Gitana Eighty expected in Perth tonight
Whilst there are only sixteen of the thirty original participants still
racing in the Vendée Globe 2008-2009, Gitana Eighty’s long delivery trip to
Australia is drawing to a close. Indeed the skipper and his monohull
equipped by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild are set to reach the port of
Fremantle tonight, which will be in the early hours in Australia since the
region of Perth is eight hours ahead of GMT.
After three weeks making headway under jury rig across an Indian Ocean which
has done nothing to facilitate the sailor’s task, Loïck Peyron isn’t
concealing either his delight or his satisfaction about the imminent
landfall.
It is worth pointing out once again the solidarity of seafarers in such
tricky situations as these: Olivier Wroczynski, specially rushed out to
Australia by the Gitana Team to ensure the arrival of the skipper of Gitana
Eighty runs smoothly and to organise the technical logistics on station,
will himself be assisted by Mike Golding’s shore crew and Dominique Wavre in
person. Both of these two skippers, the solo English skipper and the Swiss
sailor, made Perth a few days beforehand and are still on site.
As soon as Gitana Eighty comes alongside in the port she will be thoroughly
inspected by the local customs prior to obtaining her transpire. This will
enable her to pass through to the hauling out zone, just a few miles away,
where the shore crew will proceed with the necessary operations to get her
onto the hard. Midway through January she is scheduled to be loaded onto a
container ship. Meantime Loïck Peyron will spend just a matter of hours on
Australian soil before he flies back to France.
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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