Roxy - Sam Davies

At last the sun is really shining so I have got my Roxy bikini out!! The trouble is I'm a bit white so I'm piling on the sun cream to protect my skin, and trying to stay in the shade.

Hello,

Here is a nice picture of my lucky red socks "breathing" some fresh air under the full moon, after having been subjected to 48 hours non-stop inside ‘Le Chameau’ boots in the stormy weather!

Yes - I admit that I did not remove my boots or oilskins for 48 hours. It was too full-on to take the risk as I needed to be ready to go on deck at any moment.

I've just finished my last training session at Port La Foret Finistere Course au Large, before the Vendee Globe start.
I am totally exhausted, but really pleased with the three days of intense sailing that we have done, in the sort of conditions you would call "challenging!" - 20-30 knots of wind all the time!

The line-up was:
Jean Le Cam - VM
Michel Desjoyeaux - Foncia
Seb Josse - BT
Jeremie Beyou - Delta Dore
Armel Le Cleach - Brit Air
Yann Elies - Generali
Bilou - Veolia
Bernard Stamm - Poujolat

Hello everyone!  The last ten days has been really busy!

We set off for the UK the weekend before last. The delivery trip was a solo training session, with me and Tanguy on board. It's better to sail in the channel with 2 so that we can keep a proper watch, as there is so much traffic. Also, with Tanguy on board, I work harder on my boat-speed, we work together on all the settings, and we have a good debrief,  so I get more out of the trip.

Tuesday saw winds peaking at 23 knots for the Artemis Challenge. Eight boats took to the start line for some really close racing and a true spectacle of how exciting the Open 60 are fully powered up. Ecover 3 and Aviva challenged for the start line and we all sailed hard and fast through the showers towards the Needles.

Our adventures in the Pays Basque were VERY tiring, but LOTS of fun!

We set off three weeks ago, in a nice Bay of Biscay storm - Westerly wind 30-45 knots! That was another good training session, as we screamed down towards Biarritz at speeds of over 20 knots! 14 hours after leaving Lorient, we swapped our ski-masks and drysuits for shorts and T-shirt as the wind dropped off and the sun came out.