"Another calm day, but that doesn’t worry me. Today I carried out an inventory of my food supplies and I have enough for at least 70 more days. I spent the day filming, taking pictures and tidying up. Worked a bit on the book and thought things over. It was really my first relaxing, calm day at sea, which I really enjoyed, as I didn’t have other things on my mind. I think that is fine as there will be tougher days ahead."
Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) in his daily message from last night
 

"Today has been a peaceful day in the South Atlantic. With a light wind and a flat sea, the decks have remained dry and Roxy has been full main + solent for the first time in weeks! It is so nice to be able to go on deck without oilskins and boots, and to be able to move around without risk of being catapulted off balance! I have managed to get some rest, go through my check-list, and also some maintenance and running repairs such as splicing work to repair my chaffed reef lines. Roxy has been drying out and so have my oilskins (at last!)I have also spent a fair amount of time pouring over weather files, none of which say the same thing. I have concluded that the next few days will be complicated, frustrating and a little slow. I need to cross my fingers, whistle for the wind and trust my feelings! Right now Roxy is gliding along happily under the starry night and I'm going to set my alarm for 90 minutes and get some "zeds" whilst the conditions allow..."
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message
 

"I had a very interesting night behind Staten Island as the storm force northerlies blew down. For the first couple of hours it was relatively calm with 20 knots of wind and the boat comfortably sat hove to by a couple of tiny granite islands with just 4 reefs in the mainsail. Then the clouds started to increase, the rain began and the wind crept up. I started to sail up and down the 30 mile island to find the most sheltered spot.  I certainly seemed to have found the windiest at one point with violent 50 knot williwaws (gusts) coming down through a gap in the tall mountains. I sailed away downwind of this spot in driving rain so thick the radar could not pick out the tiny islands, and a very general chart on the computer. I used the old track of the boat on the computer and the GPS to reference our position against the landmarks so as not to hit the islands. A few miles downwind of the gap the winds fanned out and weakened to 30 knots so I hove to again with just the 4 reefs, lashed the wheels together to protect the rudders, and went below to monitor our position. Fortunately there was a current taking us to windward and with the leeway the boat was making through the water, we sat in roughly the same spot, 2 miles off the land. I stayed up to monitor our position and the weather until the wind dropped away at dawn as the depression passed almost overhead. The barometer dropped to 963mb which is very low. I then set the wind alarm and grabbed a short sleep. Before long the wind had started coming in from the SW, at 10 knots. Within 15 minutes this was 30 knots and I was heading for the west end of the island and the end of the Tierra del Fuegan holiday. By the time I was clear of the island it was up to 45 knots and the 4 reefs in the main quite adequate in the short sea that was coming from the previous northerly winds. So for a few hours I was in the eye of the storm as all around the winds raged in all directions. The day was spent sailing fast to the Falklands in increasing winds and seas. Wind was steadily between 45 and 55 knots and the seas got up to at least 7 metres despite the only 200 mile fetch to Patagonia. It felt just like the other side of the Horn. It was certainly the right thing to do to shelter from this storm, as I was not in the windiest zone, and it was plenty enough wind. In the evening I was approaching the Falklands so I did not sleep at all to make sure that we avoided the rocky coastline. The Falklands are likely to be the last land I see until the finish in about a month’s time."
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message

"Boat taking terrible pounding in 18-22 foot cross seas, breaking seas. Boat motion is violent, dangerous outside on deck, and dangerous inside also--must be braced in every direction at all times. I eased the keel cant some last night so that the boat would crash land more on her side than on her bottom, that seemed to help. To go into the engine/keel compartment for that adjustment, I felt it necessary to wear my helmet in case I got thrown across the compartment. With a winch, jammers, and a vise, all very hard objects that I might fetch up on, I could get hurt. Only about 2 hours sleep in last 40 or so, watching instruments, trying to think of anything I could do to ease the onslaught. I kept easing the mainsail out, until almost not bearing at all, and that seemed to help. The sea state is big and chaotic, and no sail adjustments are going to solve that."

Rich Wilson (Great American III)

After a long voyage back up the Atlantic following his retirement from the Vendée Globe on the 7th December because of a damaged rudder, the Basque sailor Unai Basurko finally reached his home port of Getxo (Bilbao) late this morning. It was clearly an emotional time for the skipper of Pakea Bizkaia, as the crowds turned out to welcome him home in brilliant sunshine.
 

"Earlier we sailed directly into the trough of the elongated low, the extra tropical storm HETA, which has been sitting here in mid-Pacific spinning off secondary lows. Heta is finally about to move itself to the southeast and on to Cape Horn. After getting the big wind shift at the trough mid-point, we are coming out the east side and heading directly for the east Pacific ice gate. The wind will build, and the seas will build, and so we are hunkered down with the sail combination ready for when that happens, giving up some speed, but its OK for me. Even though we're going across the seas, the boat is pounding as it goes off waves and crashes into the troughs. Some of these are absolutely bone jarring. Last night, when we gybed in the trough to go east, I went forward and bailed the forward compartments, 4 buckets from the forepeak, and had to use the bilge pump system to bail the sail locker amidships. Also, since I could still hear water sloshing in the compartment underneath the cockpit, and our two autopilot compasses are in there, I got the water out of there, not by going back and bailing in the lazerette, because that was far too dangerous and ineffective, but by draining the compartment into the main cabin. We have a small screw drain plug between the two compartments, and although it took a while to get comfortable with draining water into the cabin, it was the simplest. Good news is that the water stayed on one side of the centerline, and I could bail it into a bucket, pour that into the sink in the main cabin, and then pump it overboard. It was simpler, and we got 4 buckets out of the cockpit compartment."
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message