"This morning had a really close look at two islands at the northern extremity of the Kerguelens, they look like the spectacular islands off the coasts of the UK, like St Kilda, having precipitous cliffs, grass, rock and being totally uninhabited by humans. Spectacular lenticular clouds sat above the summits of the islands. Around me there were many albatross, petrels and smaller birds, and I tried to take some photos of them, Also a lot of fish jumping, around the dimensions of medium sized salmon. At present the breeze is increasing steadily as a low approaches from behind. This is only indicated as 30 knots on the grib files, but according to Steve  White from Toe in the  Water and Jonny Malbon from Artemis, its packing a much bigger punch, up to 55 knots. This low and the next one barrelling along behind are part of the reason that I passed to the north of the Kergeulens, so that I could be set up a little further from the centres of the lows. Also to be out of the iceberg zone for a time is also a good thing, as other yachts spotted several in the area, that could not be spotted by satellite observation. The cold front should pass by tonight UK time, the morning here at 73E,  the longitude of Islamabad in Pakistan.  It is a bit disappointing to see Sam on Roxy catch up a lot of miles in the last 24 hours, I expected to lose some miles as she came up carrying the breeze, but not be overtaken on the ranking! All credit to her, she stuck to the routing and had good speed. At present conditions are starting to even out for us, so the mile losses should be stemmed. Good thing is that both of us are catching some much needed distance on the leader, the incredibly hard charging Jean Pierre Dick."

Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message yesterday evening

 

Over the past 24 hours Sam Davies (Roxy) covered the greatest distance towards the finish.  Between 19h yesterday evening and this evening, Sam in 11th place, 835 miles from the leader, covered 388.5 miles. 
 

"The low has almost passed but it has been a tough time of it. Last night and today the winds have been from every degree in the compass and I am exhausted from sail changes and manoeuvres since yesterday. The boat even stopped for an hour today with no wind at all. One hour later it was back blowing 30 knots again but from a different direction. I think I found the "eye" of that bad boy. The post storm hangover is on me today and I'm feeling very tired and drained. Normally it takes a day or two to recover from these storms but we are racing so little down time. I'm a little disappointed in the distance to the front but not surprised at all. Hopefully it will be my turn soon for some of those sailing conditions and fantastic speeds that we see coming from the front reports."
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada)

 

"My foot is still handicapping me.  I had to go out on the bow to hoist some sail and I rested on it.  I'm going to have to be careful, if I don't want things to get worse again. I'm still limping and it hurts if I rest on it.  So when the others were under spinnaker, I made do with the reacher.  By the end of the day I will have lost 10 or 15 miles.  We're waiting for another low to move in tomorrow with 45 knot winds.  But it's the ice, which worries me most.  Even if we haven't seen any, those further south must have been close as Mich and Sam saw some much further north.  It's incredible the difference from the first Vendée Globe races.  We see icebergs 10° further north than back then.  Even to the south of Australia, where the organisers put in place a gate for another reason, icebergs have been spotted at 51°30 and they're not coming from the Weddell and Ross Seas.  In my opinion, it's going to be pretty bad in the Pacific too..."  
Vincent Riou (PRB) talking to his shore team today

 

"Yesterday I saw my first iceberg! It is a sight that tears your emotions in two - half of you is in awe of such an amazing sight, with such intense blues and whites, this peaceful bit of nature floating in the middle of nowhere - whereas the other half is terrified! What if I hadn't seen it? If it had been night, and if I'd been half a mile to the South? These thoughts aren't worth considering. The iceberg was almost 100m long I guess, that is the part I could see.  Luckily my camera worked, and I got some good photos, so when I am back at home in front of the fire I can really appreciate the beauty. Until then, I hope that was the last iceberg I see this race."
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message


 

"At 05h35 UTC, I passed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope. At the same time, I took out  my cold weather gear.  Since yesterday, it has been fine, but i has been very cold. Under shelter outside, it is 6°C, and 9°C down below.  It was a sign that it was time to get some warm clothes on, as it's only going to get colder.  I'm still sailing ESE – Gate 3, then the Kerguelen Islands.  Now I'm busy at the nav desk writing, doing some photos and listening to music, while looking forward to my Sunday lunch. Fish and rice!"
Norbert Sedlacek (Foncia)