Orange II Still on Course
Thirty six hours after the chance encounter with a sea creature, the maxi-catamaran Orange II’s mid term objective is to benefit from a transition zone with light winds, between the current depression and the Saint Helena High, to work on the damaged rudder. In the meantime Bruno Peyron’s men are under orders not to reach too great a speed so as to avoid working the rudder to its maximum…
At around 600 miles South of Rio de Janeiro, Orange II’s crew are streaking along with the wind on the aft quarter in their climb up the South Atlantic. Conditions are rather favourable, even though the damaged port rudder is preventing the crew from exploiting the maxi-catamaran’s full potential. Bruno Peyron’s lead of over eight days on Steve Fossett’s outright record is enabling them to deal with this unfortunate damage intelligently. In less than two days,above the latitude of Rio, Orange II is likely to crossan unsettled zone between the current depression pushing them northwards and the famous trade winds from the Saint Helena high. These few hours of respite will enable the onboard composite specialists to dive down and make a kind of carbon bandage around the rudder’s open wound. As a result, the end of the round the world is not in question and they are still on course with the record…
References
Day at sea: 36th
Date : 01/03/2005
Time (GMT) : 04h00
Latitude : 32 49.40′ S
Longitude : 44 08.04′ W
Instantaneous speed: 27 kts
Instantaneous heading: 356
Average speed: 24.9 kts
Speed over 24 hours: 23.1 kts
Distance over 24 hours: 555 nm
Speed since the start: 23.9 kts
Overall distance: 20519 nm
Distance remaining: 5434.30 nm
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