Groupama behind

After a costly battle with the South Atlantic high, Franck Cammas' maxi-tri is now hauling the mail

Getting out of the South Atlantic has proved extremely costly for Franck Cammas and his crew on Groupama 3. Throughout Thursday and Friday the mighty trimaran was dogged by light winds in an area of high pressure and yesterday morning was becalmed - and on a multihull of this size, this means absolutely zero wind. Over the course of the last two days she has lost 400 miles on Bruno Peyron's virtual pace setter Orange 2, and only managed to stop the rot last night by which time her lead over the Jules Verne Trophy record holder had turned into a deficit of 400 miles. Somewhat ironic was that Groupama 3 ghosted into the Roaring Forties under the high her boat speed reading uncharacteristic single digits. To get out of the clutches of the high she (as we predicted) sailed pretty much due south, only turned her bows east late yesterday morning. 

Since then the situation on board has gone to the other extreme with the 105ft tri racking up some huge mileage that are set to see her pass the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope by the end of the weekend. Since yesterday afternoon she has been averaging 32-34 knots. At the latest sched her daily run was up to 776 and this is likely to peak at around 800. At such speeds it shouldn't take long to claw her way back against Orange 2's pace. Despite the slow progress in the high pressure, her arrival in the Southern Ocean has been in phase with the train of depressions that head east in this area and she is now in the ideal position - to the east of a cold front associated with a depression centred some 900 miles due south of her. 

Sylvain Mondon of Météo France gives his assessment: "The front to the west of Groupama 3 is delivering 32-36 knots as it tracks east and Franck Cammas and his crew are managing to maintain enough separation from it and hence sail in 20 to 25 knots of breeze along a very efficient course. The front will nevertheless continue to close on them until Sunday evening, at which point its progress will slow as it moves south towards the Antarctic on Monday morning."