"What an interesting time of the race on board Bahrain Team Pindar. Firstly getting around Cape Horn, and now preparing to spend 24 hours sheltering from a fierce storm behind Staten Island off the tip of Tierra del Fuego. Last night I had a magical rounding of Cape Horn. There were 40 knot winds and seas as I approached, and then in the last few miles the winds dropped, the seas calmed, and I sailed serenely past in the moonlight. The Cape’s massive triangular bulk loomed over Bahrain Team Pindar, and ashore 2 small lighthouses signalled their warning, though it felt perfectly safe just 2 miles off the shore. At times I could smell the land as the breeze shifted to the North, and after 60 odd days at sea that was a great pleasure. After the Cape it was a new world of flat seas, clear skies and a breeze from the north, it really is amazing the divide between one side of the Horn and the other. In the glow of Antarctica and the light of the moon it never got dark, and I set off at good speed towards the east tip of Staten island or Isla de los Estados. I got a call from the Race Committee to warn me of the severe gale that would strike between the Falklands and Tierra del Fuego. This is the one I have been following from its birth as a tropical depression between Tahiti and New Zealand, and it is now winding itself up again into a ball of warm fury as it spins towards Cape Horn. The limited weather data I have now did not show the severity of the storm. It is certainly the strongest storm of this Vendée Globe according to the experts, and I was not going to disagree with the combined knowledge of Météo France and the Chilean forecasters. So tonight I will have 60 knots of northerly winds as I shelter behind the 30 mile long island. Just off the western tip, between it and Tierra del Fuego is the Straits of Le Maire, and its forecast to be blowing 85 knots through the strait. I had better stay away from that end of the island! I am just sitting with 4 reefs in the main with the storm jib ready to go if needed.  The plan is to have the strong northerlies 00-03z, then as the low centre passes just to the south the wind will become variable, hopefully light, until 1500 tomorrow when the new SW wind first approaches. At this point I am due to move off, around the East end of the island (not via the Le Maire strait!) and start heading north, with rapidly increasing SW winds propelling me northwards. It won’t be champagne sailing but it will be fast and similar to the Southern Ocean sailing we have been doing for the last month.  It’s a shame to see your competitors ahead getting away further, but this is a game played with Mother Nature, and sometimes we are too small to play her games, and have to wait our turn till she has had her fun. It does not happen very often, but there are cases where the winds are just too powerful for yachts, like in the Route du Rhum 2002 which created carnage for the Multihull fleet and of course the famous Fastnet and Sydney Hobart storms."
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily log
 

"A nervous anticipation is in the air for the sailors, the boats and the race direction as well as all of you watching at home, I am sure. After spending 38 days in the southern Ocean, Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn, all celebrations go on hold as we await a storm hurtling towards us from the Pacific. Strategy to avoid the worst of the weather has been discussed by the skippers involved, the race direction and Meteo France. Thankfully we all agreed on the same course of action. The aim is to hang out around Cape Horn and the centre of the low will pass overhead, then we will experience south east to south west strong winds as we get the cold feel of the west of the low as it tracks east. Slowly with much reduced sail we can follow it from about tomorrow afternoon hoping for it to move ahead of us. This should hopefully see us miss the worst of the weather. I am currently 30 miles off the Chilean coast seeing glaciers and mountains reaching into the sky. It really is an awesome sight. I am being heading quite dramatically at the moment, which may be a sign of things moving a little faster than expected. I went on deck to trim the sails to upwind and saw numerous dolphins playing around the bow. I haven't seen that sight since the Atlantic so it must be a good sign! With taffeta ribbons streaming from my mainsail, it will be relieved to go into 4 reefs for a rest. I just need to be extra careful with the fibres so they do not get damaged in the blow coming. All being well I should be through the worst of it all late tomorrow night. In the mean time it will be a testing twenty four hours, then we can celebrate Cape Horn."
Dee Caffari (Aviva) in her daily message
 

"Hello everyone from a very bumpy S Atlantic Ocean! First of all I would like to let everyone (especially the French) know that, although I admit us Brits have a strange taste in food, I did not eat the seaweed. Nor did I do a DIY Thalasso with it! I just swore at it a lot and threw it back where it belongs! The thought of smearing that slimy stuff all over my body makes me cringe! Now, I am struggling to accept the fact that I seem to be going upwind back up the same Atlantic that I went upwind down..... that's just not fair. Although I mustn't complain, as compared to my friends at Cape Horn suffering a horrible storm,this is nothing! Today has been very very bumpy as Roxy is going through warm water current eddies and we have had 25-30 knots of wind all day. Yet again I have been wearing my lunch rather than eating it, and I even gave up trying to make my afternoon cup of tea! But luckily there have been no giant kelp attacks today, nor manoeuvres, except trimming and easing with the gusts (a wet job!) so I have had some time to get some much needed rest. There is a small mystery though.... someone has stolen my headtorch and one sock. I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled to catch the culprit before anything else goes missing..."
Sam Davies (Roxy) in her daily message
 

"Unfortunately we all think of the Horn as the end of the big seas and gales, but for me, Dee and Arnaud it is not going to be the case. The biggest storm so far is barrelling across the Pacific to reach Cape Horn at midday Friday. It is going to give very strong winds until well north of the Falklands, so it is unavoidable, unless it decides to calm down of its own accord. I have been following it for a while and I believe it was the tropical gale that affected JP Dick near New Zealand, and then swung into the roaring forties and joined the procession of depressions. Steve White is getting some strong winds from it now, in its early stages. It is really quite disappointing to have to deal with another big gale, but I just have to get as prepared as possible and try to avoid the worst of the conditions. Unlike the last gale it won’t be downwind, there will be upwind in northerlies at first and then reaching in strong westerlies, so it will be tougher on the boat, which I don’t like. I am going to do some extra work to the bow repair once in the calmer conditions past the Cape, and also work on my iridium open port communication system that stopped working in the last gale. As I approached the coast I gybed around some islands that were 6 miles out of position relative to what is drawn on the computer chart. Rather scary as these are small, unlit islands, so very dangerous at night. So mixed emotions on BTP, enjoying the spectacular scenery of the end of the world, and of getting close to rounding the Horn, but also apprehensive of the next 3 days. I do want to get through with no more breakages, and then to be able to race properly again up the Atlantic to the finish."
Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in a message sent yesterday evening before he rounded the Horn at 04.15 GMT
 

After two months of work in the yard in Les Sables d’Olonne to get the boat back in shape after she was dismasted the day after the start, Kito de Pavant is going to be getting back together with his red monohull to prepare the 2009 season. The boat left Les Sables d’Olonne by road on Tuesday evening to be transported to the Mediterranean.
 

"Tried the storm jib when it got dark last night, but slowed the boat from 10.5 to 7.5 knots, more than even I could accept and I'm very conservative, so went back to staysail. Staysail is too big on the boat, need one smaller as there is too big of a gap between it and storm jib. In front part of new low being spun off of the main low. The forecast seems to change relatively significantly each iteration. Had 2 naps just now, about 1 hour each, last one seemed like 10 minutes. I don't feel very calm right now, very tense and stressful, a lot of load on the boat, and I'm very alone down here in the south and in the middle. Trying to be very careful with everything."
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message