On Thursday evening, Marc Guillemot's monohull Safran hit a UFO causing the rudder to kick up.  A simple broach resulted, but it could have been much worse, as for Yann Eliès (Generali), who broke three battens, when his rudder kicked up and the boat rounded up. The result for him was ten hours of hard work at slow speed with the mainsail on the deck.

 

"I have just had my worst night since the start of the race... I struggled for hours in the night during the black and icy squalls trying to get the gennaker furled. I was afraid I wouldn't manage it. Once rolled up, it came unrolled and became a real mess. It even got tangled up with the genoa for a while… Help!!  At one point I saw a shooting star and I made  wish that the boat was tidied up before the end of the night.  Just as I was slipping into my duvet, the pilot failed.  The boat broached and went over on her side, with the keel and ballast on the wrong side, heeled over at 90°.  Everything inside went flying, clothes, duvet, books, tool box... Everything is soaked. In the end the boat was tidied up by daybreak, so now I believe in shooting stars."
Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Groupe Maisonneuve)

 

The Canadian, Derek Hatfield (Algimouss- Spirit of Canada), crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope at 22h47 UTC on Thursday 11th December. The final two sailors due to cross the virtual line are Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) and Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) sometime this weekend, as they still have around 450 miles to sail.

 

"This morning at around 06h UTC in a very strong gust, my forestay broke. I was able to recover the genoa. The rigging is intact. The weather is very bad.  There's a force 6 NNW'ly  wind, but gusts reaching force 9.  Now I'm surfing at 22 knots just with the mainsail with two reefs."
Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) in an e-mail this morning

"This is the third time I've been down here  in y oilskins and it's the first time I have seen ice.  It's not that surprising. In 2001, someone came up to me at the Boat Show a few months after the Vendée Globe and said: "I'd love to do like you and sail quickly around Antarctica seeing the ice!" "You can do one or the other" I answered. "If you do both at the same time, it will have a sad ending. " "But you did it, " he insisted.  "No.  Sailing quickly yes, but ice does not figure on the programme."  But that is what happened yesterday.  The first was about twice the length of Foncia, about forty metres, at least from what I saw. This blue is simply sublime and remids me of the colours in glaciers. It was very beautiful, but that was enough for one day.  The photos aren't much good, but do prove it. I was steering with one hand, just in case I had to change course, while taking the picture.  I managed to get the sky or the water, but rarely both.  I could have got closer, but I'm in a hurry.  I've a boar waiting for me at home."

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) by e-mail this morning.

 

"It is 1h20 UTC and it's been light for an hour.  Not as cold tonight (7degrees) .  Spent a long time on manoeuvres, but it wasn't really very useful.  Not easy to find the compromise between the sea state, wind, sail surface, ballast!  I gybed an hour ago.  Now I'm on the right course and can finally get some rest.  The sea has calmed and is offering long surf.  The sun is hiding, but it's bright enough on my veranda this morning."
Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) in his daily message