Last day at sea

Jean-Luc van den Heede to finish solo westabout non-stop circumnavigation tomorrow

Day 122. Position at 1300:46°27'N / 7°02'W
Wind 31 knots from ESE. Moderate sea.
Temperatures : day 18°C / night 12°C / sea 11°C
Distance covered in the last 24 hours: 253 miles.
To the finish: 144 miles.
Lead over Monnet : 29 days and 5 hours.

Today is the final day of my record attempt! I must really offer my sincere thanks to all my partners, who stuck with me to the end, allowing me to finish 29 days ahead of the record: The ADRIEN Group who have been supporting me for 13 years, ALCAN/PECHINEY Marine for Adrien's aluminium hull, AMIENS METROPOLE, where I was born, CELERANT CONSULTING, Les SABLES D'OLONNE, COTTEN, SIMRAD, BSI, NORDIC MAST, Pierric TAFFET, LOCAVIA, LEROY MERLIN, SANI CHAUFFAGE, SOLLAC, COUSIN TRESTEC, ARMOR LUX, ELTY SERMI, VOLVO PENTA, ENPC (The National Editions of the Highway Code), MON CLOCHER.COM, ANDERSEN, NAUTOS, BOERO, OLDHAM, SIKAFLEX, PROXON, SANYO and I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, as it's thanks to the association of all these partners that I have been able to succeed in this challenge. Of course, I won't forget in these thanks all those, who worked on Adrien: Gilles VATON's Office, the GAMELIN shipyards, the POLYPAT shipyard, ARNO Dunkirk, VRIGNAUD foundry, SIMRAD, VOLVO PENTA, BSI, NORDIC MAST, ANTAL, HARKEN, FACNOR and the INCIDENCES sailmakers, NORTH and TAROT.

Finally, there are all my assistants, who are also largely responsible for my success: Bruno GINOCCHIO, Giovanni BRUNO, Emeric PERAUD, BLEW STOUB, Jean BILLIET, Jean Marc BOLLMANN, Yann LE LIVEC, Eugène DOUSSAL and Pierre REYNES plus a few temporary volunteers.

I'll finish this long list of thanks with those, who deal with all the PR concerning my challenge (at the moment they really do have a lot of work to do!) RIVACOM, SEA EVENT, IDEEDIMAGE.FR, Didier PIRON, the printers, JOLY. If I've forgotten anyone, please excuse me, as I've already given 55 names. There is just one more person that I must thank, who was there everyday to give me good advice about the weather and who will be in Les Sables d'Olonne for my arrival. I'm talking about my meteorologist/router Pierre Lasnier of METEOMER, who also advised Philippe MONNET.

So you can see, I'm really far from being alone.

See you tomorrow,

JL VDH