From One System To Another
Since setting out from San Francisco on Saturday night (UT), Lionel Lemonchois and his ten crew have been experiencing a diversity of weather, characteristic of this east to west crossing of the North Pacific. With 952 miles actually made good over the ground in the past 48 hours, the maxi-catamaran in the colours of the LCF Rothschild Group is maintaining an average pace of over 20 knots.
Now on starboard tack, Gitana 13 is on a heading of 241 as she prepares to encounter her next system: there is good cloud cover dropping down from the NW with 30 knots of wind forecast. As a result, the wet atmosphere is still par for the course for Gitana Team for the next 24 hours.
In this North Pacific crossing, the men on the maxi-catamaran equipped by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild, are engaged in a virtual race against the giant trimaran skippered by Olivier de Kersauson, the current record holder.
At the 0730 ranking this morning, Lionel Lemonchois and his crew had a 371 mile lead over the reference time; a figure which is partly explained by the lateral separation of Gitana 13 in relation to Geronimo’s 2006 attempt. The conditions encountered by Kersauson at the time led him to pass a long way south of the great circle route. A direct course, which as we can see on the cartography, would force the sailors tackling this record, to adopt a very N’ly trajectory to make Yokohama. This is pure theory however as in reality the weather conditions dictate a much more S’ly course compared to that of the ideal track.
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