Another slow day

Yet Geronimo is still increasing her lead over Orange's record

Day 49	Position	24hr run	Av speed	Rel position
Geronimo	21°40S 39°15W	236nm	9.82	+623nm
Orange	30°41S 15°39W	245nm	10.23	-

Geronimo's position at 15:00 GMT today: 20°32S 37°57W
Distance travelled in 12 hours: 100 nautical miles
Average speed over the last 12 hours: 8,30 knots

Another slow day for Geronimo, the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric sponsored trimaran as she continues her passage north towards the Equator. She is now sailing on the wind in some very light breezes and there’s no sign or hint of the trade winds for the moment. Despite this her relative position to Orange is still increasing as at this time Bruno Peyron's giant catamaran was both sailing slowly - and in the wrong direction.

“It’s been three days since the wind fell and we’ve seen nothing of it since," commented Olivier de Kersauson. "8 knots is the highest anemometer reading we’ve had. I don’t really understand. All the forecasts are pretty much the same, generally speaking.

"Geronimo is caught in an enormous area of flat calm into which some storms came last night. It’s raining cats and dogs and the wind is very spasmodic at between 4 and 12 knots. Luckily, the boat is brilliant in low wind conditions. An around-the-world record attempt can be won or lost on this return leg north.

" Geronimo is certainly fast in slack winds, but she has to have some wind to work with and that’s not the case at the moment. There’s nothing at all. At a certain angle, the boat will travel twice as fast as the wind speed: so when there’s 4 knots of wind, the trimaran can make 8 knots. It’s fast, but not fast enough.

" Geronimo has an enormous sail area. The wind vanes are mounted at the head of the mast, 43 metres above us. It seems to me that it’s just the tip of the sail that’s working, because there’s nothing at all below 30 metres. The forecasts are still talking about 10 to 15 knots. They keep telling us that we should have wind, but there’s none here, so I’ve stopped looking at them - there’s no point. If you start making plans on forecasts like that, it’ll drive you round the bend”, says the skipper.

Olivier de Kersauson and his 10-man crew are having to tack on every wind shift. "We have slight breezes blowing at 4 knots and moving around between 50° and 70°. We have to manoeuvre almost all the time to pick up the slightest breath of air, but we are trying to keep to a middle course. The atmosphere on board is getting a bit tense. This area of calm requires enormous vigilance to make every metre of progress. When one watch ends, I stay on deck to explain the situation to the next watch, so that they can try their best to get us out of these crappy conditions. Yves Pouillaude is keeping incredibly calm - it’s quite extraordinary. It’s not that he doesn’t care and he’s certainly in good spirits. He’s really helping to lighten the atmosphere"

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