NEW YORK AP Those who dare to challenge the oceans solo say the first 7000 miles 11200 kilometers of the Around Alone sailing race were exhausting. The next 6884 miles 11014 kilometers will be harrowing. Fifteen sailors and their crews are in Cape Town South Africa this week wrapping up weeks of repairs and restocking their 40- to-60-foot 12- to-18-meter boats. On Saturday they head to Auckland New Zealand for the second leg of the four-part nine-month race. This section runs through a roiling stretch of water where the Atlantic Indian and Pacific oceans merge. Aside from the tip of South America there is no land to interrupt the free flow of wind. It's not for nothing they call it the Roaring Forties below 40 degrees south latitude. Mike Golding of Britain won the first leg by just 2 1/2 hours smashing the speed record from Charleston South Carolina to Cape Town. He arrived Oct. 31 after 34 days 18 hours 54 minutes and 44 seconds at sea. The second- and third-place finishers Isabelle Autissier and Marc Thiercelin both of France also broke the mark set by Autissier in 1994 the last time this race was held. Jean-Pierre Mouligne of France won the Class II category for boats up to 50 feet 15 meters long followed by Michael Garside of Britain and Brad Van Liew of the United States. Other racers took up to 62 days to reach Cape Town with the last Fedor Konioukhov of Russia arriving just hours before the disqualification deadline Nov. 28. It was not clear Tuesday night if he would finish his repairs in time to leave with the other boats Saturday. ``This leg was exhausting for everyone both physically and psychologically. It put all of us both boats and skippers through the wringer. Being so close to each other pushed each of us to our utmost'' Autissier said. If the first leg was a tactical chess match where racers gambled on the right moment to skirt the mid-Atlantic doldrums and head east toward Africa the second leg will be a flat-out roller-coaster ride. ``The first boat to make it into the strong westerlies should have a big advantage'' race director Mark Schrader said Monday. He also noted that crash helmets were among the many safety items issued. ``On 380-plus mile 610-plus kilometer days the motion and the noise is incredible'' he said. Sailors who get ahead of high pressure systems will be surfing down 40-foot 12-meter waves with the smallest sails in their arsenal praying the heavy gauge metal shrouds holding up their seven-story masts don't crumple under the onslaught. Those who get stuck behind low pressure systems will have the same icy seas smashing into them. Autissier knows all about those seas. A rogue wave flipped and demasted her 60-foot 18-meter yacht on this leg in 1994 ending her quest to win the around-the-world race after she had beaten others by five days on the first leg. An Australian rescue helicopter saved her life. This time she is reinforcing her lines bringing a smaller mainsail packing lots of spare parts and adding a heater to ward off the bitter cold from the constant storms. The Around Alone competitors this year range from 30 to 64 years old and are a veritable United Nations of the sea: three each from France Britain and the United States two from Russia and one apiece from Italy Australia South Africa and Japan. Autissier is the only woman. The three Americans include the 30-year-old Van Liew Robin Davie 47 of Charleston and George Stricker 62 a native of Newport Kentucky. All the sailors emerged from the first leg with astonishing tales of courage and willpower. Viktor Yazykov of Russia made headlines by performing surgery on his infected elbow using E-mail instructions from a Boston doctor. Autissier had to scale her 85-foot 26-meter mast to fix a broken halyard the line that keeps the sails up. Davie broke his rudder midway and then ran out of food as he approached Cape Town. Thiercelin's mainsail ripped into shreds in a gale. Konioukhov's water ballast system failed leaving him unable to move upwind and at times thousands of miles behind his competitors. And nearly everyone's autopilot steering system broke down at some point so the racers could barely sleep two hours at a time. Even Konioukhov who has climbed Mount Everest and skied to both poles was daunted. ``On this race the danger is for two months and that is just leg one'' he said in Cape Town. ``Compared to Everest this is very difficult.'' APW19981201.0188.txt.body.html APW19981201.0623.txt.body.html