Solo sailor Ellen MacArthur pondered how to properly indoctrinate herself as she crossed the equator as both captain and crew.

ATLANTIC OCEAN — Having crossed the equator over the weekend—with a mere 2,297 miles remaining to her Ushant destination—Ellen MacArthur continues her solo training for the Vendée Globe aboard the Open 60 Kingfisher. Latest reports had her sailing out of the doldrums under gray skies in 15 to 25-knot headwinds making 10 knots after a night broken by taking reefs in and shaking them out. This morning, an onboard generator for charging the batteries had fuel problems and required the 22-year-old solo sailor to confer with her shore-side team regarding how best to repair the generator and bleed the fuel line, a battle which resulted in a stripped bleed screw on the engine. While repairing this and reconnecting the fuel line—a balancing feat complicated by a mist of diesel spraying inside the engine room—MacArthur showed a bit of her own onboard ingenuity by using a plastic bag to funnel fuel into the header tank as the boat fell off successive waves.
The solo skipper is hoping to be back in time for the June 4 start of the transatlantic Europe1 New Man STAR. Approximately 100 boats have entered the UK to the US North Atlantic race, 30 of them in the 60-foot range, and the event promises to be a key performance indicator for the Vendée fleet.