Another 400 miles

Joyon continues to speed up the Brazilian coast

Position at 05:58GMT: 17deg 39.12'S 36deg 49.44'W
Distance from start: 22395.07 miles
Speed/course: 17.75 knots / 026°

Sailing so close to the Brazilian coast that he can virtually smell the sun tan lotion and cheap rum, Francis Joyon has over the last 24 hours had another blazing run, covering 405 miles.

As the weather chart above indicates though his passage up the Brazilian coast, which we think must have been one of the fastest ever - crewed or otherwise - so far, looks set to ease up as Joyon encounters the prevailing northeasterly headwinds later today. Rapidly running out of race track on his port side at some point it looks pretty certain that Joyon will have to get some easting in and the wind direction is such that this will be very much on a losing tack. We shall see.