Grands Records - Geronimo Against The Clock
27 April 17:49

Yesterday's average of 23.5 knots point-to-point reflects an excellent day's surfing of the kind for which Geronimo was designed and developed. The ability to skirt around the depression, pick up speed and get in front of it requires this potential for pure speed that only large multihulls can offer. This was only the second day of downwind sailing since New Zealand, and one that instantly created some smiles and good humour on deck. Today looks like being a slower day as the crew tries to make the jump to the anticyclone off Ireland, although tomorrow promises to be a tougher proposition altogether, with over 30 knots of headwind and a pretty rough sea.

With over 300 nautical miles in hand at the end of Day 61, the 11-man crew are beginning to take seriously the proposition that they could win the Jules Verne Trophy which slipped from their grasp last year between the Azores and Brittany, precisely where they have been racing today. There's no flat calm this year, but rather a collection of this and that; anticyclones and depressions wandering about the Atlantic at random. Their finish may be complex in terms of the number of weather systems and wind directions, but at least the whole picture is alive and moving, even if it's not in the right direction. Right down to the line, this voyage will have been an extraordinarily testing one for the boat, her crew and their nerve. Not only must all these stand up to the strain for a few hours more, but they must be managed perfectly against a clock that becomes more demanding with every hour.

DAY 61

GERONIMO (Capgemini / Schneider Electric)
43°20N - 29°03W
565 nautical miles in 24 hours, at an average speed of 23.5 knots.

Distance to the finish line:
Geronimo: 1,040 nautical miles
Orange: 1,361 nautical miles

Geronimo therefore leads by 321 nautical miles.

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