Vendee Globe skipper Conrad Humphreys, who had to divert with a broken rudder at the weekend, picked up a buoy in Simonstown south of Cape Town earlier this morning and has already successfully removed his starboard rudder with the intention of replacing it with his onboard spare asap.

Chatting from the boat Humphreys said: “I´m just massively relieved as it was stressful last night. There was 35 knots and it was squally, a lot of shipping about so I didn´t sleep. I came into the bay under main and trinquette, which was pretty hard on my broken rudder. It was an upwind approach so I dumped the trinquette, gathered it in and the boat slowed down but still with some weigh on it.

There was a Japanese trawler very close to the mooring and I was heading straight for it but I managed to lean over and grab the buoy and drag it on board in time. I’ve just been in the water in my shorts checking the mooring lines and the keel, it´s about 18 degrees temperature, not too bad. The keel (that was thought to have suffered damage after hitting a UFO (unidentified floating object) some days ago) is okay, the worst thing is I can see a white sandy beach not far away!

“I´m going to eat something now as I´m starving but then get on with the job to make the most of daylight hours.” Humphreys also hopes to repair his damaged cap shroud and gennaker halyard. He hopes to head back into the race in around 60 hours’ time.”