March 19, 2004
3 minutes reading time
Cheyenne 112 NE Off Port Stanley, Falkland Islands
After a 24 hr run of 418 nm (avg 17.41 kts) Cheyenne and crew passed the Falkland Islands last night and continued their drive North towards the equator on Friday morning as Day 41 of their Round The World record attempt drew to a close.
.jpg "Cheyenne 112 NE Off Port Stanley, Falkland Islands")
After a 24 hr run of 418 nm (avg 17.41 kts) Cheyenne and crew passed the Falkland Islands last night and continued their drive North towards the equator on Friday morning as Day 41 of their Round The World record attempt drew to a close.
Ahead lies a large (on a NW-SE line) ridge of High pressure they must traverse starting later today.
Cheyenne’s run NE from Cape Horn can best be described as ‘variable’ – a combination of high speed, flat calms immediately after the Cape, and finally steady NW wind at 19-22 kts overnight Thursday. Watch captain Brian THOMPSON describes Thursday’s run in his complete report below:
Steve FOSSETT and crew maintained their lead of approx 2-1/2 days over the 2002 RTW record course of Orange I, now measured at 1109 miles (calculated vs Orange’s actual daily segments and Cheyenn’e current position).
Brian THOMPSON:
“We rounded Cape Horn by 3 miles yesterday evening. It was a spectacular day with sun and high clouds, crystal clear visibility and a 20 knot breeze from the NW. The coastline was rugged and mountainous, like Western Scotland. There were no trees and no sign of human habitation except for the small red and white striped lighthouse set on a low hill. The spectacular pyramid shape of Cape Horn was just to the West of the lighthouse and could be seen for 40 miles each side. I doubt many people have had such a good day on their passages past, we were very lucky according to all the Horn veterans on board. Some of them have never seen it, rounding in darkness, or in bad visibility, further offshore.
Jacques has now chalked up 7 roundings of the Horn on round the world trips and at the tender age of 41 thinks there may be a few more left in him. We think the record is 8 by the legendary Grant Dalton, and as he has allegedly hung up his sea boots, there is hope yet for Jacques to be the king of the South.
We took some great pictures on board, and overhead a plane from the Argentine Air force was circling taking footage for Spanish TV.
So we sailed from Ushant to the Horn in 39 days and 16 hours, the fastest time ever and 2.5 days ahead of Orange. I thought in Plymouth, before the start, that doing less than 40 days to there was going to be a good target, and we achieved that despite all the slow times in the last week. So we have to be satisfied with where we are now. Its time to do our best now in the fickle breezes of the South Atlantic.
We have launched straight into this new regime. At first, we were marvelling at the flat seas and our 28 knot speeds and then within 3 hours we were becalmed off the Patagonian coastline. We then had rough conditions through the Le Maire straights with 4 knots of tide under us in the middle of the night.
Then blasting across to the Falklands today at high speed only to be becalmed again 25 miles in their lee. We are now working our way offshore of the islands and slowly finding the wind again, and about to resume our progress NE.
Temperatures are rising here and the foul weather tops are off this afternoon in the bright sunshine. The Andes are doing a great job of blocking the Southern Ocean drizzle.
Better go on watch, more later. Thanks for all your messages, they are great to read.
Brian”