"Today I leave France and head home for the first time since my arrival in Les Sables D'Olonne. I am very excited and yet quite sad to be leaving a finished chapter of my life behind. This really is now the end of an 18 month project.  My final few days in France have been wonderful and it began by greeting Arnaud Boissieres (Cali) sailing on Akena at the end of his race. We share a special bond after spending so much of our race sailing together and it was fabulous to see him home and get a huge welcome as the local boat and sailor in the race. The day was busy as I headed to Paris to meet Sam Davies for an interview in French on National French TV. Thankfully Sam's fluent French helped me out loads. Yesterday was a day for the local Vendée region and it began with a visit to the Sodebo Factory. They are the race partners and make the greatest pizzas. I saw how they are made and realised just how big the Sodebo empire is. It was a dream come true for me to have lunch with Sodebo food and I would like to thank them for great hospitality and of course the fantastic food. In the afternoon I went back to school and went into the class at the College Jean Monnet that had followed Aviva in the Vendee Globe Race. The children had prepared a presentation of all the work they have done covering languages, geography, science and art. It was lovely to be met with such enthusiasm and I signed many posters. I was also able to return Gully, the Seagull who completed the race with me onboard Aviva and who was a present from the children. The evening was fun as Cali and I were on TV Vendée. We did the show together before the race and so it was great to do the same again and he is always very patient with my French and I must say his English has improved loads during the race as we have communicated often, him in English and me in French. I am still quite tired and I know it will take time to recover from the race but I am pleased to be going home to sleep in my bed and use my bathroom."

Dee Caffari (Aviva) in her daily message sent yesterday evening

Based on this morning's weather charts and positions, Météo France has come up with the following ETAs for the next three boats.

- Toe in the Water: between 09h00 and 18h00 GMT on Thursday 26th February
- Great American III : from Thursday 5th March to Saturday 7th March
- Raphael Dinelli : between 9th and 11th March

Rich Wilson, Great American III: "Heading away from France, trying to cross high pressure ridge, after that, you have to look at the weather maps to see how long this could take, a high pressure system comes in very far north to give ne winds from here to France."

" Frustrating does not describe what I feel."

Based on this morning's weather charts and positions, Météo France has come up with the following ETAs for Steve White and Rich Wilson.

- Toe in the Water: between 03h00 and 18h00 GMT on Thursday 26th February
- Great American III : from 00h00 GMT on Thursday 5th March to 00h00 on Saturday 7th March
 

"Weather patterns are not promising. AS soon as we get to the high to wrap around, it dissipates, and a huge high starts to come in from far nw, giving us ne winds.  Disappointing, to say the least. Just trying to get north, to get into flow of west to east systems. See no solution to the east, even though that is the direction of France.  Couldn't get into bunk last night for sleep, got some at chart table, must have, because woke up to find boat aback, laying over on its side about 50 degrees, keel on wrong side, etc. Frequent wind shifts, I'd been keeping up with them with the pilot, that's why i didin't go into the bunk, but obviously missed the last one in my fatigue."

Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message

"Since I added Flores in the Azores to the list of islands I have seen on my little tour progress has been pretty slow. Sam sent me an e-mail as she went through the Azores and said she was going well in thirty five knots of breeze, but why was there always an island in the way? It's true though, I've seen or had to avoid Madeira, the Canaries, the Kerguelens, Staten Island, Cape Horn which is an island, Fernando de Norohna and then the Azores - three months and not a continent to be seen, just about one island a week though!  I got another fishy visitor not long after leaving he Azores who was really unusual. He was obviously tuna family from the pyramidal ridges down his back behind his dorsal fin, but he was really thin like a garfish, and had a very long beak which was like a sailmakers needle at it's tip and pretty fine all the way down too, and about as long as my index finger and gently curving upwards. The whole fish was about a foot long. I suppose he used it for spearfishing like a mini marlin or something, curious anyway.   I am really looking forwards togetting in now. I'm currently pounding down towards Cape Finisterre where it is always windier than everywhere else, and sure enugh I have just had twenty eight knots on the nose - not ideal with a broken inner forestay from which the staysail is currently flying, a repaired gooseneck and generally lots of other bits that have now done nearly twenty six thousand miles or whatever it is, and could do without being slammed about. Where the bottom of the boat is so flat, it slams like a tea tray and you do actually get a headache from the sudden stop that the boat comes to every few seconds and the bang that accompanies it.  I can't quite win though weatherwise, we have a good wind angle down here but a bad seastate for the boat at this point in the race, and if we tack to the north east, the breeze slowly dies as we approach the high, particularly at night, and then in light airs my tacking angles become huge - over one hundred and twenty degrees, so it's really frustratingly slow progress - a seven hundred mile dead beat to windward for the finish, who'd have though it!  The weather is definitely giving me a hard time, still, maybe it's because I need to learn more patience, but I could do with that lesson after the race! It is frustrating with the clan all gathered in Les Sable and me under four hundred miles away - in the South we'd have done that distance in just over a day, but here........it won't be until Thursday morning now I "

Steve White  (Toe in the Water) in his daily message