"Hi there! During the night something got caught up in the keel. I thought first of all it was a piece of rope or a mooring cable.  I stopped the boat and went backwards and it came away!  An hour later and it happened again. I zig-zagged with the boat and set off again.  I think it must have been weed.  Apart from that the Véranda is gliding along ahead of the next low-pressure system that should take us along quickly to the Australian gate. "
Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) in his daily message

 

Over the past 24 hours, it is Sébastien Josse (BT), who covered the greatest distance towards the finish. Between 19h yesterday evening and this evening, Sébastien currently in 5th place, 78.1 miles from the leader, covered 442.5 miles

 

Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) on today's radio session: «I have had some small electrical problems, but now they are solved.  Everything is fine on board.  the worst was three days ago with 45 knots. But it was the sea state that really poses the problem. I have been talking with Raphaël Dinelli this morning, as he's within fifty miles, and you could say we're sailing along together, which is good.»

"It's a bit like a dream this morning. A short respite before the next big blow. The first went over yesterday evening; I had 55 knots at times. The boat did really well, but I found it really hard. I'm taking advantage of the calmer conditions to tidy up the boat and clean up.  I've been talking on the phone with Brian, Jonny and Arnaud.  There's a real camaraderie between us."
Dee Caffari during today's radio session

 

Bernard Stamm talking about Cheminées Poujoulat early this afternoon
“She is floating albeit low in the water and heeled over. Everyone here has given me a hand and Dominique Wavre also helped me out a huge amount. If we manage to load Cheminées Poujoulat in time, I will also embark on the Marion Dufresne bound for Reunion or elsewhere. I don’t yet know what’s going to happen but there’s a lot of work ahead. The most pressing matter is to get the boat out of the water. It’s not possible to leave her in the water in the Kerguelens. This Vendée Globe started off badly and has ended painfully, because there’s nothing worse than seeing your boat driven onto the shore."

 

From Rich Wilson, USA , (Great American III):

"No position 0930z but i'm ok, beacon problem i guess, under storm jib alone, no mainsail, another 50 knots of wind, not forecast on charts, did broach then crash gybe this am w/pilot, terrible big seas, boom into runners, they held, grabbed helm, crash gybed back, then trimmed in storm jib to go upwind to let me lower 3rd reef  mainsail to boom, no mainsail now, tied down, only storm jib had to gybe for iles crozet, now think might  have been good to have gone other north side side, baro going down again as i approach big center, but file shows less wind there, until the back side comes along, then more wind then up to now, and i don't know what that means, i had 45/50 when it showed 25/30, so what happens when it shows 35/40?"