Back on track finally

Cheyenne into the trades at least

Weather at 0515GMT this morning

Day 48
Position at 0510GMT: 18deg 00.220S 32deg 17.340W
Course/speed: 025deg 20.4 knots
TWS/D: 15.0 knots 099deg

Steve Fossett and the crew of Cheyenne must be breathing a sigh of relief. Having been stuck off the Brazilian coast for the best part of three days in winds ranging from nothing to 15 knots, finally they are back up to speed and heading north once again.

Fortunately their slow progress has not had huge bearing on their progress against Orange's 2002 record as Bruno Peyron's maxi catamaran was still heading northeast, in the middle of a huge parabolic course to cross the South Atlantic high. Although the routes of Orange and Cheyenne are very divergent, we estimate Cheyenne to be roughly 980 miles ahead of the record at present.

Forecast-wise there is no much interesting to report other than what we said yesterday - the further north they go so the wind will go to the southeast, although with a true wind direction of 099 it already seems to be heading this way.

Brian Thompson writes from on board...

Tonight at midnight, as we handed over the watch, the trade winds started to blow across our bows, and Cheyenne started to slice through the water again. Speed crept above 12 knots, and as we slept the wind continued to fill. Now it is 6am and there is 14 knots of breeze, pushing us forwards at 21 knots.

We have had three days of very light and fluky breezes and it is great to be on the move again, now 1,070 miles from the equator.

In two hours at 8am I will be on watch again and am looking forward to the sensation of speed, the wind across the deck, the hull just starting to lift and a steadily building wind. We should see 20 knots by the end of the day and that should create almost perfect conditions for us.

We have had several emails about the planetary alignment that is happening now and for the next couple of weeks. We are going to be looking out for it tomorrow. Tonight was too cloudy unfortunately.

The navigation department is already looking towards the passage up the North Atlantic and particularly on the second half of the trip into the finish. The forecasts are very long range so are sending us mixed messages, we could be very fast or very slow. I am sure this story will run and run in the days to come.

We have seen very few birds the last few days, and just a solitary Atlantic petrel yesterday. In and out of the water lots of flying fish are darting around, but we have not seen any fish or dolphins.

More later on,

Brian