Grands Records - Geronimo Returns To The North Atlantic
20 April 17:32

Geronimo finally crossed the Equator at 02:10 GMT this morning, bogged down in a very widespread and mobile Doldrums. It had therefore taken the grey trimaran 54 days, 2 hours and 52 minutes to re-cross this imaginary line between the two hemispheres. Now just under one day behind Orange's record (the catamaran crossed the Equator after 53 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes, but much further East), the next waypoint for comparing the three round-the-world times will be 35°N, 36°W. Cheyenne benefited greatly from a low pressure area over the Azores which allowed her to route directly for home, although she was, of course, not competing for the Jules Verne Trophy.

In his radio interview of this morning, the Capgemini and Schneider Electric trimaran skipper spoke of another rather surprising calculation he had made: that in all the distance covered from New Zealand to today's position, Geronimo had flown her gennakers for only 18 hours! That's less than one whole day, despite the fact that this is an attempt to sail around the world the "right" way, with (theoretically) following winds and not the "wrong" way as Jean-Luc Van Den Heede did with Adrien. In fact, Geronimo has done much more upwind sailing than downwind in this second half of her circumnavigation. Ever the fatalist, the skipper concluded that they were now prepared for anything. "The crew is doing everything to get home as quickly as possible, of course, but I simply can't tell you when! Last year, it took us a fortnight to get back from the Azores, so...". To win back the Jules Verne Trophy, the 11-man crew must cross the finish line before 07:54 GMT (09:54 French time) on 30 April.

DAY 54

GERONIMO (Capgemini / Schneider Electric)
00°30S - 30°21W
260 nautical miles in 24 hours, at an average speed of 10.8 knots.

Distances to waypoint 2 of the Jules Verne Trophy:
Geronimo: 2,152 nautical miles
Orange: 2,014 nautical miles
Orange leads by 138 nautical miles.

Cheyenne: 1,500 nautical miles ahead.

Geronimo's latest news are on http://www.trimaran-geronimo.com