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2008/01/29 - 11h21
200 + 200 = 400
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| Jules Verne Trophy |
| With an average speed oscillating between 24 and 30 knots since the passage of the Cape Verde archipelago, Groupama 3 has
been able to save nearly 200 miles in a single day on the reference time...
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The tradewinds took a long while to establish themselves but they have now enabled Groupama 3 to pick up the pace dramatically
during this start to the week. Since the crew cleared the island of Santo Antao (Cape Verde), it has been able to benefit
from a NE'ly downwind breeze of around twenty knots.
The whole day has therefore been very fast and has enabled
the giant trimaran to drastically increase its lead over Orange II, an advantage which has stretched to over 400 miles this
Tuesday morning!
At this stage, Franck Cammas and his nine crew are virtually assured of crossing the equator in
at least a day less than the catamaran skippered by Bruno Peyron in 2005...
This Tuesday will be pretty vital since
the Doldrums, a zone alternating between calms and squalls, is on today's menu: according to the forecaster Sylvain Mondon,
it is only really active between 4° and 3° North, but in fact the zone of disturbed wind and the large amount of cloud cover
stretches from 10° North to 1° South! This Tuesday morning, Groupama 3 was not yet suffering the effects of this but has observed
that the tradewind breeze was tending to drop off progressively...
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