With Cook tethered in place, hundreds of litres of water swamped over her before she was able to be freed by a team mate.
"I just went to windward to try and get the halyard tied off and sat in front of the winch to try and clear it, and just as I was doing that the wave came and took me out, but I was clipped on mum, don't worry," an out of breath Cook later explained.
After the frightening start, the fleet is today settling into a groove, with navigators and skippers already facing the first of many critical decisions on this race from Lisbon to Cape Town.
Today will give us the first indication as to how far west the teams want to set up for their approach to the doldrums.
The official race tracker puts Dongfeng Race Team in the lead, followed by Spanish team MAPFRE, featuring Blair Tuke, and Scallywag in third as the fleet passed Madeira.
But at this point in leg two the tracker rankings so not account for tactical positioning. Instead, the tracker rewards southerly progress towards Cape Town and therefore boats positioned further south (and east) will be ranked higher, even if the tactical situation favours the west.
Dutch team AkzoNobel have made a break from the fleet, sailing further to the west in order to set up their approach to the doldrums.