"Hi there, I'm pleased to be sheltering in my watertight veranda.  The neighbour appears to have left on his automatic watering system and if I want to admire the stars and the clouds, I need to put on the wet weather gear.  my veranda is gliding along nicely, or at least as well as can be hoped, leaning like the Tower of Pisa. It's one in thye morning and I've just had a night feast, gingerbread and some tea.
P.S.: If you see the neighbour tell him to turn it off!"
Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas)

 

"All is good on board. It is a wet and bumpy ride that seems to be getting faster. I blew my mainsheet block today so had to drop the main and find a fix. With a new block lashed in place we hoisted the main again and are back sailing."  Dee Caffari (Aviva)

"I know which parts are broken, but I need to inspect the standing rigging and the mast. It may be delaminating, where the spreaders kept hitting the mast.  Before repairing or setting sail again, I need to be certain that it's safe.  The whole of the Delta Dore team is in place, as are the suppliers. This is a massive blow for everyone, but we have to look at it calmly and rationally in Recife under shelter. I managed to climb up again to untangle the stays, but time is dragging.  The closer I get to Recife, the closer I get to the moment of truth." Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore)  

 

During today's radio session Brian Thompson (Pindar) talked about his current race within the race.  This afternoon, he is in eleventh place between Dominique Wavre and Marc Guillemot.

"We’ve got a little race on here with Temenos and Safran, and all day yesterday I was with Temenos, we had a very good sail in similar conditions to this.
How do we compare to Safran? We’re very different. We’ve been quite similar over the past couple of days, Safran has probably been a touch faster. She’s been a little bit more in the east, which may have helped her but there’s not much to choose between them.
I remember at the start Safran as well was very fast and she’s a particularly good boat upwind, which is surprising when you look at those curved foils, but maybe that long chine helps her go upwind as well. But it’s going very fast a lot of the time with Ecover as the boat with the highest averages."

 

Cheminées Poujoulat crossed the Equator today at 16 h 35' 31'' (UTC).  Bernard Stamm restarted the race from Les Sables d'Olonne on 13th November and in spite of experiencing tricky conditions in the Bay of Biscay, where he was slowed down, the total time it has taken the Swiss sailor to reach the Equator is very similar to that of the race leaders, as Cheminées Poujoulat only took four hours longer than Gitana Eighty to cover this stretch.

Yann Eliès (Générali) is in 6th place 67.6 miles from the leader this evening, just over six miles ahead of Mike Golding.  
"There is a tiny window to get through at the St. Helena toll gate three or four days from now.  We're going to have to line up behind the leaders, so no one gets away.  If it was to close on those chasing on behind, once in the south, we should be achieving good speeds of around fifteen knots and it would be difficult after to claw their way back...He's (Loïck Peyron), setting the pace and leading the way at the front.  He is really impressive, because he never eases off in light or heavy weather.  With his pace and his precision in all the adjustments, he is truly impressive."