Message sent during the night by Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia), who was slowed down at the start of this week-end:
«Always the same on Friday evenings heading back home on the motorway.  You must know the toll booth at St Arnoult?  At 17H, you always get stuck and this evening nothing's moving here very fast and then there are the guys telling me I've been driving too fast to get here... So I was kept in for a while and we all get wet in the rain.  22h.  They let me go.  Move along now.  In fact, the trade wind had reappeared and the final dark squall was gone. What a joker, this St Arnoult!  Next?  Saint Helena.  She's not on the motorway to the west, but to the south.  Mich."

 

At 21 h UTC  this evening (Friday), LoÏck Peyron (Gitana 80) became the first competitor to enter the southern hemisphere.  You can watch a video of this by clicking on video in the media section.

So what do you do, when you're in 19th place, 361 miles from the leader sailing at the latitude of Sierra Leone, waiting to see what will happen , when the Doldrums come up?  Obvious really.  Just  relax and put on some Kings of Leon at full volume or why not watch a video of Flight of the Conchords on your mobile?  That is what Jonny Malbon has been up to this morning...
 

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) is continuing to work his way back up the fleet. Still in sixteenth place at 20h, Mich’ Desj’ is only four miles behind Dee Caffari (Aviva) in terms of distance to the finish. In reality,the "Professor" is a bit further south then Dee, but ten miles or so further west. Logically, he should grab 15th place during the night. Ahead lies Marc Guillemot (Safran), 75 miles in front of him. So it looks like it will start to get a bit tougher from now on...

 

Dominique Wavre (Temenos) in eleventh place, 178 miles from the leader was very surprised today at how easy it was to get through the Doldrums.

"Things are going very well. The Doldrums has been rapidly devoured. We got through it without encountering any opposition. It was limited to a very slight reduction in pace for an hour, that’s all! According to the latest satellite charts the zone was pretty clear effectively and this is the reason that I didn’t see any big clouds appearing in the sky, as is normally the case. I was expecting a relatively easy passage but perhaps not quite to this extent. It’s certainly the very first time it’s gone like this. I’m still surprised about it!"

For the second day in a row, Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty bringing up the rear of the fleet, is awarded the title of today's best performer, having covered 340 miles in 24h between 16h on Thursday and 16h on Friday. The skipper of Groupe Maisonneuve, currently sailing off the Canaries, restarted the race a week after the initial start, in order to carry out repairs to the deck of his boat.