Joyon on crossing the Equator

The Frenchman's reaction to his latest record

Position today at 08:00: 05deg 03.00N 33deg 33.00W
Distance to finish: 2,999 miles
Speed/course: 13.65 knots /352 °

"It’s beginning to smell of Brittany," enthused Francis Joyon yesterday, very happy to have made it back into the northern hemisphere. At 0825 GMT his trimaran IDEC crossed the equator at 32°W, after 62 days and 25 minutes at sea.

Joyon was making good progress once more - around 15 knots - and spurred into action at the thought of being on the home straight, despite the conditions. At present his trimaran is sailing upwind into a choppy sea under single-reefed main and staysail and is slamming in chaotic seas, putting all the skipper’s vertebrae to the test. "At least I’m making progress and that influences my morale," says Joyon. "It’s not a problem to accept such conditions when you’re making headway. What really gets to me is being becalmed."

Fortunately there isn’t much chance of the large red trimaran being deprived of wind in the next three days. "I’ll continue to have a northeasterly for three days. That’s not a bad direction. It’s likely to be a little too strong for my taste, but I’ll make do with it."

For the time being, Francis is forced to head north without being able to make any easting: "I’m no longer very far off the theoretical convergence zone between the southeasterly and northeasterly trades, but in reality I’ve never really had any southeasterly! That could be a good thing as there won’t be any conflict between the two air flows. It should happen fairly easily.

"I’m comparing it with the voyage I made three years ago to bring my 60 footer back from Salvador - the conditions are a little less favourable. I’m going to stay on a starboard tack and climb up to get through the strong north-east zone as quickly as possible: but it’s a real classic - a close-hauled climb up the Atlantic. The boat performed well when reaching, and it is very sound in those conditions, but upwind is not it's thing".

Meanwhile Joyon is remaining vigilant for potential violent squalls. "I had to drop all the sails as it was slamming horrendously," he described of one he encountered. "It was a close thing as to whether or not I was going to dismast! In the darkness, you can’t see the mast or anything, so it’s all down to your imagination. You have to feel the stresses on the boat and work with them." A wise, lucid and well reasoned style that has got Joyon this far and will - touch wood - enable him to get home without suffered any major damage.

Added to this achievement is the fact that he has taken just 12 days, 22 hours and 4 minutes between Cape Horn and the equator. Remarkably this is only around a day a half slower than Orange's time fully crewed on her Jules Verne Trophy record-breaking voyage in 2002 and about the same time as Olivier de Kersauson and his crew sailed last year on Geronimo.