Sail with New Freebooters

I was going to wait until tomorrow before writing about the Vendée Globe, but this is serious - with a happy outcome. News on the Vendée Globe site is a bit fragmented, but here is what I have found:

Photos (taken by a Chilean Air Force pilot, I believe) show Le Cam’s boat, VM Matériaux, upside [...]

Dominic Wavre’s keel is flapping around, after the part the rams push on shattered yesterday. He filled the ballast tanks and set the bare minimum of sail before heading for Kerguelen, where he is now entering the Bay of Morbihan, but expects  to take most of the day to reach shelter, since he has to [...]

Loïc Peyron sent back a video of the state of Gitana Eighty before he tidied up. It looks as if the  mast just broke at the foot and fell down in one piece.
As is normal in this race, those still in the race get quite upset about one of the pack dropping out. Dee Caffari [...]

There were plety of libations offered to Neptune as the Vendée Globe fleet crossed the equator. Sam Davies offered Mumm’s to the Sea God and a bar of chocolate to herself, but ice man Riou said he wasn’t drinking alone - he’d wait for a more sociable occasion.
There are other superstitions in evidence, at least [...]

Sailing conditions have been flaky for the main groups of the fleet, what with wind shadows from mountainous islands, and the trades petering out early ahead of an almost continuous doldrums zone. The failing wind compresses the pack as the leaders slow down, and just about everyone is heading for the same hole - [...]