Less than 5.000 nautical miles to the finish line for Maserati Multi 70: at 7.57 UTC ranking, the cartography marks 4.997 remaining miles until London, on the shortest theoretical route.
This is precisely the option of the shortest route that skipper Giovanni Soldini has decided to take to cross the Equator and its doldrums.
“For us onboard Maserati, the time has come to choose the route definitely”, explains Giovanni Soldini this morning. ” We had two options. The first one was to pass the Equator where we always do it, it means between 30° and 27° W of longitude.” So closer to Brazil than to the African continent. ”The other option we have seen in these days”, continues Soldini, ”is the possibility of following a route much closer to African coastline. All the models agree, at the end we’ll play it and we’ll follow this unusual route that I’ve never done before but should work well.” Crossing the Equator at around 10° of longitude and then continuing towards Guinea will make save a lot of miles compared to the western usual choice, but it is not just a shortcut as Giovanni explains: ”We may gain at least 24/36 hours on this option that will get us out of the Senegal with a better angle in the north-eastern trade winds, to go then towards the Azores, turn the high pressure and take a front for England.”
Maserati Multi 70 sails off the coast of Angola, at 15 ° S of latitude, always with light southern winds and with a 1,392 miles advantage on the record, after 19 days of navigation.
