Having discovered they had lost half their daggerboard from the previous day’s collision with an submerged object, Team Kingfisher have spent the last day carrying out repairs. Although lack of effective daggerboard is not affecting the performance of the boat on her current downwind leg, problems would have occured when she rounded up at Cape Horn.

Fortunately the weather conditions during the repair were favourable leaving the eight-strong repair team to lift the 4m, 700kg daggerboard from the case without too much difficulty. The damaged shards of carbon were cut away before filling holes and adding a pad eye to the damaged area. The board was then returned to its casing and the team is pleased to report that Kingfisher2 is now sailing back at 100 per cent.

News from the boat this morning show that she is a position of 50 32’S 42 51’E (292 miles SE of Marion Islands) and although she’s obviously lost time while she slowed down for the repairs, she is now back up to a good speed of 21.2 knots. The biggest concern onboard now, however, is the iceberg situation. The water temperature has dropped to four degrees and the crew is on constant watch. The weather situation is also testing Ellen and Meeno Schrader – weather router – to the limits. “We spent nearly two hours discussing it last night,” said Ellen at 0500 this morning, “it’s not clear how we should negotiate the next 12 hours to hook in to the next low pressure system. We are currently gybing downwind at about 20 knots, but far from the direct course. We are going to need to take the northerly gybe again soon, maybe in an hour.”