Brisk run home

Francis Joyon due to finish on Tuesday in big conditions

Position at 10:00: 37deg 32.00N 27deg 10.00W
Distance sailed: 25956.82 nautical miles
Speed/course: 15.64 knots /034°

Francis Joyon is now back up to speed. Over the last 24 hours he has covered 387 miles and his speeds are now more in line with those of what we have become accustomed to from him ...15, 16, 17 knots.

Since yesterday afternoon his course has also come round to the northwest but to make the finish line off Brest - still some 1,161 miles away - he is having to gybe downwind. Currently Joyon is enjoying 20-25 knot southwesterlies.

During the early hours of tomorrow morning the wind looks set to back and strengthen making starboard gybe marginally the favoured. Come Monday morning and this trend appears to have continued with 30-35 knots and at times as much as 40-45 knots from due south forecast. This willl make for a lively crossing of the continental shelf and one wonders if Joyon will be employing the same dragging of a chain strop that the ENZA New Zealand crew were forced to on the run in to the finish line at the end of their Jules Verne Trophy record.

By the time Joyon is approaching the finish line on Tuesday morning the wind looks set to have backed round to the southwest again and dropped slightly to 30 knots.

If Joyon makes 400 miles VMG each day from now on he will be in on Tuesday breakfast time, 375 miles per days will see him in on Tuesday lunchtime or 350 miles Tuesday night.