23h GMT Fellow Vendée Globe skipper Marc Guillemot has now arrived close to Yann Eliès’ Generali and will remain on station until the arrival of the Royal Australian Navy’s Type Anzac Frigate HMAS Arunta. He reached the injured skipper after sailing close to 100 miles.

A specialist medical team is on board HMAS Arunta which left at around 1800GMT and should take around 40 hours to reach Generali’s position which was approximately 1100 miles SSE of Perth sometime towards the end of Saturday afternoon.

Guillemot approached under substantially reduced sail and has been less than 100 metres away. He has re-iterated that the objective at the moment is primarily to let his fellow skipper know that he is there close by, but there are no intentions of trying to transfer across from his Open 60 Safran on to Generali, unless there is a change in the injured skipper’s conditions or the risk to him increases.  

Guillemot is believed to have arrived some time between 2130hrs and 2200hrs GMT and has spoken to Eliès by Iridium phone and by VHF and will continue to speak to him to help monitor his condition as well as offering him support and encouragement.

He reported that the conditions of the injured skipper was

Wind conditions in the immediate area are reported to be around 15-18 knots.