Francis Joyon and his crew have gone back to Code Amber today during their stand-by period for their attempt at the outright round the world record, the Jules Verne Trophy. That means that along with his Dutch onshore router, Marcel van Triest, the skipper of IDEC SPORT is looking at a possible start from Ushant on Saturday 12th November.
Although the situation in the North Atlantic is worsening, it remains favourable for getting to the Equator in less than 6 days and to the Cape of Good Hope in less than 13 days. Francis Joyon and Marcel van Triest are watching the weather patterns evolve in the Atlantic and this process will continue until the start on Saturday is confirmed or postponed.
After returning to Code Red on Sunday 6th November after an interesting weather opportunity closed again in the Atlantic, the whole of the IDEC SPORT team, Alex Pella, Gwénolé Gahinet, Boris Herrmann, Bernard Stamm and Clément Surtel, are getting back into pre-start mode today (in Code Amber). Marcel van Triest pointed out that starting on Saturday would offer an interesting possibility in the North Atlantic allowing them to reach the Equator in less than six days, which would be a very decent time with the wind directly astern, which is a point of sail which does not favour high speeds on multihulls like IDEC SPORT. The situation in the South Atlantic, which looked like being a problem last week, seems to be moving in the right direction with the St.Helena high moving back up.
Ready and waiting, the boat and crew of IDEC SPORT now await the frequent updates from Marcel and Francis.
