Jean Luc van den Heede has, this afternoon, announced that he will hopefully be leaving the port of Sables d’Olonne at around 1300 on Thursday for the start of his fourth, non-stop, east to west global attempt aboard Adrien.

Commenting on the pending departure, Van den Heede said: “The forecast is for south-westerly to Ouessant. And then the north-westerly of around 15-20 knots for my start. On paper it looks perfect, I will make my final decision tomorrow.’