though we still have a fairly brisk puff from behind. A little bit of rain and not much sun but at least we are back on course and not beating our brains out. Saw a fairly large ship last night that came reasonably close. I had my active radar detector on which picked up nothing. It is really annoying that many ships do not run their radar, even at night, and more so, I have noticed, in these waters."
© Photo Richard Konkolski
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Thiercelin | Somewhere | 28 53S | 045 40W | 5085 | 8.9 | 0 | 2140 |
| 2 | Soldini | Fila | 28 50S | 046 01W | 5092 | 8.6 | 7.6 | 2140 |
| Place | Skipper | Boat | Latitude | Longitude | Dist. to go | Speed | Dist. to first | Time |
| 1 | Garside | Magellan Alpha | 28 50S | 046 51W | 5119 | 9 | 0 | 2144 |
| 2 | Mouligne | Cray Valley | 28 32S | 047 32W | 5129 | 9.4 | 10.6 | 2144 |
| 3 | Yazykov | Wind of Change | 29 37S | 047 43W | 5183 | 9.3 | 64.7 | 2144 |
| 4 | Saito | Shuten-dohji II | 31 24S | 048 28W | 5292 | 7.9 | 173 | 2144 |
| 5 | Hunter | Paladin II | 31 50S | 049 19W | 5339 | 6.3 | 220.1 | 2144 |
| 6 | Petersen | No Barriers | 32 34S | 048 11W | 5341 | 7.7 | 221.9 | 2144 |
| 7 | Van Liew | Balance Bar | 34 57S | 054 56W | 5668 | 0 | 360.3 | 2144 |
Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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