Canaries bound

Olivier de Kersauson's trimaran flies south

It hasn’t taken Olivier de Kersauson and his crew long to reach the African coast and get a taste of temperatures rather more pleasant than those in northern Europe. This morning saw the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric sponsored trimaran tracking the coast of Morocco. To reach Agadir by 09:00 GMT today, Geronimo covered 432 nautical miles in the first 24 hours at an average speed of 18.03 knots. Geronimo is currently enjoying between 17 and 23 knots of north-easterly wind under sunny skies.

”The start was a bit frantic, thanks to dozens of fishing boats working off Cadiz”, says skipper Olivier de Kersauson. “ Geronimo set off in 30 knots of wind and the fishermen must have been asking themselves what we were doing there… The crew is really on the case. The manoeuvres have been magnificent right from the start”.

Roger Waggott, the World Sailing Speed Record Council timekeeper at Cadiz, had this to say: “It was really fantastic to see Geronimo sailing at such speed in Cadiz Bay, covered in spray as the day began. Out in the roads, the sea was flat and the boat’s speed was really impressive”.

As planned, Geronimo is now heading for the Canary Islands and should be there later today. At some time tonight, Olivier de Kersauson, who is keeping a very close eye on the way the low pressure weather systems are likely to develop over the next few days, must make his choice between the direct route to the Bahamas and the more southerly route taken by Steve Fossett.

The Canaries are the only obligatory waypoint on the entire Discovery Route - this is 0.5 mile from Reina Sofia du Puerto de la Luz quay in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria).

Once they leave the islands behind, the choice of course is entirely free. Their only problem then is that this course, which should have been one long tack of pure speed in the trade winds, is now looking more like a subtle and complex navigational exercise between unstable weather systems.