Vendee Globe sailor, Sam Davies, has for the first time, in a difficult and eventful race, shown signs of nervous-tension. Online readers have followed her jaunty missives about bikinis, Christmas presents and make-up with puzzled admiration: how could anyone be so bold, even given that many ‘photo-opportunities’ were set up in advance?

But since the rescue of Jean Le Cam the plucky British yachtswoman’s latest despatch has taken on more gravitas:

‘We had to wait hours and hours for the good news to come through that Jean Le Cam was safe. During those painful hours, Roxy was flying along at breakneck speed, leaping off the waves scarily fast in the pitch black. All kinds of things were going through my head; I imagined Jean upside down in VM Materiaux, alone in the freezing cold water in the black of night. That then made me imagine what it would be like if Roxy were to be capsized.

‘Travelling at such a high speed has meant that even the simplest tasks on board have become very dangerous.

‘As much as I have loved the sailing here in the Southern Ocean (I can’t wait to come back!), what with all that has happened to the fleet down here, I am starting to get impatient to escape back into the Atlantic. I will be extremely happy and relieved once the whole fleet is safely round Cape Horn.’

ROXY