Lunar month circular, the speed of Earth's progression around the Sun varies during the year. Thus, the angular rate is faster nearer periapsis and slower near apoapsis. The same is so for the Moon's orbit around the Earth. Because of these variations in angular rate, the actual time between lunations may vary from about 29.18 to about 29.93 days. The long-term average duration is days (29 d 12 h 44 min 2.8016 s). The synodic month is used to calculate eclipse cycles. It is customary to specify positions of celestial bodies with respect to the vernal equinox. Because of Earth's precession of
Banque Populaire V (Van Peteghem / Lauriot-Prévost) designed this G-Class maxi multihull. The trimaran was built by the shipyard CDK Technologies in Lorient. She was launched at the end of August 2008 in Lorient. In 2009 she made her first attempt across the northern Atlantic from west to east. On Sunday 2 August 2009, she established the new record in 3 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes and 48 seconds (an average speed of 32.94 knots), beating the previous record, held by Franck Cammas on Groupama 3, by more than 12 hours. During the attempt she also broke the 24-hour distance twice, first with