Scary scenes at sea
By Ellen MacArthur BBC Sport Online

Ellen MacArthur updates her experiences in the Route du Rhum. On Wednesday, Kingfisher's distress beacon was activated due to water crashing into the cockpit, but MacArthur is okay and still racing.

The last 24 hours have been about as tough as it gets.

The weather has been incredible - very, very changeable. It has been pretty frustrating with big changes in wind direction particularly those that aren't really shown on the chart.

Last night was a typical example.

Theoretically I should have been in a strong northwest airflow. But then, in the middle of the night, a small depression formed straight over the top of me leaving me for four hours with no wind,

So it was another night of no sleep and I just managed to catch an hour this morning.

I've probably only slept 5-6 hours since the start of the race on Saturday.

From a weather point of view, I'm in very strong winds of about 30-40 knots which we're reaching down through quite fast.

At some time tonight, there should be a new depression forming from the east which I should get through okay.

But Ecover and Sill, being further southeast, might get stuffed by it - it could be a very unpleasant experience.

Life on board is incredibly difficult - very wet and very frustrating.

The only nice thing this morning was a beautiful sunrise blowing through the 30 knots of spray!

Kingfisher is getting thrown around, but she's been through these type of conditions before.

I've had a few problems - but you expect that in these are tough conditions.

But the bond between us is still as strong - she's just as frustrated as I am when there is no wind.