THEY'VE arrived.

The final three boats in the Clipper Round the World Race sailed into Rio de Janeiro last night and early this morning following a gruelling month sailing almost 5,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

This heralds the end of the first leg of the world's longest race where the crew are made up of novices but skippered by some of the world's toughest skippers.

Arriving in 10 th place was Switzerland, whose crew includes Southampton City College principal Lindsey Noble, 59, 58-year-old Charlie Pickering from Southampton and 50-year-old Heather Reid from Totton all on board.

The team lost ground two thirds of the way when they ran out of water in the searing heat of the Doldrums. They were forced to switch the engine on and borrow water from another yacht before motoring back to their position and turning the power off.

Following close behind was Mission Performance.

Aboard is William Ferguson, 46, a broker from Winchester with Peter Wilcock, 66, a clinical psychologist, also from the Hampshire city.

Last but not least Invest Africa, whose crew includes Diana Nicholson, a 56-year-old housewife from Southampton.

Earlier that day, Team Garmin's yacht in the early hours.

Having sailed from St Katherine's Docks in the heart of London, the brand new fleet of Clipper 70 yachts experience favourable conditions, with plenty of wind in their sails.

But the fleet soon ground to a halt after falling foul of the most extreme Doldrum conditions experienced in the Clipper Race's 15 year history, delaying the fleet arrival into Rio de Janeiro.

Once free the pace picked up with a tight dash to the finish to those leading from the front.

Jamaica Get All Right and PSP Logistics fought a fierce battle all the way to the finish line in Rio de Janeiro.

After overtaking each other on numerous occasions over the past few days, it was Jamaica Get All Right, skippered by Titchfield's Pete Stirling that pipped PSP Logistics at the post by a mere 19 seconds.

But then came a redress that put PSP Logistics ahead, with one hour 11 minutes time credits to compensate for suspended racing time while they took on fresh water in the Doldrums.

The second leg sets off from Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday (October 12).

The rest of the 40,000-mile journey will take the crews past Australia, Singapore, and the USA before returning to the UK next July.