"Seems everyone from midfleet back has the pedal down trying to cut the corner and save some miles. It certainly looks do-able from here and the weather files indicate the opportunity. An intense low pressure system to the west will push the high to the north east and may allow us to sail more directly to the first gate. I'm watching the weather with hopes that the current forecast will not change. Jean (Baptiste Dejeanty) has managed to get by me. He's doing an awesome job after a problematic start. "

Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada), currently in 24th place, 1523 miles from the leader and 3 miles behind Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty, in his daily message.

 

"It seems that as the temperature drops, the size of squid increases, so does the intensity of its ink, thus increasing the overall mess on the deck! Last night's suicide attacker was just one, rather  large, inky squid, who landed just aft of the cockpit next to the starboard tiller! That means he managed to cross the cockpit in mid-air. Lucky I was not out there at the time! I thought getting walloped in the face by a flying fish was bad enough, but I dread to imagine getting "squidded" in the face..... must be a bit like getting pooed on by a seagull in Lorient.  Last night was the first "rock and roll" sailing of this race. Windy, but not too much, just to get used to it! 22 knots was the surfing speed. Although Roxy was totally under control, I found it hard to sleep. This will take some getting used to!"  
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message.

 

Jonny Malbon (Artemis) completed his 30-minute penalty this morning at 8h05 UTC.  Like several other competitors, he was given the penalty by the International Jury for passing a buoy on the wrong side shortly after the start from Les Sables d'Olonne.  

 

"At approx 1236 UTC today I hit a large animal, probably a whale at 15 knots.  The boat stopped dead in the water, and remained there for about a minute until the animal released itself from the daggerboard. I was under 1 reef and Jibtop at the time.  Once we had broken free, we sailed off very quickly, but I could clearly see the animal astern in a lot of trouble.  I have some serious damage to my starboard daggerboard, but the boat is fine and the structure surrounding the daggerboard is intact.  We have not taken on any water. I will be continuing to race, and will monitor the condition of both the board and the boat."  
Jonny Malbon (Artemis) in his early morning message


 

"I don't know what it's like where you are, but here it was a dull weekend.  Nobody rang, nobody wrote, as it was the weekend. Then on Monday, its starts again:
"- What did you do this weekend?
- Sailing and you?
- Me too.  We sailed.  It was cold the rain was horizontal, raining cats and dogs
- So you were in Brittany?
- How did you guess? As they say, the weather isn't bad in Brittany.  It's the boots that are bad!
- So how did the race go?
- I hopped into the bus lane, which meant I slipped by. Fortunately there were no police around to stop me.  Otherwise I'd have been in trouble.
-What about the others?
- I don't know really. I was a long way away. Had a bad start.  Haven't seen everything that has  been happening. Wondering whether they haven't run into a patch of oil on the road as they were all over the place.  Think one may have gone into the ditch and dented his wheels hubs."

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) in his night message

 

"The wind has eased off and is now more from astern.  We're making our way around the St. Helena high. As usual a lady is the centre of our attention, even in the middle of nowhere.  At the moment, the problem is trying to get as close as possible to the centre of the high to avoid going the long way around, but at the same time not too close because of the risk of falling into wind holes.  Looks like a busy night making sail changes to adapt to the wind shifting behind us.  Hope we don't get delayed in this high for too long, as our mates have already found the westerly wind." 


Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat)