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The latest news from Cheyenne and Geronimo

Cheyenne

Tuesday, 10 February 2004 - 0510 GMT - 94 nm northwest of Ilha de Porto Santo, Arquipelado da Madeira

At the end of their third full day from the start, Cheyenne continued steaming moderately South, having averaged over 17 kts over the past 24 hours. No records, but generally avoiding High pressure areas and good progress towards the Canaries and the tradewinds - and then a faster run to 0 degrees latitude. At present Steve Fossett and crew are still almost a day behind the position of 'Orange' (2002) after 3 days.

Geronimo

Position at 13:00 Monday: 45°02N / 09°16W 269 nautical miles covered since the start 18.57 knots average speed since the start.

The Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran is now crossing the Bay of Biscay at a good speed, benefiting from the easterly shift in the wind at around 4 o’clock this morning. With 15, then 20 knots of well-established easterly, the French crew was very quickly back on the pace and are making no attempt to hide their delight at being up and running again. Now making nearly 30 knots over a flat sea, Geronimo is flying towards Cape Finisterre, which she should pass this evening.

Again last evening, Olivier de Kersauson was keen to stress that: “This is first and foremost an attempt at a start. If we can find the trades in a respectable time, we’ll carry on. If not, we’ll head for home, so we have nothing to lose...The forecast analysis is not the same as before”. The first eight hours may have been pretty dull – which was inevitable – but the important thing was the first change of gear that came towards the end of the night. With that out of the way, the first potential difficulty was quickly overcome by the trimaran’s impressive turn of speed on slack winds. In fact, she has exceeded actual wind speed ever since the start line.

The crew seems relieved by this release after weeks of preparation and stand-by. “We’ve been ready to go for a very long time, because we had no idea what to expect from the weather. Now though, the crew is performing fantastically and Geronimo is on top form”, said the skipper as the boat was being provisioned. The impatience was almost palpable: a very real enthusiasm to get back to sea and race at these very high speeds.