Minor leak

Whilst making headway less than 200 miles off the Brazilian coast, at the latitude of Salvador de Bahia, having clawed back around twenty miles or so in relation to the two competitors in front of him over the past 24 hours, Giancarlo Pedote had a hectic start to Saturday. “At around 04:00 UTC, whilst I was sat at the chart table, I noticed there was a lot of water close to my coolers. It was a worry so I set about moving all the stacking bags. I quickly spotted that the ballast tank hatch had sprung a leak”, commented the skipper of the 60-footer in the colours of Prysmian Group and Electriciens sans Frontières. “In the end, it was quite a simple fix: I emptied the ballast tanks (tanks of sea water used to correct the boat’s trim, editor’s note), then I replaced the faulty hatch with a new one I had going spare. However, emptying the water out of the hull took me a while as the boat is constantly heeled over and there are little nooks everywhere”, explained the Italian sailor, who has now resolved the problem. “The boat is currently making headway at a fairly quick and pleasant pace. I hope that the wind will continue to bend round to the left, which would enable me to rocket down the South Atlantic”, concluded Giancarlo who will consequently gradually put some easting into his course to get around the Saint Helena High.