Fourth week at sea for Thomas Coville on Sodebo Ultim' and third record for the sailor! After the Equator and the Cape of Good Hope, the skipper has just broken a new record. He rounded Cape Leeuwin on Sunday 27th November 2016 at 17:59 (French time) after 21 days 03:09 min and 8 seconds at an average speed of 24.9 knots. He has beaten Francis Joyon's record on Idec in 2007 by 1 day
12 h 19 min
"On the map on my computer screen, I don't feel like I'm moving very fast." said Thomas Coville in the early afternoon. However, the latter is recording impressive averages. He sailed down the North Atlantic in less than six days to cross the Equator on 11th November. He then negotiated the Southern Atlantic and its traps to round the Cape of Good Hope 9 days later, on 20th November. That was just 1 week ago!
This cape is the second of the three great capes of this round the world under sail and the last cape before Cape Horn. And Thomas has only been at sea for 21 days! Currently positioned between Antarctica and the Australian continent, he's preparing to cross the Pacific Ocean whose entry point is Tasmania. The routing indicates a passage on Tuesday morning 29th November.
Mark Lloyd / Sodebo
"I don't see much, to say the least. It's a winter atmosphere in a permanent fog. For the past five days I've seen a clearing, otherwise it's very grey, it rains all the time. It's about 1-0° degrees, or -5° felt. I can no longer manoeuvre on deck without gloves. They're often wet, so I alternate between two pairs. You have to protect everything, especially your fingers and nose so they don't freeze.
In this cold, every manoeuvre is difficult and very engaging. As soon as you make the slightest movement, you're sweating. I'm rinsed after every maneuver with the need to eat and drink. Despite these extreme conditions, I'm happy because it's not too bad and we have a good lead. This is the section where Francis had been strong. It's a good thing to go faster. That means we've worked well with Jean-Luc (editor's note: Nélias - the router for Sodebo Ultim'). It also means that we're almost halfway there and we're soon on our way back.
On this round the world voyage, the hardest part was a few days ago when I was in 7-8m waves: it felt like the boat was small and I was very small. The Indian is the worst place on the planet. Each time I tell myself that it's not made for men, it's made for birds.
I don't try to hurt myself, I like to go to the end of the sensations but the physical conditions are difficult. To circumnavigate the planet via these three capes, you have to go through this. As you can't see anything, it's very disturbing, it feels like a big void. The Indian is the desert, it's as if you ask a Tuareg to describe a dune or a rock.
This is committed because we have to provide a weather bet. It's very mentally committed. I take enormous pleasure in the competition, in the sliding, in the feeling of doing something out of the ordinary. It takes guts."
