File photo dated March 18, 2018 shows the Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag yachting team heading out of Waitamata Harbour at the start of the seventh leg of the Volvo Ocean Race yacht race in Auckland. A high-seas search was underway on March 27, 2018 after a Volvo Ocean Race crew member washed overboard from the yacht Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag amid gale-force winds in the hostile Southern Ocean, race organisers said. Briton John Fisher went missing from the yacht some 2,250 kilometres west of Cape Horn on the tip of South America. Pic/ AFP

Deteriorating weather forced a Volvo Ocean Race yacht to abandon its search for a British crew member washed overboard in the hostile Southern Ocean Tuesday, with organisers admitting hopes of finding the man alive were fading. Briton John Fisher went missing from the yacht SHK/Scallywag at 1342 GMT Monday some 2,250 kilometres (1,400 miles) west of Cape Horn on the tip of South America. Fisher was on watch and wearing survival gear when he went overboard amid gale force winds and water temperatures estimated at nine degrees Celsius (48.2 Fahrenheit).