"You're going to laugh, or smile at least. As I keep looking behind me through the door, I can't remember  which is port and which is starboard, green and red. You could say "Apart from a question of pride, it doesn't really matter, as you don't need to know!" But I do.  It is useful as the stern ballast tanks of which there are four, 2 on the right and 2 on the left are emptied and filled using 2 intakes, one on the right and one on the left and beside each of them there are 4 cords with a green and yellow ball on the end for starboard and a red and white ball for port. So it's simple in theory.  Except that as the boat is heeled over, we fill the windward tank from the leeward side, so at the moment for example, the starboard intake for the port tank. So I have to keep asking myself the question.  The strange thing is that at night it's easier as the navigational lights are on an I just take the ball with the same colour as the side I want to fill. In short, a simple thing becomes a real pain in the butt, just because I keep looking behind me.  What if I looked behind using a mirror and was colour-blind.  That would really get confusing."
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) in his daily message

 

"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