Three 60-foot monohulls crossed each other's path in the commercial harbour in Les Sables d’Olonne, either to have their mast removed, or to restep the mast, or to be taken out of the water. However, they have not had much time for a chat.

After arriving at noon, Alex Thomson quickly removed the mast on his damaged Hugo Boss. In his wake, the Canadian, Derek Hatfield did the same to repair his mast track, which had snapped off. Two hours later, Hugo Boss was lifted out of the water by crane with 5-metre long strips of carbon hanging down, which does not look very promising for the repairs that lie ahead. The team bailed out several buckets of water from the cockpit as the boat was raised in the air. The port workers did not really have time to catch their breath. The mast on Cheminées Poujoulat needed restepping. Bernard Stamm and his team have completed the repairs to the mast and boomerang on the top level of spreaders. The Swiss sailor hopes to set out for good this time during the night.

«A busy day today, as I'm going to have to gybe this afternoon. It's very important, because this tack should take me all the way to the Doldrums. For the moment, the weather conditions are pleasant: Sailing downwind in 15-20 knots of wind with a two metre swell. It's not really sunny, but at least it's not raining. Now, life on board has improved considerably. Today's the first time I have opened my daily rations and last night I had my first hot meal. I haven't finished tidying up inside, but I promise I'll do it in the coming days, as well as filming some videos and inspecting the boat. I'm pleased to be the leader, but we're going to have to wait for the gybe to see exactly what happens. The pack chasing after me could well pass in front. The most important thing is I'm in the Top 5 and for everything else, we'll see later on.»  Sébastien Josse (BT)

«I'm well positioned to the west, where the wind will be veering first. The high-pressure area is not that weak after all and I'll have plenty of wind to gybe. I got a good sleep last night. I thought that consequently I would be a bit behind, but it looks fine. I'll be gybing in two hours (at 15h00, editor). The wind will continue to blow at round 15-20 knots in the coming hours. I'm pleased about my position. I'm sailing within sight of Brit Air, which is just behind me,» explained Vincent Riou (PRB) to his shore team early this afternoon.

With some large cracks in the deck of his Maisonneuve, Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty does not yet know whether he will be setting sail again, not simply because of the time it will take to carry out solid repairs, but also because of safety issues.

«The work required is technically not very complicated. The problem is how long the repairs will take. For this type of job, you have to carry out the work in stages waiting for everything to dry and preferably in warm conditions. Easy enough in a boatyard, but more difficult in a port, under tarpaulins. They're going to have to turn the heat up in Port Olona! Today, all I want is to set sail again. I'm disappointed, a bit disgusted, as everything was going so well right up to the incident. The problem is that if I set sail ten days after the others, not only are we in a different race, but it would also mean sailing in the far south completely alone away from the fleet in hostile conditions. That becomes a safety issue. We'll see how things go and we shall probably be taking a decision on Friday.»

As soon as she was back in Les Sables d’Olonne at 1h00 this morning, Maisonneuve moored up at the Vendée Globe pontoon. A support team of seven people set up a work area on the boat under tarpaulins and started to cut away the cracked area in the middle of the monohull to judge the extent of the damage. Throughout the night the team worked with Jean-Baptiste. This morning a composites engineer came to help the team and this afternoon an expert is on the way from Brest.

"For two days we have not been able to sail for the race. We have been simply trying to survive. I hope we can now start sailing and live the race. It has been really hard, we knew the difficulty of this zone and what we could expect. Now the wind is calming down and the sailing is more bearable. I am very well and so is the boat," said the Basque sailor, Unai Basurko (Pakea Bizkaia) this morning.

"I'm extremely disappointed that this Vendée Globe has come to such a quick end after all the work done with my team and the DCNS group over the past year or more, as we prepared this race in record time. The dismasting happened after a horrible, stormy night, when the monohull experienced waves higher than six metres. The dismasting caused significant damage, as we lost the outriggers, sails, and part of the electronics. The impact was huge, and I had no choice but to retire from the race and head for la Coruna. My priority was to save the monohull. As the repairs are being carried out, I'm going to become more and more involved in the DCNS talent hunt to pass on my knowledge,» commented Marc Thiercelin (DCNS) on his arrival in La Coruna this morning. After an inspection to discover the extent of the damage, a decision will be taken concerning the schedule for the next few days and how the boat will be taken to Lorient, her home port.