Heading south again

Cheyenne attempts to stay in the strong westerlies PLUS Brian Thompson reports from on board

Day 32
Position at 05:`0GMT: 50deg 27.470S 151deg 46.371W
Course/speed: 133 deg/ 20 knots
TWS/TWA: 29 knots/279 deg


The succession of 500+ mile days has come to an end temporarily for Steve Fossett and the crew aboard Cheyenne who scored 478nm in the 24 hours leading up to 0510 this morning.

Over the last couple of days the 125ft cat has been slowly heading north to remain in the favourable band of westerly winds to the north of the depression they have been riding. This now appears to be heading southeast and Cheyenne earlier this morning gybed south once again. For the first time in their passage through the Southern Ocean they are now to the north of Orange's track.

Fossett, navigator Adrienne Cahalan and the team at Commander's Weather in the States will be working hard to keep the big cat from falling off the back of the depression as there is a full on high pressure system currently located at 60degS to their west.

The lead over Orange's round the world record is now proving hard to measure simply because it is so great. Roughly Cheyenne is 840 miles ahead of Geronimo's 'fast' run last year and some 1890 miles ahead of Orange. Cheyenne at end of day 32 was approaching the position Orange was in at the end of her day 37 - so almost five days ahead.

To add to the challenge, the spinnaker halyard has broken and that sail will probably not be useable again until after Cape Horn. As Steve Fossett wrote this morning: "Now more trouble. The spinnaker halyard broke and this big sail was draped over the deck and being pulled into the water. 'All hands' managed to muscle it back on board and get it stowed below. The winds are building as our first storm front is approaching and it is too rough to send someone to the top of mast to get the halyard back in so we are done with the spinnaker. Our jibs will be our downwind headsails between here and Cape Horn."

Brian Thompson reports from on board:

We are having our first taste of the famous Southern Ocean today; the winds are up, the seas are building and the barometer is making a long, fast drop. If we were on one of the old clipper ships we would be up the rigging, hanging over the edge of the ship on the yards, clawing in the canvas.

After our smooth run across the Indian Ocean and past New Zealand we are now faced with numerous weather hurdles before we can round Cape Horn. There is a gale ahead on Thursday, then a high pressure, then another low, plus other features in our path. It won't be easy or particularly fast, we are not going to escape the Southern Ocean easily.

It has already been an eventful day. We made a gybe at midday that took two hours all told. We came into the gybe with one reef and the spinnaker, but with the twin parameters of not being able to gybe the spinnaker due to its halyard arrangement and having to protect our battens. So we dropped to second reef, then unrolled the staysail and dropped the spinnaker with its snuffer. Then we hoisted the solent up the forestay using the 2:1 gennaker halyard, and rolled up the staysail. We ground the main traveller into the centreline and on the biggest wave I could find, I spun the wheel over and we surfed through the gybe at 20 knots, minimising the load on the battens.

This takes no time to write and even less to read, but an hour had gone at this stage. This was not a wasted hour as we were still making miles down the course all the time. After the gybe we found a problem with the snuffer so we spent the rest of the time fixing this and then hoisting the spinnaker back up.

We were up and running again and decided to keep the second reef in as the boat was so much more controllable with it, and in the winds over 30 knots there was no speed loss. We did this manoeuvre at the end of my watch, so I went to bed at this stage, with just a couple of hours left to sleep.

While I was asleep it was an eventful period as the spinnaker halyard parted and the spinnaker fell into the water. So as the boat carried on at 15 knots under main alone the team on deck managed to wrestle the sail back on to the boat. This was a mission by all accounts but the sail was recovered ok. The halyard will have to wait as it fell through the rig and we are going to have to mouse in a new one when conditions are better.

Also Guillermo was hit by a wave whilst driving and was winded for a while. Whirly and Mark had to jump up on to the helm to help Guillermo to control the boat till he recovered.

I had better to go up and drive now...

Brian