Marked amongst all the skippers for his enduring sense of humour, Alan Paris never had, nor needed to have any shore team supporting him in the ports, so immaculate was his boat at every arrival : "My time in each stop over was minimal compared to the others so I had to be very organised, but they say the boat takes care of the sailor, and it all came down to having a very well built boat, which definitely took care of me."

The last skipper left out on the race course is Canadian Derek Hatfield on Spirit of Canada, who has literally skirted around the ’bump of Brazil’ and is now finally in the trades : "Now I’m surfing downwind towards the equator at almost twice the speed. The next hurdle will be the Doldrums and then come the Northern trade winds with pleasant 18 knot winds and high average speed days. Inside the boat, with fans on and all hatches open, it’s still 94 degrees at the nav station. My green bananas are starting to kick off very quickly now and I’m eating them as fast as I can."

QUOTES FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE

"I have learned so many lessons during this race, most of them along the way. Like when the impeller on the propeller shaft broke and I learned there and then how to fix it. They say that the boat takes care of the sailor, because we certainly don’t take care of the boat quite as well !"

"When my face was 2 feet away from the water, as I was clinging to the mast trying to reef the main in 50 knots of wind passing Cape Horn, and the boat got knocked down ?that was the high point ! The low point ?definitely the ribs. Having a medical issue when you are 300 miles from land, which happens to be South America and the Amazon, does not bring any sense of relief at all."

"In my 18 years of working in the Hotel industry, you learn to be prepared for anything, ready to react immediately to any situation, which is exactly the same way you have to deal with situations at sea, but the difference is that I normally have a team with me in the Hotel, so doing everything by yourself is a change !"

"For sure it is harder when you are racing really alone, and all the competitors are in port, as I like the sense of knowing the other skippers are out there with you. Especially when I set off from Hobart to cross the Tasman Sea knowing that all the other Class 2 skippers had finished. But I never stop racing, I always tried to get there as soon as I could."

"I spent a lot of time training with D^r. Claudio Stampi on sleep management - he said I slept too much ! I wore a special watch to monitor my sleep patterns, I never hallucinated or had any problems with lack of sleep. On the other hand I did lose 25 pounds as freeze-dried meals aren’t as good as hotel food !"

"My most beautiful moment was rounding Cape Horn. It felt like I was in a place I shouldn’t be, it was frightening and and stunning at the same time. If you’ve been down there you’ll know ?"

"I’m fortunate that I actually had a job lined up waiting for me for the last ten months, and in precisely 15 days I have to get back to work. I will be a Director at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, which invests in caring for the enviroment around, so it doesn’t look too good that I hit a whale, but this is something I want to go back and research, how to find ways to send messages out to the whales and avoid us sailors hitting them all the time !"

Around Alone Overall Rankings

Class 1
 1. Bobst Group - Armor Lux : 49 points / 115 days 18hrs 27m 23s
 2. Solidaires : 45 points / 118 days 13hrs 54m 1s
 3. Tiscali : 35 points / 159 days 20hrs 53m 11s
 4. Pindar : 33 points / 131 days 20hrs 45m 49s
 5. Ocean Planet : 30 points / 159 days 6hrs 41m 42s

Class 2
 1. Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America : 50 points / 148 days 17 hrs 54m 42s
 2. Everest Horizontal : 44 points / 170 days 0hrs 6m 28s
 5. BTC Velocity : 30 points / 202 days 11hrs 9m 52s
 Spirit of yukoh : 36 points / 180 days 0hrs 6m 25s

Leg 5 Rankings - Class 1
 1. Bobst Group - Armor Lux finished at 11:20:10 GMT 1st May 03 after 17 days, 19hrs, 20m 23s
 2. Tiscali finished at 12:01:30 GMT 3rd May 03 after 19 days, 20 hrs, 1m 30s
 3. Solidaires finished at 19:54:01 GMT 3rd May after 20 days, 3 hrs, 54m, 1s
 4. Ocean Planet finished at 03:35:57 GMT 4th May after 20 days 11 hours 35m 57s
 5. Pindar finished at 20:15:26 GMT 4th May after 21 days 4hrs 15m 26s

Class 2
 1. Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America finished at 09:53:58 GMT 4th May after 20 days, 17hrs 53m 48s
 2. Everest Horizontal finished at 15:50:47 GMT 5th May after 21 days, 23hrs 50m 47s
 3. Spirit of yukoh finished at 16:41:41 GMT 7th May after 24 days, 0hrs 41m 41s

POSITIONS AT 1400GMT 11th May 2003

Class 2
 Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp AvgHeading DTF
 1. Spirit of Canada 5 51.568 S, 34 29.356 W, 60.09 nm, 7.51 kt, 358 °T, 3497.24 nm