KEY POINTS:
You could be forgiven for thinking Earthrace was doomed from the start.
But skipper Pete Bethune is determined to keep going, despite a growing list of setbacks.
Speaking over a crackly satellite phone en route to Mexico in much calmer waters, he says that looking back, he probably
made a couple of mistakes on the night disaster struck off Guatemala.
In the pitch dark, he had reacted on instinct. Three Guatemalan fishermen were in the water, moaning and yelling. Bethune's crazy-looking speedboat had just powered through their fishing skiff at speed, smashing it to pieces.
One of the fishermen managed to climb on board Earthrace but another was struggling in the water nearby so Bethune jumped in to get him. But there was a third man, out of sight.
This man wasn't registering as strongly in Bethune's mind as much as the closer man who was being smacked around under the skiff's hull and who turned out to be seriously injured.
"In hindsight, if I'd have gone over to the other guy I think eventually we would have rescued all three, but that's the decision I live with and maybe I'll learn a little bit from it. And, who knows, the guy might have been so badly smacked up that he never would have survived anyway."
Otherwise, the Earthrace crew did all they could and conducted themselves well throughout the ordeal, says Bethune, who says he is relieved to be out of Guatemala.
"It's just good to be back on the water, it's been a very tough week the last week."
Quit? Yes, Bethune thought about it. But he's not going to. "I seriously started to wonder what we were doing and that if I hadn't had this bright idea to take this boat round the globe a guy wouldn't have been seriously injured and one guy lost at sea, presumably drowned ...
"In the end I sat there thinking, you know, 'Well shit, what am I doing here, you know, who cares about biodiesel and is it going to make any difference at all about what we do?' That's probably the only time I've really questioned and thought seriously, maybe we should just stop this here and now."
The accident is part of the Earthrace history now and is firmly etched in everyone's mind. The crew are trying to deal with what happened as best they can.
But the aim is to move on and - hopefully - finish the race.
Earthrace will be lucky to break the record now. So far, it has lost 13 or 14 days and is about 5630km behind schedule.
When the accident happened, the craft was on day 18 of a hoped-for record-breaking 65 days around the world.
Bethune reckons they can still make it. But he reckons it will be extremely tough.
We run through the problems Earthrace has already encountered, some from way before the racing began.
From the beginning of Bethune's dream to build a speedboat powered by biodiesel, made from vegetable oil or waste animal fat, there have been problems.
Financial trouble aside - Bethune remortgaged his house three times to pay for the dream - there was the fight with Tourism New Zealand over the boat's logo; getting shot at pre-racing by a group who said they were the Colombian Navy; equipment problems including disintegrating propellers; difficulties with fuel supplies; the death at sea followed by problems with a gearbox ...
Bethune stops me there. It has been a rollercoaster ride, he says. But there have been good times and the cause is a worthy one.
"For every really bad memory we've got on this there are more good memories to make up for it."
Look out for whales, they can do a bit of damage, I say. He says that now they are busy dodging turtles. No, he's not worried about them damaging the boat. He's more worried about hurting them.
Tales Of Woe
Among the problems encountered are:
* Skipper Pete Bethune remortgaged his home three times to get the project off the ground.
* A year ago Tourism New Zealand objected to the boat's logo "100% Pure Biodiesel", saying it was too close to its "100% Pure New Zealand" campaign. The logo was pulled.
* The crew were shot at on their way to the race start-point in Barbados by a group who said they were the Colombian Navy and who also boarded the boat.
* Before racing began on March 6, the crew encountered delays with the supply of biofuel.
* After two days of racing the boat's propellers started to disintegrate.
* New propellers were found, but accidentally sent to Colombia.
* Next were problems with an engine.
* Near Guatemala, on day 18, they ran down a three-crew fishing boat. One of the fishermen is presumed to have drowned.
* After waiting in Guatemala for a court hearing followed by an undisclosed payout to families of the fishermen, they set sail again, but a problem with a gearbox forced them to return to port.
* They lost about 10 race days during the wait.
* Earthrace is now heading for southern California after refuelling at Acapulco in Mexico.
