Geronimo arrives in San Diego
by Sam Crichton 7 Nov 2005 07:32 GMT
After a relatively fast upwind trip covering approximately 4000 miles from Papeete, in Tahiti to California in 12 days, the Capgemini and Schneider Electric trimaran Geronimo made her presence felt as she glided under a blanket of fog into San Diego harbour at 8am Pacific time USA this morning.
Assistance with the arrival of Geronimo has been provided by government agencies - San Diego Water Police, the US Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection. After the boat was cleared by US Customs and Border Protection she was docked at the Driscoll’s boatyard on Shelter Island. Docking assistance of this giant ocean warrior was provided by the team from Genuine Risk and the San Diego Yacht Club with the RIB’s assisting with the manoeuvring of Geronimo onto her dock.
The 10 man French crew landed in San Diego in good spirits after an enjoyable trip with the boat performing well. The boat will now undergo major preparations to ensure she is in optimum racing configuration for the upcoming Los Angeles to Hawaii record attempt. ‘We had a fairly fast run until Hawaii then the breeze didn’t turn with us so Hawaii to San Diego has been a little choppy and cold,’ commented one of Geronimo’s men this morning.
‘I first came to San Diego 35 years ago with Pen Duick IV with Eric Tabarly and when we arrived we were very hungry, we had no food for one week before we arrived, so when the customs said to destroy all food they were shocked and took us to the closest hamburger restaurant to eat and we couldn’t eat everything in front of us. I was also in San Diego for the America’s Cups as a journalist and photographer. This is the first time we have arrived in a port in daylight and even then we have a lot of fog,’ commented skipper Olivier de Kersauson dockside in San Diego.
Students in the junior sailing program at San Diego Yacht Club will be given a chance to see up close this impressive ocean going yacht when they visit Geronimo at the dock this week.
For more information on Geronimo and the upcoming Transpac Challenge please go to www.superyachting.com