There are numerous accounts on the web; the CNN link below is just one that I came across with a quick google search...I remember photos at the time, showing how he had fabricated a warming device using materials he'd found on shore and had on board (light bulbs, foil, etc.) to create a small "oven" to warm the area around the carbon fiber repair on this mast (to help the glues cure)! This was carried out, after a catastrophic dismasting in the Southern Ocean, after which he'd managed to limp it into a little cove somewhere in NZ, anchored, and then got his wits about him to do the repair and re-raise the mast...apparently, he never considered asking for any assistance or even giving up on the race --he wanted to finish it, and he did, returning to Les Sables d'Olonne in France! He also, while carrying out the repairs, collected hundreds of pounds of seaweed to supplement his dwindling onboard food supplies. It's a hell of a story! Parlier is a materials engineer, so evidently had a pretty good idea of how to fix a broken carbon mast...still an amazing feat, considering how huge those masts are, etc.

"For ten days he used all his ingenuity to repair his damaged mast, gathering what he could find onboard or washed up on the beach - a survival blanket, light bulbs and food containers.

He managed to get the mast back to its vertical position and set off again with half the world still to cross to finish the Vendee Globe. But his problems were not over, as the repairs had cost him time and valuable food supplies. He was forced to look to the sea for his very survival, including eating seaweed.

"I'd collected about 400 kilos of seaweed, so it was just everywhere and there was also that smell and taste. One evening I had to force myself to eat. I really didn't want to eat any more; It made me sick," he told CNN. "

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/sailing/03/13/parlier.ppl/index.html