"Water, water everywhere, but barely a drop to drink on Izivunguvungu" courtesy of HEINEKEN website

"It was in contention for a top six finish on handicap, but then the 42ft development boat from Simon’s Town naval base sent out an SOS yesterday with the news that they were running out of drinking water after their watermaker had become unserviceable.In a magnanimous gesture, Dale Kushner’s Xtra-Link, which is presently in fourth place and was only about 20 nautical miles from the distressed boat, agreed to divert from her course to assist Kader Williams and his crew.“We only have 30 litres of water onboard to cover the second half of the race,” Williams informed race control, “and we still have to cover about 1,400 miles, which could take another nine days.”Race director John Martin, after much deliberation, asked Xtra-Link to divert and assist and Kushner immediately agreed.

The organisers confirmed that Xtra-Link will be awarded time consideration -- about six hours -- for its act of sportsmanship out at sea.“We met mid-ocean yesterday morning at about 11 and as there was almost 20 knots of wind blowing and a sea running, the two boats could not come alongside otherwise they would have been damaged,” said Kushner in a link-up to race control.“We were able to transfer 20 cans of isotonic drink which the crew immediately gulped down. Then we were able to transfer a further 140 litres of water which will be more than sufficient for the rest of their voyage.”The transfer took about 45 minutes in what Kushner described as a “well executed process”.But the mid-Atlantic link-up has come at a price for Izivunguvungu; receiving water in the rules is cause for immediate disqualification, taking them officially out of the race. The boat started off poorly, but had moved as high as fourth place before sending out a distress call.Izivunguvungu is not the first yacht in the race to run into water problems. Myrtle of Bonnievale nearly hit the panic button after they battled for five days to repair their watermaker and Ciao Bella also reported hassles earlier this week.

Gerry Hegie’s City of Cape Town meanwhile continues to lead the race on handicap from Mike Robinson’s Ciao Bella and Jon Sanders’ Perie Banou II, but it was Xtra-Link that found the breeze yesterday, reporting a 24-hour run of 236nm, outpacing Prodigy (202nm) and City of Cape Town (194nm).Prodigy has nevertheless increased her lead in the race for line honours and was 1,004nm from Rio after yesterday’s run, followed by City of Cape Town (1,110nm), Grand Filou II (1,272nm) and Xtra-Link (1,362nm)".