Emerging from the Doldrums

Banque Populaire set to cross the Equator later today

Sunday November 27th 2011, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Chart above courtesy of Expedition/Tasman Bay Navigation Systems and PredictWind.

Date time Lat Long VMG Crs Spd Spd Spd Dist DTF DT G3
          Inst 4 hr 24 hours      
27/11/2011 07:45:00 UTC 05°01.34'N 027°35.22'W 12.4 201° 15.7 13.8 19.2 461.1 20 930 129.7
27/11/2011 04:45:00 UTC 05°43.85'N 027°22.75'W 11.3 190° 12.3 14.3 21.6 519.3 20 968 170
27/11/2011 01:45:00 UTC 06°26.90'N 027°18.12'W 14.9 207° 18.8 14.3 23.3 558 21 009 209.8
26/11/2011 22:45:00 UTC 07°11.92'N 027°03.94'W 10.4 187° 10.7 13.9 24.8 596.1 21 051 247.5
26/11/2011 19:45:00 UTC 07°49.66'N 026°49.62'W 16 189° 16.6 17.5 26.7 639.7 21 087 287.3
26/11/2011 16:45:00 UTC 08°38.36'N 026°51.01'W 22.2 176° 22.3 24.7 28.1 675.2 21 135 319.8
26/11/2011 13:45:00 UTC 09°52.91'N 026°52.15'W 24.4 176° 24.5 28.5 27.9 670.2 21 209 319.7
26/11/2011 10:45:00 UTC 11°17.24'N 027°01.21'W 31.8 170° 32 31.2 27.3 654.8 21 294 308.3
26/11/2011 08:45:00 UTC 12°17.32'N 027°12.22'W 32.8 168° 33 31.4 27.3 656 21 355 303.1

The elastic has contracted for the crew of Banque Populaire on their Jules Verne Trophy attempt. Yesterday evening they entered the Doldrums causing their speed to drop uncharacteristicaly to the 'teens' and, with this, their lead over Groupama 3 has diminished to 129.7 miles, down from a high yesterday afternoon of 323 miles.

However the satellite radar wind images show the southeasterlies marking the end of the Doldrums starting to fill in at around 5°N (where they are now) and so over the course of this morning the 40m maxi trimaran will soon be getting back up to cruising speed and on her current course (which has come about to the west since yesterday morning) she looks set to cross the Equator (around 300 miles away at the latest sched) at around 28°50W later today.

It seems likely that after the Equator Banque Populaire will follow a similar course to the one Groupama 3 took, but more to the east as in the southeasterly trades they will be attempting to make the best VMG south until such time as the trades start backing into the east as they pass Recife.

 

 

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