Can't find the brake

Another huge day's run for Cheyenne as crew "take it easy"

Day 56
Position at 0510GMT: 38deg 00.048N 22deg 15.140W
Course/speed: 049deg/19.5 knots
TWS/TWA: 20.0knots/189deg

Despite potential problems with their mast track and the forward beam attachment to the starboard hull day 56 has seen Cheyenne reel in another 589 miles pretty much on the great circle towards the Ushant finish line. She has now extended her lead over Orange's 2002 record to a wopping 1,750 miles.

Over the course of this morning Cheyenne will be passing to the east of the Azores, some 600 miles WSW of Cape Finisterre. She is still basking in a 20 knot southerly breeze although the wind is forecast to veer slightly before backing again over the course of tonight. We can expect to see Cheyenne steering slightly high today in order to avoid an area of lighter winds on the left side of the course.

Brian Thompson reports from on board...

A great days run of 590 miles has propelled us to within 1000 miles of the finish. There’s 960 to go right now and we averaged 24.6 knots for the last 24 hours, which is not bad for taking it easy on the boat.

Conditions were very good, we started with one reef and the staysail, beam reaching in a fairly bumpy sea, but as the day progressed the wind went more behind us and the seas flattened out. We had the solent and one reef, then full main for the rest of the day. It’s fairly certain we will have the blast reacher up in a short time, and then be running downwind for the next couple of days. The wind was 18 - 23 knots throughout most of the day.

We flashed past all of the Azores Islands last night, leaving them to the west of us, and now our next objective is to get past Cape Finisterre without running into any light winds. Across the Bay of Biscay there is forecast to be just over 10 knots of wind, so if that holds good we can finish sometime on Monday.

We are holding our breath, as that would mean we do our global voyage not only in less than 60 days, but less than 59 days as well. That would be more than we could have hoped for at the start, and also at various times during the trip when things were looking bad, with our breakages or bad weather.

Our main target was always to beat the current time of Orange, and to beat 60 days seemed a very distant chance, but now it looks like we can do it barring breakdowns. As we fly along at 25 knots to the mark, the average speed we need for sub 60 days drops lower, giving us more room to deal with the lighter winds to come.

The last few days has gone so fast, I am sure that the next few will as well, especially as we will be in very familiar waters, and busy with navigation, sail trimming, and dealing with the ship traffic we will see after Finisterre.

Everyone is doing well, and starting to talk about what we are going to be doing, and where we will be going after we finish. Some people are even talking about just wanting to keep on sailing after the finish and not stopping, but I predict that the lure of the land will soon entice them towards Plymouth, as soon as we pass that rocky island of Ushant.

Brian