"I had got everything as prepared as possible yesterday for the impending gale, down to making sure I had torches and knives in my pockets in case we got rolled over. In speaking with Dee behind me I knew that the wind was rising rapidly for her, and she was getting 45 to 60 knots and it was still increasing. A nervous couple of hours, until the wind actually reaches you and then you are fine and dealing with it. The anticipation is often worse than the reality, or at least this time it was. In fact, going on deck and steering the boat through the big swells was really exhilarating today, at times like snowboarding a 60 foot board through undulating soft powder. I also had over 60 knots at times, but mostly 45-55 knots. Seas grew all night, but the boat handled it well under 4 reefs and the storm jib, with some ballast in. I did not have the keel fully canted, to give more stability at higher heel angles. I tried to position myself to miss the worst of the forecast wind, by staying a little to the north and east, without running into the Andes. Am now just less than 100 miles from the coast so will gybe shortly to get southwards and lined up for an approach to the Horn from the West. Just over a day away from the Horn now, and that should have been the last gale till I am through into the Atlantic, otherwise should be a mere 25-35 knots."
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message during the night
 

"Rough seas this morning. The "shell" (the Fleet 77 dome) has joined King Jean's bulb. The seas were huge with strong winds (peak speed 62 knots). Either you are under reduced sail and you just put up with it or you try to sail normally. I chose the second solution surfing along at 30.5 knots; it didn't get me very far, as the boat was hit by a wave on the beam and I heard a cracking sound (the Fleet antenna). The boat was knocked down and everything went flying in the boat. A few little knocks and a very worrying time. I put on my dry suit and that was just as well. Now I'm recharging the batteries until I reach the Cape. The Cape is a reward for hard work! The sun is out and I'm not unhappy about that."
Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) in his daily message
 

"The boat was knocked down twice. The first time she stayed over for some time and I thought we had been dismasted. The second time we were hit by a wave on the beam and the Fleet was washed overboard. Once again my first reaction was to look at the mast, when I heard the bang. I thought conditions would ease off an hour ago, but they haven't. It's the first time I've seen anything like this since the start. I had 60 knots of wind just now and the waves are about 8 metres high. I have to be at the Horn by the evening of 15th, as there's another low moving in..."

Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) talking to his shore team this afternoon
 

Jean-Pierre Dick reached Auckland yesterday evening aboard Paprec-Virbac 2 after abandoning the race officially on New Year's Day

"I've just reached Auckland after more than 1800 miles (3333 km) of sailing in the Indian Ocean with a damaged rudder. It made the sailing very tricky. After my second rudder broke on 31st December 2008 following a collision with a UFO, my goal was to take my boat to a safe harbour. So now I have done that , even if it feels very strange being here in New Zealand. 13 days ago, I was racing in the Vendée Globe, and now I'm stepping ashore on the other side of the world, where the boat was built."
 

"A good day on board Bahrain Team Pindar, as we are in the lull between two gales at present, one that came through yesterday and another, stronger one, that will be with us between 0300 till 2100 tomorrow. The weather is sunny and the winds are moderate as I gybe my way down towards Cape Horn. I am trying to miss the worst of the approaching gale, that is showing over 40 knots at its centre on the grib files (which means steadily over 50 in reality), by heading slightly to the East to let the system slide down to my South West. The only problem is South America, so I am trying to position myself so I do not arrive at the coast until the bulk of the gale has blown through. That’s the difficult thing about Cape Horn, you have little room to manoeuvre to avoid the gales, as you are funnelled into a corner. The closer you are to Cape Horn the less options  you have, as there is ice to starboard and the Andes to port.  Worst case is that I have to slow down a little to let the gale pass over, but I hope that I will not have to do so. It’s good to get all the jobs ticked off, and today I got the primary autopilot and ram working again and its noticeable how much faster it works than the previous generation pilot. I feel much more secure in these big waves with the faster response. Also, I went up in the bow to tighten the bolts on the previous repair on the forward longitudinal. It’s creaking a little so not 100% happy, but it does not seem to be moving, so it will be fine till Cape Horn. Dee and I are going to stay in touch through this gale to compare notes on its progress."
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message
 

"Since Cape Horn, we keep having islands spring up right in our path! The closest one was a little tiny island 30 miles South of the Falklands called Beauchene Island. We actually had to swerve to avoid it, and I passed about a mile and a half to leeward. It was a bird-heaven, and Roxy was surrounded by all kinds of sea birds, and passing to leeward of the island was a smelly mistake as it smells of bird poo! I even had a duck (or what looked like a duck) flying round Roxy. It was so funny because it was trying to do what the albatrosses do and play in the updraft of Roxy's sails, but the duck doesn't glide, she had to keep flapping her wings, and she nearly ended up crash landing on the foredeck! I guess Lucky would have been happy to find a real friend on board! I was down below and I heard a really scary noise - like the daggerboard was breaking - and I shot up on deck to see what it was.... and there, zooming past my head was a fighter jet! Maverick and Goose came to see me! The jet did a couple of circles around Roxy, really low altitude, to say hi... they must have seen me in the cockpit so then they sped off in front of Roxy and gave me a show-off display by doing a vertical climb terminating in a barrel roll right in front of us! As you can imagine, the little girl in her pink boat stood there wide-eyed, big smile, totally bewitched by these Top Gun heroes who just made her day!"
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message