Cruisin'

Groupama 3 now 500 miles in advance of Orange 2's pace

Groupama 3 is now fully into the Trades and cruising south at full warp speed her latest 24 hour run having increased to 681 miles (or 28.4 knots average speed for a day...). As a result her advantage over Orange 2's pace is now up to 511 miles. Her present position at 8degN has her encounting the Doldrums this afternoon and she should be through it by tomorrow morning.

In November last year, on her second attempt at this record, Groupama 3 demolished the record from Ushant to the Equator, setting a new time of 5 days 15 hours and 23 minutes, significantly faster than the 6 days 6 hours 24 minutes she managed on her first attempt in 2008. At 10:00 this morning she was 4 days 21 hours into her record attempt and according to navigator Stan Honey (see the video here), despite the irregular weather they have had since leaving, they could be looking at the second fastest passage from the start to the Equator.

At present Groupama 3 is on pretty much a due south heading, indicating that they have 'chosen their longitude' where they plan to cross the Doldrums (29deg22W) and the wind satellite radar (thank you Mark Morris) indicates that there is minimal Doldrums activity at present and that they should start to encounter the southwesterlies, marking the arrival into the southern hemisphere trades, at 2-3degN.