Kilpatrick’s transfer off Amer Sports One is now planned to take place at Eclipse Island, five miles south of Albany on the south-west tip of Australia. He will then be taken by the pickup vessel to Albany. “I feel really lousy about it [leaving the team]. It has been explained to me [why he must be taken off] and it would also be selfish of me to stay. In the bigger picture, they need me for the rest of the race plus if I’m not truly better then I could be a hindrance still.”

As Keith Kilpatrick’s condition has improved over the last few hours, Roger Nilson, a qualified doctor and Amer Sports One navigator, has decided that it will be better for his patient to remain onboard to the Australian coast.

Kilpatrick was well enough to speak to Volvo Ocean Race organisers earlier today. “I’m coming through now and feeling a quite a bit better. Today’s been quite a big improvement. I’m off the needle and taking drinks orally, which is pretty nice. In some way, shape or form I have done something to my intestines. What ever the trouble was, it has partially subsided,” he explained.

As a healthy professional sportsman, he was just as taken back by his sudden bout of illness as his crewmates. “When ever I get sick it surprises me because I’m generally a very healthy person, In fact I can’t even remember the last time I was ill. The irony is that I have to go to the worst place in the planet to get sick,” added Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick’s transfer off Amer Sports One is now planned to take place at Eclipse Island, five miles south of Albany on the south-west tip of Australia. He will then be taken by the pickup vessel to Albany. “I feel really lousy about it [leaving the team]. It has been explained to me [why he must be taken off] and it would also be selfish of me to stay. In the bigger picture, they need me for the rest of the race plus if I’m not truly better then I could be a hindrance still.”

The pickup vessel will remain on standby should an earlier rendezvous become necessary again. Onboard will be a doctor and a nurse from the emergency department of Fremantle’s hospital. They will be joined by Nautor onshore crew Nick Bice, the Reuters journalist John Roberson and Andy Hindley from the Volvo Ocean Race.