Vendée Globe: Colman's lonely battle: hardly any food, 300 nautical miles to go

His face has narrowed, but Conrad Colman is not ready to give up his Vendée battle. Under emergency rigging, the New Zealander still has 300 nautical miles to go to the finish. He is making agonisingly slow progress at a boat speed of three or four knots and has slipped back from 10th to 14th place since his mast broke on 10 February. One hunter after another has overtaken him. But Colman is fighting. He is determined to reach the finish line at his Vendée premiere.

His conditions for the last 300 nautical miles are unenviable. The food supplies are almost exhausted. Colman had already planned generously for 100 days. But it is now day 105. The Kiwi is only eating the last of the packet soups and can only consume just under 700 calories a day after the strict rationing. That is very, very little in the European winter, which he is sailing towards mile after mile, and in view of the physical exertions of his ordeal.

In addition, Colman can hardly generate any electricity with the hydrogenerator on board his "Foresight Natural Energy" due to the slow boat speed. This in turn affects the on-board systems and the urgently needed watermaker. The man is running on his last reserves of energy.

The mast breakage had caught him 730 nautical miles from the finish line in strong winds of around 30 or 35 knots. It took several days before Colman was able to set the emergency rig in somewhat calmer conditions. Now the solo sailor, who lives in France, is hoping to reach the finish line at the weekend. The position is far from important. The main thing is to get there. Just don't give up!

Colman is hoping that the sun will shine for him again so that he can generate additional power from the solar panels. In an initial conversation with the regatta headquarters, the skipper had only now given deep insights into his mental life after the mast breakage: "When it all came down, I just couldn't believe it. It felt like I had failed. It was heartbreaking. There are these emotions like 'My race is over'. The stress of the broken mast. The sails that have just gone overboard, they cost more than my house. And I've already mortgaged my house. It's really scary. Emotionally, financially, I felt backed into a corner every time I thought about it."

At the same time, Colman knew that he would not give up. He had come too far and too close to home and had dedicated too much of his life to the challenge. "It's about finishing it. I called my wife and the race organisers, told them I wouldn't need any help. I wasn't going to give up. I was going to wait and see what would happen."

The clean-up work on deck was initially brutally difficult in the four or five metre swell. But they allowed Colman to develop a kind of routine again, which re-energised him. "The people on the outside also gave me a lot of energy with emails and words of encouragement," reports Colman. He will no longer allow himself to be deprived of completing his mission. And he can certainly expect family and friends to have one thing in particular with him across the finish line at Ouessant: Food and drink. And one can assume that the French, who adore their heroes, will give Colman, a Frenchman by choice, an emotional reception in Les Sables d'Olonne.