After the official photo of the thirty solo yachtsmen at the Vendée Globe pontoon this morning (Saturday) at eleven, all of the skippers went to the Palace cinema in Les Sables d’Olonne for the first official briefing. A friendly gathering to welcome the thirty sailors hosted by Philippe de Villiers, who stressed that «the Vendée Globe is something for everyone, for the yachtsmen and all those following them.» It gave the Vendée Globe organisers an opportunity to present the schedule for all the events taking place over the next three weeks leading up to the start on 9th November. In the presence of the Prefect and the Maritime Prefect, the President of the Vendée Council handed the microphone to the Mayor of Les Sables d’Olonne, Louis Guédon, who promised that «everything would be done to facilitate the skippers´ preparations.» Then the President of Sodeb’O, Patricia Brochart expressed her satisfaction at seeing just how popular this sixth Vendée Globe Race is.The Race Director, Denis Horeau confirmed the important briefings that lie ahead for the shore teams: *Monday 20th October (9h15): explanation of the measurement rule checks*Monday 20th October (10h00): explanation of the safety checks for the boats *Monday 3rd November (10h00): explanation of the arrangements put in place for the start *Saturday 8th November (10h00): briefing concerning the start and the weather… Then, Sylvie Viant, President of the Race Committee, Bernard Bonnot, President of the Protest committee, Jean-Luc Gautier, President of the Measurement Committee stepped forward to explain the race procedures before Sophie Vercelletto, the General Director of the Vendée Globe, finished the briefing with a presentation of the layout of the village and the work areas set up for the Vendée Globe. Philippe de Villiers invited all the solo yachtsmen to a private dinner and announced that the famous French broadcaster, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor would be firing the starting gun on 9th November!

It was at ten o'clock this Saturday morning (18th October) that the official Vendée Globe Village was declared open by the President of the Vendée Council, Philippe de Villiers. The public were immediately able to enter and discover 15,000 m2 of exhibitions and educational displays dedicated to the thirty sailors, who will be setting sail around the world in three weeks.

Yesterday evening at around 6, the Vendée Globe skippers and a many fishermen got together for a drink organised by the Local Fishermen's Committee in Les Sables d'Olonne. The aim of this informal get together was to sign an agreement under which the 2008 Vendée Globe will be opened by local fishermen. Since the first edition of the Vendée Globe, fishermen have always worked alongside the event, but for the 2008 edition over the past few months, the Vendée public-private partnership and the fishermen have been working together to find a way to convey the sense of openness and local action around the event. What finer display of solidarity of seafarers than to see professional fishermen and ocean racers getting together than a round the non-stop single-handed world race. That is wonderful, as the 2008 Vendée Globe with its 30 monohulls lining up for the start will more than ever be a close collaboration between these two worlds, for whome the sea is a common workplace. On D-Day, Sunday 9th November, these giants of the oceans will have to be led out of the harbour with the tide limiting procedure, thus leaving the shore teams of each boat just four minutes to make their way out of the harbour channel in Les Sables. From their exit, the skippers will be well escorted, as the fishermen will be guiding them to the start line and bringing their dream to life.

On Saturday morning at nine, Yannick Bestaven (Aquarelle.com-Charente Maritime) was the next to last skipper to enter the harbour channel in Les Sables d’Olonne, and shortly all thirty will be in place for the three weeks of preparation before the start of the Vendée Globe. On Friday evening, Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) and Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eigthy) arrived at dusk. And then this morning, the public were able to see Bernard Stamm´s Cheminées Poujoulat, Sébastien Josse´s BT, Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty´s Maisonneuve and Marc Thiercelin´s DCNS. Now only missing to complete the line-up is the British yachtsman, Steve White (Spirit of Weymouth), who was just off Les Sables d’Olonne at 9h30.

Superb weather for the inauguration of the Vendée Globe village! While a front is attempting to come down from the English Channel towards Les Sables d’Olonne, it will only manage to create light cloudy conditions for a time on Saturday and on Sunday we are expecting some brilliant sunshine. The temperatures may feel a little colder, but remain pleasant exceeding 18° in the afternoon and at around 7°C at dawn. The light to moderate easterly wind is expected to back northerly for a time on Saturday afternoon, but we will rarely see winds above ten knots. Tide times in Les Sables d’Olonne Saturday 18th October: coefficient 93 - 88 High tide: 7h20 – 19h51 Low tide: 1h15 – 13h42 Sunday 19th October: coefficient 81 - 74 High tide: 8h08 – 20h49 Low tide: 2h01 – 14h31

At high tide this Friday evening, four more boats entered through the harbour channel in Les Sables d’Olonne: Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement), the Basque, Unai Basurko (Pakea Bizkaia), the Swiss sailor, Dominique Wavre (Temenos II) and Marc Guillemot (Safran), the last yachtsman to arrive at seven. Several other monohull skipers are due to moor up in Port Olona at nightfall, such as Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat)…