04.03.2005
Controlling its Capital
Since the maxi-catamaran’s complete check-up in the calms on Thursday morning,
the wind has been stalling its reappearance. Orange II is sailing at a reduced
pace, between 12 and 15 knots, and is attempting to climb due N along the
Brazilian coastline. It is likely to make the latitude of Salvador de Bahia
this evening, and a crossing of the equator on Sunday morning, is still on the
cards. The lead now held by Bruno Peyron and his men over the outright record
has continued to increase since the start, peaking yesterday at 10 days on the
38th day of racing. The current light conditions and the present record holder
Cheyenne’s great speed over this latter part of the course, would lead us to
believe that this capital of leading miles is now likely to be reduced to some
extent. That doesn’t shake the motivation of Orange II’s crew though, who are
exploiting the maxi-catamaran’s potential to the full and will try to retain as
much of their lead as possible until they get to Ouessant.
Bruno Peyron, Friday morning at 0400 GMT : « There is still not much wind,
barely 8 knots. We’re not worried about it though, the wind will kick back in
progressively. We are upwind under full indexsail and alternating between the
code zero and the solent up forward. As we have closed in on the coast, we’ve
passed a few boats, but they were too far away to know if they were Brazilian
fishermen. With this heat, we try to sleep on deck rather than down below. I
think we reached our maximum lead yesterday of over 10 days. Right now we have
light winds and a low speed. We also stopped the boat yesterday, so in
principle, our lead is not set to increase, especially as the North Atlantic
doesn’t look simple. »
References
Day at sea : 39th
Date : 04/03/2005
Time (GMT) : 04h00
Latitude : 15 56.96' S
Longitude : 33 57.20' W
Instantaneous speed : 13.1 kts
Instantaneous heading : 4
Average speed: 13.6 kts
Speed over 24hr : 5.9 kts
Distance over 24hr : 142 nm
Speed since the start : 23.4 kts
Overall distance : 21749 nm
Distance reindexing : 4324.00 nm
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