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Southern Ocean tests solo sailors
TAURANGA, New Zealand (CNN) -- Eleven solo sailors continue to struggle through the Southern Ocean in the Around Alone circumnavigation race. Leg four of the 28,775-mile five-leg race began from Tauranga on February 9 and will end in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, before returning to the starting point in Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. in May 2003. Event leader Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm was leading the fleet by more than 90 nautical miles, heading towards Cape Horn. Frenchman Thierry Dubois was sailing behind Stamm, with Italian Simone Bianchetti closely followed by New Zealander Graham Dalton, sailing Hexagon. Dalton had gained on Bianchetti in Tiscali after the Italian had to sail north to avoid ice. Briton Emma Richards, the only female in the event, was trailing behind American Bruce Schwab. In this leg, the sailors spend most of their time monitoring equipment below deck to avoid hitting icebergs and smaller pieces of ice, known as growlers. Dalton, in an e-mail to the race Web site, said: "These are conditions that produce fantastic speeds from Hexagon. "However, sailing at such velocities is wearing on the nerves when the chance of hitting an iceberg is prevalent. "To add to the tension I am not able to spend much time on deck at the moment. In very windy conditions, there are continual large waves breaking over the boat that make it dangerous to spend more time on deck than is absolutely necessary," he added. The leading yachts are less than 2,000 miles from Cape Horn and at their current speed they should round the landmark in about one week.
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