Thomas Coville Makes a Big Comeback

Thomas Coville, who had a rough start to his own assault on Ellen MacArthur’s solo circumnavigation record and who was thought by some to be out of the running, has made a tremendous comeback in the last few days aboard his 105-ft trimaran Sodebo. A high pressure system just off South Africa forced Coville to head farther south than is typically comfortable – but the tactic has paid off as he found strong northerlies to push him along at 24 knots for the last 24 hours. Unfortunately, he’s also had to dodge icebergs – not an easy task at those speeds. He’s now 600 miles ahead of where MacArthur was at this stage of her journey and just 345 miles behind Francis Joyon aboard IDEC.

Meanwhile, Joyon just had the worst day of his trip so far: a mere 139 miles made good. The high pressure system off the coast of Brazil that becalmed him yesterday is moving off and bringing fresh northwesterlies with it, leaving Joyon little choice but to tack in close to Brazil before tacking back out to find favorable winds.