Yesterday evening Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec) was gliding along south of Campbell Island to position himself in a suitable spot to carry out repairs to his steering system later today. Commenting from the boat last night Dick said: “It going to be the big day, as I’m going to be doing the layering on the steering system.

“I’m going to take advantage of a calm to carry out the repairs, which I hope will be permanent. Then, after that, there will be the iceberg zone to get through. I’m going to have to keep a close watch all the time. I think I’ll be going at around 52° S to avoid the danger zone. I’ve already started to head back up north.

“For the moment I have a power problem, which is making things difficult. I only had a bit of sunlight and the batteries are low. I went on the computer twice to pick up some technical messages, which hasn’t really helped. As for my sleep, things are fine. I had two little naps, so there’s nothing there to worry about. It’s true that the next two days are likely to be quite tiring.”