Vendee Globe: Two Women (on Day 50 of the race)

As I said before, if you magically dropped me on an Open 60 in the Southern latitudes, I would be desperately making a beeline to the nearest spot of dry land before I went bonkers. In these two videos, you get a good feel for life down below on these racing machines as they reach along toward Cape Horn. The banging, the crashing, the shaking..... how can anyone get any sleep?

In the first video, our eternally upbeat Sam Davies, is celebrating Christmas with, what looks like a brewski, and some jam and toast. Not too easy to get down the hatch as the boat lurches about;



Was it a bird? .... No....In the second video, friends of Dee Caffari have chartered a light plane and rendezvoused overhead to take pictures while she passes south of New Zealand. Dee's happiness is palpable at even this minor brush with civilization. What she doesn't mention is that she has a mainsail that needs an on-boom repair, that is when the conditions moderate so she can safely hang out there! And the slamming, bashing noise and the shocks reverberating through ones bones goes on and on and on...........



Again, thanks to Yachtpals for putting these videos up on YouTube.

Meanwhile Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux continues to pour it on at the front, seemingly impervious to the breakdowns that have frustrated his pursuers.