It would have been nice to be able to wish him a happy birthday under better circumstances, but today is the 37th birthday of the skipper of PRB, who is spending it in Puerto Williams, more than 10,000 kilometres from his home…
 

"It was a great start to the day - a bit of steady breeze at last, all six knots of it! I cannot describe to you what a pleasure it was to hear the hiss of the water going past the hull again as I lay in bed, it seemed an age since I had heard it last. At least the calm conditions have given me chance to complete the repairs; the gooseneck is now well and truly held in place with a fairly serious piece of composite engineering and some fairly serious dyneema lashing wound bar tight with a couple of Spanish windlasses below decks to two strong points on the keel. All the nasty cracking noises have stopped now, and I have a great deal of confidence in the repair. The generator is lashed down to some carbon dowels fitted to the bearers, as one of the mounts had ripped its bolts out and another had just sheered. I had a keel moment too. Down the side of the empty fuel tank on the starboard side, I caught sight of a dirty great bolt, and had a horrible thought that it must have been one of the draw bolts that go through the keel foil and it's socket inside the boat. I couldn't stand it any more, and I removed the tank and had a look - everything was fine. I think someone had just dropped a load of bolts down the side during the refit."

"When the sun came up and the breeze became steady, eventually it became spinnaker time. I got everything rigged and went for a hoist, but I could feel bumps as I pulled on the halyard - I thought I had damaged the top block, so down it came, and up I went instead! It is the one thing I don't like doing alone, but boy do you get a kick out of getting down on deck again afterwards! The breeze had come up and the boat was pitching and as I clung on for dear life like some sort of pole dancing koala. I really began to wish I had worn my crash helmet! All was OK up there, I just think everything had got dry, but on the way up I saw that where we had been sailing with gennaker and staysail, when we only use very little halyard tension, the halyard block had twisted and gradually sawn through the inner forestay! It is about seventy five percent through, so it was a very near thing indeed. So the rest of the day comprised four trips up to the second set of spreaders as we sailed along with full main and "Toe in the Water" kite. My arms and legs are like lead after all that I must admit, and my elbow feels like it has been injected with grit, but it will be OK tomorrow."

Please note that the radio session with the solo sailors will begin with the French competitors today at 10h30 UTC followed by the English-speaking sailors at around 11.10 UTC.
 

"To motivate everyone aboard my veranda, I have found the perfect music on my i-pod for each manoeuvre: Dj ZEBRA, a bit of Star Wars and Joey Starr remixed: anyone with sensitive ears should avoid Noir Désir and the Doors ina remix. I've also got Ac/dc, Deep Purple, Red Hot, the Clash, Joy Division and some surprises (The Virgins, The Hives), some French classics (Boris Vian, Aznavour…) Available now in your record shop! In a few hours, I'll be passing the final Pacific Gate. There are some beautiful clouds, some rain, some birds, but you guessed that. Next time I'll bring my best camera. It's now been 60 days! I don't know whether that is long or not."

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) in his daily message. 
 

"Finally passed the eastern end of the New Zealand ice gate. There is a big high pressure system to the north and the next gate is ENE, but the wind is mostly west and therefore pushing us closer to the no wind area of the high. Set the reacher last night but kept the first reef in the main as I think it is more stable for the unstable downwind conditions we have with lightening wind and trying to sail deep to avoid the high. Tried to get a bit more sleep in these calmer conditions. Spoke with Jonny Malbon as he made his way toward the North Island of New Zealand. He was in better spirits as he understands that his difficult decision was the right decision."
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message
 

"Here is a recap of events since my last filed report regarding landfall on the southern tip of Tasmania. I was able to motor the last 80 miles or so across the south side of Tasmania and then north to Hobart, arriving around 3 a.m. Sunday morning. A rigid inflatable with staff and volunteers from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania met me at the mouth of the Derwent River and assisted with getting me to a slip at the yacht club in Hobart. Sunday and Monday are just blurs in my mind as I slowly cleared the fuzziness out of my head and started to adjust to land again after 50 some odd days at sea and the shock of the retirement from the race. Slowly we are starting to work through the different options with regard to the way forward. I have been in contact with the mast builder in North America and we have determined that we need to take the mast out of the boat and do a thorough check of the masts and rigging. Some of the composite rigging has been compromised by the sharp edges of the broken spreaders so we will have to order some new cables before the boat can go sailing again. The logistics of how to get the boat home is more problematic and will take a while longer before we can make a decision on how to do this. "
Derek Hatfield (Algimouss -Spirit of Canada) in an e-mail this morning