Journalists from the UK's national newspapers and magazines from around the world have even braved the storm-tossed seas to give readers a picture of the tough life on board.

Naturally, Britain's television, radio and papers and news agencies have shown the most interest - the BBC is producing a series of eight documentaries on the race - but there has been a frenzy of local media activity in each of the ports as the race comes to town.

To help the hundreds of reporters accredited to follow the race, BT has set up a media centre in each port, staffed it and kitted it out with up to 12 PCs, laptops, printers, faxes, photocopiers and phones.

Press officer Louise Hurren said: "Most of the media have valued the support they have received. Many of them could not have covered the race without the facilities provided by BT."

So far, the Cape Town media centre has been the biggest, with a staff of six led by a media centre manager. Wellington's was large too but Rio de Janiero managed with just three people. The centres themselves have been in a variety of buildings from a sail training classroom to a big shed.

Jules Mantle, from the Project Office in London, said: "It's like a circus. It is all set up before the yachts arrive. It stays there while the fleet is in town, and is then packed up and moved on to the next port."

Press conferences are held within, with the race skippers and crew telling their stories of bravery and endurance. Television crews use editing facilities. Radio professionals, Steve Ancsell and Dick Johnson, do on-the-spot interviews, edit them and send them via ISDN to regional radio stations.

Official race photographer Mark Pepper uses the BT media centre facilities to scan in and send his pictures to the race photo library at Newbury, Berkshire, where a selection are placed onto the web site, and many others are held to cope with the wave of media picture requests.

The website is used extensively to provide latest race details, particularly as the yachts are about to arrive, the crews also using it during the stopover to research weather conditions for the next leg.

There is also video-conferencing on offer. This is often used by BT Global Challenge sponsors and by schools in each port, who are invited by the Public Relations team to take part in link-ups with schools in Britain.

Families and friends of crew members, and even people dropping in off the street, are catered for - having their numerous questions answered by media centre staff, including what time of the morning they need to 'drag' themselves out of bed to cheer the next yacht in.