Joyon Close to the ‘Savior’

Following a slow spot in the middle of the Atlantic, Francis Joyon has his 97-ft Irens/Cabaret-designed trimaran IDEC 2 going in the right direction. Although the "simple sailor from Locmariaquer" is sailing in lighter breeze that will likely continue until he finishes, Joyon’s increased his lead over the current record pace for the singlehanded Route of Discovery run — from Cadiz to San Salvador via Grand Canary Island — to over 350 miles with just 300 miles to go while maintaining a heading that puts him very close to finish.

IDEC 2‘s website is entirely in French, so if, like us you have to rely on online translation software, you get some ‘interesting’ translations of the dispatches from the team:

"Far is necessary oneself some besides, and if Francis puts such an amount of coal, riding crop to all goes, car on its machine and other metaphors of the same barrel, it is although it knows pertinently that its happiness of the day will disappear tomorrow with the entry in the depression located in approach of the north of the Caribbean."

As poetically absurdist as that is, we’re having difficulty with a contextual reading — but feel pretty confident in saying that there seems to be a transitional zone associated with a depression that is slowing Joyon down, but not enough to lose him the record. Even in this light spot, he’s still traveling at over 10 knots. The record he’s pursuing belongs to Thomas Coville and his old ORMA 60 Sodeb’O and was set in 2005 at 10d, 11h, 50 min. Coville probably hasn’t had much time to sit back and watch Joyon, as the former prepares his new 105-ft Sodeb’O for an assault on Joyon’s 57d, 13h, singlehanded ’round the world mark. A couple months ago, Coville took Joyon’s 2004 singlehanded West-East transAtlantic record set in the previous IDEC.