"I have now broken my own record of time alone at sea!! Before now, it was 26 days. By the end of today it will be 4 weeks!  It's funny though, as it doesn't seem like I have spent 4 weeks out here - the time is going SO fast! There are little signs of the time at sea showing up on Roxy though - like the rust stains on the coachroof where my solar panels have rusted up, the squid-ink stain, and a "lived in" look to the inside! So much so that I decided that this morning was a "housework" morning and I did a little clean and tidy-up! The wind has dropped too, and last night I got to put my big gennaker back up. I am desperately trying to stay in front of Bernard Stamm, who is coming up behind in a bit more wind...."
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message.

 

"It's cold now, very cold - sea surface temperature has dropped below 5C and so it’s painfully cold at night. It’s also wet as we are trucking along at pace so water is everywhere all of the time. I have a heater but, I fear, not enough diesel to risk using it - at least until I have passed the half way point when I can reassess the fuel levels. The food is generally good but the portion sizes are a bit small for the Southern Ocean intake - so I am always looking for something else to add to the pot.  Outside now it is blowing 30kts from the north-west, the sea state is becoming high. It is uniform grey with visibility down to around 1 mile. I can hear the pilot ram screaming under the strain of recovering the boats course after each surfing wave. The radar is intermittently scanning for ice, I can see on my Maxsea that there are satellite identified bergs 60 miles to the South of my position - ice is present even if for now it remains unseen. Looking out for bergs is a waste of time, at 20 knots in 1 mile visibility we reach the limit of visibility in only 3 minutes - that's not even enough time to make a coffee! Sea surface temperature and my radar are probably the best protection. Strangely I am excited by the prospect of seeing icebergs, the ones you see are not the ones which you fear - if that makes any sense!  Only one "course of action" then - sail fast - and lets get out of here!"
Mike Golding (Ecover 3) in his log yesterday evening.

 

The first boats have now passed the Kerguelen Gate, the second Ice Gate.  Sébastien Josse (BT) was the first to inform the Race Directors that he had passed to the north of this gate at 1h20 UTC.  He was followed just over an hour later by Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec Virbac 2) at  02h29 UTC and Yann Eliès (Générali) at around 02h40 UTC.  Since then, Veolia Environnment, Gitana Eighty, Ecover 3 and VM Materiaux have also passed this compulsory waypoint.

 

"Last night there was a steady 35-40 knots of wind, and the boat was going well. All seemed to be fine, until I checked the masthead this morning, and the shorter of the two wind instrument wands had come adrift of its mounting and was hanging by its cable, its wind cups still spinning gamely as it hung upside down. The tall wand is still working well, and I have everything crossed that it continues to do so. Not sure what happened, either the slamming broke the socket, or perhaps a bird tried to land on the top of the mast. I have seen birds try to do that in the day time, but they would probably have hit the tall wand first, so it was probably the slamming that broke this wind vane. There is no way to go up the mast in these conditions, so it will have to stay up there for now, and hope it stays out of the way of the halyards.  Out here on the IMOCA 60 it's business as usual, 35 knots downwind, drizzling and with the boat leaping around like a rodeo bull as we go over and through the waves, going around the Antarctic and heading for Cape Horn, 11,000 miles away. It’s a downwind race the whole way there till we turn the corner back into the Atlantic again. But I am getting ahead of myself, there is a month to go in the Southern Ocean and I need to focus on getting through each day as fast as possible and with as few technical problems as possible, whilst staying on the fastest course. There is plenty to do, and these are the most challenging and unique sailing conditions in the world, big waves, storms and cold waters. It's what makes this race, the Vendee Globe, the toughest in the world and the Mount Everest for solo sailors."
Brian Thompson (Pindar) in his daily message yesterday evening

 

"Just as it was getting dark last night I was deciding whether or not to shake a reef out – yes, no, yes, no – “I'll give it five minutes”  this went on for about an hour and then I decided yes shake a reef,” you can always put it back in” I said to myself.  Shook the ref out, boat sped was up pilot was coping, happy days. I went down below and hung my oilskin jacket up to dry.  The boat started to load up and take off on the occasional wave, and obviously because I had shaken a reef, the wind had increased.  So, up she went onto one particularly large wave – the rumbling noise of the water on the hull increased as we picked up speed – 18, 19,20,21.  at this point the boat was very arced up and the pilot seemed to be playing “how fast  can we go”.  The answer was very fast, but I didn’t have time to look – I launched myself through the hatch to get to the wheel, as torrents of cold water hosed the boat down.  Disengage pilot, bear away, that was the plan, but too late.  We basically broached to weather – I managed to bear away hard, and the acceleration was immense – water everywhere, mainly down my oilskin trousers and into my boots.  Bore away so hard with such pace (I was steering kneeling down on the cockpit floor) that we crashed gybed – wheel the other way, boom comes back, jibtop comes back, I am soaked, cockpit full of water – nice job.  A couple more firsts for both the boat and me!! I then laughed at myself as I put the reef back in taking us to the same place that we were about an hour ago – only I was exhausted and now totally wet through.  Brilliant, must try that again!!"

 

Jonny Malbon (Artemis) on his daily message.

"As for the routine activities on Foncia, we have several on offer an a few workshops: bailing out the bilges, foot massage, stock-taking, as I'm a bit of a naughty boy and don't finish my meals leaving what I don't like.  Then, for those, who like exercise there's plenty of stacking to do. Always a way to do better, a typical attitude for the friends of Michel Doré (Mike Golding - -editor).  This tack is only going to last two and a half days. While you're doing that, I'll be taking a nap.  It's tiring when there's nothing to do, so I'll go and rest..."
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) in his daily message during the night