Thomas Coville on SodebO - Update

Life on a knife edge

Making headway in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, otherwise referred to as the middle of nowhere, Thomas Coville is back on a ‘supersonic’ point of sail thanks to a good NW’ly wind which should remain established at 25/30 knots for the next 3 days.

Slipping along in the pitch black night at over 34 knots, under two reef mainsail and staysail, the skipper of Sodeb’O had this to say this morning: “At these speeds, you live like an animal, you turn into a machine. You become immune to the impact and the resonance; you no longer have the same references as you do on land. In the thick of the action, I have the numbers in my head, along with my reactions and sensations. When the boat stops, the psychological aspect takes the upper hand again. Your mind starts to think once more. It’s rather a special kind of behaviour. Due to the speed and the risk taking, I’ve never been as far as this into the relationship between the psychological and the physical. When the boat drops into a wave, in the pitch black, you feel like you’re falling into an abyss. Aboard, it’s unbearable as you’re permanently being shaken and tossed about. You hit things and you don’t know what it is; it could be strings of algae which are as hard as tree trunks, or even seals. Life on a multihull at these kinds of speeds is something which is unimaginable for a landlubber and I myself couldn’t even have imagined it. You can’t get off to sleep. You’re overcome with sleep at times but it’s impossible to control when you actually fall asleep, whatever method you try.”

Since last year the distance and speed references have changed beyond recognition. Francis Joyon recorded such massive average speeds that Thomas Coville has no option but to continue in this vein. Though Sodeb’O seems to go intrinsically faster, the weather hasn’t been favourable to her. "We haven’t had any easy transitions. Since the equator, I’ve had to hunt down particular situations, catch up with them and get around them. Fortunately the boat is great. She’s bearing up well. She’s robust and capable of adapting to some difficult situations. I’ve broken two or three things which demonstrates that I’m really working her hard. The boat is a daily satisfaction to me."

Thomas is set to reach Cape Horn during the course of the day on 27th December, with a deficit of around 4 days on Francis Joyon, which is just about the time that the skipper of IDEC lost on his climb up the Atlantic. As a result anything is still possible.