300 miles ahead

Franck Cammas and Groupama 3 hauling the mail now on their Jules Verne Trophy attempt

Sunday November 8th 2009, Author: James Boyd, Location: United Kingdom
Image above courtesy of Expedition and Predict Wind
 
 
Time Lat Long Spd Crs Dist Spd DTF v Orange
Inst 24 hrs
08/11/2009 20:00:00 21°42.80 N 026°37.71 W
27.9
204°
701.9
29.2
22 578
297.2
08/11/2009 17:00:00 22°56.84 N 025°53.30 W
26.2
199°
709.9
29.6
22 652
283.4
08/11/2009 14:00:00 24°13.30 N 025°21.79 W
27.2
208°
698.7
29.1
22 729
259.6
08/11/2009 11:00:00 25°24.15 N 024°46.76 W
30.9
197°
688.8
28.7
22 801
226.8
08/11/2009 08:00:00 26°49.12 N 024°08.74 W
30.2
206°
671.2
28
22 888
156.9
08/11/2009 05:00:00 28°13.63 N 023°33.47 W
30.8
211°
655.7
27.3
22 975
123
08/11/2009 02:00:00 29°41.28 N 022°55.59 W
30.4
195°
648.5
27
23 066
93.4
07/11/2009 23:00:00 31°06.53 N 022°17.82 W
30.9
205°
639.4
26.6
23 154
66.7
07/11/2009 20:00:00 32°30.67 N 021°33.43 W
30.4
210°
630.9
26.3
23 242
23.3
07/11/2009 19:00:00 32°58.01 N 021°14.38 W
28.3
208°
627
26.1
23 272
8.4
07/11/2009 18:00:00 33°25.58 N 020°57.49 W
25.6
202°
623.5
26
23 301
-8.2
07/11/2009 15:00:00 34°40.58 N 020°16.19 W
28.6
259°
623.6
26
23 381
-38.4
07/11/2009 12:00:00 35°02.03 N 018°35.53 W
28.1
234°
618.9
25.8
23 418
-30.6
 
Day three and Franck Cammas and the crew of Groupama 3 are now making great progress against Orange 2's record on their second attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy.

Having got underway on Thursday afternoon, the green maxi-trimaran had a slow(ish) first night when at one point they were more than 100 miles astern of Orange 2's 2005 Jules Verne pace. This was due to the rough seas and reported 7m waves forcing them to rein in.

"The wind frequently switched direction on the first night at sea, which meant that we weren't constantly able to carry the optimum amount of sail area on Groupama 3," reported Cammas the next day. "We thought we were free of this phenomenon this morning, but right now the wind still has a tendency to shift 40°... The true NW'ly wind should return soon at which point we'll be able to pick up speed over the course of the afternoon. In any case, we couldn't take any risks with the start and for the time being all's well! We've just broken a helmsman's helmet, but it's already been repaired..."

By Friday lunchtime Groupama 3 was past Cape Finisterre and still enjoying strong northwesterlies with the sea thankfully flattening out. Friday night they encountered a cold front and with the wind veering into the north, so they took the shift and headed west.

"Since daybreak, we've been passing a lot of cargo ships and fishing boats, but as we're sailing a course which is parallel to the shipping lanes, this isn't complicating manoeuvres," reported Cammas. "Everyone is into their stride now: we began the watch system two hours out of Ushant. It wasn't easy to sleep last night though as the boat was really getting shaken about with a residual swell preventing us from slipping along smoothly. Yesterday evening it wasn't easy to prepare something to eat so we snacked on sandwiches..."

Cammas continued: "This evening we're going to gybe onto a direct course towards the Equator and accelerate in the process! The manoeuvre is scheduled at least 250 miles from Madeira in order to avoid the wind shadow from the archipelago's land mass. For now, we have all the sail up in an average of 16 knots of breeze. We're going to remain in downwind conditions out to the west to avoid further gybes and benefit from more wind. As such we'll be able to luff once the wind eases prior to the Doldrums."

In fact at 1500 yesterday and with the wind now into the northeast, the crew took the opportunity to gybe, while at the latitude of Gibraltar. By the evening Groupama 3 was really hauling the mail and at 1900 she finally 'overtook' Orange 2.

Unfortunately, American navigator Stan Honey has been sick, suffering from a persistent headache since the start. "I hope it will pass: we've given him Aspirin," reported Cammas. "He's managing to do his job at the chart table, but he's suffering a bit. It may be the engine fumes: we've checked there aren't any leaks... Fred and Thomas are taking care of him as they're in charge of medical matters onboard. They've been trained, they know the medication we have in the first aid kit and they have their contacts onshore if a more thorough intervention is required."

24 hours on and Honey is better, thanks to a diet of dried Swiss meat... Groupama 3 is now at the latest report almost 300 miles ahead and are raking up 700+ mile days at an average speed of just under 30 knots.

"it's very wet but it's nice!" said Steve Ravussin earlier. "Nevertheless, we did have to carry out a fair number of manoeuvres last night with squalls and gusts up to 36 knots... Added to that the short seas made for an exciting ride: we went down to two reefs in the mainsail and Solent! We clocked up some top speeds of 42 knots, but it wasn't our aim to go very fast; our main focus is making good headway..."

The course Cammas has taken has been much further west, compared to Bruno Peyron and Orange 2 who at this point was forced to the east of the Canary Islands in order to stay in the best breeze. Getting westing in early is always a good thing heading towards the Doldrums and Equator, putting Groupama 3 on a hotter angle compared to Orange 2 which had to sail deeper. It also keeps them out of the wind shadow of the Canaries and the Cape Verdes, which in both cases can extend more than 100 miles to leeward.

Already Honey is working on their passage through the Doldrums which is likely to take place tomorrow night. Their present course looks set to have them crossing the Equator considerably further west than Orange 2 although they are expected to hang a slight left on to more of a southerly heading over night.

Looking back at the history of Jules Verne attempts, the boats have crossed at all sorts of longitudes - compared to Orange 2 at 26deg 18W, Geronimo was at around 28degW in 2004, while Cheyenne was at 27deg something, Kingfisher 2 was east like Orange 2, while in 2003 Geronimo was all the way over towards 32degW while in the depths of the past ENZA New Zealand was at around 28degW.
In fact today (as opposed to tomorrow night) the Doldrums have been looking relatively benign, located between 6 and 8degN (between 27 and 30deg W) and Meteo France router Sylvian Mondon is hinting that they might be looking at a passage through somewhere between 24 and 27degW... The decision will be made tomorrow with the latest forecast and satellite pics. And in addition to the Doldrums their strategy for how they tackle the south Atlantic (and the position of the high) are also likely to have a bearing on their choice).

Latest Comments

Add a comment - Members log in

EmailPrintTwitterFacebookLinkedInStumbleDigg

Tags

    Latest news!

    Back to top
      Back to top