Coville into the Furious 50s

Sodebo finally regaining some miles on IDEC

Monday February 21st 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
      Inst   4 hr 24 hours      
21/02/2011 10:35 53°30.94'S 085°40.98'E 23.4 99° 23.4 20.8 498.9 14 254 -1 223.90
21/02/2011 08:00 53°22.34'S 083°58.78'E 23.9 94° 21.8 21.1 506.3 14 317 -1 231.80
21/02/2011 06:00 53°17.08'S 082°39.79'E 24.3 97° 21.4 21.1 507.3 14 366 -1 236.90
21/02/2011 04:00 53°10.93'S 081°27.75'E 20.2 95° 20.3 21 503 14 411 -1 236.80
21/02/2011 02:00 53°05.43'S 080°21.85'E 24.1 96° 20.9 20.9 500.8 14 451 -1 234.10
21/02/2011 00:00 52°57.71'S 079°08.65'E 22.1 91° 20.5 20 480.4 14 497 -1 235.10
20/02/2011 22:00 52°49.63'S 078°08.32'E 20.5 103° 22.1 20 480.5 14 535 -1 230.40
20/02/2011 20:00 52°45.08'S 076°56.84'E 21.3 97° 18.3 19.9 478 14 579 -1 230.50
20/02/2011 18:00 52°40.76'S 075°47.04'E 24.4 96° 18.3 19.8 475.5 14 622 -1 232.10
20/02/2011 16:00 52°36.50'S 074°30.30'E 24.5 91° 18.6 19.5 467.8 14 669 -1 237.20
20/02/2011 14:00 52°32.53'S 073°57.31'E 13.8 106° 23.5 20.2 484.3 14 691 -1 217.20
20/02/2011 12:00 52°22.57'S 072°48.75'E 26.1 106° 24.4 20 480.2 14 735 -1 219.90
20/02/2011 10:00 52°12.77'S 071°31.98'E 24.7 101° 22.9 19.5 468.8 14 784 -1 227.30
20/02/2011 08:00 52°02.93'S 070°12.06'E 24.2 106° 20.9 19.3 462.8 14 834 -1 240.20
20/02/2011 06:00 51°49.67'S 068°56.48'E 23.1 107° 16.9 19 456.2 14 897 -1 263.60
20/02/2011 04:00 51°36.77'S 067°56.62'E 20 111° 16.6 19 455.2 14 937 -1 270.20
20/02/2011 02:00 51°24.82'S 066°59.15'E 14.8 97° 17.4 19 455.5 14 978 -1 281.20
20/02/2011 00:00 51°17.95'S 066°21.95'E 9.9 127° 20.2 19.5 467.8 15 005 -1 272.00
19/02/2011 22:00 50°57.11'S 065°30.33'E 22.2 123° 20.3 19.5 467 15 041 -1 272.00
19/02/2011 20:00 50°33.66'S 064°34.90'E 20.8 123° 19.4 19.2 460.7 15 082 -1 275.40
19/02/2011 18:00 50°11.69'S 063°41.51'E 19.7 123° 19.1 18.9 454.3 15 109 -1 264.60
19/02/2011 16:00 49°50.40'S 062°50.90'E 18.4 123° 18.7 18.8 450.7 15 161 -1 277.90
19/02/2011 14:00 49°30.69'S 062°02.44'E 20.8 122° 19.7 18.6 446.8 15 201 -1 292.00
19/02/2011 12:00 49°09.74'S 061°12.20'E 15.2 122° 20.1 19 456.6 15 242 -1 307.90
19/02/2011 10:00 48°49.19'S 060°26.66'E 21.6 126° 20.4 19.2 460.3 15 280 -1 321.40

Since Friday night Thomas Coville and his maxi-trimaran Sodebo have slowly but consistently been regaining ground on Francis Joyon's solo non-stop round the world record holder, IDEC. At their worst Sodebo at around 2200 GMT on Friday night was 1378 miles behind IDEC, but since then has clawed her way back to 1224 miles astern.

However Sodebo's tactics over this period have been a little on the risky side. While IDEC and for example the Barcelona World Race fleet stayed north of the Kerguelen archipelago on Saturday Sodebo speared off to the south, and this morning finds her at 53°30S, some 260 miles south of IDEC's track. The advantage of this is that is cuts miles off the course around the bottom of the planet. The downside is that it potentially increases the risk of encountering ice. However when we spoke to him last week, Coville said that he is getting good ice information from satellite images via a company in France.

Sodebo has been forced up to these latitudes because of the weather conditions - there is a depression centred northwest of the Kerguelens and this is forecast to extend its reach east. If Sodebo were any further north then she would be in lighter breeze. At present she continues to make good but not record breaking speeds, averaging around 20 knots, driven by strong southwesterlies, associated with this depression. The forecast indicates the weather will force Sodebo and her skipper to remain in the Furious 50s for the remainder of this week.

Latest Comments

Add a comment - Members log in

EmailPrintTwitterFacebookLinkedInStumbleDigg

Latest news!

Back to top
    Back to top