He laughs: "I'm a little too far from New Zealand to see anything, but it's nice to see the places we pass through. The last time I went to Australia was in 2016 to Melbourne for a world championship before the Rio Olympics and so was able to travel a bit.

For the past few days, we advance between the calms and moments of more wind, so making progress.. I was surprised last night by a big gust of wind, there was a big squall that I didn't have the time to see coming, and I've had big problems with a sail since then. I'm trying to find solutions, it's not really easy on board; I haven't slept, I've been working like mad since then to get the boat back in order and on course.

I am tired from the intense physical effort. For now I am taking stock of the situation, but for sure it will leave its mark on both myself and the boat. I will try to minimize the losses. We know the adage "A problem a day", and it alternates between small and big ones. Here, I fell on a bigger one".