While seven of the fleet’s eight navigators fret over the leg ahead, Roger Nilson is relieved to be able sail at all after he narrowly avoided being part of a tragic building collapse while on leave during the stopover.

The Telefonica Black veteran was visiting a Hindu festival with a friend east of New Delhi when a roof, upon which they and 6,000 others were eating lunch, collapsed.

Nilson had left to make a phone call about 15 minutes earlier, while his friend avoided the catastrophe by less than a minute. According to Nilson, approximately 150 people died.

“The whole roof fell in,” he told Amanda Blackley in a radio interview. “If I hadn’t left to have a pee and make a call I probably wouldn’t be standing here.

“My friend and me had a big debrief talk in front of the fireplace that evening because he walked off the roof 30 seconds before it fell. Three decimetres (30 centimetres) of concrete fell six metres with 150 people on top of it. He was quite shocked.”

Nilson will now attempt to turn his mind to the “tricky” 1,950-nautical mile leg to Singapore.

“It’s more like normal skilful racing to Malacca Strait but after it is a bit like Russian roulette,” he said. “There is a lot of light airs. After the scoring gate it might be more of a lottery than skills.

“The narrow part of Malacca Strait is very tricky sailing. We also have the risk of piracy, fishing nets all over the place that you might be hooked up in and commercial traffic.”