Over the past 24 hours it is Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia), who has covered the greatest distance towards the finish.  Between 19h yesterday evening and this evening, the race leader, currently 13611.4 miles from the finish, covered 420.6 nautical miles.

 

"Yesterday was a day of big winds and even bigger seas as I head away from the Kerguelens and onwards to the first Australian ice gate. Lots of squalls with sun glimpses made a pleasant change from drizzle and fog. But the day will be especially memorable for Bahrain Team Pindar doing a manoeuvre so unusual, so bizarre, that it doesn’t even have a name that I know of. Perhaps only freestyle windsurfers will have one.  This is how it goes - take one IMOCA 60 going downwind with 3 reefs and the J2 sail, add 35 knot of wind and a big wave. Then watch boat round up, the pilot give up the ghost, and the wheel spin hard over. This will take the IMOCA 60 rapidly through head to wind and then settle on to the other tack. This is when a combination of gravity from all the keel, water ballast and spares on the wrong side, and the back winded sails will neatly push the mast to 90 degrees.  So at this point I climbed out of the hatch to, yet again, sort out a boat on its ear. It was a spectacular sight, looking out along the horizontal mast, seeing the masthead just 3 metres off the sea, normally it is 32 metres from the sea. To sort out it took a while as I had to furl the J2 and then tack around, reef the main to 4th reef close reaching slowly and then set the J3 when downwind. Perhaps I should call the trick the ‘reverse chinese’. Once in a lifetime trick I hope."

Brian Thompson (Pindar Team Bahrain) in his daily message

 

Since Temenos II arrived in the Kerguelens, the local authority has been busy and a way to stabilise the keel has been found.  Work is set to continue again from two in the morning (local time). According to his team, Dominique hopes to leave the Kerguelens later in the day, once the system has been put in place and checked.  He is to set sail on a 2800-mile delivery trip to Fremantle in Australia and will have to be particularly vigilant due to the keel damage on his monohull.

 

"It's better now, but last night when the front passed with 45-knot winds, the seas got rougher and there was not much to do. It has been hairy at times, but now with 3 reefs in the main and the reacher up, I'm able to get some rest. The pace remains a bit frantic, and I've done 32.2 knots under autopilot, that's the boat's record! Sorry to hear about Mike's dismasting. but when the race gets that full on, the gear suffers a lot and failures like that are bound to happen."
Sébastien Josse (BT) talking to his shore team this afternoon.

 

"I have not mentioned it because I haven't truly fixed the situation but am monitoring the fuel consumption on a daily basis. The wind generator is working when the apparent wind is more than 18 knots so it only works upwind or on a reach. The power from it is a bit unreliable down here in the south where we spend a lot of the time deep reaching. The power consumption for the autopilot and increased use of the radar looking for ice has risen to the point that it concerns me on how much power the boat is using. All this to say, I'm not quite sure, fingers crossed that there is enough fuel to reach the finish line, best guesstimates are that we are ok. About the oil slick that jumped on board a while back. The good news is that it is slowly dissipating from the cockpit and deck area and the smell is all but gone. I suspect by the finish line it will hardly be noticeable. The staysail which was folded on deck at the time is not a pretty picture though. I had it up in the storm two days ago and it looks like a zebra. I hope the oil does not affect the material as it would be tough to loose this valuable heavy weather sail. As you can see from the damage reports coming in from the fleet and the number of retirements, the race is one of maintenance, perseverance and patience. My racing strategy primary goal is and always has been to complete the course safely and efficiently. I am sailing the boat with conservative aggression and trying not to break anything as it would be fatal to the completion of the race. There are some things that we cannot control of course and that is hitting things in the water and doing damage to the hull, keel or rudders. This comes down to good old "luck" or "bad luck" depending on how you fare.  I'm looking at the ice reports coming in from the front and especially the report of small growlers on the race track and the fact that JP has hit something "solid" , damaging his rudder and will be adjusting my course accordingly. Nothing concerns me more than sailing into an ice field and damaging the rudders."
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada) in his daily report

 

Jean Baptiste Dejeanty, the skipper of Groupe Maisonneuve, announced this morning, December 16, at 7H15, his decision to retire from the race.  Problems of halyards and automatic pilots drove the skipper to make such a decision.  The skipper is safe and is sailing towards Port Elizabeth, South Africa, which is around 1200 miles from his current position.