A low pressure area of 960 hPa north of Ireland is moving gradually eastwards and filling. The cold front associated with this low will be passing over the fleet this evening and is expected to reach Cape Finisterre by 2200h. A 30-35 knot south-wester'ly wind will be gusting 45 knots this morning and steadily strengthen as the front approaches to exceed 50 knots.The seas will be high this afternoon and occasionally very high and confused, as the wind suddenly veers NW'ly and eases off to 25-30 knots, although there will still be gusts in excess of 40 knots during the squalls. All of that will be accompanied by heavy rain or showers.

After this violent interlude early this evening, the wind will then ease off once again and veer northerly off Cape Finisterre. By Tuesday evening, everything is expected to be much quieter for the fleet, although the seas will still be rather tricky.

Just before 2300 this evening Dominque Wavre on Temenos departed the port of Les Sables d'Olonne for a second time - despite the pitch black, again accompanied by cheers and waves from spectators on the seawalls and restarted the race from a 'virtual starting line' at 23hrs 19mins 42s.

At 0130 fellow Swiss sailor Bernard Stamm returned to the dock in Port-Olona, assisted by the shore teams of fellow competitors. The damage to the bowsprit on Cheminées Poujoulat sustained after it collided with a fishing boat is currently being assessed by composite experts.

Hi everyone,

Everything is fine aboard Groupe Bel.  It was really impressive with the crowds in the harbour entrance. Thanks to you all!  Farewell to the land and hello to the sea…
Kito

At 1h30 precisely, Bernard Stamm and his team, aided by the shore teams from other competitors moored Cheminées Poujoulat up in Port-Olona. After a quick look at the broken bowsprit with some experts in composites, the Swiss sailor gave his impressions:
«There were a whole group of us racing upwind. There was a fishing boat in the area that I saw some way off and didn't seem to be a problem. I went down to do some nav work and a few minutes later… boom ! I reckon he must have changed direction. By the time it took me to go inside, I'd hit him. I couldn't raise him on the radio. I don't know whether he saw me. It was more or less a direct hit, a bit to one side. A huge collision. We'll be trying to repair it. I decided immediately to head back, as I can't hoist any headsails. For a downwind race, that isn't much good! Clearly only the bowsprit is broken. I'll be setting off again. There's no reason not to. The others won't be waiting for me, but it's around the world race, so isn't over yet. »

At around 20:00 french time today, Bernard Stamm had a collision with a fishing boat while he was working inside the yacht. The bowsprit of Cheminees Poujoulat is broken and after assessment by the skipper cannot be repaired at sea. 72 miles after the start skipper turned around to head back to Les Sables d’Olonne. He should arrive at around 2 or 3 o’clock early Monday morning.

The second position update of the sixth Vendée Globe is in and Marc Guillemot on Safran is still showing as the leader, just 0.1 miles ahead of Kito de Pavant’s Groupe Bel, who’s put in some big gains to climb from 11th place in the earlier positions. Sebastien Josse, who was tied with Safran for joint lead, is now in eighth position – but less than two miles still split the top 10 boats, and just a mile covers the leading five. The majority of the fleet are currently making between 9-10 knots on a west-south-westerly course.
It’s French at the front, with Roland Jourdain in third from Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron. The first British skipper is Dee Caffari on Aviva, the Owen-Clarke design showing one the fastest average VMGs to lie ninth. On design stablemate Ecover 3, Mike Golding hasn’t yet been able to climb back through the fleet following his OCS, and is 24th place (from an earlier position of 23rd).
Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss has dropped a couple of places back to thirteenth (from seventh), just ahead of Brian Thompson on Bahrain Team Pindar. Sam Davies is steady in nineteenth, with Jonny Malbon on Artemis one place behind, who is taking a more northerly route.
Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) is currently the back marker, but with Temenos looking set to rejoin the fleet Dominique Wavre will be chasing hard to make up the miles on the rest of the fleet.