The skipper of DCNS is celebrating his 48th birthday at home in Marseilles, before he heads back to les Sables d’Olonne in a few days to prepare for his fourth Vendée Globe start. Not far off the big fifty, the yachtsman is nevertheless in fine shape. In any case, he looks after himself. At the start of the month he climbed the hills of Corsica during a week´s trekking with a climb up and down of around 1200 metres each day… Time to enjoy the green scenery before everything turns blue...

It is a very cold, clear morning around Port Olona where the crowds continue to arrive and make their pontoon promenade. Going sailing this afternoon BT skipper Seb Josse wears his usual radiant smile despite losing his 24 hour distance record overnight. Seb was the skipper of ABN AMRO 2 when they set the record of 563 nautical miles on 11 January 2006. Last night it was, again, another design from ABN 2 designer Juan K, Ericsson 4 which has pushed the mark of Josse and his team up to 589 miles, and building. “I think that 589 miles is quite a lot compared to ours but they have done a really god job with their campaign and of it is a Juan K design." said Josse this morning, " Well done to Ericsson and Juan K. It is not so much of a surprise because ABN AMRO 1 beat the record in about the same place last time, all the time it is the same there, flat water and big pressure, and you can take the first low pressure and go for it. It is very good there for records. 600 miles is possible, but it does become harder to break records by much, maybe three, four, five miles. When we see the boats are a lot faster in this race then the lap record may fall, with a downwind start you can gain two or three days straight away. If it is an upwind start then it will be hard. Single-handed I am sure that the record will go in this race, but I am not the man to do it. I would rather win the race than the record.”

Six IMOCA monohulls will be taking advantage of the sunshine today (Wednesday 29th October) for a trip in the bay off Les Sables d´Olonne. Marc Guillemot (Safran) was the first to leave the pontoon in Port Olona this morning at seven. He will be followed this lunchtime (around one) by 5 other boats: Derek Hatfield's Algimouss-Spirit of Canada, Sébastien Josse's BT, Roland Jourdain's Véolia Environnement, Unai Basurko's Pakea Bizkaia and finally Raphael Dinelli's Fondation Ocean Vital (at around two).

A wintery wind has arrived in Les Sables d’Olonne this morning… a northerly bringing temperatures down to a minimum of 4 degrees, making it feel like the big chill. Blowing at force 4 or 5, it will gradually back north-westerly this afternoon. Fortunately however, the sunshine is present, even if a few passing showers could well appear this afternoon, and this means that the overcoats may come off as the temperatures climb back up to 11 degrees.

Today, the following have requested the right to leave the harbour: Sébastien Josse on BT, Vincent Riou on PRB, Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia, Dominique Wavre on Téménos II.

The temperatures are back to the average for this time of year with 11°C forecast today. It will remain slightly cloudy, but some fine periods can be expected. Winds - northwesterly 10 to 12 knots. Tide times: Morning: coefficient 86, High tide 3h48 - 5.07m, Low tide 10h02 - 1.02m Evening: coefficient 87, High tide 16h06 - 5.12m, Low tide 22h22 - 1.01m