“Today I have had a whole 24 hours without stopping for the first time in 6 days! Yippee! At last Roxy is happy to be doing speeds of over ten knots. She's skipping over the waves. No more slowing down until we're in the channel in Les Sables d'Olonne, I hope! Everything is in maximum stacked positions, the rig and sails are just perfect and we're "on Fire." When I download my weather information, morning and evening, I take a sneaky look at the messages page on my website. It is so amazing and encouraging to see so many people who are supporting me in this race from all over the world. It is a moment in my day that I look forward to now and afterwards I am motivated than ever.”
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message
 

“Solent and 2 reefs. Gray, gray, gray. Albatross flying around. Barograph steady at 993mb. Heading south as a bit more favorable within the parameters of wind shifts in the next few days, bit awkward wind shifts that will make it longer to get to Cape Horn. Not planned, tried to stay away in fact, but had to gybe this morning because of our lift, and now find ourselves eerily in the lat/long of our capsize in 1990 (55s/79w). Did not want this reminder, did not want to think about it if not necessary. A bit unsettling.”
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily log
 

“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.