Having spent the last few days being battered by the Southern Ocean conditions Olivier de Kersauson has been poring over the meteorological data and examining every option that might permit Geronimo and his 11-man crew to continue to the famous rocky tip of South America.

At 05:09 GMT today they were at a position of 51°08S, 154°22W and continuing east-south-east on a bearing of precisely 116° at a spot actual speed of 20.4 knots. This radical option, which seems increasingly certain as the hours go by, should see the trimaran progressing further and further south over the coming days: 52°, 53°, 55° – even more perhaps. If she can indeed ‘get through’, there should be two positive effects. The most obvious is that it will shorten Geronimo’s route to Cape Horn in terms of longitude, because the closer you get to the South Pole, the closer together the meridians become. The other benefit of this option is that it allows the trimaran to skirt south of a powerful low-pressure system now establishing itself west of the Chilean coast.