Tales of survival on the high seas, colossal waves, crippled yachts and confusing winds are unfurling in Rio as exhausted, but relieved, South African sailors step ashore to bemoan what has become the toughest MTN Cape-to-Rio race in history.
This year's 3 450-mile race was best summed up by Scandinavian skipper Ludde Ingvall who - describing how the maxis and mini-maxis revelled in idyllic winds to set a race record and take handicap honours while the rest of the fleet laboured in the doldrums - said "the rich got richer and the poor got poorer".
For the first time, sailors arriving here are complaining of wet clothes and damp interiors - thanks to seas washing in to their living quarters.
By Sunday, with only five days to go to Friday's prize-giving and the deadline for official finishers, only 15 of the 81 yachts had finished.
At least 20 of those still at sea have little or no chance of making the cut-off. Although this has been the fastest Rio race for the blue-chip racers, it has been the slowest for most of the fleet.
On the quayside of the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro, anxious South African wives and girlfriends are awaiting news of their loved ones.
Carol Brady, 30, wife of Johannesburg stockbroker Kevin, 33, who is making his first ocean crossing on the Lavranos 35, BJM Masimo, said it was frustrating and worrying whiling away the hours and praying for news.
"I've been here since Tuesday and they last made radio contact 14 days ago when they said they were nursing torn sails and having radio problems. I'm not panicking, I just wish I knew where they were."
Navy yachtsman and former South African submarine captain Hanno Teuteberg, skipper of the Fast 42, BP Umoya Omusha, which crossed the finish line on Friday and is lying fifth on handicap in the IMS racing class behind the maxis and mini-maxis, said he had never experienced a Rio race as tough as this one.
"The brochure describes the race as a benign, blue-water downwind classic where you hoist the spinnaker in Table Bay and take it down in the shadow of Sugar Loaf. This race was anything but that. We spent R45 000 on spinnakers and a carbon-fibre spinnaker pole, but had downwind conditions for only five days."
One of BP Umoya Omusha's crew was 20-year-old sailing rookie Sharon Moodley, the only woman on the yacht and making her first ocean crossing. Teuteberg said Moodley was a brave sailor and had "performed well under the circumstances".
If there were an award for courage and tenacity, it would have to go to Ivar Kvale and his crew on the other Fast 42 in the race, Awesome, which beat BP Umoya Omusha by four minutes.
"We pushed the yacht every inch of the way, but after that first storm we discovered 40 percent of the mast was cracked just below the stop spreader," said Kvale.
"We reefed the main and sailed under storm jib while we cut the emergency tiller.
"We also lashed the bilge pump handles around the mast as a tourniquet to reinforce it.
"We took a helluva pounding, but regarded this as a match race. We blew our spinnaker to pieces, but all agreed not to reduce sail in the storms, even when the seas were five metres and the wind 40 knots.
"Six hundred miles from Rio we realised we would be in trouble if our steering broke or we had to had to pump water as the equipment was up the mast.
"Then one day out of Rio our anchor compartment flooded. We were bailing water, but fortunately found the leak and patched it.
"We also had to strip our water maker (desalinating machine) twice as it was sucking air and eventually had to connect it to the toilet to make water. On the last day, we had no water."