Since setting out from San Francisco on Saturday night, Lionel Lemonchois and his ten crew on the 33-metre maxi catamaran Gitana 13 have been experiencing a diversity of weather, characteristic of this east to west crossing of the North Pacific. With 952 miles made good over the ground in the past 48 hours, the maxi-catamaran is maintaining an average pace of over 20 knots.

Now on starboard tack, Gitana 13 is on a heading of 241 as she prepares to encounter her next system: there is good cloud cover dropping down from the NW with 30 knots of wind forecast. As a result, the wet atmosphere is still par for the course for Gitana Team for the next 24 hours.

In this North Pacific crossing, the men on the maxi-catamaran are engaged in a virtual race against the giant trimaran Geronimo, skippered by Olivier de Kersauson – the current record holder.

At 0730 this morning, Lionel Lemonchois and his crew had a 371 mile lead over Geronimo’s time; a figure which is partly explained by the lateral separation of Gitana 13 in relation to Geronimo’s 2006 attempt. The conditions encountered by Kersauson at the time led him to pass a long way south of the great circle route.

Keep up with their progress here