"During the night (Tuesday), Neptune sent me a nasty squall. There were no signs of it coming on the barometer, thermometer or radar, but the 20 knots suddenly increased by 20 knots. The autopilot was the first to inform me, so I tried to ease off the sails and steer by hand to get back on course. I managed to do that, but it was not easy. I had to reduce the sail, in particular the gennaker,  but that is easier said than done.  To sum up, I succeeded, even if the sail went for a swim, but I recovered it with hardly any damage.  Then the mainsail had to be lowered. I got into a real mess with the ropes.   It took me three hours to tidy up the sails and ropes. All's well that ends well."
Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) in his daily message received yesterday evening

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"Making fast progress with solent and 3 reefs in the main. Read Seb Josse's account of using his reacher and 3 reefs in the main, talk about front-wheel drive! So tried with solent and worked well. Lashed the two pieces of the broken titanium support railing together with vectran (non-stretch) 6mm line. The two exposed ends of the titanium weld are nasty sharp, and the opening between them had already captured the windward staysail sheet! Took a piece of sticky-back dacron tape and then wrapped it around the edges of the tubing after the lashing brought them together. Think it will do OK.
I remember on our New York - Melbourne voyage of 2001, I commented to Murray Lister who had been Chief Mate aboard New Zealand Pacific, the world's largest refrigerated container ship, when they rescued us off Cape Horn in November 1990 after our capsize and rerighting, about the beautiful arcing route that the clipper ship Mandarin had made into the deep south, skirting to the south of Kerguelen, and then back up to Melbourne, following the great circle route. Murray said that although their shortest route would have been the same, from Europe to Sydney, "even though we were in a 250 meter (815 feet) ship, we would never have considered taking New Zealand Pacific south of Kerguelen Islands." NZP rescued us back then so we'll take his advice now and go north of Kerguelen."

Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message

 

Over the past 24 hours, Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) sailed the greatest distance towards the finish.  Between 19h yesterday and this evening, the leader, currently 13,243 miles from the finish, covered 369.5 miles.

 

 "Today I have been overtaken by a depression travelling at 35 knots, and been dealing with all the windshifts as it passes by. Not particularly fast today as had some light winds ahead of the cold front, this low has had the boats behind seeing gusts of over 50 knots, so I will have to be careful tonight. The cold front has just arrived now, and I am on the look out for any squalls. Just a few birds this morning, but otherwise the quietest day yet in the Southern Ocean for seabirds. However, I did see a spectacular sight this morning of three dolphins about 400 metres back launching themselves out of 7 metre waves, appearing to be having a look at Bahrain Team Pindar from afar. They were travelling the same speed as me, about 17 knots, and followed for a few minutes, before going off for lunch. It was quite amazing to see them flying through the air, appeared like three torpedoes from the middle of the wave."
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message

Loïck Peyron (Gitana 80) continues to make slow headway towards Australia under jury rig.  Forced to abandon the race since his boat was dismasted, he still has around 1800 miles to sail.    He talked about this unexpected voyage with his shore team today, "This situation isn’t very pleasant for a whole host of reasons, primarily because I’d really prefer to be racing rather than where I am. Without a mast it’s very uncomfortable to make headway, especially as there’s a steady wind at the moment – around 35 knots since yesterday – and the seas are big and very confused. Gybing under jury rig is pretty full-on… but luckily there aren't many manoeuvres to do. Fortunately I’ve got my big collection of books, so I’m trying to pass the time reading them. I’m also mulling over the light winds to come and on rigging up a third sail so as to make better headway in the light conditions."