Cantini accepts 24-hour radio penalty as Christensen chases his runaway dinghy

Guido Cantini has taken a 24-hour time penalty for an authorised satellite phone call, made to his shore manager to find out why the HF radio on his Vancouver 34, Hannah of Cowes, had died. Race founder Don McIntyre says the set blew a fuse and stayed dead even after Cantini rebuilt it. Cantini asked what a call would cost, was told a day, and rang back an hour later to say he'd make it. Because Iridium phones drop out, a dropped call redialled at once counts as one. A second call would cost 72 hours and put him in the Chichester Class.

Whether the call fixed anything isn't known. The manager has told McIntyre that Cantini may have found another fault, possibly overheating inside the set. If it is still dead he may put into Cape Town for parts, which would also mean the Chichester Class, though a radio isn't compulsory and McIntyre says the episode is an argument for carrying a spare. Nor will Cantini serve the penalty yet. Time penalties are banked and served on the way home, when race management picks a latitude in the North Atlantic trades and holds the skipper south of it for the full time. By then someone behind him may have sailed past.

On Saturday Gunnar Christensen went swimming from Pompoen to clear the gooseneck barnacles from her hull, live on the GGR Window, and climbed back aboard to find the inflatable he carries for working over the side heading for the horizon. He had forgotten to tie it on. He explained as much to the camera, McIntyre says, then started the engine and went to fetch it. The day before, Christensen had told viewers he would rather stay out of the water, having seen sharks four days running at one stage and orcas a few days earlier, and that he had a small raft kit ready for cleaning the waterline instead. The barnacles are now off, though McIntyre warns they can come back with a vengeance, and Christensen doesn't want to swim again. Pompoen is making 0.4 knots and still drifting north, so the clean bottom has little to work with yet.

In the same Friday broadcast he walked viewers through how he navigates. With the sun high ahead of the boat on a long run downwind, the only clear noon sight is from the end of the bowsprit. He goes out with a lightweight Davis sextant tethered to his belt and a dry-erase board on a string round his neck, pen attached, and wedges himself against the forestay. It takes about 20 minutes, because he starts five to eight minutes before his predicted local noon in case the timing is out. So far he has been off by about four. Moon sights have given mixed results, and on Thursday night he took a sight of what he believes was Arcturus, though he suspects he misjudged nautical twilight and hasn't worked it up yet.

Damien Guillou made 164 nautical miles in 24 hours at close to seven knots aboard Solarem, ten more than Pat Lawless on Silvermines Hydro, and the gap between them is now about 220 miles. Footage from on board shows Guillou up on deck every 15 minutes or so, always trimming, and at one point washing the salt off the windscreen in front of his live camera. The steady 20 to 25 knots lets him drive hard because the sails aren't flogging. Both boats, which got through the Doldrums on Guillou's shortcut, should keep good breeze for the next 48 hours.

Behind them the fleet is still working its way out of the calms. McIntyre expects the southeast trades to reach the western boats, Etienne Messikommer, Cantini and possibly Matt Woodside later in the day, though everyone has lost faith in the wind overlay this morning. Henry Wootton is the example: 63 miles in 24 hours, but 0.9 knots over the last four.

Ertan Beskardes holds third on Miss Beagle, about 120 miles ahead of Daniel Pinsky. McIntyre calls him the live champion of the Window and has heard he talked himself to sleep on camera last night. He would like to see Beskardes bear away a little. Held high at three and a half knots, a boat loses the momentum to punch through a lumpy sea. At five knots she would make better ground. Pinsky is fourth on Exodus, six miles clear of Andrea Lodolo on BiBi, whose position is four hours old, and the places in this bunch should keep changing hands.

Lodolo's replacement Starlink had a registration problem that is believed to be sorted. On Saturday he pressed the wrong sequence of buttons and thought he was live while nothing reached the stream, and he has since been talked through the process by phone. Louis Kerdelhué, making 1.2 knots on IE Charge, has still not come back on the Window. Isa Rosli covered six miles in 24 hours on Olleanna with the current carrying him east, and Pär Nyman, who may run out of breeze for a while, keeps closing on the fleet after his delayed restart.

Guy deBoer's repairs to Spirit are finished and the interior is back in place. He hopes to leave Lanzarote on Monday, but if he sails before sending the repair paperwork and getting final sign-off, including a last tweak to the rig, he is out of the race. McIntyre thinks the repairs look solid, though the decision isn't his. The mandatory sea trial has been waived, and if something goes wrong deBoer can put into the Cape Verde Islands. He starts roughly 1,500 miles behind the fleet, nearer two weeks than the usual week and a half because of the Doldrums.