Francis Joyon’s crew crossed the longitude of Cape Leeuwin at 2240hrs UTC after 18 days, 20 hours and 41 minutes of sailing since leaving Ushant. IDEC SPORT has become the first sailing boat in history to sail from Cape Agulhas to Cape Leeuwin in less than six days.
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IDEC SPORT has regained 200 miles in 24 hours. The Furious Fifties are pushing the big, red trimaran at high speed across the Indian Ocean. But they need to watch out for icebergs. Yesterday, Francis Joyon’s crew came within a mile of one of these ice monsters, as big as a cargo ship…
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After a favourable North Atlantic, the Southern Hemisphere is proving to be more complicated. That is however what Francis Joyon and his crew of five were expecting when they set out from Brest on this attempt to grab the outright round the world record, the Jules Verne Trophy. Their goal of getting to the Equator in record time in just over five days was achieved. Now they have to face the huge, sleepy St Helena high, which determines what happens in the South Atlantic.
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Routing is not allowed in the Transat Jacques Vabre for the skippers in the IMOCA class, but that does not mean to say that the weather experts are not watching the race and studying the charts… We therefore decided to let these weather specialists and routers express themselves.
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When he crossed the finish line in Pointe-à-Pitre at 0023hrs UTC last night, Paul Meilhat won the the Route du Rhum in the IMOCA category, taking into account the 24-hour penalty given to Alex Thomson for starting his engine after running aground.
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It will soon be coming to an end for the leading IMOCA. Ruling supreme, Alex Thomson has kept a good lead over his closest rivals. Paul Meilhat, Vincent Riou and Yann Eliès are fighting it out to make it to the podium, while aiming to be ready to pounce should the British leader show the slightest weakness.
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After being caught yesterday morning by the low-pressure system, which enabled them to get into the Southern Ocean at high speed, the IDEC SPORT maxi trimaran had to gybe, when the front went over and entered a patch of light winds offering low speeds, while they await stronger winds coming down from the north. Francis Joyon and his crew of five are diving down into the wilderness of the Southern Ocean attempting to slide under the South African high, accompanied by a ridge of high pressure, which is also moving eastwards.
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While the figures from the past 48 hours led us to be euphoric with 716 miles clocked up yesterday in 24 hours and a lead extended this morning to 707 miles in comparison to the pace set in 2009, out on the water, the situation is rather more worrying and painful for Francis.
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As he finished third in the highly competitive Class40 division of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race, British skipper Phil Sharp did all he could to hide his feelings.
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There has been a huge upset in the race between the IMOCAs. Comfortably leading the Route du Rhum and on his way to a clear victory, British sailor, Alex Thomson ran aground last night at the foot of a cliff in the north of Grande-Terre (Guadeloupe), just 75 miles from the finish.
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