Groupama 3 - wind shift

This 38th day at sea for Groupama 3 looks likely to be the spitting image of the one that her predecessor endured some five years ago! A storm zone moving across from Brazil will make their progress northward laborious over the next 200 miles. Franck Cammas and his nine crew will have to extract themselves from it as quickly as possible in order to reach the tradewinds...

For the past day and a half Franck Cammas and his men have managed to maintain a reasonable separation as regards the reference time with a deficit of around 350 miles, which amounts to being between 15 and 20 hours off the pace. If their approach towards the tradewinds, which will kick in at around 22°S, isn't too laboured, Groupama 3 will be able to really eat into their deficit as the weather situation is more stable between Rio de Janeiro and the equator than it was five years ago. As such this Wednesday is shaping up to be an important phase in this round the world and the crew will really be under pressure with heavy heat, a high rate of humidity, variable winds, rain and squalls..

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