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They have logged 537 miles over the past 24 hours (an average of 22.4 knots), keeping them 750 miles or just over one day ahead of the 2002 Round The World record track of Bruno Peyron's Orange.

Wind conditions remained steady and strong from the west/nor-west at 19 - 20 knots with the wind chill factor increasing. Fossett and co. know they will soon be nearer to Antarctica than to Africa. This morning they caught sight of one tangible reminder of the essentially inhospitable nature of the Southern Ocean - late summertime icebergs.

Steve FOSSETT wrote this afternoon. "We got a close look at our first icebergs of the trip this morning. This one is at three miles. Maybe we have gone far enough south for the time being".

"These full sized icebergs should be easy to avoid hitting. The danger are the growlers, which are chunks of ice of mere 'truck' size. If we hit one it would be -- well, catastophic. The theory is that growlers will be found up to three miles downwind of an iceberg. This means we must divert course to assure that we pass upwind of icebergs. We have tuned up the Radar for constant monitoring at night time".

The winds are bit better to the south but we are pleased with our progress and we must not get greedy."

Ken CAMPBELL of Commanders Weather added, "They should be looking at good winds for the next four or five days, moving them across the Southern Indian Ocean very quickly. The breeze will back a little on Friday and they'll need to make a decision then whether to push further south or to go a bit to the north - where the winds may get a little lighter."