HMAS Arunta, the Australian frigate, is expected to rendezvous with Yann Elies' 60ft yacht Generali by lunchtime tomorrow after leaving Perth earlier than expected and making good progress en route to his location 1,000 miles south into the Southern Ocean.

Elies, 34, broke his left thigh bone changing sails on the bow yesterday. He was in eighth place in the Vendee Globe race at the time of the accident.

Elies has been able to eat, sleep and take painkillers, but has not been able to reach his morphine. The sailor was described by his team as being “a bit better”. Dr Jean-Yves Chauve, the race doctor, is in contact with Elies every two hours. “Things have now stabilised,” Chauve said. “Yann still cannot move, since the pain is so intense. He can move his toes and has good blood circulation around the leg.

"Because of the fracture there’s probably internal bleeding as the leg is a bit displaced on the outside. His position is not very comfortable and his lower back hurts him. His whole left side hurts.”

But Elies spirits were buoyed by the arrival of Marc Guillemot on Safran late yesterday and Britain’s Sam Davies on Roxy was due to arrive last night. Guillemot has not tried to board Generali because of the dangers in such big seas.

“I am 500 metres away from Yann's boat,” Guillemot said. “We have talked a lot and we both got some sleep. The wind has got up 28 knots and the seas are getting rougher. He didn't manage to get the medicine I threw across to him. Some went in the water and some in the cockpit.” But Guillemot said he was confident in Elies’ stoic spirit. “I'm stubborn and Yann is too, because we're both Bretons.”

Arunta has a crew of over a hundred and a full medical team on board. They estimate intercepting Generali at 1pm GMT tomorrow, which would give them two and a half hours of daylight to extract Elies.