The Orange II maxi-catamaran and the 12-man crew are continuing their fast descent of the South Atlantic this morning averaging 20 knots after 10 days at sea.

The team, attempting to set a new crewed record around the world, has however, been slowed a little since early last night because of a large swell. Bruno Peyron prefers to ease off a little to take care of the equipment.

Today is likely to be a bit slower than planned but the skipper of Orange II remained confident this morning about the possibility of reaching the wind change allowing him to swing around to the east Commenting Bruno Peyron said: “We’re still heading down towards the south at around 20 knots, but have been forced to slow down a little because of tricky seas.

“We weren’t able to hoist the solent, as it’s a sail that is too powerful in these conditions. Imagine a 30 tonne monster falling into a trough several metres deep. It’s a bit difficult and unpleasant to be sailing like this. We’re under the staysail, in other words a little under what you might expect in 20-knot winds. We decided to look after the equipment in these conditions, and not to go on the attack today. We’ll be looking for a compromise between our bearing and our speed.

“Apart from that everything is fine on board. The boat is behaving well in spite of these heavy seas. The good news is that today we should start easing around to the east and shortening the route. Tomorrow we shall be accelerating again in a more favourable wind with the swell easing off. So we’re putting up with things today to be able to attack more tomorrow.”