This afternoon at 16h a special radio link was established with Loïck Peyron (Gitana 80), who explained the circumstances behind the dismasting of his boat.  You can listen to this interview by clicking here and selecting Loïck Peyron (eng)  

 

"I have a very favourable wind which is enabling me to get in some southing. It had dropped to 18 knots this morning but now it’s been boosted to 22, 23 knots. There are messy cross seas and the swell is beam on and the boat’s struggling to get into the groove. It’s often halted by a wave the minute it launches into a surf. The speeds are quite varied and Temenos II is making headway in fits and starts. It requires a great deal of work as regards the sail trimming, which isn’t always easy. When the sea state is good, with a wave on the tail which launches the boat into the surf, you can expect 18 knot average speeds without forcing things too hard. However, the minute the sea state is poor you lose 3 knots straight away. In this instance you really get the feeling that if you force the boat too hard by carrying too much sail aloft, you can cause damage with the violent braking in the waves. Forcing your way through these types of seas isn’t reasonable. You have to try and weave your way through gently when the sea state is poor. As soon as the boat’s making more than 20 knots the rudders scream creating a fairly stressful, sharp noise. I tune the I-pod into my anti-noise earphones and that tones down the noise well and it becomes more bearable.”
Dominique Wavre (Temenos II) talking to his shore team today

 

"Yesterday under spinnaker, I stayed at the helm for a few hours before handing over to the autopilot.  I even managed to get some sleep.  It just goes to show that having a good pilot and knowing how to pace yourself are both sources of success. I'll certainly be going to the south of the Kerguelens. At the moment, there are 25 knots of wind and it feels like there's hardly any. Here things are on a different scale.  Below thirty knots, it feels like there's no wind. I don't hang around out on deck and while I chose a minimalist approach inside I am not complaining.  But it's true that it is very cold. I can see my breath all the time."
Marc Guillemot (Safran) talking to his shore team today

 

"I signed off last time about to do a sail change in a building breeze. I had to roll up and take down the Code 5 in what was by the time I got on deck about 35 knots of wind, which is over the limit for an old sail! This is a perfectly normal procedure, I started rolling the thing up but it got jammed half rolled up and half unrolled! There it was, flogging itself silly at the front of the boat. I went up the front to try and free it up, but the furling drum is right at the end of the bowsprit - I was not going out there I can assure you - there was a big sea and we were surfing at nearly twenty knots sometimes! I taped my big kitchen knife to the deckbrush handle and went up to deal with the problem, which was that the cover of the furling line had wrinkled up like Nora Batty's stockings (a character in a British sitcom-editor) inside the drum, got caught on a cunningly placed spike and wedged itself up very very tightly! Whilst hacking away I took my eye off the ball missed a big wave which we surfed down, and got hosed down the deck, knife in hand, as we buried the bow in the wave in front at high speed - everything went dark, there was a whooshing noise in my ears as they filled up, and I held my breath as water went down my neck right down to my boots, up my nose, up my arms, everywhere. I took some sizeable pieces out of my fingers as I tried to grab stanchions and guardwires on the way past - the force of the water was incredible and I still have the bruises to testify! When I came to a stop at the mast I had managed to keep hold of the knife luckily! I had several goes at cutting away at the drum, rolling and unrolling the sail; I cut forty five metres of cover of the rest of the line with a pair of scissors on my hands an knees, and still it was up there, half in, half out and flogging like nobody's business. After nearly three hours I decided it had to be dropped on deck as it was whilst I still had a mast! I sailed as far downwind as I dared without gybing, and went for it - first time I aborted and winched it up again before it went in the water, then second time I had it on an "inboard roll" of the boat - it was there on deck, coming down, coming down, then,outboard roll - whoosh, over the side, in the water. The boat stopped short and rounded up into the wind with a parachute handbrake over the side. There followed another two hours of struggling as I tried to get the thing back onboard, but things were going badly wrong - bent stanchions, then the first rip, then around the keel - the stuff of nightmares. I finished up dragging the thing off the bowsprit after trying to save the boltrope for my poor old broken gennaker, but I couldn't get the thing out of the middle of the partially rolled sail. In the end I had to let the thing go before I had to get in the water and get it off the keel. I watched it sink. A twenty thousand pound sail lost because of a hundred pound piece of string with a loose cover. All I had left was the swivel and two thimbles and a ten inch piece of the head.........I don't mind admitting that nearly killed me, I was fairly well beaten up and bruised, and soaked to the skin, and rapidly becoming cold. It was 1400 when I went on deck, and 1915 when I came back down."

Steve White (Toe in the Water) in his daily message
 

"Have shockingly beautiful sunny day, crystal blue sky, big bank of clouds overtaking of course, but great sailing today so far, reacher and 1 reef in the mainsail. Spent considerable time working on video editing and conversion and uploading this morning, many computer battles fought, some won some lost, but did get some good video last night of the moon and got it uploaded. Inspected forward two watertight compartments today in anticipation of low coming along in a couple of days. Bailed a couple of buckets out, but otherwise all ok. So hard sometimes to tell if you have a leak, or if its just condensation.  Gybed this morning for he ice gate, reacher and full main, 25-27 knots true, that was exciting, likely won't do it again, should have put in reef first, ended up broaching upon the gybe, but did have the new runner on so all was ok."
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message  

 

"There are 27/32 knots of wind.  I put my foot down on the accelerator for an hour, but the seas got rougher and so now I have reduced the sail. I don't want to go too far south, as there is the risk of encountering icebergs. Even if our routing indicates that there is the possibility of gaining miles, I have seen that in the conditions in the deep south, the polars the machine comes up with are 15% above the real speeds. If we glide along downwind at 145° to the wind, we get closer to the polars. I don't want to push too hard.  We'll see whether I am right or not.  In any case, the weather situation tends to indicate that there won't be any opportunities to make a getaway before the gate to the south of Australia. In other words, we could say that it's not worth pushing too hard here, as there will be no rewards, with everyone arriving at the next system together."
Vincent Riou (PRB) talking to his shore team today