Where to cross the ”Line” and its infamous calms or doldrums?

This is the question of the moment as Giovanni Soldini explains: “It is very important to study well the strategy for the next few days. it is doubtful where the Equator shall be passed, usually we do it around longitude 27° W. But there is the possibility of going straight, near the African coast, but then things could get complicated the following week.

Together with Pierre (Lasnier, the team’s routeur, Ed.) who helps us from land, we are running many simulations to try and decide the best choice. There are many options, unfortunately the meteorology is not an exact science, we’ll have to ponder well this choice because it is fundamental.”

“We will take a decision in the next 24/36 hours”, concludes Giovanni Soldini.

Maserati Multi 70 is 798 miles ahead at 9.00 UTC.

The second week of sailing of Maserati Multi70 ends at 800 miles from Cape of Good Hope with a 564 miles advantage on the roadmap of the record to beat.

“Now we are passing through a hill of high pressure that has slowed us down. We're sailing on port side with light winds from the east, heading to 240. As soon as the wind will turn NE we will jibe”, explains Giovanni Soldini contacted by phone this morning. “We'll try to get out of this front quickly. This is why it is important to position yourself fairly to the south, in order to leave the front with the best angle to head for South Africa.”

“The problem with these fronts is that the wind can change in only ten minutes even with a 180 degrees rotation”, continues Soldini. “In this case, we are expecting winds from the North with gusts around 30/35 knots before the front then, once passed, it will blow from the South. But for many hours we will have the old swell from the North with the wind from the South, so it will be important to measure the speed to avoid damage.”

At the end of the second week of navigation on the route of the record between Hong Kong and London, Maserati Multi70 has covered 5,756 of the 13,000 miles of the theoretical route (18.1 knots of average speed). In fact, on the ground, it covered a distance of 6,364 miles at 20 knots of average speed. 

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi 70's crew crossed the Equator this morning at 3:13 am UTC. After almost four days of navigation, today at 7.04 UTC, the cartography indicates they traveled the first 1408 miles of the theoretical route at an average speed of 16,2 knots. On the ground, they really sailed 1635 nm at an average speed of 18,9 knots, gaining a 468 nm lead over the reference time set by Lionel Lemonchois, Gitana 13's skipper.

“The spirit is high on board. We are all concentrated and motivated”, says Giovanni Soldini, skipper of Maserati Multi 70. “Compared to the routing simulations we made at the start, we gained about fifteen hours. We passed the worst area of the light winds bubble yesterday. Then, in order to stay in the pressure, we had to keep on jibing towards the Sunda Strait where we should arrive in about 15 hours (around 22 UTC on January 22nd).”

“Then, after the Strait”, explains Soldini, ”we will have to see how we will manage to catch the south east trade winds in the Indian Ocean. We know the route is still very long but it would be an ideal situation to get there with a lead on the record, because we also know that Lionel Lemonchois pushed hard on the first four days across the Indian Ocean.”

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Photo courtesy of Pitsfoto