Ari Huusela FIN (Stark): My last 24 hours has been horrible and then it eased off during the night a bit and I started to get some rest because I could not sleep for about 30 hours. The waves were so nasty and the wind was quite bad, 30-35kts, and then it dropped to 28 but the waves were terrible, the seas horrible, the wind had turned 180 degrees and so the sea state was horrible. The boat was slamming so hard I thought it would break down. The boat is still in one piece and I am in one piece. There is still some sticky weather patterns to come and so I need to concentrate on the them. I have not updated myself yet because I am so tired I am just trying to sleep a bit and then concentrate.

These are the first words of Isabelle Joschke at the pontoon when she returned to Les Sables d'Olonne today to a huge welcome.

The French skipper of MACSF Isabelle Joschke who was forced out of the Vendée Globe on January 9^th due to a keel ram failure on her IMOCA 60 has completed her round the world passage today out of the race when she sailed back into Les Sables d’Olonne today 107 days 21 hours after the race start on November 8^th. She made a 10 day technical stop in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil to consolidate the keel problem with her technical team. The 43 year old Franco-German skipper has shown great determination to ‘close the loop’ and finish her first ever circumnavigation. She passed the Nouche Sud buoy at 10:34hrs UTC this morning

INTERVIEW
This is the final stretch for Isa, have you heard from her? How is she doing?
Alain Gautier : " We must be careful with this home straight because there can still be problem. It was windy last night, there are cargo ships, she crossed the Cape Finisterre TSS and I think the night was not very restful. But she had been resting for the last few days".

Today very much marks the home straight for MACSF skipper Isabelle Joschke who is into the Bay of Biscay after a windy night passing Cape Finisterre, a passage that was, as usual, made more challenging by the presence of marine traffic close to the TSS. But now ‘Isa’ has a direct run back to the barn, some 250 miles ahead of her, on starboard tack in a breeze which will ease progressively.