"Good morning or good evening, depending on where you are. I've made it to 179 W.  The wind shifted, as forecast, making it a little more difficult since this morning. Listening to the Doors and thinking of the next Pacific Gates.   I force myself to carry out a tour of inspection each day both on the deck and down below. Problems happen so suddenly.  I just found a packet of cake I had lost. I also discovered I have some presents for the New Year.  Father Christmas was really generous this year!"
Arnaud Boissières (Akéna Vérandas)in his daily message
 

"What a difference a day makes, it is really incredible. The wind has eased, and this mornings big squalls have been replaced with a gentle eighteen to twenty knots of breeze which is giving us a broad reach in beautiful sunshine with not a cloud in site - not one! It is incredibly bright outside and the sea is a rich mid blue flecked with small amounts of white here and there, the albatross look like they have been freshly bleached and positively shine. It is like I have rediscovered colour after days of grey - the red of the mainsheet and the yellow of the little tracker beacon lashed to the back of the boat are vivid as if seen as if through new eyes. I have been on deck for the first time in as long as I can remember without oilskins and not got soaked. I had one of the last tortelinis with two pots of tomato sauce and some of the cheddar grated on top, and a slice of bread, which is vacuum packed.   I finished up with a couple of satsumas, I have hardly any of those left now, and as the fridge (cockpit) is warming up they won't last long now. Suitably fortified I am now ready for anything. Now we are at the half way point it is strange to begin to see how things have been used up. I have used one of the big tanks of diesel, and I have one left and a full day tank with another eighty eight litres in it, so we should be fine. Most of the freeze dried main meals I like have gone too, and I am left with lots of rice dishes - I am not a good vegetarian and not that keen on rice! The wind is forecast to ease further, and I am going to take advantage of this and do some mending! The gooseneck and the generator namely, but in the meantime I am going to enjoy the sunshine and waste some diesel on listening to the stereo much too loudly!"
Steve White (Toe in the Water) in his daily message
 

"Just as I was contemplating my sleeping bag, there was a loud bang as Roxy hit something small, but solid. I know the sound and recognised that my rudder had popped up on the impact (to save itself) so I rushed on deck to make sure it was out of the water. It was the leeward rudder that had ejected, so now Roxy was careering dangerously all over the ocean as Chuck (the pilot) desperately tried to control us with the remaining rudder, which was only half in the water half of the time. To avoid all sort of wipeout I quickly dropped 3 reefs into the main and rolled the solent. Then I started on the rudder. It has a nice "war wound" to show for the impact, but nothing serious. Unfortunately it was the rudder that I have already repaired, so I had to do some un-bolting and 'DIY' before I could put a new fuse in and put the rudder back down. This took a little while, and the usual dunking in the back of the boat with my head underwater as the waves break into my workspace whilst I re-bolted the thing back together! All in 25knots of wind and the pitch black, of course. By this time, the wind shift I was waiting for had materialised and so I needed to gybe,  This was concluded with the shaking of two of the three reefs I had hastily put into the main earlier. By this time you can imagine how tired, hot and sweaty I was. But the wind was dropping, less than 25 knots and I needed Genevieve, the big gennaker. I considered my state of fatigue (very) and the fact that it was still quite "fruity" for the installation of Genevieve and decided that a couple of hours sleep would put me in better (and safer) form for the manoeuvre! So, I treated myself to the rest, and now Genevieve is in place, and ROXY is rocketing along - her old self again!"
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message
 

Over the past 24 hours, Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) currently in the lead, 9558.6 miles from the finish, sailed the greatest distance towards the finish. Between 19h yesterday and this evening, he covered 398.6 miles

After retiring from the race on 7th December, Unai Basurko (Pakea Bizkaia) is continuing to head up the Atlantic and is currently sailing off the Canaries. He now intends to stop in Cascaïs in Portugal on 2nd January to spend a few days there, which will allow him to get some more fuel, rest and study the weather before heading up the coast of Spain into the Bay of Biscay. His goal is still to sail all the way home to Bilbao, which he should reach in the first half of January.
 

"I have just notified the race committee that I must officially retire from the Vendee Globe 2008/09. After the knock down and damage to the mast I continued to look for solutions to fix the broken spreaders while the mast is still standing. After considering all the options we have concluded that it is not possible to make a repair without outside assistance, which is not allowed in this race. I was hoping I would wake up and it was all a bad dream. It's time to move on with a plan to move forward. We have accomplished so much; building the IMOCA 60 in Canada, preparing and qualifying for the hardest race in the world and unfortunately being knocked out indiscriminately like so many others, among them some of the elite single-handed sailors in the world. At first I was devastated, not for me, but for those individuals and corporate sponsors that have helped us get this far. But in the last few days, their words to me of encouragement have shown me that we have nothing to be ashamed about; that we tried our best and played well. I'm not sure if we made a difference or not but I think you will agree that this type of event truly captures the imagination of the world. These thoughts have turned it around for me and now I'm ready to move forward. The immediate plan is to take the boat to Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It's just under 900 miles away and it will take me about 8 more days to reach port. If the mast is still standing when I get there, we will be able to remove it from the boat and fix the spreaders and the mast will be whole again. We have been in contact with other teams and preparing ourselves to ship Spirit of Canada home, saving all the wear and tear on the boat and crew. Once back in the northern hemisphere, we can refurbish the boat and prepare it for what's next."

Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada)