Cheyenne 380 nm SE of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

After spending most of the day heading East across the trough, with a very slow period late in the day, Cheyenne has been gradually heading again towards the NE since late Tuesday, (compass heading was 023 degrees at 0510 GMT today).

Steve FOSSETT and crew covered 234 miles over the past 24 hours (averaging 9.75 kts) as they traversed the Low off the coast of Brazil. Their lead over the 2002 RTW record pace of Orange I is now 893 miles.

The target remains Bruno PEYRON’S 2002 official Round The World Sailing record of 64 days 8 hrs 37 mins 24 secs – and their attempt must arrive at the official WSSRC start-finish line (a line between the French island of Ouessant running North to The Lizard in Cornwall, UK) by Sunday afternoon, April 11th to break the record. That is, of course, some 18 days and 4700 nm distant – or a required average hourly speed of less than 11 kts.

But that is also measured on a straight line – and a large High pressure area in the North Atlantic will probably see Fossett’s team pushing well North before driving across the North Atlantic back to the line – for a greater remaining distance and higher average speed.