MAKING WAVES: With Cape Horn rounded, we even found time to play a little April Fool's prank, but it's back to the cat and mouse game with Ken Read's team, writes DAMIAN FOXALL

WHAT A difference one week makes. We have now rounded Cape Horn and the finishing line of the fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race is dead ahead, just another 700 miles away at Itajai in Brazil.

The sea is flat, we have good breeze and the sun is out, though it’s still very cold as we pace northwards along the coast of Argentina and past the Rio Plata. The finish is perhaps three days away and it’ll be much warmer by then, though we have plenty of a different kind of heat to deal with before then.

Even before we made landfall off the spectacular landscape of Tierra del Fuego, we were taking in the news that Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing suffered more damage and ended up bolting their hull together to prevent delamination turning into a catastrophic failure.

They were 1,700 miles from land when this happened and now they’re following Chris Nicholson and the Camper boys to Chile to assess their options.

We’re all disappointed for their whole team but I am especially for Ian Walker and Justin Slattery, who are having a heinous race coming after the last time on Green Dragon. I’ve little doubt Slattery was in the thick of things making good the repair as I know he would from previous ocean races we’ve done together.

But the risk to life so far from land and rescue is immense. When it comes to survival, competition stops and we’re acutely aware we are each other’s rescue boat.

Now both boats are on the same line of latitude as ourselves but on the opposite side of South America. They’ll have huge choices to make and even catching-up in time for the next leg start in just over two weeks is a big ask.

But we have our own battle to deal with up front. As expected, we rounded Cape Horn in the company of Ken Read and the Puma team and though we were in first place, our 30-mile lead was nothing really and they have closed this down, even edging ahead by six miles on Tuesday and though now we’re officially ahead, half a mile is nothing.

Every 15 minutes or so, a compass bearing is taken; sometimes they’re up, sometimes they’re down but they’re always there, glued to us in similar conditions. And we’re both sisterships from the Juan Kouyoumidjan design stable so fairly evenly matched.

As is Iker Martinez’ Telefonica, which fairly roared up the coast to less than 100 miles behind. The Spaniards pulled in for shelter after the Cape and made repairs.

They then picked up better breeze than us thanks to being 400 miles behind when we were dealing with light winds in a transition zone off the Falklands.

Nice for them but if there was any justice in this race, Puma or ourselves would win this leg after all that we’ve been through over two weeks in the Southern Ocean.

At least Telefonica is now sailing in the same weather system as us so their advance has been slowed. Looking ahead to the finish, we should keep this breeze and probably get some reaching conditions that would suit us better than Puma, so there might be a passing lane.

Nearer the finish, more light winds from another transition zone can be expected so nothing is certain other than all three of us will have a podium result in Itajai.

That means we can expect plenty of intensity and frequent sail changes as we play the breeze. It’ll be demanding, both physically and mentally, but after rounding the Cape, we were able to rest and catch up on sleep. The boat and gear has also been dried out so we’re in good shape though still wary of damage.

Spirits are high and passing the Horn, especially in first place, but regardless of the result, it was a high-point for our campaign and for skipper Franck Cammas.

We were even able to make time for a little “Poisson d’Avril” prank to mark April Fool’s Day and Yann Riou created a video blog of me sailing alone on deck, steering and trimming while we claimed this technique allowed the other 10 crew to get properly rested below decks.

I’m not sure it’ll catch on but for now, we are back to this week’s game of cat and mouse. Or will it be snakes and ladders?