Thank you.
You have to think you're going to come back.
Maybe you'll have problems or you'll have to go into Australia.
That kind of lies in the back of your mind.
But not that you'll never come back.
You can't afford to think that.
Wild winter weather and an angry Atlantic.
24 sailors were about to take it on.
Over half a million people had made the pilgrimage to Les Sables de l'On in France
to see them before they left to race alone around the world in the Vendée Globe.
A race that only once has seen every entrant reach shore alive.
The youngest competitor by far was just 24.
But Ella MacArthur was ready.
I think in a way the Vendée's been happening for the last four years in my own mind.
It's the biggest moment of my life but it's something which I've known is going to happen.
And I don't mean that to sound blasé but I've dreamed of this for so long
and we've worked towards it specifically for two years with the Kingfisher project.
And now this is it. We're about to go.
But it really feels like it was what was meant to be.
Helen was born in 1976 in Derbyshire.
It was far from obvious that she should become so passionate about sailing.
She lived far from the sea. Neither her parents were keen sailors.
But family days out catalyzed her interests.
She had the chance to go sailing as a child with my sister.
We used to have summer holidays on her boat.
And it really just developed from that.
Those first sailing experiences made a huge impact.
She started saving her school dinner money to buy her first boat
and spent hours in the school library reading about her heroes of the sea.
At 17 she set off from Derbyshire to sail alone around Britain.
It was a significant moment.
The past was behind me and I'd left it.
It was there on the dock side and the future was ahead of me.
And I didn't know what the future held at all. I had no idea what was going to happen to me.
1996 saw her sail 9,000 miles.
She made the start of the Vendée Globe and meet Mark Turner.
He put on to me and had this little girl in my face saying,
hey I want to do the Mini Transat and you're going to help me.
When do we start?
Turner was an experienced sailor and had the business acumen that Ellen felt she lacked.
They scraped together funds, persuaded Carphone Warehouse and Financial Dynamics to provide support
and just made the start of the 1997 Mini Transat.
Each racing tiny boats across the Atlantic.
We came out of the race with nothing, absolutely nothing, other than one of the best memories of our lives.
With negative equity they set off again.
Turner had now put his sailing on hold. He was driving the hunt for sponsorship.
Ellen though kept up the hours on the water.
In 1998 she raced around Britain with friend David Rowan on Jontex.
They won their class.
She had arranged to race this boat in the next key single-handed transatlantic race, the route to Rome.
But just 12 weeks before the start the deal fell through.
In a scramble to make the race and on borrowed money and borrowed time,
she went to Bermuda where she'd found a replacement boat.
Not ideal but she could enter the race with it.
Then one of the key moments of her sailing life.
I can't reach.
Training, I'm around alone.
Mark Turner had been to yet another sponsor meeting.
But this one had gone well.
The sponsor went cautiously ahead.
Ellen made the start of the route to Rome across the Atlantic alone again.
She charted the open 50 Monohull that Pete Goss had sailed in the 1996 Vendée Globe.
The route to Rome was where Ellen really made an impact on the French sailing scene.
She finished first in class and fifth Monohull beating much larger boats.
It was a performance that took her back to the sailing Oscars.
She had already won Young Yachtman of the Year as a teenager.
This time though she'd gone to collect the big prize, Yachtman of the Year.
And the winner is Ellen McCarter.
Kingfisher were on for the Vendée Globe.
And in 1999 Ellen threw herself into an intensive training program.
For racing high performance dinghies.
Competing in the Fastnet race on a giant Formula One trimaran.
Where she impressed French multi-hull experts with her energy and her ability.
Before moving on to open 60 racing with French round the world veteran Yves Pallier.
In October of that year she raced across the Atlantic with Pallier.
They were battered by hurricane force winds and nearly lost their mast.
Ellen's own open 60 designed by a team of four, Mervoin, Rob Humphries, Giovanni Belgrano and Alan Gautier.
Was taking shape in New Zealand.
As Kingfisher slipped through the Auckland streets it had been an amazing few years for Ellen.
Launch day on the 5th of February 2000 was always going to be a big day for Ellen, for Mark and for her parents.
Bit of a moment eh?
Probably the most special moment of my entire life.
She's always been a very determined person.
She's always known exactly what she wanted.
And she's always stuck to it.
Not giving away the prize and everything.
And for a day the interest in the America's Cup was distracted.
Lady Pippa Blake looked up to McCartney.
Thank you all for coming.
But Ellen was going.
She left Auckland with a crew of three and took Kingfisher down to the Southern Ocean.
The toughest proving ground in the world for a new ocean racer.
Then at the southernmost tip of South America, Cape Horn, the crew said goodbye.
Ellen headed for home.
Kingfisher's designers had to combine Formula One performance with massive safety margins.
Including the ability to recover from a cap size.
All systems were customised for Ellen.
Carbon winches take the massive loads and need to be constantly altered to keep Kingfisher on the pace.
An autopilot takes care of the steering.
Ellen though has more than enough to do.
Physically sailing Kingfisher is hard.
There's no doubt about it.
When you set changing the sails and pulling up the mast, you really do get very tired.
But you have to take things in your stride.
You have to remember that you're the motor for the boat, you're the engine.
And without you the boat goes nowhere.
In this class of boat there is scope for designers to push the tolerances.
Just like Formula One.
As design coordinator Merv Owen explained, Ellen was pretty exact in what she wanted.
We were very aware that we were designing the boat for Ellen.
And that she wanted a boat which was optimised for herself without compromising performance.
So Kingfisher was lighter and less powerful than other designs.
More time could be spent as close to full throttle without spinning off the track.
To manage the fine line between dangerously fast and fast enough means lots of time on deck.
But more time down below.
The aeroplane style dashboard provides the vital weather information that she needs to decide the fastest route.
As Kingfisher screams along apparently alone, inside Ellen has to be on the ball.
On call 24 hours a day.
Ready to react.
It's a solitary existence.
But this satellite dome holds a technology that means she can communicate.
22 knots of breeze coming from a direction of 198.
Ultimately though performance comes down to Ellen.
Having the energy to keep Kingfisher as near to her maximum speed for the conditions always.
And with wind and weather never constant, sail changes are never far away.
And that means more physical work.
Whatever the weather, whatever the time.
There's no comfort on board Kingfisher.
No shower, no toilet.
But there is plenty of noise.
Yeah she's incredibly noisy because she's so, she's very lightly built.
And it's like sandwich construction.
So basically she's like a big speaker.
And it can hit the waves and even when the water's just trickling past the hull, the whole lot echoes inside.
She really is noisy.
And the motion's quite violent too.
Within days of returning from Cape Horn, she was off again.
Sailing to Plymouth for the start of the Europe One New Man's Star single-handed transatlantic race.
The pre-start pit lane saw Ellen and Kingfisher about to face their first test on the race track.
I feel pretty nervous.
It's a big moment for both me on the boat I think.
And I'm just going to go out there and do our best.
Ellen started well.
But this is a 2,700 mile race.
Lots can and invariably does happen.
But as the days rolled by, Kingfisher stayed with the leading pack.
Just to the east of Newfoundland, we're in a big front.
Just had winds up to 45 knots.
Now it seems to be a bit of a...
Bit of water.
Then well past the halfway stage, a surprise.
At the very front was a new leader and new territory for Ellen and Kingfisher.
They were only days away from the American finish line.
Then another first.
That's the Sailing Fest in icebergs.
Isn't that incredible?
You can feel the cold.
Scary thing isn't it? You can see another spot.
You can see another smaller one to Lewis.
Distance.
Another one so you can hit your top seat on the radar at all.
Behind though, Roland Jourdan on SIL, a new friend of Ellen's was gaining.
On board Kingfisher, there were other things to worry about.
I just had a bit of an accident.
I just fell down the forehatch and hit my head.
And I think I broke on my finger as well.
And split the end of it open.
Well done Ellen.
Maximum points there.
My head hurts a lot.
And as you can see there's a rather large egg on it.
A little close up there, see?
Anyway, I've managed to stir and strip it back up again and everything's fine.
Then on a cold grey American Monday morning,
Kingfisher appeared on the horizon off Newport, Rhode Island.
With all her competitors behind her.
Her aspirations at the start were to finish.
Perhaps inside the top ten.
Ellen MacArthur though had won this classic race across the Atlantic.
The 24 year old from Derbyshire,
whose name would go alongside the sailing heroes
that she obsessively read about as a child at school.
It was quite a moment.
Yeah.
It's a big moment.
The Vendée Globe is a very different animal to the transatlantic race.
Ellen would be taking on the world in the Everest of sailing.
We came, we came, we came.
At the dockside on Vendée Globe start day,
there are lots of goodbyes,
but despite all the people, it's hauntingly quiet.
Ellen visits every skipper to say goodbye.
Final conversation with Eve Parley in it.
And Britain's Mike Golding.
I will look after that.
It's close.
When you say goodbye to everyone,
the thing that's in your head is that you're not actually saying goodbye.
Because you're saying I'll see you soon.
What would be your goal for her in this race?
Come back safely.
Finish.
As well as saying goodbye to your family and friends who have come down to see you off,
it's a big thing.
It's not goodbye, but it's I'll see you in two and a half months,
which is quite a long time.
The imagination goes to what can actually happen.
But on the other hand, I'm pleased she's doing it.
It's what she's always wanted.
And it's a marvelous achievement to get to this point when she can.
You can't prepare for whatever your daughter might do.
You might disagree with it, you might support her, you might go along with it.
But at the end of the day, you can't really prepare for it.
They know it's dangerous.
Everyone knows it's dangerous.
It's not hard to work that out.
So many people I imagine will be in the South to London before the start.
That number of people are cheering or emotional.
The way understanding what you're about to do is hard not to become emotional yourself.
As Ellen left the tears and cheers from those she had never met,
she was about to leave those closest to her.
Leave the support of the team who had done so much to get her and Kingfisher here.
And then she was alone.
Soon she would be out of sight of land for week after week after week,
pushing Kingfisher and herself to the limits and sometimes way beyond.
She had started the toughest test of her life.
As the light faded and the spectator boats headed for home,
it was Michel Desjoyers on PRB who led the fleet away.
Soon the solo sailors would be in warmer weather as they headed for the equator
and then south down towards the treacherous and exciting Southern Ocean.
Down below Africa, Australia, New Zealand, in the dangerous waters just north of Antarctica.
Cape Horn, the tip of South America, the Southern Ocean would end
and 7,000 miles of sailing back towards Les Sables d'Olonne would begin.
The record time, 105 days.
As dusk fell on the first night, Kingfisher was already alone.
There were no other boats in sight.
And as Ellen accelerated south and out of the Bay of Biscay on day two,
there was a stark reminder that this is an unpredictable game.
One of the race favourites, Great Britain's Mike Golding on Team Group 4,
saw his mask crash down on the first night.
He limped back to Les Sables d'Olonne, mystified.
I was standing by the hatch, just done a sail change from the code five,
and there was a loud crack.
I looked up and saw the rig just falling under the side.
Golding retraced his steps of the previous day.
Four years of build-up shattered in a moment.
But he was not about to go home.
He had his mask back in the UK and had a plan to get back on the racetrack.
Now we are left in a situation where we are looking at all the possibilities we can
to rejoin the race inside the 10-day threshold.
Golding's news had reached Ellen.
She had also heard that Jourdan, billowed to his friends,
had headed back for a doctor and dentist.
Some news that Group 4 was dismasted,
but also Billou damaged himself quite badly,
smashed his teeth, I think.
So he probably would have gone back.
It really makes you gulp because it's such a race which is so long,
just in the first 24 hours, and going along it's quite scary really.
Anyway, the main thing is war.
As the leaders approached the Canary Islands,
Michelle Desjoyers was leading, but Ellen was fighting inside the top bunch.
Early days but encouraging signs.
Super!
The fleet swapped to North Atlantic winter for warmer weather.
Ellen settled into her Kingfisher lifestyle.
Her fuel for over three months would be freeze-dried food.
There is a tiny stove on board,
and a machine that makes sea water drinkable.
Keeping the calories coming in would be vital.
Ellen needed to be ready for anything, always.
And so did Mark Turner.
He settled into his race HQ in the Alps.
Inside this 150-year-old chalet was state-of-the-art technology
to enable Mark to be in contact with Ellen.
From here, Turner would also coordinate communications about Ellen's race
via his Isle of Wight-based team.
Life here would be on call 24 hours a day.
But there would be disruptions from his alpine routine.
Meetings with sponsors, press, race organisers,
and there would always be a constant barrage of phone calls.
One call, though, would always quicken his pulse.
Any call outside of the normal sort of times a day that we touch base
is pretty nerve-racking just as I hit the receive button
and wait to listen to the first few words.
Whether it's distraught or happy, nothing, whatever,
it's a quite tense moment.
We've spoken to Mark.
We ran through the latest positions and we're third!
Third, we were seventh this morning. It's fantastic!
Good news also for Mike Golding.
He restarted the race,
but he was 8 days and 2,000 miles behind the leaders.
Kingfisher was now approaching the Cape Verde Islands
off the west coast of Africa.
As the leaders sailed in between the islands,
Ellen decided to go it alone, head west.
Races are often won or lost on daring moves, more often lost.
But Ellen was confident that her route would mean less time
in the light winds of the doldrums.
This is a picture of the doldrums.
You can see there are two lines of clouds,
one to the north and one to the south.
We're actually just here, and we're about to go through
this big line of clouds here.
It's still a few hundred miles away, so we're going to be in here for a while yet.
Some of the boats that are further to the east seem to be in this big lump here,
which should be worse.
So we'll have to see how it develops during the day,
but we might be in a good position to be out here further west.
Much closer to the African coast and going fast, Yves Pallier was leading.
Another top international French sailor,
Michel Desjoyeurs, was second on PRB.
And Ellen's friend, Roland Jourdan, on SIL,
had recovered well after his first night drama,
minus a tooth, but up to third.
Fantastic.
Ellen had been at sea for ten days.
In the tropics, the temperature was searing.
T-shirt.
The cabin's sweaty and airless.
Time for a treat.
Better than the one that's covered in carbon dust anyway.
Fantastic.
It feels so nice. Perfect. Ready for anything.
It was time to find out if that move away from the fleet had worked.
Initially, as Kingfisher left the fleet, Ellen slipped down the leaderboard.
Worrying times.
But the move she made had been good.
A short-term loss rewarded with a longer-term gain.
Kingfisher was holding on to the leading pack.
Warm tropical winds up with the leaders.
He had proved that in the Atlantic, Kingfisher and MacArthur are a match for anyone.
And her performance was being noticed.
Her supporters were following her on the Internet.
Ellen was writing daily reports, sending back photographs and video.
And the opening chapter of her Vendee Globe story had already gripped a growing international following.
As the sun set on day 16 of the race, her last northern hemisphere day for weeks,
Ellen approached the equator.
In keeping with tradition, thanks King Neptune.
First of all, thanks Neptune for letting us safely cross once again.
Thanks Kingfisher for bringing us this far and looking after me.
And thanks to every other boat in the fleet coming safely across the slime.
Going down to the south and coming back.
But as Kingfisher slid down the globe, there was plenty to contemplate.
The next stage of the race was where Ellen was a newcomer,
where her critics thought she would get walked over.
The Southern Ocean I know is going to be worse than I can imagine.
The wind is much stronger because it's so dense.
And the waves get absolutely enormous.
And you just have to read the stories from the last races to make your stomach turn over
and make you realize just how hard it is.
Nobody goes down into the Southern Ocean unless they're afraid or wary.
It's not somewhere you go, you know, yeah, this is going to be great,
we're just going to burn around and come back up.
You really have to respect it.
After 26 days, Ellen was on the fringe of the Southern Ocean,
and she was lying for.
But conditions on board had changed dramatically.
It's getting colder now. We're at almost 41 south.
I have to sail this in my own race this next bit.
It's going to be 50 days in freezing conditions, big storms.
The most important thing is just going to be keeping the boat and myself together.
It's not it in any way an irresponsible race with a bunch of people.
It's just going to be a tough race.
It's going to be a tough race.
It's not it in any way an irresponsible race with a bunch of crazy guys going around.
This is a full-on professional Grand Prix race.
There are things you cannot legislate against.
You cannot stop a large breaking wave turning boats over.
If it was that simple, maybe we wouldn't be doing this event.
Maybe the event wouldn't exist.
There is an element that human beings are still weaker significantly than the elements.
That's what this is about, this race. Can you deal with that?
My first big hit in the Southern Ocean.
We're just sailing along really nicely, no problems.
The gennaker up at about 18 knots of breeze.
All of a sudden the wind switches through about 100 degrees and blows to 30 knots.
The pace of the race was beating all records.
But it was not yet beating Ellen, who had Kingfisher storming down the Southern Ocean swells.
There's some fairly major surfs going on out here.
At the moment we're doing 22 knots.
You can hear the water probably crushing in the cockpit. We're going pretty fast.
Four boats had already retired from the race.
But Ellen kept Kingfisher going fast.
In front of her, all the skippers were treading a well-worn path.
But she was alone in the Southern Ocean for the first time.
I can do it. I can do it. I can do it.
Fighting to keep Kingfisher on the track.
Being beaten up by the Southern Ocean is grueling.
Sleep is essential.
But when you're being shaken by every wave, when the noise inside is deafening,
and when you never know what lies around the corner, sleep is not easy.
The boats are tearing along at about 20 knots.
And there's water coming over the windows every few seconds.
And the motion is actually quite violent.
And every so often I keep doing this on my bed.
But anyway, I shall keep trying. I'm sure it will get easier.
But right now, I can't sleep.
I just can't sleep.
For added pressure, the race leader Yves Pallier had found another gear
and pulled away from the fleet.
In doing so, he covered 419 miles in one 24-hour period, setting a new world record.
Several competitors, including Roland Jourdan, said the pace of the race was too fast, dangerously fast.
Some skippers vowed to ease off.
MacArthur made no public comment...
...but shared her thoughts with her camera.
I've never sailed in these conditions before in heavy downwind.
It's really difficult to know what sails to put on.
Then on day 30, there was plenty more to worry about.
What you just saw there on your lens was an iceberg.
It's an iceberg that passed us very, very close.
I was asleep on the chart table, and I actually sat up to clean the windows to look out.
There on the port side, just to the other side of the boat, was a nice boat line test.
My heart is in my mouth. I don't know what else to say.
I ran outside in my socks.
First look, there was nothing in front of us, and then sort of just appear after the transfer.
All these miles of ocean. It astounds you how close you can get to something like that.
I'm just glad it wasn't closer. I don't even want to think about it.
Kingfisher tore through the icy night.
It's a very subtle mixture of exhilaration and terror.
And yes, it's amazing to be going so quickly, but you're on your own, and if something goes wrong,
there's no one there, 50,000 miles away from land.
Behind on board Gartmore, Britain's Josh Hall was in an iceberg field too.
This is what it's all about, I suppose.
Normally I like being frightened, but not like this.
And I must admit, I don't think I've ever been quite so scared in all my life as I am at the moment.
As thousands of supporters opened their emails and learned of Kingfisher's close shave with ice,
Ellen was looking good on the race track.
The leaders were now deep in the Southern Ocean, north of Antarctica, in the liquid desert between Africa and Australia.
MacArthur was still inside the top five, but the racing was close.
So close that one mistake would be punished.
Leader Yves Pallier paid that price. He headed too far south.
And on day 32, PRB took the lead.
Sill went into second.
But MacArthur was under pressure. Behind her, Swiss skipper Dominic Vavre was going fast.
He had just smashed the speed record that Pallier had set and was gaining.
Skippers were glued to their weather instruments, planning their routes.
Pallier had proved that missing one high wind weather system would mean losing places.
Leaving the dashboard would only be for good reason.
Snatching some sleep, going outside to change the horsepower, reduce or increase sail, or sort out a problem.
Even though I'm crazy, I'm going to do what I'm about to do, then you're absolutely right because I am.
I'm the master of the baton, sticking it up, and I can't get the mantle down to fix it.
So I'm going to go up there right now, but I'm not looking for what I have to do.
It's one in the morning for us here in Europe.
So I'm going up and I'm pretty nervous and I'll ring you when I'm down.
So that particular instance was the worst, possibly one of the worst moments in the race as well because it's all right for me anyway.
Because I just lay there for four hours.
Waiting for the phone call to say she was back down.
The closest to death I've ever been, that's without a doubt.
I really feel that.
When I was up there hanging on by one hand I was thinking, oh my god, I cannot get my foot in this gap.
And I tried and tried and tried, I couldn't do it, my arm felt like it was going to be pulled out of its socket.
It was the same storm that leader Yves Pallier pushed one step too far and his mask came down.
MacArthur was asked to divert.
Pallier confirmed he was alive.
MacArthur was up to third.
And there was a new leader.
Michel Desjoyers had made a small mistake.
Roland Jourdan pounced at the front for the first time.
It was a tactical battle. Kingfisher headed south.
Another bold move. More anxious waiting to see if it would pay off.
Simon's told you because we just made a bit of a good move I think.
I was really concerned about going deep south.
And really thinking we weren't going to get out of here.
But in fact it looks like it's paying right now ahead in due east.
We have virtually a hundred mile lead on Tomah.
And the wind's shifting to the south.
There's another depression in front of us which we're catching up with.
And hopefully if we can keep this speed up we're just going to run straight into the back of the next depression.
And we'll be seeing it. So it's a big gain. It's just fantastic. Can't believe it.
Just can't believe we're reaching into the next depression and it gives us a chance even to get to the north of it.
So yes, fantastic news.
It's been a difficult few days that's for sure. But right now, wow.
Ellen had been racing for over 40 days.
She had done more than just hold on to the leading pack.
She had kept Kingfisher on the boil and made the right tactical moves.
And those efforts were starting to show.
Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck.
Not beautiful.
Oh
Does he ride a rental train here?
Does he turn upon his slave?
To look very sweet in so much more than day.
So here it is, Merry Christmas.
Everybody's having fun.
Look to the future now. It's only just begun.
Are you waiting for the family to arrive?
Are you sure you've got the room to spare inside?
Has your brandy on? Just tell ya.
The old song, song.
Ellen was struggling to sleep and keep her emotions from spilling over.
But it was not the isolation or the freezing temperatures or the fear that got to her.
It was making the decisions that would not just get her around the world, but keep her at the front.
To the east and to the north and to the south.
There's a depression coming over the top of us and it's a real decision as to whether to go north or south.
And I've chosen south.
And to look at the winds turning against us, which is really helping us.
And we really stand to lose everything that we've gained.
I find that one of the hardest things you decide to cope with.
But she made the decision to go south and stuck to it.
Deep south, in the empty space between New Zealand and South America.
She did though have the comfort that her friend Roland Jourdan felt forced to take the same route.
As Kingfisher majestically stormed down the southern ocean swells,
Ellen had the engine on charge and was trying to get some warmth into the cabin.
Where are you? Dry all my clothes.
PRB was in the lead again. And off.
But there were problems on board.
The engine would not start and that meant no power.
If Desjoyers could not solve this problem, he would have no weather information, no autopilot.
He struggled to continue.
Up against the wall, he was supremely resourceful.
He used ropes and pulleys from his starter motor and led them all the way out to his boom.
Then he let the sail out and held his breath.
As Ellen was forced to take a southerly route, she was closer to Antarctica, back in iceberg territory.
So to get a phone call saying I'm stuck, surfing along and I've got icebergs popping up in front of me,
every time you're jive there's another one in front of me, I'm not even sure how I can get out.
I'm hand steering, I'm trying to get dodging in the middle of the growlers and then the phone goes and cuts out.
Two minutes later another phone call and there's two more icebergs in front.
It was a pretty interesting situation and definitely one of the harder moments.
We're trying to jive to the north and there's a row of five icebergs.
There's one which we just passed really close.
There's one in front and there were three more before.
It's just incredible.
Just a big long row of icebergs.
Some of them are possible to get through, so we need to jive quite quickly to miss this guy
and get up to the north where the first icebergs are.
Tonight's going to be pretty worrying, I think.
In pitch black, Ellen knew that she was still in an iceberg field.
Her early warning radar system should set off an alarm if she was on collision course with ice.
But this system had already failed to warn her once.
And the growlers, small jagged lumps of floating ice, too small to be detected,
but big enough and sharp enough to wreak havoc.
Somehow, Ellen had to sleep.
Exhaustion was becoming an increasing issue.
When Kingfisher headed south, Ellen was nervous about losing everything.
In fact, she gained.
Second place, Sil, was struggling.
Problems with his mast meant he could not hoist his sail to the top,
leaving him underpowered in light winds.
So, on day 58, Kingfisher was up to second.
Leader Michel Desjoieurs was approaching the end of his southern ocean a stretch
and had a commanding lead.
Kingfisher was nearly out of the southern ocean, too, and had no major damage.
Six of the 24 starters had now retired,
and many of those still racing had problems to fix, including Roland Jourdan.
He had managed to hang on to third but needed to stop.
It transpired that Jourdan had been limping since the early days of the southern ocean.
After 63 days at sea, Michel Desjoieurs rounded Cape Horn.
Here is the famous Cape Horn.
The famous one.
The one.
The Cape.
Yahoo!
He headed out of the southern ocean and towards the finish 7,000 miles away.
He was nearly 600 miles ahead of Ellen.
She was really suffering from severe lack of sleep.
The effect of exhaustion had reached the surface.
She was still over 7,500 miles from home and battling to repair broken sails.
I've had enough.
I've got no grip in the sail.
And it's so hard.
It's so hard to get it to lay down on the deck to fix.
I've spent an hour already.
I'm just sliding on over it.
I'm so sorry.
I'm just trying to get it to fix and get moving.
Ellen had not had a full night's sleep for over nine weeks.
In most ocean races, a boat of this size would have a crew of around 12.
Working in watches was set times to sleep.
Alone, sleep means sacrificing speed.
If you sleep during a race, it's downtime really.
It's time when you're not watching the sails.
Something can change and you're going to go slower.
For Ellen, her workbench is her bed.
Every time you sleep, you feel you're losing out.
And so you really try and manage your sleep.
Ellen had worked hard on her sleeping patterns, but the southern ocean had beaten her here.
On day 65, a ship was docked at the shore.
On day 65, a shattered Ellen MacArthur rounded Cape Horn in second place.
Kingfisher looked majestic and in amazing condition, considering what she had just gone through.
Every time I think about going west here, I feel really emotional.
This is the first place that Kingfisher and I sailed together alone.
It's quite special for us and in a couple of hours we've actually done a whole round the world trip.
Behind though were two top French sailors, each under a day away.
Kingfisher was vulnerable to both.
Jordan stopped for repairs, but would return as faster, more dangerous opposition.
As Kingfisher passed the Falkland Islands, Ellen was gaining slowly on the leader.
PRB though was still 500 miles ahead.
There was a more upbeat mood on board Kingfisher, and for good reason.
There we are sailing with the fixed gennaker, which is great to have it up, I just hope it holds out.
As Ellen maintained the chase towards the equator,
just off South Island, New Zealand, former race leader Yves Pallier was still sorting out the mess from his over exuberance.
Amazingly he had refused to retire, and instead created a jury rig out of his broken mast.
This was Pallier's third Vendée Globe, and he had never finished.
To do so this time would not only require this engineering to hold out,
he did not have enough food left, and survival would rely on what he could catch from the sea.
Mike Golding had put his broken mast behind him.
He had found his Southern Ocean stride and sliced through the fleet, inside the top ten as he powered towards Cape Horn.
An incredible comeback.
On Kingfisher, five weeks of Southern Ocean sailing were history.
The future was about a friend for them.
Well it's high time for another jet, we're now just heading up past the west coast, sorry the east coast of South America.
We've found the warmer climates off the Horn, and the good news is that we're catching up on Misha Deshroyo.
And we're a second, and it's a good feeling.
I don't know if we can catch him, I sincerely hope we can.
There are a few ways we can get closer, the Gold Run is the one where we might be able to pass him,
and also just on the way up the coast here, I really hope we can.
Unable to contain her smile, every position report delivered good news for Ellen, as she chipped away at PRB's dominance.
The leader was a hundred miles away when Ellen was forced up the mast again.
Her wind instruments had failed, and without them her autopilot would not work.
And without an autopilot, she could be forced to retire.
It's really hot up there.
It's one thing doing a bit of woodwork, but it's something a bit of drilling in a workshop.
Doing it 27 metres in the air.
Trying to hang on with the boat bouncing around, it's not much fun anyway.
This is the one that's come down, and the other one's up, so let's just hope to God it works.
I just changed the wires over down below and it worked! We've got a wind level back, fantastic!
It was all worth it after all.
But within hours the instruments failed again.
There was only one place to go, and this time it was much, much rougher.
The boat gybed seven times whilst I was at the top of the rig,
so I got my leg trapped between the mainsail and the rig, and I was on the lewd side.
So if the squall had come back the boat would have pinned me under water.
I couldn't finish the job, it threw it down with rain in the squall, and I couldn't do it.
I couldn't get the wire out of the rig.
Anyway, I managed to get out of the front through the halyard exit.
I had to reconnect it all, and it took me a long time to get back down again.
Ellen was not the only one who was feeling the strain.
Leader PRB had virtually stopped.
He did not know about Ellen's problems, he did know she was catching.
We've just had probably some of the best news of the whole race,
and that is that we have 33 miles behind me, so I've finished my own, and that is just fantastic!
It's been a really hard night, and we really had to fight to keep moving, to really work the clouds,
but it seems to be clearing, and I can see wind on the surface of the water over there,
and 33 miles, that's just unbelievable, I'm gobsmacked.
And she was nearly at the equator, and the wind was just holding up.
My gift to Neptune is one of my very last packets of gingernuts.
I'm going to put them all in the seat, so I value my gingernuts very highly.
I want to say thank you to Neptune, for letting us catch.
Thank you for putting me in a windless zone last night, and I know that's awful to say, but thank you.
Ellen was pushing herself so hard to catch PRB,
she had again sacrificed sleep to keep 24-hour concentration.
But as both boats headed north in light winds, the Vendée Globe first-timer had the favourite in her sights.
Then on day 82, Kingfisher made the move, and took the lead.
It was not just the world that was surprised.
I didn't know that's why I was ringing you, because I haven't even logged on, I'm still fighting.
Are we first?
Leading the Vendée Globe with the home straight in sight was beyond Ellen's wildest pre-start dreams.
Around the world, MacArthur was now hitting headlines. Thousands of emails of support were pouring in.
She had touched an audience way beyond the sailing enthusiast, not limited by age or geography.
But engaged by Ellen, captivated by her story.
A story that was about to have a cruel twist.
Kingfisher had crashed into a submerged container.
You can see it's at awful conditions, it's blowing 20 knots, and the boat's all over the place.
I'm actually really tired. I didn't need this.
At first, Ellen thought the boat might sink.
Impact though had snapped off a tip of one of her rudders, and snapped off one of her two dagger boards.
Each weigh about 75 kilos, protrude beneath the boat, and keep Kingfisher straight on the track.
Ellen wrestled with the other dagger board, lifting it out of its trunking, turning it upside down, and swapping it to the other side of the boat.
It was a mammoth task.
Well, we've done it. The boat's still a mess, but we have a dagger board again, and we're sailing at pretty much 100%.
And I was such a relief. That was the hardest thing I've had to do in the whole trip.
I was so tired, and had so little energy, and fighting with something so big and heavy as that was just, um...
Oh, God, it's just too much. Anyway, it's done. It's drilled out.
Holes are found, and the board's now switched the other way up and in the other hole, so I'm just so pleased.
So pleased.
Anyway, it's time to tidy up and bail the water out of the boat, and sort out all the rest of the problems, and charge the batteries finally, and we'll be absolutely there.
So I'm pleased. I'm so pleased. So pleased.
PRB was out of Kingfisher's claws, and had at last found wind.
The pre-race favourite looked like he was about to deliver.
MacArthur had lost out to PRB when, after her repairs, she slept and missed a vital windshift.
Kingfisher headed east, the wind came in from the west, and Desjoyers had his name on the trophy.
Behind those sill, an activewear had headed west for more wind and found it.
If they could keep sailing fast, MacArthur could be facing forth.
And she was in no wind. Beautiful, but frustrating.
Baby, do you know what you did today?
Baby, do you know what you took away?
You took the blue out of the sky. My whole life changed when you said goodbye.
I keep crying, crying.
We're less than a week away from the finish now, which is coming up to the Azores. From the Azores high pressure.
And hopefully by the end of today we'll have the Northwesterly Breeze, which is the start of the big depression,
which we should catch all the way into the South Dillon pretty much.
It's going to be a bit of a sleigh ride, and a very hard, wet, cold, tiring sail to finish.
I think the conditions for the finish are going to be pretty nasty, so we're going to have to be really careful
and well rested and really look after the boat, because it's going to be a hair end.
And the wind did arrive, but this was not a straightforward sprint to the finish.
Just have to tell you what's happened. We're now about four days out, and we're just passing the Azores.
And I've been pretty tired really, although that's not like on my first good night, sleeping a long while.
And I just went to pull out the genoa, and the floor stays broken.
So one stay and one sail down. It's pretty serious, because it means I could lose the mast if I'm not careful.
And it's just one more thing on top of the strange things that we haven't really needed.
I can't believe it.
Desjoyer crossed the finish line after 93 days, smashing the Vendée Globe record by 12 days.
It was hard when we finished, knowing that he was in and happy, and for him it was over.
But on the other hand, I was glad I was still out there, because I really didn't want it to end.
And it was a difficult time for me, because inside I was completely torn in two.
I felt I was being torn apart, because half of me wanted to finish and be back with her.
7.50, this is King G. What about my dad in an orange suit waving out the door, Owen?
I have to say, this is one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
And then, after 94 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes and 40 seconds, it was over.
The moment that MacArthur had dreamed of, the moment the team had worked for,
the moment that those close to her feared may never come.
Second in the Vendée Globe, youngest person to complete the race, fastest woman around the world.
The reception, though, said it all.
It just feels like too much.
It's like you can never imagine both to do the race and to be here right now.
The best moment, probably right now.
And the worst moment is going to be in about 30 seconds' time when I have to get off the boat
and walk up the pontoon and I don't want to say goodbye to her.
She's been crying more than I have actually.
I think...
I think in a big way I'm still Ellen.
I'm not changed from being Ellen and I wouldn't want to.
I'm still the cheeky person I was, but I think inside it's impossible to do something like that
and not be changed deep down inside.
You think a lot more about the world, you take things less for granted, for sure.
And I hope that's going to stay with me forever.
Thank you.