38° 51’S, 27° 03’E: this is the position of Maserati Multi70 this morning at 8.00 UTC. With an advantage of 580 miles over the reference time, Giovanni Soldini and the crew of the trimaran are about 500 miles south-east of the Cape of Good Hope. A maritime region characterized by the meeting of two oceans (the Indian to the East and the Atlantic to the West) and by the clash of strong sea currents: the warm current of the Agulhas that goes down along the eastern coast of Africa and the cold oceanic one of Benguela that climbs the western coast of South African. Already responsible for the strong meteorological instability in the area, these currents and their vortices further complicate navigation.
The crew passed through the cold front this morning around 8 UTC: “Now we are sailing with SW winds, about 25/30 knots”, explains Soldini. “The problems are the sea and the current: the swell comes from the North, a nice residual wind of the wind that we had. The current from North East collides against the wind blowing from South West. This happens around the continental shelf of South Africa and it might generate impossible sea state, so we tried to sail as far West as possible, in order to avoid the strongest zone of the current that raises walls against the waves from the South West”.
Giovanni Soldini continues: “Now it is very important to go fast towards South Africa because behind this front will a high pressure is growing and it could block us for a few hours”.
