The Official
Website of the
International
Sailing Federation

That's a 24 hr average speed of 18.1 kts. Later this morning they will pass the notional milestone of the latitude of Cabo De São Roque at Brazil's North East corner, en-route to their next actual - and rather more distant - waypoint (some 3100 nm away) - the Cape of Good Hope.

Cheyenne's consistent performances over the past days have put them less than 80 nm behind Bruno PEYRON's 2002 track on Orange 1 - just as the first (1993) and current (2002) holder of the Trophée Jules Verne tees up for his Round the World record start on Orange 2 from Ouessant early this week.

Yesterday, Cheyenne crossed the equator at 11.38 GMT 8 days, 6 hours and 28 minutes since leaving Ushant.

Steve FOSSETT writes:

"Our first objective is now satisfied: reaching the Equator in less than 9 days (our crossing time was 1138z, so time to Equator was 8 days 6 hours 28 minutes). We experienced the frustration of a start pattern gone bad, which left us slow off Portugal and required extra miles south because we could not cut across an area of very light winds.

Now our weather fortunes have changed. We just made the easiest crossing of the Doldrums any of the crew has experienced -- good boat speed all the way. At one point our distance behind the record pace of Orange was approximately 650 miles, but now it is reduced to less than 100 miles.

Throughout, Cheyenne has been sailed well and suffered no equipment problems - except the breakage of one gennaker - which was successfully repaired. The difference in results is remarkably dependent on the winds, but if we sail well the luck with winds should average out.

In the end, it will be a fair test whether we can sail around the world faster than the record held by Bruno PEYRON on Orange.

- Steve"