“It feels like Bahrain Team Pindar is finally getting away from the light wind area that we have been stuck in for 36 hours and beginning to move. Boat speed is now hitting between 10 and 14 knots and I have the big spinnaker and full mainsail flying and the boat is once again slicing through the blue, sparkling waters, almost on course for the corner of Brazil. For 2 nights and a day have been making slow progress out of the high pressure and hoping that it would not expand to trap me further. It may have been slow, but the seas were relatively flat and the skies not squally so it was smooth progress, but with a lot of sail trimming necessary to keep the boat moving. Last night I was going particularly slowly and I had not had a position report and, as usual, you imagine that your nearest rival is catching you up because you are going slowly. I was steering and I saw a light on the starboard side, looking just like a yacht with its spinnaker illuminated and I thought that was Dee for about a entire minute, until that tiniest sliver of faint crescent shape rose even higher on the horizon and I could see I had been duped by the moon playing its best party trick. I have been fooled in the past, but only for a second, so this was the moon in its most subtle disguise yet! During the light winds I spent a good deal of time in the suitcase sized space at the back of the boat, working on the Fleet 77 communication device and managed to get it working! This is fantastic news to be able to download accurate weather off the boat and for uploading images for the website. So now looking at a couple of days of faster sailing to take BTP to the latitude of Rio and I hope to be making up some decent distance on Safran and Roxy ahead.”
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message
 

Today the Safran Group announced that they would be continuing their partnership with Marc Guillemot until 2012… excellent news for the Breton sailor, who was contacted this evening during the weekly radio show in French. Becalmed off the coast of Brazil, « Marco » was clearly back to civilisation. «I’m surrounded by oil rigs and fishing boats. I just got caught up in a drift line. I was doing 10/11 knots and when the fishermen saw me they began to shout on the VHF and chase after me! Then, I went by another one for what must have been two miles. It’s hot and heavy, but unfortunately, there’s no wind. I must admit that this morning I was in a foul mood.»

The skipper of Foncia is now only 2772 miles from the finish and the Vendée Globe organisers have therefore been looking at his ETA. According to Sylvain Mondon of Météo France, he is likely to reach les Sables d’Olonne between 01h local time (00h GMT) on Saturday 31st January and 01h local time (00h GMT) on Monday 2nd February.

The skipper of Veolia Environnement crossed the Equator this morning at 8h30 GMT a little over two days after Foncia.
Michel Desjoyeaux took 71 days 17h and 12 mins to cover the distance from Les Sables- the Equator, while Bilou has taken 73 days 20 hours and 28 minutes. Meanwhile he continues to suffer the effects of the Doldrums and will have to wait a few more hours to find the trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere
 

First the good news. I’m going to be able to send photos of life on board via Iridium, even if it’s a bit long, as I really want to share my experience. The second good news is that I have found some wind. Not very strong but it is pushing my veranda towards the north. After reaching after the Falklands where I lost out to the British, the wind has eased off and shifted making me head northwards, while they continue towards the NE. I am now quite some way to the west with a slight westerly flow, which tends to drag me towards the high... The charts aren’t very clear and different from reality with light winds. On board all is well. Reading, trimming, mostly outside and something I didn’t do much in the Southern Ocean, I’m spending time at the helm without foulies, without a hat, but with sunglasses on!» Arnaud Boissières (Akéna Vérandas) by e-mail.

“Well, I am still trying to escape the clutches of this thundery front! I have been sailing into it all day, but inside the front there are thunderstorms and rain, and no wind, so each time I reach the front, Roxy stops, the front moves forward, and so we find ourselves spat out the back! Then the process starts again! So, it seems that Roxy is only allowed to move forward as fast as the front is oving.... no matter how hard I try! It is hard work, as in the front, before it dies off, the wind is shifty and gusty, so I have been manoeuvring, gybing, tacking.... There are loads of insects hitching a ride on roxy - all kinds of flying things, which are fine during the day, but quite scary at night because when I am wearing my head-torch they keep flying into my face! As you can imagine, a girl with a big moth suddenly flapping around her head -traditional noisy reaction!  As I write, we have come to another windless stop, the sails are flapping around in the swell, and there is torrential rain battering the decks! At least it's warm rain! I have to go and be ready to change trim for the next
puff of wind....”
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message