Just after 10.00 on the night of February 7th 2004, Ellen MacArthur crossed an imaginary line in the sea off Brittany to become the fastest person ever to sail solo round the world. The record was held by a Frenchman, Francis Joyon. Hed slashed over 20 days off the previous record and many thought his extraordinary new benchmark would stand for 10 years or more. Most experts thought that the record would be beyond MacArthur.