Velux 5-Ocean Race competitor Graham Dalton who had to pull into the Brazilian Port of Fortaleza to carry out repairs to his yacht has collapsed and had all his communication equipment stolen.

Dalton, on the second leg of the race, was forced to take a pitstop in Brazil to fix his electronics and damaged rudder cassette but when he arrived was struck down with a violent sickness bug. His condition progressively deteriorated and on Saturday morning he collapsed in the lobby of his hotel. Then, just when the Kiwi sailor thought things couldn’t get much worse, he discovered he’d had all his communication equipment including GPS, laptops, hand held phones and cameras stolen from his unattended boat.

According to the race organisers Dalton, who was barely able to function, spent the whole of Sunday with local police who say it’s unlikely the equipment will be recovered.

Despite this crushing blow however, Dalton (who’s now on the mend) says he will continue the last 3,000 miles to the leg 2 finish with paper charts. He says he has managed to get hold of a GPS navigational system and once he completes a few final checks to his pilot system he’ll get underway again, possibly later this afternoon.