Spirit of Mystery update - Rodney it is now.

Having put crew member Mark Maidment ashore the Spirit of Mystery is now bound for Melbourne as originally intended - at least that way Mark made the voyage to Oz by boat all the way instead of having to suffer the ignominy of being airlifted ashore by helicopter as they planned at one stage. The rescue services there were obvioulsy not familiar with the deck layout and rigging of a traditionally rigged lugger or they would have known that there was no clear deck space from which to work a hi-line as an SAR helicopter would have done back here in the UK.

After undergoing several hours of surgery, Mark, now nicknamed Rodney on account of the metal rod pinning his broken leg (in two places) together! - read a full account here from the BBC.

UPDATE! Pete Goss has just posted this account of the knock down on the blog - you can sense the enormity of the event from the highly charged narrative.