Behind, but gaining

Thomas Coville failed to beat Francis Joyon's record to the Equator, but is on the rebound

Monday February 7th 2011, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Image above courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and PredictWind.

Date-Time Lat Long Spd Crs Spd Spd Dist DTF v IDEC
      Instant   4 hr av 24 hours      
07/02/2011 08:45:00 UTC 11°33.56'S 028°50.71'W 24.7 188° 22.6 20.5 493 20 284 -216.7
07/02/2011 07:00:00 UTC 10°51.04'S 028°44.48'W 24.2 189° 21.2 19.9 478.8 20 324 -231.7
07/02/2011 05:00:00 UTC 10°08.77'S 028°38.07'W 25.8 189° 20.9 19.6 469.4 20 365 -239.2
07/02/2011 03:00:00 UTC 09°24.49'S 028°30.29'W 20.8 193° 20.4 19 456.1 20 408 -249.7
07/02/2011 01:00:00 UTC 08°46.04'S 028°21.86'W 20.4 192° 20.6 18.1 434.7 20 445 -249.6
06/02/2011 23:00:00 UTC 08°05.83'S 028°13.77'W 21.6 194° 20.5 17.3 415.7 20 484 -252.9
06/02/2011 21:00:00 UTC 07°25.02'S 028°02.75'W 20.9 196° 20.3 16.2 388.8 20 524 -258.2
06/02/2011 19:00:00 UTC 06°45.69'S 027°53.15'W 20.1 193° 20 15.1 363 20 562 -260.1
06/02/2011 16:45:00 UTC 06°00.96'S 027°44.32'W 21.2 192° 19.4 13.9 333.2 20 607 -262.2
06/02/2011 15:00:00 UTC 05°25.79'S 027°37.05'W 18.5 195° 19 13.5 323.7 20 641 -272.9
06/02/2011 13:00:00 UTC 04°48.61'S 027°26.43'W 18.7 195° 18.2 12.6 303.3 20 678 -279.4
06/02/2011 11:00:00 UTC 04°12.28'S 027°17.50'W 19.2 198° 17.6 11.6 279.2 20 714 -277.5
06/02/2011 09:00:00 UTC 03°36.69'S 027°03.67'W 18.3 203° 16.6 10.9 262 20 750 -273.3

Thomas Coville and Sodebo are still in a recovery phase after Friday's batten breakage. This, combined with a slow transition through the Doldrums and pace setter Francis Joyon's progress picking up quickly once he was into the South Atlantic saw Sodebo's deficit on IDEC increase to almost 280 miles yesterday afternoon.

Sodebo crossed the Equator on Saturday at 13:35 GMT, 7 days, 2 hours, 27 minutes and 32 seconds after setting out, covering 3529 miles at an impressive average speed of 20.7 knots. Unfortunately for Coville, Joyon's time to the Equator of 6 days and 17 hours was faster. Coville also sailed further compared to Joyon's more direct route of 3355 miles.

At present Sodebo is some 100 miles south of the latitude of Recife and is back up to speed, her pace having increased gradually since yesterday morning and now up to an average of more than 22 knots as the trades slowly back from the southeast into the east. As a result Sodebo is back to 216 miles off IDEC's pace, the trend reserving in Coville's favour.

However as we mentioned last week, the big issue with keeping up with Joyon in the South Atlantic is that Joyon was very fortunate in being able to cut the corner on the St Helena high, turning east at around the latitude of Rio.

At present the main lump of South Atlantic high pressure is centred around 40°S with a depression forming in the mouth of the River Plate. By Wednesday the high has shifted south of South Africa although it has a long tail/ridge still extending into the central South Atlantic. Come Thursday another area of high pressure is developing off the coast of Argentina, separating a major depression in the Southern Ocean and the one off Uruguay. Essentially this forecast is an average one - it does potentially allow her to 'cut the corner' but come Wednesday Sodebo is going to have to negotiate an area of high pressure before she can hook into the favourable northeasterlies to the northeast of the depression.

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