Trimaran IDEC holed

But skipper Francis Joyon doesn't view this as being a big problem

Position at 10:15: 23deg 41.00N 33deg 02.00W
Distance sailed: 25046.67 nautical miles
Distance to finish: 1,996 miles
Speed/course: 7.83 knots /018°

Another slowish day for Francis Joyon who is currently attempting to free himself from the clutches of a squally high pressure system. Over the 25 hours up until 10:15 GMT this morning the Frenchman had covered 230 miles. This leaves him with just under 2,000 miles left to cover to reach Brest.

Over the course of today one of two scenarios is likely. If he is lucky Joyon will get away from the high pressure and will be able to hook into the slowly increasing southwesterly wind further north. If he is unlucky the undulating high pressure system centred to his northeast may simply engulf him again. Considering the light and variable conditions Joyon did extremely well to cover 230 miles yesterday.

"Last night, I went from 5 to 28 knots of wind in 10 seconds. If you don’t ease the sheets immediately that’s all it takes to capsize a multihull!" he said during a radio interview yesterday. "But I did ease the sheets straight away and five minutes later the wind dropped off. This morning it’s not quite so violent. There are little squalls and flat calm. I hope it’ll be ok. I’ve got the wind files back out but they’re not optimistic.

"Once I’ve got through these calms I’ll be in a good position to reach to Brittany… I’m not far off. They’re only 350 miles away from me. It’s all down to getting there and catching them! This is where I need a good crew as you really have to trim, trim, trim, the whole time. You don’t get five minutes before the boat has to be trimmed again".

However according to his report yesterday he has other things to be concerned about. "I’ve noticed that there is a hole in the forward part of my port float. I’m not worried about it but it would be rather good if I could fix it. The water has got into one of the compartments. I don’t know how it could have happened. It’s odd because the hole is almost round, on the side, as if something sharp hit the float. When the sea gets to it I can clearly see the water penetrating it and seeping out again. If necessary, the only way to repair it, if it’s flat calm, is to swim out to it with some epoxy glue as it’s impossible to get access to the hole any other way. But with a nice little harness… "

Cool as a cucumber Joyon continues: "swimming would relax me. I wouldn’t be against it. I don’t think that the leak could spread to the other compartments, but what annoys me the most is that in these light winds the boat always hangs to the left."

Joyon believes he has taken on board around 300 lites of water.

Aside from the hole in the hull, Joyon says the bearings in the main sheet traveller are shot. They didn’t like the battering they took sailing upwind. "I’ve got some replacement bearings. In fact, I’ve got all the material to replace them, but it’s quite a long and meticulous job because if you lose a bit, it doesn’t work any more. If there’s a calm I could get the boat in shape a bit though…"

With thanks to Kate Jennings for the translation of these quotes