The leaders have now completed three quarters of the Vendée Globe. Out of the 24,840 theoretical miles of the course, Michel Desjoyeaux now only has 5500 miles left to cover. He reckons he will be spending around twenty days more at sea, which would mean he would arrive in Les Sables d'Olonne on the last weekend in January. This is also confirmed by the calculations made by Sylvain Mondon of Météo France.
 

"On the final run in to the Horn, the ice gate is behind me and there are 1500 miles to go till the Atlantic. It feels like I am getting close now after the long tour around Antarctica. But it’s not going to be quite so easy… Last night I was getting Bahrain Team Pindar all ready for the winds to come, putting all the sails below before they became soaked, draining any water out of the boat and giving it a good checkover. I went into the bow compartment, through the watertight door, then through the final door to the crash box forward. All looked ok, and on my way back I checked all the bulkheads for damage, but on checking the reinforcing longitudinals on the floor, I found another crack, very similar to the one in the water ballast longitudinals. I saw another important repair coming on, and now with a very sparse supply of materials. I devised a repair plan that should work, just using bolts to attach shaped floorboard pieces either side of the cracked longitudinal. If that does not hold, I can add some precious sikaflex or epoxy filler. Currently I have everything prepared and just waiting for a bit more information before choosing how to get everything bolted up. Sikaflex can take movement but is not very strong, whilst epoxy is very strong but cannot take any movement before it sets, and using just bolts leaves you options and saves adhesives for later, but is the weakest. Weather is moderate at the moment, though there is a swell from forward of the beam that is not helping to calm the motion in the bow and allowing the crack to move slightly. As I get nearer to the Horn the winds will pick up so should be a classic rounding with plenty of breeze. However, the quicker I get there, the less strong the winds will be so it has been frustrating going slowly over the last hours, as I spend time nursing the boat and doing another repair. I am keen to get going again!"

Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message
 

“Going for West Pacific Ice Gate. Intense low north of the high that O'm in has been sitting there, perfectly formed, but grib files showed it originally moving slowly, then dissolving against high. I didn't really believe that, and latest grib shows that it will continue south, and eventually overtake this area with east wind, (strong). That would be bad, so going hard to try to get to ice gate and escape likely ESE’ly into tail of west wind before that happens. We'll see. I don't generally push this hard, but now is the time.”
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message sent during the night
 

“I am counting down the miles to Cape Horn now! I have had a "calm" morning - less than 20 knots of wind! Sometimes it harder work when there's less wind. As the wind dropped off this morning, and after gybing to get a better sea state, I had the usual wrestle with Genevive (my big gennaker) to get her out of her bag and up into use. So I have had another lovely afternoons sailing, gliding down the huge Pacific swell! It really is amazing how so much of the front of the boat flies clear of each wave as we take off on each surf! When Roxy is on a big surf like that, the bow wave comes out from the keel area (as the bow is clear of the water) and there is a big fountain of spay shooting out from the beam instead of the bow! The wind increased and a few 30-knot squalls have passed over Roxy. I managed to get Genevive rolled back up and this time she folded obligingly into her bag, and I stacked her to windward! In the last couple of hours I have had a big 45-knot squall, which was pretty impressive. It was twilight, with the huge full moon, and I could see it coming, so I was on deck, having taken the 2nd reef, wondering if I should roll away the solent... it was a bit late! But in the end the 45 knots didn't last too long, so Roxy stayed under control, but I think I got a speeding ticket for that one! The wind will build and stay squally and unstable for my run in to Cape Horn, so the sailing is probably not going to be quite so ideal from now on, but there's not long to go now!”
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message during the night
 

We should learn more this morning about the situation concerning Veolia Environnement, which hit a sea mammal on Thursday. Roland Jourdain will be one of the skippers featured on the radio session at 10.30 (GMT) and will offer us a summary (in French) of what happened. He is due to give us a run down on the damage that resulted from the collision and tell us about how his repairs are going.  We will of course bring you the main details of what he says later on the website in English.

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…