Geronimo forges south

Doldrums could be tricky worried Olivier de Kersauson

With Orange II now out of the maxi-multihull round the world match race, Olivier de Kersauson and his crew on Geronimo will have to concentrate once again on racing the ghost of Bruno Peyron's previous boat, the present holder of the Jules Verne Trophy and of Steve Fossett's Cheyenne that is currently way ahead of the round the world record approaching the longitude of Australia.

Their relative positions are indicated on the chart above. At present Geronimo is behind the receord, but ahead of Cheyenne's relative position.

Last night, the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric sponsored trimaran was just 960 miles from the Equator, following a good day running in the trade winds on a direct track south in which they covered 444 miles in 24 hours.

Looking ahead de Kersauson is worried about their passage through the Doldrums on Thursday-Friday as there appears to be no corridor of reasonable conditions for his maxi-trimaran to sail down.