KEY POINTS:
If the winds of the western Mediterranean have been kind overnight, we have awoken this morning to a 3-3 scoreline in the America's Cup racing, rather than the unthinkable last-ditch tally of 4-2. Either way Emirates Team New Zealand is doing us all proud and the contest is more exciting than any of us dared hope.
The fact that the regatta has taken place, for the first time in its history, in Europe, has tested the staying power of the Kiwi team's supporters almost as much as that of the sailors themselves. Hardened souls have sat up into the small hours and then gone about their daily business bleary-eyed, rejoicing in victory or resolute in the face of setback. Those whose dedication does not extend to self-imposed sleep deprivation have contented themselves with the breakfast half-hour of television highlights or at least fumbled for the radio in the early-morning gloom, knowing that the first duty of the day is to catch up with the events overnight.
All have shared the pleasure of a steadily growing belief in the team, the realisation, at first tentative and now firmly entrenched, that not only can we win back yachting's most prized trophy, but that we might - and even that we bloody will.
It is a long way to have come from 2003 when the spectacular mast collapse signalled the defender's inevitable exit from the contest. Team New Zealand has made a tough battle of it, rewriting recent cup history that made 5-0 the standard winning margin. And the boys on NZL92 are fighting a typically Kiwi campaign, against the odds and exceeding all the expectations of the naysayers. We already have every reason to be proud of their performance. And they have every reason to expect that the prize is within their grasp.
