Out of the Doldrums.

Since last night, the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran seems to have found some rather more sustained wind, raising hopes that she may have left the notorious Doldrums behind.

By this morning, Geronimo was making 18 knots due south. If they have indeed left the Doldrums behind, this tricky passage will have gone very well for the crew, since the giant trimaran has only had to slow her pace for 24 hours, and even then managed to cover 300 nautical miles yesterday. Given the conditions, things seem to have gone very well indeed, thanks to the crew’s decision to take a long detour to the west to find the best position from which to enter this infamous area of calms.

It is also due to the uncanny ability of the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric watches to extract maximum performance from the boat in slack conditions. On each of her previous 8 days at sea, Geronimo has outrun her competitor and current Jules Verne Trophy holder, the maxi-catamaran, Orange (see table below). However, to put this data in perspective, Bruno Peyron was on a much more direct course to the Cape of Good Hope on his 8th day.

The Doldrums
The Doldrums is a low pressure area (atmospheric pressure of 1015 millibars or less) in which the wind speed and direction are very variable, the clouds are big and black and violent squalls are interspersed with brief periods of clear skies; it is also referred to as the “inter-tropical convergence zone“, because it straddles the area where the northern trade winds meet their southern counterparts, both being generated by the high pressure areas over the tropics. The northern trade winds blow from the north-east, whilst the southern trades blow from the south-east. Rather than blowing directly from the tropics to the Equator, they are skewed off that direct course by the Coriolis Effect created by the rotation of the Earth. This effect acts to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.

Geronimo's position : Day 8
Geronimo's position at 03:00 GMT

The boat's position at 14:00 GMT today (15:00 local time)