Sunday notes

Bright sunshine interspersed with heavy showers - and brilliant rainbows - today. New Zealand is getting severe gales and heavy rain out of the now-extra-tropical Funa. The whole country, north to south, will get a swipe.

The co-pilot on flight BA038, which crashlanded at Heathrow last week, said he feared a catastrophe in which all would die when his plane lost all power. Instead, it glided to the ground and juddered along the grass. John Coward was at the controls at the time.

Not so lucky were the 11 passengers on a light plane in Angola, which crashed on an internal flight between the capital Luanda and the country's second city, Huambo. None survived. Angola's national carrier, TAAG, has such a poor safety record that it is not allowed to fly to the European Union.

Going around the world on his own in a record time of just over 57 days was French yachtsman Francis Joyon. In doing so, he shattered Ellen MacArthur's previous record by 14 days. She did it in 71 days and 14 hours (and a bit). Joyon had to combat gales and a near broken mast. Ms MacArthur has stated that records are there to be broken.
She will not attempt to regain that crown just yet, as she has previous commitments.