Back into the Trades

Cheyenne prematurely into the northeasterlies

Day 51
Position at 0510GMT: 03deg 48.000N 28deg 59.000W

Day 51 has been another slow one for Steve Fossett and the crew of Cheyenne as they have been tackling the Doldrums at around 29degW. As a result they covered just 271 miles.

The good news is that this morning despite being only at 4degN it looks like they may have shaken off the Doldrums and be into the northeasterly trades. The satellite wind radar chart shows light northeasterlies from around 02degN with more pressure to the west side of the course.

Cheyenne is currently around 1,440 miles ahead of Bruno Peyron and Orange's 2002 record, although as the chart below indicates she and Orange have taken vastly different routes through the South Atlantic.

At this morning's position report Cheyenne was still 2,927 miles away from Ushant as the crow flies. Obviously it is likely that they will have to sail many more miles than this to get from their current position to the finish line. The question is how many. If the Azores high is where it should be then Cheyenne will stay west and head around the high in a giant parabolic course, as Orange had to in 2002. If she is lucky, as was with the case earlier this year with Francis Joyon, the weather situation may allow her to lay a direct course to Ushant cutting valuable miles off their course. Which will happen?

The medium range forecast indicates that the Azores high will drift due south of the Azores over the next 48 hours so that it will be centred at the same latitude as the Canaries. However beyond this the high looks like it may be shoved east - this in theory is what the team will want to happen, but equally it looks like the wind may be very little wind to power them along. Come the end of the week the situation looks more promising with an oblong-shaped depression lying on roughly a N-S axis dominating the central Atlantic and a high pressure system over northern Spain. Frankly the weather towards the end of the week looks highly volatile and too early to predict accurately.



Brian Thompson writes from on board...

Today we crossed the equator again, a great feeling as it is another milestone in our passage. It almost feels like we have now circumnavigated the globe, from the equator and back again (in 42 days!). We were all very happy, but none more so than Mark, who really enjoyed this moment. He is now a seasoned sailor who has been through the Southern Ocean and around the Horn, and having met Neptune before, he had no fears of another bizarre initiation ceremony.

So we have done the passage from the start to 0 degrees in just 50 days and 3 hours, and from the Horn we took 10 days and 6 hours. This part of the trip through the South Atlantic felt agonizingly slow at times, but we still managed to do the fastest ever time, just better than Club Med. We have gained miles on Orange with our two fast days to now be 1700 ahead.

Up ahead we are looking at good wind conditions for our trip home. If the weather forecasts do hold good we should be able to keep moving the whole way.

Crossing the Doldrums has taken about 30 hours, and been more typical than the almost perfect trip we had on the way south. The entire day it has been pouring with rain. Squalls have been passing through constantly so we have been doing plenty of sail changes as the wind has oscillated between 2 and 25 knots. The standby watches have kept busy as we play the squalls. Dress has been full foul weather gear, and at times the helmsman needed a helmet to see forward in the driving rain.

We are now at 3 degrees N and the air is starting to feel a little drier and the rain has petered off to only the occasional shower. The wind has also shifted towards the North, a good sign we have left the SE trades for the NE trades. We are most of the way through the doldrums and we are hoping that the worst of the squalls are behind us now. By the morning we may even see glimpses of blue sky.

During Jacques’ watch the guys saw a spectacular dolphin show; according to Fraser there were over 50 dolphins jumping and spinning 360 somersaults around the boat.

I have to admit today I have had my first proper shower in 50 days. Standing under the mainsail as the rain cascaded off the 600 square metres of sail, the cleanest and warmest waterfall you could find. It felt good and was a big improvement on using wet wipes to wash with.

The only bad part of the day was that the crew computer has died and emails from the boat are henceforth going to be severely curtailed, so as not to get in the way of the navigation work.

Brian