Thirteen miles from the line and we are alongside Arnaud with his mum Francine and his dad Bernard on the media boat with us. He looks relaxed and happy making a perfect approach, carefully targetting the line under full mainsail and gennaker. The breeze is probably 9-11 knots and he is making 8-10 knots just trucking along nicely with his mainsheet eased and the gennaker comfortably sheeted. He says he is looking forward to his oysters from Arcachon, his mum and dad are delighted to see him. His boat looks in good nick, some abrasion and chafe to the mainsail, but otherwise all A1 conditiion, including the skipper. 

Probably 20 media boats and spectator boats.  The sun is out but chilly, breeze up and down a bit.

The Vendée Globe Village will remain open until Tuesday evening (24th February). From Wednesday, a podium and press conference hall will be set up on the Place du Vendée Globe for the final skippers. Those still at sea will therefore be honoured in a fitting manner and will be able to address the public, who are expected to turn up in force to welcome them back to Les Sables in the coming weeks.

Unable to enter the harbour in les Sables before miday because of the tide, Arnaud Boissières has been waiting off the coast since first light.  He is set to cross the finish line and enter the harbour immediately afterwards early this afternoon

"Today I inspected the diesel tanks and pumped 55 l diesel. I had to do it by hand as the electric pump flooded. By the end the hand pump was leaking, so I had to try to clean everything up, as the stench of diesel inside is dreadful. I also began to clean my fruit cans. I have around twenty of them and they have been in the bilge oil and water. The switch on the bilge pump wasn’t working, so I repaired that too. I thought about climbing the mast, but with the rain and gusts, it is not wise to get up there. It can wait for a few days, until I'm in the Doldrums. According to the latest forecasts, I could get through without any hold ups, but we shall see. Around 500 miles left to the Equator, so by Tuesday, we should be there!"

Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) in his daily message yesterday evening

Before going off on holiday with his family, Michel Desjoyeaux has been talking about his future projects. The skipper of Foncia ,"I'm trying to find ways to use my experience to try to resolve problems in other sports. For example, I'm in contact with a sports federation where it may be possible to transfer our technologies. With Mer Agitée, I'd like to work too on new technologies to improve wheel chairs, making them of carbon, which is of course, much lighter. I've been thinking about this for a long time in particular with a friend who is in a wheel chair... I'd really like to help people working in that area. This is important to me and I've already come up with a few sketches… I'm also working with my partner FONCIA about what comes after 2009… »

"30 years ago I sailed downwind in the trades from the Canaries to Barbados.  I was impressed by how steady they were, in velocity, direction, and cloud  cover. Now, crossing these same trades, I'm impressed with how erratic they are, 12-28 knots of wind, direction varying by 25 degrees, cloud cover looking like an impending storm nearly always, It's totally different.  Last night, with 30+ knots across the deck, went to storm jib and 3 reefs. As I've commented before, our staysail is too big, and we can't carry it when we should be able to, so have to go down all the way, a huge leap to the storm jib. But with 30 knots, we were still making 10 knots, so it was ok. And it helped me get some rest to know that if a squall came through, I didn't have to suit up and jump on deck to deal with it. Actually got into the bunk for maybe the second time since Cape Horn, and slept for somewhere between 15 and 60 minutes, not sure, but it felt good. Of course at daybreak, the wind died, to 12 knots, and just when I was going into the bunk for nap #2, had to go put away the storm jib and roll out the staysail, so that pretty much wakes you up for the day.  Working on fluids, food, and rest. More of the same for the next couple of  days, then a very strange and complex weather scenario to try to negotiate."

Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message