Reasonable progress now...

...but some tricky weather routing ahead for Steve Fossett's Cheyenne

Day 41
Position at 0505GMT: 51deg 05.333S 55deg 11.864W
Course/speed: 029deg 21.9 knots
TWS/TWD: 22.0 knots/321 deg

This morning Cheyenne continue to make good progress up the South Atlantic having passed the Falklands last night. They have covered 418 miles in the last 24 hours and despite their mast track problems and light winds prior to rounding Cape Horn are still a comfortable 1,108 miles ahead of Orange's 2002 position.

Ahead the weather is getting complex. A large area of high pressure is lying across the width of the race course and the crew appear to have no option but to cross it over the course of the next 24 hours. However in which direction should they cross it? To the north of the high pressure is a low and they could aim to sail up the west side of this expect that a secondary low appears to be forming to its west. More stable conditions are likely to be found if they heads further west towards another high pressure system that is developing over the mouth of the River Plate between Argentina and Uruguary. Either way, hanging a left and heading for the South American coast would seem to be the best of a bad bunch of options in an area of the ocean that is notoriously fickle.

We will wait and see....

Brian Thompson writes from on board:

We rounded Cape Horn by 3 miles yesterday evening. It was a spectacular day with sun and high clouds, crystal clear visibility and a 20 knot breeze from the NW. The coastline was rugged and mountainous, like Western Scotland. There were no trees and no sign of human habitation except for the small red and white striped lighthouse set on a low hill. The spectacular pyramid shape of Cape Horn was just to the west of the lighthouse and could be seen for 40 miles each side. I doubt many people have had such a good day on their passages past, we were very lucky according to all the Horn veterans on board. Some of them have never seen it, rounding in darkness, or in bad visibility, further offshore.

Jacques [Vincent] has now chalked up seven roundings of the Horn on round the world trips and at the tender age of 41 thinks there may be a few more left in him. We think the record is eight by the legendary Grant Dalton, and as he has allegedly hung up his sea boots, there is hope yet for Jacques to be the king of the South.

We took some great pictures on board, and overhead a plane from the Argentine Air force was circling taking footage for Spanish TV.

So we sailed from Ushant to the Horn in 39 days and 16 hours, the fastest time ever and 2.5 days ahead of Orange. I thought in Plymouth, before the start, that doing less than 40 days to there was going to be a good target, and we achieved that despite all the slow times in the last week. So we have to be satisfied with where we are now. Its time to do our best now in the fickle breezes of the South Atlantic.

We have launched straight into this new regime. At first, we were marvelling at the flat seas and our 28 knot speeds and then within 3 hours we were becalmed off the Patagonian coastline. We then had rough conditions through the Le Maire straights with 4 knots of tide under us in the middle of the night.

Then blasting across to the Falklands today at high speed only to be becalmed again 25 miles in their lee. We are now working our way offshore of the islands and slowly finding the wind again, and about to resume our progress NE.

Temperatures are rising here and the foul weather tops are off this afternoon in the bright sunshine. The Andes are doing a great job of blocking the Southern Ocean drizzle.

Better go on watch, more later. Thanks for all your messages, they are great to read.

Brian