Yachting-Live

A Relentless North Atlantic For Gitana 13
Aboard the maxi-catamaran in the colours of the LCF Rothschild Group, the climb up the North Atlantic is revealing all its subtleties… and its difficulty. Slowed considerably by a long passage across the Doldrums late last week, Lionel Lemonchois and his men are now faced with a meteorological brain-teaser off the Canaries. This will be a tricky section, as will the Bay of Biscay and the last few miles along the English Channel. In plain language, positioned 1,700 miles from London this Thursday afternoon, the crew of Gitana 13 will have to hang on patiently before they can reach their goal.

Sailors have a great capacity to constantly adapt to the changes in weather. However, when they’re down to the final miles and home is not too far away - at least compared with the 13,000 miles they’ve covered since leaving Hong Kong - the desire to complete their mission is becoming increasingly pressing!: “This morning, whilst the forecast grib files didn’t bode well and we were making slow headway at 10 knots in a capricious wind, I have to say that the troop’s morale wasn’t great… However, we’ve had some new, more optimistic grib files since then and the good humour has returned. In the last days of a long voyage like the Tea Route, the atmosphere is always split between the desire to get there and the nostalgia of returning home” confided Lionel Lemonchois.

“Gitana 13 is sailing upwind on the approach to a stormy low with N’ly winds fluctuating at the mercy of the associated cold air. This is why the crew are making headway at a moderate speed of between 10 and 15 knots. This is set to be the way of things for some time and in fact the situation may become more exaggerated tonight and tomorrow morning. Indeed, in around twenty hours time, the maxi-catamaran will begin the most tricky phase to the south of the low in fairly light winds. This transition zone located immediately to the NW of the Canaries will nevertheless be an important passage as the winds will then fill in slowly to start with, before increasing as they shift round to the west and then the south-west during Friday” explained Sylvain Mondon before concluding: “From then on, Gitana 13 will be able to slip along downwind at speeds in excess of 20 knots, which will enable it to close rapidly on Cape Finisterre over the course of Friday night”. This change in pace is something the ten sailors have been looking forward to, but for the time being they’re paying a high price for it.

Setting out from Hong Kong on 14th August 2008, Lionel Lemonchois and his nine crew attacked their sixth week at sea this morning, and sincerely hope it will be their last. Indeed, though an exact ETA is very difficult to provide today, everyone is agreed on an arrival at the entrance to the River Thames between 23rd and 25th September. — translated by Kate Jennings

www.gitana-team.com

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at 7:22 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.