Message from Jeremie Beyou this morning at 11h10: "It's a real battle...The wind is up to 40 knots. The seas are becoming high. It's really violent with the boat leaping about. I am under reduced sail... I may not have had enough sail up last night.This morning I've taken in three reefs and am under ORC. No worries on board. I managed to sleep a bit and haven't eaten much. I'm paying attention to the boat and to myself. It's important not to break anything."

The second update from the Vendée Globe fleet today (1000GMT) shows Marc Guillemot on Safran holding onto his lead of 9.5 miles. Behind him Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environment) and Loick Peyron (Gitana) have traded places for second and third in the rankings.
Mike Golding’s decision to follow Guillemot with two tacks south last night seems to have paid off — the British skipper on Ecover has made up ten places from last night’s rankings, now lying 13th. Sam Davies on Roxy, who went with the pair, has also gained a couple of places to 17th.
The fleet is still tightly packed, with Dee Caffari holding on to her place as the first British skipper. Aviva is now in seventh position on the rankings, sitting just behind Kito de Pavant and Seb Josse, who are fourth and fifth respectively. Slightly further north Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) and Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar)
 

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. »