The summer season in the Antilles arc is often punctuated by a string of tropical storms. Though this is a familiar phenomenon, it is no less impressive and this year appears to be particularly intense and unusual. Indeed, the specialists agree that the frequency of these meteorological events and their violence are nothing short of exceptional.
Officially starting on 1 June, the 2017 hurricane season in the North Atlantic Ocean is set to extend through until 30 November 2017 according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
In the meantime, the various weather forecasting centres are continuing to send out alerts about the formation of these low pressure centres and their evolution.
In this way, on Sunday 17 September, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) confirmed that storm MARIA has moved up to the status of a hurricane.
This latest hurricane is due to pass the Antilles arc and more especially Guadeloupe this Monday evening. The red alert has been triggered in Guadeloupe. As a result, on Friday Pascal Morizot and the crew of Race for Water took the wise decision to adopt a course a long way to the south of the zone in question. This longer and safer detour will enable them to circumnavigate this tropical low, which will generate heavy seas and winds bordering on 150-180 km/hr as it rolls through.
Aboard the boat, all is well and you can track Race for Water’s course on the cartography, which is accessible here: http://tracker-odyssey.addviso.org/fr/
The latest ETA is scheduled for the afternoon on Thursday 21 September in the Marina du Fort in Pointe à Pitre.