Two hands on deck has proved far too few for the local crews in the Transat Jacques Vabre Race, as breakages force them to carry out essential repairs in stormy 30 knot winds and turbulent seas.

French boat Whirlpool maintains the lead in the monohull class while Mike Golding and Ed Danby in Group 4 front up the British contingent in fifth place having made up valuable ground in the past few hours.

Behind them is Ellen MacArthur on Aquitaine-Kingfisher while Gosport skipper Alex Thompson, who teamed up with Josh Hall on Gartmore for his first major race since winning the Clipper Race lies seventh.

Thomson, 25, seems to have spent most of the first 1,000 miles at sea up the mast, on the command of his co-skipper.

"I've been up the mast twice to replace the leeward lazy jacks which have parted twice. Not nice up there in 15ft seas," reported Thompson, who secured vital sponsorship from First Call, just days before the race started.

"The boat is crashing from one wave to the next at 10 knots. She doesn't seem to slow down just get noisier! Some of the diesel cans have leaked a little making conditions even worse down below. I had a lucky escape earlier when I was thrown from the windward bunk, thankfully unharmed. Josh then tells me I'm off up the mast. No rest for the wicked! Josh and I are both very tired but still pushing hard.

"We have been bowling along between 15 and 25 knots, which is quite a new experience for me, the odd 20 knot surf is OK but being able to hold the boat at a constant 20 knot burst for hours on end is a feeling I won't forget in a hurry.

"We are still having a few problems. Instead of the main falling down we've had a problem of keeping the deck gear in place! In the early hours of the morning our spinnaker pole was washed over the side by the sheer volume of water gushing across the deck, often engulfing the coach house and completely filling the cockpit with water! Our man overboard recovery system was also washed away.

"We are constantly aware of how much time can be lost while sorting problems. Even the most simple tasks become arduous when carving waves up at 20 knots or beating to wind in a force six."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.