Jules Verne Trophy - Orange II - Geronimo - Cheyenne zur Übersicht 04.21.2004- The Geronimo trimaran newsletter n° 63 Jules Verne Trophy Due North to the Azores. Ever since she picked up the northern trade winds last night, Geronimo has been making good headway northwards. The 11-man Capgemini and Schneider Electric crew managed to extract themselves relatively quickly from the Doldrums by exploiting local micro-systems and keeping clear of suspect cloud formations and squalls. Although mediocre, these conditions probably seemed relatively easy, compared with the problems of reaching and crossing the Equator. Their task now is to head due North and catch the first available train to the Azores, for an onward connection to Brittany. The crew is now very eager to get home: "They have a rather empty look about them; I don't know if it's fatigue, sadness or just exhaustion", said the skipper this morning. Nevertheless Geronimo continues to attack relentlessly. By the 23:00 GMT position fix last night, they had regained most of the ground lost to Orange as the result of an almost windless South Atlantic. Since this morning, Geronimo's average speed has been consistently above 17 knots on a heading of 350°, just a few degrees away from due north. Positions - DAY 55 GERONIMO (Capgemini / Schneider Electric) 05°07N - 31°01W 339 nautical miles in 24 hours, at an average speed of 14.15 knots. Distances to Waypoint 2 (35°N - 36°W): 1,814 nautical miles for Geronimo, 1,788 nautical miles for Orange, i.e. a lead of 26 nautical miles over Geronimo. 21.04.2004- The Geronimo trimaran newsletter n° 64 Geronimo returns to the North Atlantic. [21 /4 /2004 ] Geronimo finally crossed the Equator at 02:10 GMT this morning, bogged down in a very widespread and mobile Doldrums. It had therefore taken the grey trimaran 54 days, 2 hours and 52 minutes to re-cross this imaginary line between the two hemispheres. Now just under one day behind Orange’s record (the catamaran crossed the Equator after 53 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes, but much further East), the next waypoint for comparing the three round-the-world times will be 35°N, 36°W. Cheyenne benefited greatly from a low pressure area over the Azores which allowed her to route directly for home, although she was, of course, not competing for the Jules Verne Trophy. In his radio interview of this morning, the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran skipper spoke of another rather surprising calculation he had made: that in all the distance covered from New Zealand to today’s position, Geronimo had flown her gennakers for only 18 hours! That’s less than one whole day, despite the fact that this is an attempt to sail around the world the “right” way, with (theoretically) following winds and not the “wrong” way as Jean-Luc Van Den Heede did with Adrien. In fact, Geronimo has done much more upwind sailing than downwind in this second half of her circumnavigation. Ever the fatalist, the skipper concluded that they were now prepared for anything. “The crew is doing everything to get home as quickly as possible, of course, but I simply can’t tell you when! Last year, it took us a fortnight to get back from the Azores, so...”. To win back the Jules Verne Trophy, the 11-man crew must cross the finish line before 07:54 GMT (09:54 French time) on 30 April. DAY 54 GERONIMO (Cap Gemini / Schneider Electric) 00°30S - 30°21W 260 nautical miles in 24 hours, at an average speed of 10.8 knots. Distances to waypoint 2 of the Jules Verne Trophy: Geronimo: 2,152 nautical miles Orange: 2,014 nautical miles Orange leads by 138 nautical miles. Cheyenne: 1,500 nautical miles ahead. Press Relations RIVACOM Régis Rassouli Tel : +33 (0) 2 98 43 21 50 regis@rivacom.fr Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE