"We pushed as hard as we could, but that's a difficult thing to do by yourself. We've spoken about that as a team and have to be on top of it early."
The faux pas amounted to a choice between continuing to follow the African coastline south or tacking west into open sea. Camper's rivals got the jump on them by changing direction a couple of hours earlier and, by the time Nicholson followed, they were well clear.
"They were struggling to get to the coast, while we were doing quite a nice job," he reflects. "Shortly afterwards, we got some weather data that clearly showed we had to go west. Under those circumstances, you take your medicine, you go the right way and you pay the price. At the end of the day, those guys went the right way and we didn't - race over."
The incident has prompted a fair amount of soul-searching during their stay in South Africa. Nicholson dismisses any suggestion that he and co-skipper Stu Bannatyne were at odds over the decision, but hinted their relationship might change subtly from here in. "We've sailed a lot together and, in all that time, we've usually agreed on things pretty quickly. Perhaps that's almost too good - perhaps we didn't challenge other options enough. We probably need to understand just how important the decision is at the time. Normally, you would have a chance to catch up somewhere along the line and I'm still surprised at the price we paid. We just can't afford to repeat that."
Nicholson worked his sailing crew hard in pursuit of Telefonica and by the time they reached Cape Town, they had earned their four days' rest. Meanwhile, the shore crew performed running repairs, including a complete re-gripping of the deck.
"That doesn't normally happen until about halfway through the race but it had become quite slippery and dangerous. I think we had shown so many people over the boat, it had worn down quicker than normal."
Camper has been back out on the water fine-tuning over the past few days and now faces a voyage that holds a few extra challenges. Race organisers have taken precautions to protect the fleet from marauding pirates, diverting the boats to an undisclosed port where they'll be loaded on to a ship and transported closer to the United Arab Emirates. The same procedure will take place in reverse for Leg 3 to Sanya, China. That's a good news-bad news scenario for Nicholson.
"I'm very grateful that the piracy threat has been removed. These boats can get into enough trouble without having to go through dangerous waters. But it does cause a huge amount of logistical problems. Getting on the ship, we can't afford any breakage that slows you down for a day or two, because they won't be solved overnight.
"If we miss that ship, we don't get to do that stage, we don't do the in-port race and we don't start the leg from Abu Dhabi. To be honest, I'll breathe a big sigh of relief when we arrive in Auckland."
That's still another two months away and a lot can happen before then.
