This morning (Saturday) will be the final opportunity to listen to the programme Live from the Pontoons from Port Olona. At eleven (French time), Pierre-Louis Castelli and Frédéric Ottenhof will be talking to Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, Patrice Carpentier, Hervé Laurent, Sébastien Josse, Richard Silvani and Philippe de Villiers.

From Monday, each morning at eleven you will be able to listen to the radio session with the Vendée Globe skippers broadcast live from Race HQ in Paris on the official website www.vendeeglobe.org.

Sam Davies (Roxy) will be setting sail on Sunday at 13h02 (1202GMT) on the IMOCA Open 60 that won the previous two editions of the Vendée Globe: «I'm feeling fine. I know I'll feel stressed in the final hours leading up to the start. After all the excitement of the past few weeks, suddenly you find yourself alone and you don't know if you are happy, sad or nervous. In the beginning, I wanted to win, but today my goal is more personal: I want to beat the boat's record (87 days 10 hours 47 minutes and 55 seconds) held by Vincent Riou. I've written it down on the entrance to the cockpit to make sure I keep that in mind. It is a long race and there are often a lot of breakages, so we never know… »

Several thousand virtual skippers have already registered to line up for the start of the 2008 Vendée Globe. You too, can try your hand at sailing around the world from the comfort of your home or office. To register for the Virtual Regatta: http://www.virtualregatta.com/index_vendee.php?langue=EN

Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) is back in the Vendée Globe for the third time, but still remembers his retiral in New Zealand in the 2004 race: «In my head, I've already been through it all and the start in Les Sables doesn't mark the end or beginning of anything. For me, it is a continual process. I tell myself that: today, the goal is that… In the coming days there will be all sorts of other questions: how we will get out of the harbour area, make sure we don't collide with any other boats at the start line. And by then, in my head, we're already up to Monday or Tuesday. I'm trying to find the same state of mind that I was in before the start of the last Route du Rhum. You forget the most painful moments quickly enough and pick yourself up and start again… I'm also pleased to be returning to a place where it may be cold and not that easy at times, but that I really like. And there's something I haven't done for a long time that I want to do again: that is the second part of the course, even if the conditions in the Atlantic are hard on the way back… »

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) is able to set sail on his first Vendée Globe, not only because he is supported financially by a partner, who was already involved four years ago, but because Jean-Philippe Chomette is the owner of the boat. She is officially called Solune: «That means sunfish, but it is also the name of the son of Incal in the comic book by Moebius… »

Each Vendée Globe monohull has a number given by the Imoca class, but the skippers are able to choose their own number, which may be simply their lucky number or refer to a particular event. Kito de Pavant (Groupe Bel) has chosen the symbolic 360: «We're going to be sailing around the world, returning to the same point, which means we'll be going 360°! »