Joyon on course for record

Frenchman approaching mid-way point of Cadiz-San Salvador attempt

Having set off on Thursday night last week on his bid to break the Route of Discovery record from Cadiz to San Salvador singlehanded, Francis Joyon is now approaching the halfway stage of this 3,884 mile course. At this morning's position report the French solo non-stop around the world record holder had been at sea for just over 3.5 days with 2,050 miles still to sail to make it to the Bahamian island. PlayStation's time to beat is 9 days 13 hours and 30 minutes leaving Joyon six days to go and needing to average around 341 miles a day to break the record.

However Joyon still has several hurdles to cross. Traditionally the wind stalls towards the finish of this passage and he is of course singlehanded on board his trimaran whereas PlayStation was fully crewed.

In fact the weather situation towards the end of the course on this occasion is looking very different. A tropical depression currently to the east of the Caribbean looks set to cut directly across IDEC's track tomorrow afternoon. If Joyon continues on his present course he is likely to end up sailing through its centre and being becalmed. Alternatively he may find himself sailing into headwinds on the depression's south side. The good news is that to the west of the depression there looks to be strong northerly or northeasterly winds that should propel him quickly to the finish.

Remarkably Joyon to date has maintained a similar pace to PlayStation but says that in comparison to the giant 'scatamaran passage in February 2003 he is some 10deg further north.

To break PlayStation's record Joyon must reach San Salvador not later than 11:05:58 on 21 November (this Sunday). "I have made a small calculation of my ETA, which would see me arrive on 20 November in the evening or on the 21 in the morning," Joyon muses.