Francis Joyon and his five crew crossed the Equator this Friday 20th January 2017 at 13 hours and 28 minutes.
Francis Joyon, Sébastien Audigane, Clément Surtel, Gwénolé Gahinet, Alex Pella and Bernard Stamm set a new record on the Ushant - Ecuador section (after passing the 3 capes) in 35 days, 04 hours, 09 minutes. They improve by 2 days, 22 hours and 36 minutes the previous record held since 2012 by Loïck Peyron and the maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V.
This is the 5th intermediate record achieved by the men of Idec Sport after the record passages at Cape Leeuwin, Tasmania, the Antimeridian and Cape Horn.
"It had completely slipped our minds." exclaims Francis Joyon at the evocation of this return passage to the northern hemisphere. "All our attention is focused on crossing this strange Intertropical Convergence Zone which forces us to sail far west of the usual route, in the north of Brazil.
We're going around a huge anticyclonic magma at low speed, which doesn't have the virulence of the doldrums, but which is slowing us down in a frank calm. The sea is very calm, the sky is grey and it's very hot.
We're hoping to get some wind at the end of the afternoon, so we can resume our journey towards Brittany, upwind at first, then at increasingly unrestrained speeds to finish, we hope, at full speed after the Azores..."
