“I have had a very special day today. I think being alone at sea allowed me to celebrate my birthday with more people than I would have at home. I had messages and phone calls from other skippers, messages from friends and family as well as an overwhelming number from supporters following the race and Aviva's progress. The team had stashed some presents and numerous cards onboard so I was able to open them and enjoy the fact that a present was a chocolate sponge pudding and a bottle of diet coke. They both tasted fantastic but were over way too quick.  The other present was the fact that the wind filled in this morning.  Probably a couple of hours after Brian on Pindar which explains his get away, but Aviva has been sailing a great pace all day in the right direction. Blue skies with fluffy clouds have surrounded us and the sea has been smooth making it comfortable sailing. My only concern is listening to the fluttering of the repair I did the other day on the mainsail blowing in the wind, as half of it has come unstuck and now it will need to wait a couple of days for the right conditions to drop the main and fix it again. Still while we are making good progress it reduces the number of days my mainsail needs to last for!”
Dee Caffari (Aviva) in her daily message
 

“After yet another agonisingly slow day, I really do hope that we have finally hooked into the Easterly trade winds. The wind certainly does not do what it is forecast to do, as instead of 10-15 knots, today I had a frustrating 2-4 knots all day. As you can imagine, it has been tough for the morale as I have seen more miles evaporate away as Roxy wallows around and everyone else speeds on forwards. I had a music session on my ipod at dusk, to try to forget my frustrations. I discovered some good songs, amongst others, from Queen’s greatest hits that worked well "The Show Must Go On", "Killer Queen"..... Now I have found my ten knots of wind, although difficult at first as I passed through a line of squalls that shifted the wind more than 100 degrees several times. It is pitch black and I have just been on deck trimming the sails for the next squall cloud and I was surprised by a very cheeky black bird who is sitting on my coachroof, just a meter away from me. I squawked back at him, which made him flap his wings a bit, but he stood his ground and carried on staring at me as if to say "get on with your job and stop staring at me". But I couldn't help giving him a big blast of torch light right in the eyes just to show who really is the boss!”
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message
 

“Another great day of sailing on BTP as I speed northwards towards the corner of Brazil. Making up miles on the fleet with these ideal reaching winds, I am having a Mich Desj moment. Should have fast speeds for the next 400 miles before entering the ‘Rio doldrums’ which have ensnared Sam for so long. Fortunately for us they should be moderating soon to allow a reasonable passage into the SE Tradewinds and onwards to the ‘real doldrums’. Right behind, birthday girl, Dee has her foot down and is getting more confident with her new ‘ventilated’ mainsail, so there is a real britpack race developing along the Brazilian coastline. I should be on this starboard tack for the next 4000 miles until reaching the Azores Archipelago, so I spent some time rearranging all the furniture to account for my house leaning over to the left.. There was squid ink on the foredeck this morning so a squid must have got trapped on deck before escaping back to the sea, and I also found a tiny flying fish on deck. It will take a few days of sun bleaching to remove the squid ink, it is powerful stuff. No more krill in the water now, it is too warm for them, so consequently the sea and bird life not as rich as in the Southern Ocean.”
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message
 

Over three weeks have passed since Temenos II’s arrival in Fremantle after Dominique Wavre suffered serious problems with the keel. The three teams of Temenos II, Gitana Eighty and Ecover opted to team up and thus "Team Gitanover" was born, with each team working on each of the monohulls in turn. Dominique described his Australian stopover: “Together with Mike and Loi ck’s teams, we opted to team up to get the job done. As such Gitanover saw the light of day! All of us were then able to work on each boat, one at a time, which enabled us to be a lot more efficient. We put a lot of work into the dismantling and preparation with a view to loading the boats. The loading went very well and the Australian dockers took really great care of our boats. Luck would have it that we ended up with one of only two French registered container ships belonging to the ship owner. We were allowed to go aboard and the ship was really impressive. Temenos ended up perched 25 metres up. It’s not the usual position you’d expect to find a 60 footer in. She’ll really roll around up there during the trip so we had to ensure she was lashed down firmly. Even after a retirement you feel like you’re still part of the race. It’s a strange feeling that of not finishing off the story. You can’t stop going over the race and imagining yourself still at sea with the rest of the fleet. The boat will arrive in Le Havre on 15th February. The mast and hull will be loaded onto two lorries and will head down to La Rochelle as a wide load. Once there, we’ll begin our investigations. The aim is not to point a finger at a guilty party but above all, to understand why the breakage occurred so as to avoid such a thing happening again. Mike and I realised on examining the two keels in Fremantle, that though mine had actually broken, his was also heading that way. We’ll see if it’s possible to make repairs or we shall need to manufacture an entirely new keel.” After a short stopover in Malaysia, the skipper will head back to Europe in early February and may well be able to see in the race leaders as they finish the Vendée Globe.

Dee Caffari (Aviva) is celebrating her 36th birthday today and so far has received over 2300 messages from around the world, including special greetings from British Olympic heroes Sir Matthew Pinsent, Dame Kelly Holmes, Jonathan Edwards, Dean Macey, Colin Jackson, as well as from actor/adventurer Charley Boorman. Dee’s reaction: “It is just so cool that these guys have taken the time to remember that I'm out here and it's my birthday tomorrow. To have them celebrating it with me is such a morale boost. I seem to spend a lot of birthdays on my own at sea so it just brilliant to have messages from my own sporting heroes!"

“I'm writing this as Roxy slips along under a magnificent starry sky... It makes a nice change to the clouds and rain pelting down on the deck! I have been catching up on lost sleep today, having had virtually none in the last 48 hours! It has been bliss, and much needed. I was definitely on the verge of being tired, emotional, and irrational yesterday morning, which for me is very unusual and a warning sign that sleep is necessary! Luckily the conditions allowed me several hours of great sleep! During the middle of last night, I had unenviable job of stacking all my gear from leeward to windward (low side to high side), as the wind built a little and Roxy needed the weight in the right place. Normally stacking is always done before the tack or gybe so I can use gravity to help, but in this situation there is no escaping a tough session of weight training! The positive side is that after the stacking, I get to go on deck to cool down. Admittedly, I would love that the decks were awash with spray, as that would mean we were going fast, but as that is not the case I can make the most of a bit of peaceful star-gazing. I am starting to realise that there are less and less days left in this race and I want to make the most of every minute and every view that I have left. I can’t get enough of it! In the early part of the evening the moon wasn’t out, and as there were no lights, the view was magnificent! There is something quite magical about being alone under such a sky.”
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message