Kingfisher2 Hits Submerged Object at Speed

"during the night suddenly there was a load bang, and the boat shuddered...we had hit something with the starboard rudder. We slowed the boat down to check, and we've a little repair to do on the fixings but it appears not to be a major problem, thankfully...we don't know what it was but hitting any object at speed is always a concern"...

Neal McDonald, on deck at the time added, "First thoughts are, you could be sinking here…a major concern but we ascertained that we weren't and then checked the whole boat for damage...in retrospect we were very lucky..."

Kingfisher2 is closing in on Orange's pace and is only 30 minutes behind which equates to just 8 miles. They are pulling back to nearly 2 days behind Geronimo. They crossed the Latitude of the Cape of Good Hope yesterday morning at 0918 GMT taking 19 days 2 hours from the start to the point of longitude below South Africa... The notorious Cape Horn is 10,000 miles to the east - further than KINGFISHER2 has sailed to date - with Cape Leeuwin (SW tip of Australia) in between.

After five full days of crazy Southern Ocean surfing, conditions onboard Kingfisher2 are decidedly calmer this morning...but it was expected, and therefore little stress aboard. Speed this morning has remained close to record pace.

Ellen noted, "We have a northerly breeze of about 20 knots, and we're hoping to hold this for next 12 hours as we traverse the convergence zone between the high pressure and low pressure system...the other side of this we're expecting very strong north westerlies"

SUMMARY: 0700 GMT 19.2.03
Position: 44 38'S 27 28'E

Ahead/Behind the record: 0 hours 30 minutes behind Orange (using WP6)
Ahead/Behind Geronimo: 50 hours 25 minutes behind Geronimo (using WP6)
DAY 20 24 hour run (point to point) : Kingfisher2 463 nm, Orange 500 nm, Geronimo 415 nm
End DAY 20 distance to go (on theoretical course) : KF2 17107 nm, Orange 17099 nm, Geronimo 16301 nm

Boat speed: 20.1 knots
Course: 097
Distance to WP6 46 00'S / 70 00'E 200 miles north of Kerguelen Islands : 1776 nm (theorectical shortest distance)