After a week of sailing the “Use It Again!” team will arrive at the equator crossing this Saturday
One week after the start of the westbound round-the-world record attempt, Alex Pella and Romain Pilliard sail south of the Cape Verde archipelago. The crew of the trimaran Use It Again! It has traveled 2,250 miles (4,000 kilometres) 7since leaving Lorient and is expected to cross the equator next Saturday, later in the day. Since leaving the Bay of Biscay, Alex Pella and Romain Pilliard have been sailing with winds ranging from north to northeast, between 8 and 25 knots.
“After a week on board this fantastic trimaran, we are making a rather unusual descent into the Atlantic, not too fast, but still keeping a big lead on the previous record. The trade wind is completely disturbed, we have no trade wind, so we have come down very close to the African coast, with the difficulty that it has, both because of the traffic there is, and because it is a fishing area on the coast of Morocco and Mauritania. We are 80 miles to the southeast of the Cape Verde archipelago and we are already preparing to attack the next important point, the crossing of the equator, which is a delicate zone of calm. During this week we have been acclimatizing the boat and fine-tuning different parts of it, such as the energy system and the rigging. We knew that we were going to use this Atlantic descent to fine-tune both the boat and ourselves”, says Alex Pella.
The “Use It Again!” It will cover 21,600 nautical miles (shortest theoretical distance), passing Cape Horn, crossing the Torres Strait to the north of Australia and then the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Verde before returning to Lorient, where the clock will be stopped.
They are doing this challenge aboard a maxi-trimaran, built in 2003 for Ellen MacArthur, and which was renovated by the “Use It Again!” in 2016. The objective was to rescue this trimaran and minimize the impact of its repair on the environment, in accordance with the principles of the circular economy: Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. The trimaran has become an example, icon and platform for the promotion of the circular economy.
In this project, the “Use It Again!” team will also use the miles traveled to support the work of Olivier Adam, a scientist specialized in the sound emissions of cetaceans and noise pollution in the oceans. Underwater microphones have been installed in the central hull of the multihull to make periodic recordings throughout the trip with the aim of making a global map of noise pollution in the oceans after the trip. “I am very motivated by this new challenge, a challenge that aims to promote the circular economy and raise awareness about the protection of the oceans,” said Alex Pella moments before the start.
ALEX PELLA
In February 2018, Alex Pella set a new record by completing the Tea Route in 36 days, 2 hours, 38 minutes and two seconds, breaking the previous record by five days. In January 2017, Alex Pella broke the absolute speed record for sailing around the world, aboard the sophisticated Maxi-Trimaran IDEC Sport, circumnavigating the planet in 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds. On November 16, 2017, Alex Pella managed to win the Transat Jacques Vabre (the Atlantic crossing for two) aboard the trimaran “Arkema”. In 2014 he won the legendary Rum Route and became the first Spaniard to win a solo transoceanic event.
