Wind goes soft

...for the time being, but Cheyenne's should reach Cape Horn in brisk conditions

Day 38
Position at 0505GMT: 53deg 55.730S 84deg 11.140W
Course and speed: 092deg 5.3 knots
TWS/TWA: 5.0 knots 018deg

Land can be a complete pain when at sea and this is currently the case for the crew of Steve Fossett's Cheyenne who have now choice but to descend to 56degS to round sailing's most notorious promentary in around 48 hours time. Unfortunately this means positioning themselves in a far from ideal part of a low pressure.

At present they are to the east of the centre of a weak depression sailing in very light northerlies (as the figure above shows). Fortunately it looks like the centre of the low is set to drift south and they are likely to see the wind backing slightly and building. By this evening Cheyenne should be back up to speed sailing in 20 knots NNWerlies.

By the time they round Cape Horn the wind should be fully up to its Southern Ocean self blowing at around 35 knots from the northwest...

Brian Thompson describes their fixing of the mast track.

After working flat out from dusk till dawn we achieved the goal of making operational all the mast track inserts for the four reef positions. We can now use the main halyard lock on full main, 1st and 2nd reef, and we can use 3rd reef using the main halyard alone. That should not be a problem as the sail is so small and it is unlikely we will need 3rd reef again now.

It was a great feeling to raise the main up at sunset last night, and the full main looked enormous compared to the cropped version we had been looking at for the last 24 hours. The wind had dropped significantly during the day so we were soon sailing under full main and solent, heading east at 15 to 20 knots. The mast team had a very busy day; that was Justin and Dave working on the 1st reef track, and Damian and Mike subsequently working up the rig in tandem on the 3rd reef track. This morning Justin said his body felt like he had been through a very tough game of rugby yesterday where the opponents were a lot bigger!

As Damian and Mike were working up at the 3rd reef they noticed some bolt heads sheared on the lower shroud attachment. They made some replacements and with a call to Southern Spars, the mast manufacturers, it was clear it was not a serious problem.

During the night the wind dropped more as the low approached closer from the west. Now in the morning we are down to 10 knots of wind. It will be like this or lighter for the next 12 hours before the low moves away to the south and allows the breeze to return.

This calmer weather has allowed us to do a few other jobs. Damian is up the rig again at the solent halyard exit attempting to re-lead the halyard that slipped through the mast when the halyard broke a few days ago. At present we are fishing around at the base of the mast trying to locate the mouse line he sent down, it should be done soon and then we will be able to do faster changes between the gennaker and the solent. Currently we are using the same gennaker halyard for both sails.

Nick’s cut has been redressed by Dave, it looks like it is healing up well. He was starting to look like a ferocious Harley rider with the beard and the helmet on his head!

Brian