Dodging Dennis

Thomas Coville and Sodebo due to break Joyon's Route of Discovery record tonight

Having set sail from Cadiz on Tuesday June 28, French solo sailor Thomas Coville and his 60ft trimaran Sodebo are expected in the Bahaman island of San Salvador early this evening. If Coville arrives at 2000 he will have broken the singlehanded record for this passage, set by Francis Joyon by some 15 hours.

At 1200GMT today Coville still had 140 miles to go and was 320 mile ahead of Joyon's record. Assuming all goes according to plan, Coville's time will be just a day outside of the fully crewed record of 9d 13h 30m 18s set by Steve Fossett and his team on the 125ft maxi-catamaran PlayStation in February 2003.

However in the meantime Coville must be thankfully that Hurricane Dennis currently raging its away across central Cuba is remaining west.

"This cyclone Dennis is like a person, - a higher presence, Mother Nature. If it shifts 50 miles north I am in bad shape," admits Coville after a night which will remain engraved on his memory "of the series of storms and violent flashes of lightning. With each strike, you feel the boat to vibrate strangely."

Before reaching San Salvador Coville must stay on the weather side of the Bahama islands and equally must ensure that he remains alert despite his hurious 10 and a half days singlehanded racing one of the world's fastest boats.

"If we manage to beat the very ambitious record of Francis [Joyon] on the South Atlantic and then his new record for the North Atlantic, it would be a beautiful performance, especially for a boat so much smaller and not purpose-built for record breaking. That would be the first time where I would succeed in beating a record of Francis' I do so with great pride."

Coville added a note of sorry for his neighbour in Brittany, after the loss of IDEC two nights ago. "I was extremely shocked by this news and I can imagine the pain that that can represent to lose one boat and also because I was very attached to this trimaran as it was on this that I carried out my first round the world voyage. It shows just how deep Francis had to push."