Foncia - Michel Desjoyeaux

At the start of both Vendee Globe week nine and the new year, we find the leaders of the fleet sailing around the most feared and famous navigational landmark in the world:  Cape Horn.  Michel Desjoyeaux, currently in the lead, was the first around that wicked dagger of land at 0310 GMT this morning, with Roland Jourdain close behind and keeping up the pressure.

The brutality of sailing the Southern Oceans, though often the subject of stories, is easy to underestimate.  The same is true of the difficulty of solo racing, with its associated sleep deprivation and physical and emotional stress.  Combine these two issues, and throw in the added problems associated with running new and cutting edge technologies, and you have the formula of the Vendee Globe, as well as an explanation as to why almost half the fleet has now retired.  This is simply as tough as it gets, in any sport.

Six weeks in now, and the attrition rate in this Vendée Globe has been as predicted:  Devastating.  Now only 18 of the original fleet of 30 are still in the race, and with half the course to go, several of the remaining yachts and sailors are having trouble of one sort or another.  There's good reason why this race is known as one of the toughest competitions in the world; sailing solo around the Pole, at breakneck speeds, these contenders are pushing technology and human endurance to the limits, and as we saw last week, sometimes over the limits.

Southern Ocean - After five weeks, the fleet has entered the toughest waters of the world, in the toughest race in the world. The 2008-2009 Vendée Globe fleet is in the snow and ice, with up to 60 knot winds buffeting the craft and waves that look like giant blackened teeth, ready to chew these boats up, and spit them out. Three more yachts fell out last week, meaning that nearly a third of the fleet has retired from the race, and its less than half over. This is sailing writ large, and it looks like things may get worse before they get better.

The Vendée Globe sailors have made the turn to the East. At the beginning of week five, the fleet is now down to 24 boats, as Unai Basurko aboard Pakea Bizkaia has officially retired from the race with rudder problems. The yachts are in the South, and the trip around the pole has begun. If the first part of the race was the shakedown, and the last part is the sprint, then what the fleet is doing now is running the gauntlet. It's make or break time in the Vendée Globe.

Last week's Vendée Globe highlights:

Three weeks into the Vendée Globe Race, and 25 boats remain from the fleet of thirty. Delta Dore officially joined the ranks of the bruised and battered when Jérémie Beyou resigned from the race with unrepairable damage.  The pack is tight, the winds have shifted, and the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe is nearing the Southern Oceans.  The first

Equatorial Atlantic - Two weeks in, and most boats in the Vendée Globe fleet have now crossed the 0° line, finding themselves solidly in the Southern Hemisphere.  Foulies have given way to swimsuits (or birthday suits), Neptune has been appeased with champagne and goodies, Winter is in the wake, and the South Atlantic awaits.