Nine sailors waded to safety in pitch darkness in the middle of the Indian Ocean early on Sunday morning after their Volvo Ocean Race boat, Vestas Wind, became stranded on a reef.

The collision threatens to write-off their 4.5 million euros ($5.6 million) vessel, a one-design Volvo Ocean 65, and scupper their challenge just seven weeks into the nine-month marathon offshore race.

The drama began at 1510 GMT on Saturday when the boat, under Australian skipper Chris Nicholson, sped into the reef at more than 15 knots and immediately became stuck fast.

The collision smashed both rudders and soon water was spilling into a sealed compartment in the stern.

At midnight GMT, Nicholson gave his nine-strong crew the order to abandon the boat and they waded knee-deep in water over the reef to find a rock, which offered a mercifully dry resting place.

They remained there for two hours until a small rescue craft from the local coastguard picked them up at the first sign of daylight and dropped them on the e du Sud which is part of St. Brandon, a tiny archipelago of islets 430 kilometers north-east of Mauritius.

To add to the sailors' concerns, the nearby waters are known to be a popular cruising area for sharks.

However, none of the sailors were injured and the team plans to transport them to Mauritius over the next 24 hours via a ferry which services St. Brandon.

None could be contacted on the islet, which boasts just one house, but other sailors in the race sympathized with the shock of losing their boat - at least temporarily - in such dramatic fashion.

"It's incredible nobody's injured with the boat broken against land, enough to abandon it," said Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Roberto Bermudez de Castro.

There are likely to be investigations over the next few days as to how the Danish boat cruised into the reef despite high-tech satellite systems to help the crew avoid such hazards.

The main focus now will be on salvaging the boat.

Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad said: "I'm extremely relieved that every one of the nine crew members are safe and that nobody is injured.

"That has always been our first priority since we first learned about the grounding.

"At the same time, I'm deeply saddened that this happened to Team Vestas Wind and Chris Nicholson and his team. It's devastating for the team, for the race and for everyone involved. I really feel for Chris and the team right now and we will continue to support them all the way going forward."

The race lasts nine months, covers 38,739 nautical miles and is generally reckoned to be offshore sailing's toughest challenge. A boat, Movistar, sank in 2006 in mid-Atlantic and five sailors have lost their lives in a race that began 41 years ago as the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Latest placings: 1. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, 2. Team Brunel (Netherlands), 3. Dongfeng Race Team (China), 4. MAPFRE (Spain), 5. Team Alvimedica (U.S./Turkey), 6. Team SCA (Sweden), 7 Team Vestas Wind (Denmark) - suspended racing.