Day of transistion

Cheyenne hurtles through the Southern Ocean

A quieter day for Steve Fossett and the crew of Cheyenne over the last 24 hours. Over the last 24 hours they have covered 407 miles - acceptible but relatively modest for the world's largest racing catamaran.

As predicted yesterday Cheyenne was unable to hang on to the fast moving low ahead of them and over the course of last night fell into the high pressure ridge between this low and another to the west. This morning they look set to pick up the strong northwesterly winds accompanying the northeastern side of the depression moving up from the west.

Commanders Weather Ken Campbell yesterday explained what was going on: "I talked to Adrienne [Cahalan] at 1430z and the wind had dropped right down to 6 kts. They'll be waiting until tomorrow (Tues) for winds to pick up significantly - meanwhile they'll be working back North to 50 - 51 degrees, setting up for the much stronger winds to come, when they'll be trying to stay ahead of the front. Look for big breeze until next weekend. Lots and lots of wind."


Brian Thompson sent this through from on board yesterday:

Out here we had a good days run considering we were gybing downwind the whole way. We did not run out of wind as on the previous day and so we clocked up 488 miles
and 547 through the water. This puts us 1187 ahead of Orange.

We have gone quite south last night and are now at 51S. It was very noticeable when we crossed into the colder water to the south of the Antarctic convergence zone. The air got a lot denser as well and the power from the sails increased noticeably. However, now we are looking at lighter winds for the rest of the day and tonight, as a high pressure ridge approaches from the west. This will be followed by a low that will give us good NW winds for Tues and Wed. So a slow day today, and better thereafter.

At dawn we saw a pod of about 30 pilot whales diving in unison near the bows, like a synchronised swimming team. They were approaching from the bow and dived in perfect harmony just as we were about to run into them. They then changed direction and surfaced on our port side running with us for a couple of breaths before they resumed their travels westward.

I guess if they can find prey, they can sense and avoid a 125ft catamaran even if it is travelling towards them at 25 knots. Let’s hope the bigger whales are equally alert...

Brian