Sailing Small low upsets Coville's record attempt plans

Small low upsets Coville's record attempt plans

12:35 AM Tue 18 Nov 2008 GMT

'SAILING - SINGLE-HANDED ROUND THE WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT 2007-2008 - SYDNEY (AUS) - 03/07/2007 PHOTO : ANDREA FRANCOLINI / DPPI NEW 105 FT TRIMARAN SODEB’O / SKIPPER : THOMAS COVILLE (FRA) / ARRIVING IN SYDNEY HARBOUR' Andrea Francolini &copy Photo

A small low upsets the tradewinds and forces skipper Thomas Coville of Sodeb'O to postpone his departure by around 24 hours.

The enormous zone of high pressure currently filling the entire Atlantic, would ensure Thomas Coville an almost perfect descent as far as the equator, albeit for a slight drawback. For the past 24 hours the routers of Sodeb'O have been watching this situation with the attention you might give to a saucepan of milk on the boil.

This evening however, the two weather models consulted completely corresponded, confirming a drop in pressure between the Canaries and the Cape Verde archipelago at the point where Thomas is set to traverse this zone. This would involve light winds - less than 10 knots - across around 800 nautical miles. We understand that Thomas is aiming to reach the equator in seven days so he is postponing his departure for around 24 hours. As a result he will now tackle this section of the round the world course once the low has evacuated to the west, opening the passage southwards with regular and steady winds.

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by Kate Jennings - Expression