Francis Joyon set off this morning on his attempt at the Mauritius Route record between Port Louis (Brittany) and Port Louis (Mauritius). At 0911hrs UTC on Saturday 19th October, the skipper of IDEC SPORT crossed the start line off the Citadel of Port Louis (Morbihan). Ahead of the boat, a complicated 8000-mile long solo voyage to the island of Mauritius. Francis is attempting to smash his own reference time of 26 days, 4 hours and 13 minutes set ten years ago. To improve on that time, he will have to finish before 1324hrs UTC on 14th November. The Mauritius Route is the first Act of his campaign of record attempts in Asia, the IDEC SPORT ASIAN TOUR.

Better than 26 days, 4 hours and 13 minutes
On Saturday 19th October, Francis Joyon left his home port of La Trinité-sur-Mer in Southern Brittany to head for the start line off the Citadel of Port Louis. At 0911hrs UTC (1111hrs French time), Francis crossed the start line in a light westerly wind. A few hours earlier, he gave us his final impressions about the weather opportunity, explaining that it was not ideal, but favourable enough given the context: “It’s true that the wind isn’t very strong. I’d have liked it to be stronger, but we don’t have the choice as otherwise we would be facing strong headwinds. I need to pick up a light northerly flow by heading into the westerly winds first. After that, it should be fairly fast down the coast of Portugal and past the Canaries? I’m going to have to weave my way around the Cape Verde Islands. With Christian Dumard (router back on dry land) we’re keeping an eye on a low pressure system forming further South, which risks interrupting the trade winds. That’s why we wanted to start so quickly. The record can be smashed. I may well be a bit behind by the Equator, but I hope to make up for that during the rest of the voyage.”

Tags on NauticNews : Francis Joyon, IDEC Sport

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