Joyon on track for record

530 miles from the Lizard at the start of day six

At the start of his sixth day at sea on his attempt on singlehanded west to east transatlantic record, Francis Joyon is continuing to speed along and is currently only 530 miles from the finish line off the Lizard.

His average speed since starting out from New York last Thursday is staggering: exactly 20 knots. The sailor from Locqmariaquer in Brittany is giving his all to remain on course and keep up the speed. During the night, he stepped up his sail changes after two gybes, one after the other, which he made to get into the north westerly air flow for the final stretch to the tip of Cornwall.

The Lizard is drawing near. Francis may well achieve a fabulous success early tomorrow afternoon, by becoming the fastest solo yachtsman of all time to cross the North Atlantic. He should smash the current record, which has been held for 11 years by another Frenchman, Laurent Bourgnon on board his 60ft Primagaz. All being well, another new benchmark in the history of singlehanded North Atlantic crossings is about to be written.

Today’s radio report was kept short. After just over five days of this Herculean task aboard his giant 27m long trimaran, Francis Joyon is finding it difficult to take it easy, even just for a few seconds away from the cockpit of his boat. Since his double gybe during the night, IDEC has been sailing on the port tack in a strong northwesterly, which remains variable in strength and direction. It’s no longer enough to be making fine adjustments with the automatic pilot. The wind is going up and down "by up to 30 degrees in the squalls" in terms of its direction, but its strength is all over the place too, going suddenly from 16 to 25 knots.

More than ever it is necessary to anticipate the changes, keeping constant watch and making the required changes to the 'power supply', the mainsail and foresails, according to the weather. Joyon is in his element, facing up to the challenge of the force of a huge yacht, which is accelerating away, smashing into the seas, taking her from incredibly high speeds to the risk of coming to a sudden stand-still. His motto 'keep control at all times', taking in a reef here, then hoisting the main gennaker later. Francis is sailing at one with his boat, which he is managing to get the most out of, as the minutes and hours tick by.

Jean Yves Bernot, his weather expert has reassured him that the wind will stick with him right up to the finish. Thus there are just a few more hours rather than days to maintain this mad pace, after setting out just five days ago from off the Statue of Liberty. The final 500 miles are coming up inflicting yet more suffering on the tired body. Everything is still to play for. With his mind concentrating fully on the job, does the athlete still have the time and energy to think about that, with all this pain and elation?

To smash Laurent Bourgnon’s record, Francis Joyon must reach The Lizard before 11h 16 mins 8 secs GMT on 7 July.