After setting sail on Sunday evening, the IDEC SPORT maxi trimaran has had a rapid trip down the coast of Portugal during their second night at sea. The wind propelling them to the south is due north, which means that the crew have to steer from one side to the other by a few degrees to get a good angle.
IDEC SPORT is this morning off Lisbon, on the eastern edge of the low, where they are making the most of the 20-25 knot air stream. In this first part of the Jules Verne Trophy attempt, Francis and his warriors, Clément Surtel, Alex Pella, Boris Herrmann, Gwénolé Gahinet and Bernard Stamm are aiming to go from one system to another off the Canaries to pick up the trade winds, which although light for the moment are set to strengthen in the next 24 hours to propel IDEC SPORT towards the Cape Verde Islands and the Equator. The real challenge in this attempt is to look ahead to the weather coming up.
This morning Joyon and his men are just over 210 miles behind their virtual rival, the title-holder, Banque Populaire VII. Joyon and his router, Marcel van Triest knew the time to the Equator was not going to be extraordinary, and so it is only when they get to the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean that they can really see how they are doing.
