Weather gods finally smile on Thomas Coville

Sodebo into the breeze, but her deficit on IDEC is reaching an alarming scale

Friday February 11th 2011, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Image above courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and PredictWind.

Date Lat Long Spd Crs Spd Spd Dist DTF v IDEC
      Instant   4 hrs 24 hours av      
11/02/2011 08:00:00 UTC 38°38.96'S 030°50.23'W 16 150° 22.8 18.7 448.4 19 256 -843.7
11/02/2011 06:00:00 UTC 38°01.16'S 031°02.75'W 23.9 158° 23 18.2 436 19 284 -828.3
11/02/2011 04:00:00 UTC 37°17.19'S 031°24.47'W 24.8 167° 22.1 17.3 415.6 19 321 -822.8
11/02/2011 02:00:00 UTC 36°28.25'S 031°41.75'W 25.1 164° 18.8 16.3 392.2 19 358 -817.4
11/02/2011 00:00:00 UTC 35°48.49'S 031°49.41'W 23.7 173° 17.2 15.9 381.3 19 384 -798.6
10/02/2011 22:00:00 UTC 35°07.80'S 032°00.53'W 18.5 165° 16.4 15.3 367.2 19 414 -783.5
10/02/2011 20:00:00 UTC 34°38.18'S 032°12.06'W 12.9 143° 17.3 14.5 348.8 19 438 -763.4
10/02/2011 18:00:00 UTC 34°12.86'S 032°36.92'W 17.4 138° 17.9 13.8 330.3 19 469 -743.8
10/02/2011 16:00:00 UTC 33°43.52'S 033°02.57'W 17.3 144° 16.9 13.3 319.5 19 503 -727.7
10/02/2011 14:15:00 UTC 33°15.95'S 033°19.88'W 16.9 158° 16.6 12 288.6 19 530 -714.9
10/02/2011 12:00:00 UTC 32°39.43'S 033°40.87'W 16.9 156° 15.1 10.5 253.1 19 566 -699.8
10/02/2011 10:00:00 UTC 32°09.86'S 033°49.63'W 16.9 166° 14.3 10.3 248.2 19 589 -676.3
10/02/2011 08:00:00 UTC 31°36.74'S 033°55.23'W 17.6 192° 13.4 9.7 232.5 19 612 -652.5
10/02/2011 06:00:00 UTC 31°10.21'S 033°59.99'W 11.6 153° 13.9 10 241.2 19 630 -627.9
10/02/2011 04:00:00 UTC 30°46.99'S 034°17.14'W 13 155° 13.8 10.7 256 19 656 -612.2
10/02/2011 02:00:00 UTC 30°21.72'S 034°28.99'W 15.6 137° 11.4 11.4 273.9 19 679 -593.9
10/02/2011 00:00:00 UTC 29°58.42'S 034°49.63'W 13.1 139° 8.7 12.1 289.8 19 707 -582.8
09/02/2011 22:00:00 UTC 29°35.92'S 035°06.64'W 6.8 147° 8.4 12.9 308.6 19 732 -568.7
09/02/2011 20:00:00 UTC 29°24.99'S 035°13.32'W 5.9 161° 6.7 14.3 342.5 19 744 -540.1
09/02/2011 18:00:00 UTC 29°11.35'S 035°15.55'W 14.2 139° 6.1 15.6 375.4 19 753 -509.2
09/02/2011 16:00:00 UTC 28°51.37'S 035°33.97'W 10.7 149° 7.4 16.7 399.8 19 778 -491.7
09/02/2011 14:00:00 UTC 28°45.12'S 035°15.96'W 9.3 255° 8.9 17.8 427.8 19 770 -439.1
09/02/2011 12:00:00 UTC 28°36.30'S 035°02.66'W 6.1 221° 13.1 19.3 463.4 19 766 -392.4
09/02/2011 10:00:00 UTC 28°11.87'S 035°11.02'W 16.2 152° 15.8 19.9 478 19 786 -371.7
09/02/2011 08:00:00 UTC 27°52.58'S 035°06.32'W 14.2 151° 20.3 21.1 507.1 19 795 -342.8

In the Southern Ocean meteorologicial roulette game, conditions are finally coming good for Thomas Coville and his maxi-trimaran as they approach the Roaring 40s. The depression that has been centred in the mouth of the River Plate throughout this week, finally seems to be breaking away from the land and is slowly moving east with the effect that the high that has been encircling it to the south and east is being divided in two. As a result the northerlies on the east side of the depression have filled in again with the result that since 0100 this morning Sodebo has been averaging 22-23 knots. With the depression dividing in two, the eastern part moving north towards the middle of  the South Atlantic, so this should allow Coville to make a seamless transition into the strong westerlies, more characteristic of the Southern Ocean. 

So while this is good news, Sodebo's deficit on IDEC, which on her lap of the planet in 2007-8 enabled her to cut the corner in the South Atlantic is reaching giant levels. At the time of writing Sodebo is 843 miles behind IDEC. She has 88 miles to go before she reached 40°S which at her current speed should see her reach the 'Roaring 40s' at around midday today. Solo non-stop round the world record holder Francis Joyon on IDEC, crossed this same latitude 10 hours later, but at that point was 1215 miles further down the race course.

Yesterday Coville reported: "It is not a perfect world at the moment. We are sailing around the St Helena high pressure which is really big at the moment and we are having to make big big distance to catch the low pressure in the south and get 'on the train, but all that way we have done along the Brazilian coast and all that distance are miles Francis Joyon’s didn’t do.

"Everything is okay on Sodebo and this morning it is very nice. I am trying to take every minute and every second like it is and not think too much about the future and our delay. I know already what is going to be the race now. The race is against time and is against me. I won’t crack under pressure. I’ll do my best."

 

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