Where is La Gitana heading?

[ChiefSci]

Looks like La Gitana are now southeast of the finish and moving further south.

Anyone know where they are heading?

[Tim Henry]

This is his brother, we have not heard, but seems he is off course. I called ST Pete Yacht club and they had not talked to anyone at the other end. They said if the heard they would contact me. When is next update?

[cpurvis]

Transponders push their positions after every even hour. It's 1:00 EDT now, but it looks like it missed the noon posting. The last post for LG was 2006-05-02 10:20:45. I say check back around 2:30. At least by 2:45.

[SailBRacer]

iT APPEARS HE HAS HEARD THE HORROR STORIES OF getting caught North of the finish and have the wind die, the current will push you to Texas, every minute getting further from the finish.

At least, if he knows where the finish is, he can come flying in just on the current alone, ha.

I saw where Twilight, I believe, was way North of the finish and West, the current must not be as hard as usual, otherwise he found a reverse current along Contoy Light. Everytime we tried that course we never found the reverse current. One year the Mexican navy came out with search lights and ordered us away from the reef, said we were going to get killed. We were tacking all the way into the reef then back out to 60 ft of water trying to stay out of the current, the steering was going out and took us 10-12 hours to cover 6-8 miles to the finish.

See Ya...


Phil

[Guest]

Could someone please take some food and water out to this yacht? I have little doubt they're in need of it by this time!

[SailBRacer]

La Gitana
They obviously are not sure of where they are going from the look of their path.
Do they have the proper equipment to navigate and know how to use it?

There track looks like they were loosly covering Bel Esprit II, then at 100 miles out they took a flyer to the southeast and had to be bucking a lot of current off Cabo San Antonio Cuba.

Now it appears they are doing 288deg, they have the current in their favor and should be moving faster than they are 4.7kn, don't have any wind data showing.

The only problem will be the angle they are coming in at, especially at night. They may end up following the outside coast line toward the North and not be able to see the finish till the last minute.

The other problem would be they may end up going in the South end on the wrong side of Isla, Cancun side, and then really be confused by Cancun's lights, the finish is on the North end of Isla.

THe island is much more iluminated at night then it used to be years ago, especially on the North end near the finish where the Avalon Resort exists.

It makes for a much easier approach when you are coming in from the Northeast rather than the South-Southeast.

I would hope they have more than enough supplies of food and water at this point in time, this race with his rating normally could take 96 hours/4 days with moderate winds.

He is heading in the right general direction at this point, so I wouldn't worry.

How much offshore experience does the crew have?

See Ya....


Phil

[Tim]

Got info from Capt Tom's wife that Mex Navy Helo went out to the Yacht this afternnon and appears they team lost their sails some time during the race. Per Navy reports crew is fine and waved off a tow. They are motoring to the finish and are expected to be in later tonight. There are three master captains on board and one that lives and sails in Del Sol al Sol area, so his is very familar with local waters. Two radios, GPS nav, Maps, etc. with plenty of experience in long sails to the West Indies and other Caribbean travels, Just glad that team at finish line was also aware of issue and sent help. Things are looking much better for the moment/Hope to hear from Tom soon.

[George Owen]

I just checked their last three raw data positions:

21.2546 -86.7487 @ 4:11am EDT
21.2548 -86.7485 @ 6:12am EDT
21.2547 -86.7485 @ 8:00am EDT

According to the iboattrack mapper, AND the above coordinates, they have been in Isla for the past 6 hours or so! That means everyone is safe and sound in Isla with their Senoritas and Margaritas.

Until the next race,

George