Vendée Globe: Fire! Capsized! Water in the ship!

The New Zealander reports from on board how the drama took its course:

"I was just about to jibe in 30 knots of wind. Then I smelled a plastic odour below deck. At first I thought the batteries had a problem, ran the diagnostic programme on the computer, but everything was fine. I went out to tie in a reef and when I came back below deck, I saw black smoke and flames behind the chart table! One of the solar panel chargers was on fire and was about to destroy the entire electronic system as there are many important cables running along it. I grabbed the fire blanket and made a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames, ignoring the electric shocks from the equipment and the heat. Just as the fire was out, I heard a "beep" from the autopilot and then my world turned upside down.

"The burnt cables next to the charger had caused a short circuit in the autopilot. The boat fell off radically and made a patent jibe while I was still below deck and had my hands full of melted plastic. The ballast tanks and canting keel that make the Open 60 the fastest yachts in the world unfortunately also make them very unstable when things go wrong. With the keel and all the weight on the wrong side, the boat tried to capsize itself, had 80 degrees of attitude and the mast top was only a few metres above water. "

In the chaos, Colemann's camera is running the whole time and so it records how the New Zealander, standing on the side decks, begins to furl his gennaker and open the main in order to right his "Foresight Natural Energy". When he finally succeeds, the drama is far from over.

"Once the boat had righted itself again, the situation was still precarious: the wind was picking up, I had a badly wrapped gennaker on top that was threatening to tear to shreds in the wind and no electronic displays or an autopilot that could steer the boat. So I had to get the gennaker down first and then get the electronics working again. Unfortunately, the gennaker was so badly furled that it half-unfurled itself and flapped so badly that I was afraid the rig would come down. It took me ages to get it furled again with the tiller between my knees. I managed to wrap the sail around the forestay and slowly get it down. When it was finally down, it took me another two hours to sort out the whole mess, while the wind was gusting at 40 knots and the spray was whipping across the deck!"

But just when he thought he had the situation under control, the next blow came: "When I went below deck, everything was floating. Because the boat had been lying on its side for so long, hundreds of litres of water had poured into the ship via the keel box. My food rations, the carefully packed spare clothes, everything was soaking wet or floating through the boat. Luckily a lot of things were shrink-wrapped, but my spare clothes, boots and sleeping bag were completely soaked. But eventually I was able to connect the important cables and the autopilot was back online! I screamed with happiness when the little lights came back on, because the alternative would have been to sail to Cape Town and give up. But as I write this, we are back in action, the boat is thundering down the waves at 25 knots."

New record time to the Cape

Meanwhile, the race continues at a tremendous pace. After the field was battered by storms and various technical failures over the weekend, Armel Le Cléac'h set a new record for the distance to Cape Leeuwin, pulling 100 nautical miles clear of his stubborn pursuer Alex Thomson. The Frenchman was an incredible 5 days faster than his compatriot Francois Gabart in 2012 ("Macif"). After 28 days, 20 hours and 12 minutes, "Banque Populaire V" crossed the line at Australia's Western Cape today. If the field continues to maintain such an infernal pace, a jump below the 70-day mark for the first time in the history of single-handed round the world sailing seems feasible - this seemed illusory before the race, as Francois Gabart's current record is 78 days.

Frenchman Jeremie Beyou is also back in the race with his "Maitre Coq", who had to stop his boat yesterday due to a defective mainsail slip and halyard lock and fell back almost 250 miles.

Also back in the race is Frenchman Jean-Pierre Dick ("St. Michel Virbac"), who seems to be sailing with a lot of anger in his stomach. He had accidentally overslept the updated positions of the race organisation's ice exclusion zone and sailed into the exclusion zone. According to the rules, he had to sail back to the point of entry. This cost him almost 8 hours. Nevertheless, he is now closing in on sixth-placed Yann Elies, who had to steer his boat extremely carefully and slowly through over 40 knots of wind and enormous swell due to the strong storm at the weekend.