Blind alley?

Cheyenne's speed expected to decrease today after another excellent 24 hours run

Day 45
Position at 0510GMT: 26deg 59.690S 40deg 07.690W
Course/speed: 47deg 22.2 knots
TWS/TWA: 20.0 knots/190deg

At this morning's 0505GMT position report Steve Fossett and the crew of the maxi-catamaran Cheyenne were positioned 313 miles southeast of Rio de Janeiro. The boat has put in a remarkably good performance considering the complexity of the conditions that surround her, covering 532 miles in the 24 hours up until 0510 this morning.

A combination of another 500+ mile daily run for Cheyenne combined with Orange's track northeast across the South Atlantic mean that the American cat is now roughly 1063 miles ahead of the French cat.

But their progress is likely to slow over the course of today as they make the decision between heading north into lighter breeze or heading offshore in an attempt to pick up more regular breeze. This is the exact same scenario as Francis Joyon faced here during his recent solo round the world voyage and it seems that Cheyenne's progress will take a hit today.

Fossett wrote this morning on upcoming strategies: "Today we have a difficult transition to cross a Low trough to the east. This will be very slow. So we will lose ground in the comparison to Orange for today. Then we will enter the Tradewinds tomorrow afternoon and have a good run to the Equator.

"Then the North Atlantic is forecast to be dominated by a large High Pressure system which extends far north. We will have to sail a lot of extra miles to get around and over the top of this High. It is likely to be the longest route that any of the previous record attempts have had to take."



Brian Thompson writes from on board Cheyenne:

Yesterday was a slow day, the slowest so far on this record attempt. We were beating upwind in light air, the worst point of sail for these big catamarans, and often having to take an unfavourable tack to the west just to stay in the light and very puffy breeze.

During the night the wind started to fill in and by this morning we were screaming along at 28-30 knots with the solent and full main at 120TWA and 20 knots of wind. As the day has progressed and the sun passes from right to left (as it does so strangely here in the Southern Hemisphere), the wind has been steadily coming behind and we have hoisted our blast reacher, followed by our big gennaker.

So we are now max downwind and heading towards Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Later today we will be passing Buenos Aires in Argentina and will be about 550 miles offshore from the coast of South America. We are now making great progress to the north and gaining time on Orange again.

When we arrive off Rio we will have to avoid a low-pressure area that will be parked 500 miles offshore. We can choose to go inshore to the west, or offshore to the east. At the moment we are undecided on the option but during the night we will have to make the choice. As more up to date weather info comes in it should become a clearer decision.

Yesterday was Moose's birthday and his watch celebrated by inviting the crew over to the cockpit for coffee and chocolates. Moose said it’s his first birthday without a beer since he was 15. That makes a lot of birthdays on this trip so far. On our watch, Damian, Nick and myself have all had our birthdays this month.

Justin has been continuing to experiment with cooking without gas and has now started putting the freeze dried food into soak eight hours before each meal, and putting the pressure cookers in the heating locker for that time. Dinner was really well hydrated so he is on to something. Of course the ulterior motive is to save enough gas for the morning coffee, and there are not many objections to that trade.

So far we have been spending a vast amount of time fixing the instrument system that keeps on crashing. Nick, Dave and Adrienne spent the entire day yesterday troubleshooting and managed to get it to function through the night. Today work continues on getting the instruments working on the starboard steering pedestal in preparation for a gybe onto starboard tonight, otherwise it is up and running. Yesterday Nick never managed to touch the helm and spent his two watches, his standby and his offwatch working on the wiring. Not that he missed any exciting driving as we trickled along at 8 knots.

The temperatures are warming up rapidly as we now charge north, air temp is touching 20degC in the daytime and the sea temp is clearly up, you can tell that when the spray hits you. We have seen our first flying fish today and also seen two albatross. Perhaps these are the last we will see. It will be a shame when the they leave us, their incredible gliding and their sheer size have kept us enthralled for over a month.

It's time now to strip off the layers we have been wearing the last month. I have to admit I have changed my thermals only once in the Southern Ocean, as I have kept dry and warm. Some of the coldest days I wore my Musto one piece drysuit that is completely impervious, as even the feet are encased in the Gore-Tex fabric. Now it is back to the foul weather trousers and smock top that works well in the tropics, and just a thin layer of thermals. The sunblock is replacing the balaclava and the Kaenon sunglasses replace the Gath helmet.

Better go and fetch my sunhat and get on deck to drive..

Brian