Gitana 13 – Rounds the Horn. . . Finally

After five days of waiting out not one, but two big weather systems, the 110-ft French trimaran Gitana 13 should finally be rounding Cape Horn as you read this. Next stop: San Francisco.

Stopping is not something you generally want to do when going for a sailing record — G-13 is attempting to break the 57-day sailing record from New York to San Francisco. But it was a necessary evil at the mouth of the Lemaire Channel, the ‘doorway  to Cape Horn’. That’s where they hove to Monday under bare poles to wait out the two big weather systems in relatively sheltered water. Those two systems, with winds of 55-70 knots, battered not only Tierra del Fuego but, more importantly, Gitana‘s intended course up the west coast of Chile. Once the winds weakened to 25 last evening, they still had to sail close-hauled about 100 miles up the Lemaire Channel and around ol’ Cape Stiff itself. Not much fun on any boat, even a big, strong one like this.

The good news is that about 50 miles past the legendary promontory, the wind is expected to clock around to the east-southeast, which means more good reaching. The 10-man crew hopes to ride this breeze north-northwest all the way to the next low-pressure system. And from there on it should be smooth sailing all the way to the equator. If they transit the doldrums as quickly in the Pacific as they did in the Atlantic, they will still be on schedule to sail under the Golden Gate later this month, which would lower the existing record by a bit more than two weeks. Keep checking ‘Lectronic Latitude for updates or go to www.gitana-team.com/en.