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They need to average 12 kts or better the rest of the way to break the June, 2000 record of Club Med (10 days, 14 hrs, 53 mins) co-skippered by Grant Dalton and Bruno Peyron.

So far Fossett's southern strategy has been effective, skirting the potentially becalming high, although the big cat will have covered more than 400 extra route miles in her search for wind.

Skipper Steve Fossett commented: "We're heading the right way and can project our times better now - and a Sunday night or early Monday arrival seems quite possible.

"We are working the boat down the waves, squeezing every ounce of leeway out of the following winds. We are close to the point at which we will start to move north, but we are still regarding the high as a potential threat to progress."

Watch Captain Dave Scully continued: "It looks like a Sunday night arrival. Still two days away, but already the crew is scenting land. Columbus was charged with offering a prize, donated by the King, to the first of his sailors to spot the new world. He claimed it for himself, the rogue. After today we'll still have about a thousand miles to go, so it is a little early to reach for the bino's, but then we are traveling a bit faster than Columbus was.

"T-shirts and shorts on deck, with a jacket at night. The discomfort factor is conspicuous by it's absence this trip. Record setting at it's finest!"