Hampshire sailor Sam Davies admits the last few days on stage five of the Volvo Ocean Race have been full of “emotion, stress and adrenaline”.

The Hamble-based skipper on the all-female Team SCA boat, including Gosport’s Dee Caffari, was one of three boats to suffer a Chinese gybe or ‘death roll’ this week.

That wipeout saw them on their side for up to four minutes and consigned them to last place, more than 100 nautical miles from the lead, as the six-strong fleet continued leg five from Auckland in New Zealand to Itajai in Brazil.

Team SCA have since made up ground and are now 83 nautical miles off leaders Team Alvimedica as of the latest location reports. “It has been a hard few days, full of emotion, stress, adrenaline,” said Davies. “As skipper it is hard to find the balance between pushing the boat and crew, but making sure we stay safe and keep our boat in one piece.

“Out here there is little margin for error.

“I feel like we have found our limits, and proved to ourselves that we are pushing hard.

“We suffered from our wipeout with the damage we sustained and it is frustrating to lose miles like that, but we are slowly getting back to as near 100 per cent as possible.”

Meanwhile, Warsash skipper Ian Walker and Southampton’s Simon Fisher on the Abu Dhabi boat, which is vying for the lead of the overall competition, is in fifth in a tightly bunched top five.

They are just 11.2 nautical miles from the leaders while Southampton’s Rob Greenhalgh, on the Spanish-backed MAPFRE, was in second place in the final location report last night, just 2.5 nautical miles from the lead.