New record

Geronimo flies past Honolulu

At 09:47:40 local Honolulu, Hawaii time today, Geronimo passed the Diamond Head buoy. Skip Winterbottom, WRSSC delegate and recognised timekeeper, tracked and recorded the boat's position. News from navigator, Larry Rosenfeld, confirmed that Geronimo has bested her own record from LA-Honolulu established in November 2005 by 24 minutes, 39 seconds.

"Yesterday we had an idea that since we were going so close to Hawaii, we might as well get three records in one," says Rosenfeld. "Our plan was to sail through the finish/start line at Diamond Head and have Skip Winterbottom, the independent timekeeper, take our time as we crossed. If we could keep up our speed, not only might we might beat our own LA-Honolulu time of 4 days 19 hours 31 min 37 sec, we'd set a good benchmark for the Pacific Cup coming in July," he adds.

Of course, there is another Steve Fossett record from Honolulu to Yokohama of 13 days 20 hours 9 min 22 sec which Geronimo and her crew would love also to break.

"We're having a little tussle with the World Record Speed Sailing Council about whether they will allow intermediate records on the way to getting a longer record," says Rosenfeld. "It's done on the round-the-world course every time, but they seem to have changed their rules recently. No matter, we will know we did it and Honolulu is not really too much out of the way in these wind conditions."

With a gybe south and then west, the next destination for Geronimo and her dedicated crew is Yokohama, Japan.

The record to beat: San Francisco (USA) - Yokohama (Japan)
Steve Fossett - 19 days, 15 hours, 18 minutes and 9 seconds - 1996