20 April 2012
Dutch duo cross the Equator and are back in business
The majority of the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Class40s are now the furthest offshore since the start of Leg 4 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, 18 days ago as Cessna Citation leads the fleet towards the Caribbean’s Windward Islands in the North-East Trade Winds.
In fourth place, Erik van Vuuren and new co-skipper, Yvonne Beusker, have slowed slightly since Sec. Hayai restarted racing from Fortaleza on Wednesday night after disembarking Nico Budel and, having crossed the Equator at 03:00 GMT on Friday morning, the duo have encountered adverse current and rafts of weed 450 miles off the mouth of the River Amazon.
Leading the fleet, 750 miles north of Sec. Hayai on Friday afternoon, Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough on Cessna Citation averaged just under 12 knots for most of Friday, slowing fractionally at 15:00 GMT on Friday, but still increasing their lead to 389 miles. In second and third place, Financial Crisis and Phesheya-Racing are separated by 145 miles – another 40-mile gain for the Italian-Slovak duo in the past 24 hours - as the two Class40s settle in to the trade winds.
Since crossing the Equator on Wednesday and clearing the Doldrums, Financial Crisis has picked up speed from six knots to a steady nine-ten knots: “We’ve got around 20 knots from our starboard side and the unexpected, adverse current that we had all experienced after the Equator comes and goes and we still see no sign of the favourable Guiana Current that should be helping us along the way,” reported Nannini on Friday morning.
In the spring, the Guiana Current can extend to around 300 miles offshore, but is strongest along the edge of the continental shelf, while Nannini and Frattaruolo are 400 miles off the coast of French Guiana and subject to the limbs and meanders extending from the current’s offshore edge. Furthermore, freshwater anomalies from the Amazon’s outflow can create lobes stretching for 300km across the north-westerly flowing current.
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