Francis Joyon Update–Almost Home: The wind is blowing 35-40 knots, his left float is buried in the foam and soaking up water like a sponge, but Francis Joyon is on target to arrive back in France–after girdling the globe non-stop–early Tuesday morning. If he doesn’t hit a floating container, and if his float doesn’t suddenly break off, he’s looking at a new non-stop solo record of 73 days. That’s 20 days faster than the old solo record (set in a monohull), and the fourth fastest non-stop circumnavigation EVER (the top 3 were in fully-crewed boats). This will be the solo sailing equivalent of breaking the 4-minute mile, and will be a record that top solo sailors could be chasing for years (including Ellen MacArthur, who just launched her new 75-foot trimaran, which is designed to go after exactly this sort of record). The last day at sea is a time for maximum paranoia and superstition for any sailor. Many a voyage has come catastrophically undone within the final miles and Joyon clearly has collision on his mind. Here’s his latest communication from the boat:

“During the night I reverted back to my small sails. I gybed yesterday and am now on a course of 60°. At this angle the float is in the water. It must have taken on 300 / 400 litres, but I can’t go any further round…I’m trying to limit the risk of collision by going quicker during the day and slowing down at night. In the North Atlantic there are quite a few things floating in the water nonetheless. As there are a lot of cargo ships there are also containers as well as logs which fall overboard in rough weather . That’s a fair amount of potential dangers for boats. By day the risk is reduced but you’re certainly never very relaxed with cargo ships around : I passed one yesterday. I have a radar detector on board and yet it didn’t have it’s radar on in the middle of the North Atlantic! We’re used to our well equipped cargo ships with competent crews but you have to realise that there are still boats around without any legislation or equipment! It seems to be a trend and it’s a real shame. You get the impression that the guys travel under automatic pilot and that even if they see an obstacle, they’re not competent enough to reflect on the adequate trajectory.”

Run down by a freighter just miles from glory. The offending skipper would be tracked down and lynched by the French sailing public….



Fast-Moving Tanker Target?