the start of the 3,000-mile race on December 5, six have dropped out. Eight are still in the race, although none of them can see each other, and another three are still going but awaiting assistance about 1,000 miles from land. Once the rescue boat reaches them they will be disqualified from the race because the rules allow no external assistance. Towards the rear is the rescue sailing yacht Aurora, which is towing one of the first boats to drop out because it is a source of spare parts, including oars. Diverted to St Martin in the Caribbean were the 23 year-olds Tom Fancett and Tom Sauer. Their 26ft (8m) boat was capsized by a huge wave, sinking on December 13. After a night in a liferaft, they found themselves in a stateroom of the 820ft Crystal Serenity cruise ship, the first vessel to reach them. It diverted 120 miles off its course from Lisbon to Miami to carry them to safety, with scores of passengers watching as the 69,000 ton vessel manoeuvred alongside the life raft. While other competitors endured dried rations, Fancett, from London, and Sauer, a St Andrews University student, were offered lobster and champagne. First in the queue for the rescue boat were James Cash, a personal trainer, and his friend Bertie Portal, 44, the actor who played the equerry in the film The King's Speech. Portal's mother Gillian Dawnay, 70, of Kensington, London, said that before starting two years of high intensity training "about the