With two days remaining until the official race cut-off, seven teams have now completed their race while a total of 21 teams remain on the course. A day after Team Seagate.com won the event followed by GoLite and Air Pacific, Teams Mazda and Earthlink rounded out the top-five finishers.

Teams Nokia Adventure and Spie followed later in the day, at 4:14 p.m. and 8:14 p.m., respectively.

Saturday had begun early for organizers and MountainZone.com, who waited up for Team Mazda at the hotel lobby until 2 a.m., when it was learned that the course had been shut down due to bad weather. So Team Mazda sat, on a Friday night at Fiji's biggest party island of Beachcomber, and waited to be released back on the water.

It would be daybreak before they'd be underway and Team Mazda arrived at the finish line at 9:34 a.m. Saturday to an enthusiastic crowd, impressed at the achievement of this rookie team.

"They've broken in to the small cliquey club today," said Mark Burnett at the finish, his voice nearly gone by this point. "With this team it was like the movie 'Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.' Everyone was asking 'Who ARE those guys?' Well now they have bragging rights."

"To be here for South Africa is a dream come true," commented one team member. "To have made it to the finish is the most awesome thing, and to finish amongst the best teams in the world is truly awesome."

After Team Mazda headed in for a big breakfast and some much deserved rest, the Sheraton Resort reverted to its relaxed pace for several hours, as more teams continued to struggle out on the course. The last-placed team, Krone Extreme of Norway, had only left trekking CP7 as of 1:40 p.m. as they made their way to CP8 along with two other teams.

Three more teams were sitting in CP8 at Navala Village, where they were picking up their mountain bikes. Meanwhile, the remaining top 13 teams were on the water, paddling toward the finish.

At 3:28 p.m. Team Earthlink of the USA arrived at the finish on glassy flat water, but said it wasn't so smooth out at sea. "Just as we started celebrating offshore, a 40-kilometer headwind hit us," said one team member. "It was a really tough race."

Earthlink, like most of the top teams, had its share of illness inflict members, as one was sick early in the race. This forced downtime resulted in better pacing by the team, a situation mirrored by all top-three finishing teams.

"That race almost killed me," said one member. "But I'd rather die than not finish."

Isaac Wilson offered his own zinger, saying, "When I thought Fiji, I thought mai-tais!"

Immediately after their finish, the members of Earthlink scarfed down a big pizza - washed down with Fiji Gold Beer - on the stage as they gave their TV interviews.

Then, at 4:14 p.m., Team Nokia from Finland finished their race for 6th place, followed four hours later by Team Spie.

The Cutoffs
For the remaining teams, it is now a race for time to avoid being either disqualified or relegated to a slower course. Teams had until 10 a.m. this morning to check out of CP11 and remain on the Championship (full) Course. All of the top 13 teams met that cutoff.

Teams still on the land have until 2 a.m. tonight (Saturday morning PST) to leave the beach at CP11 if they want to race on the Expedition (reduced) Course.

Teams have until 5 a.m. on Sunday the 20th to reach CP13 if they want to remain on the full championship course. They then have until 10 a.m. on the 21st to reach the finish.

For teams that miss the cutoff at CP13, they will skip the island trek on Wayasewa and Waya Islands, heading straight for CPs 17 & 18 and the finish.

Teams that miss the cutoff at CP11 will be directed to the finish line, skipping all the open water paddling.

—Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Correspondent