Mariner was rescued at sea by his sailing competitor

The text message was to the point: "I need assistance. I am sinking. This is not a joke. MAYDAY."

Kevin Escoffier was 22 days into the Vendée Globe, the nonstop, round-the-world sailing race done every four years, when a roaring 15-foot wave overwhelmed his boat, folding it in half, on Monday, nearly a thousand miles off the tip of South Africa. In seconds, his 60-foot carbon-fiber boat filled with seawater.

He dashed off the message to his support crew in France, shimmied into his neoprene survival suit and grabbed his emergency beacon to direct rescuers to his position.

As he pulled the inflation cord for his life raft, he was swept off the boat. Escoffier was experiencing every mariner's worst nightmare. But he had hope.

The Vendée Globe is a race in which, at the height of catastrophe, usually only your fellow competitors can save you. And that is when Escoffier's closest competitor, Jean Le Cam, showed up.

The rescue that unfolded had its share of drama, but in the end Escoffier ended up on Le Cam's boat, marveling at his good fortune.

"It's life," a visibly shaken Escoffier said in a video call Tuesday from Le Cam's boat, which is called Yes We Cam. He was in third place when his boat started sinking. "I could feel being unlucky or feel lucky to be rescued and safe here," Escoffier said. "I'm choosing to feel lucky."

With an older boat and without the powerful and fast hydrofoils of the leaders like Escoffier, Le Cam has surprised the fleet by leading at times and running near the top of the peloton in this 24,000-mile race. But then he had to change course to rescue his fellow Frenchman.

Escoffier said Le Cam was uniquely qualified. Besides his 40 years of ocean racing experience, he has been in Escoffier's shoes. His IMOCA 60 capsized during the Vendée Globe in January 2009, also hundreds of miles off Cape Horn.