Another new record to the Equator

More records for Banque Populaire as she faces a huge detour in the North Atlantic

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

At 11:17:30 GMT today the Banque Populaire maxi-trimaran re-crossed the Equator, this time homeward bound to France and once again did so in record time.

In the process she set a new Equator to Equator record for the round the world course. Banque Populaire covered this in just 32 days, 11 hours, 51 minutes and 30 seconds, 1 day, 4 hours 14 minutes and 30 seconds faster than the previous record holder, Bruno Peyron's Orange 2.

38 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes and 48 seconds since leaving Ushant, Banque Populaire now holds a 3 days, 14 hours and 11 minutes lead over the record pace of Jules Verne Trophy holder Groupama 3 in 2010. After several days where her lead over Groupama 3's pace remained around the just over 1000 miles mark, over the last 24 hours it has now soared to 1424 miles, with more to come until she reaches the Doldrums, later today.

The good news is that the Doldrums don't seem to be overly active on Banque Populaire's westerly crossing and her transition into the northeasterly trades of the North Atlantic seem likely to be reasonably painless. The bad news is that the team's shore-based router Marcel van Triest reckons that they are likely to have to send the 40m as far west as 52°W (she's presently at 33°W) in order to skirt the Azores high. However the good news is that while she must return before Monday, 9 January, 2012 at 16:15:34 UTC if she is to break Groupama 3's record, her ETA at present seems likely to be sometime around 6 January.