Jules Verne Update–Cheyenne is Dogging Orange I…Finally: On any round the world sailing attempt you are bound to get both lucky and unlucky with the weather. Steve Fossett and his 12-person crew struggled with light winds through their first week (which is doubly bad because weather routing should normally give you a blazing start), losing miles to the track of record holder Orange every day. At the worst they were more than 1 day and 600 miles behind. But Fossett and his team kept cool and kept sailing, and…were rewarded with one of the fastest crossings ever of the normally windless Doldrums around the Equator. In the bad old days of the 19th century, Doldrums sailing could drive men mad, as their ships wallowed for weeks and even months in the torpid, oppressive airs over the Equator. But “Cheyenne’ darted through a hole in the calms and rarely dropped below 15 knots. The result: she got across the Equator in 8 Days 6 Hours, whittling Orange’s lead to less than a day. And in the two days since, the 125 foot cat has kept cruising and this morning was just about 70 miles behind Orange’s 2002 record pace. In the world of big multihull racing that is basically nothing when there is more than 18,000 miles to go. But Fossett and “Cheyenne” had better keep sailing their asses off. Not only do they have to overtake the ghost of Orange I, Bruno Peyron just announced that he and his 13-man crew on the 120-foot “Orange II” will be setting off on their JV attempt Wednesday. Olivier De K will probably get back on the start line pretty soon after that. So this thing is going to be up in the air until the last multihull finishes…or disintegrates.

Meanwhile, here’s a little taste of life Equatorial onboard “Cheyenne” from Watch Leader Dave Scully:

“I was driving along yesterday. Mark was on the traveler. He is fiddling around with his fingers in his mouth, and suddenly pulls out a filling the size of a pea. “There, what shall I do about that then?” he asks me. I groaned, internally and externally. I hate dental work. As medical guy on board, I don’t mind dispensing a few anti-inflamatories, bandaging a wrist, or dispensing band-aids, but this was going to be a nightmare. I do not even like having my own teeth worked on, let alone groping around in someone else’s mouth with the packing and epoxy. Trouble is, no one else wants to do it either.

We maintained surprisingly good speed through the night, and I was wakened midmorning to hear that we would shortly entertain an important visitor. Sure enough, no sooner had we crossed the line, (Mike managed to clear it off the rudder), when King Neptune himself, and Badger Bag, appeared on the foredeck. Poor Mark was hustled forward, lashed to the tramp, and the litany of his sins reviewed. To the crews’ shouts of condemnation, a ghastly mixture of food slops and dead flying fish was ladled over his head, while Mr. Badger lashed him with a dead fish. However horrible, the King was well pleased with his forfeit, and promised us safe passage through his kingdom. Mark also survived, so it was a good start to the day.

Now we are loping along, close reaching in the south east trades. The big genaker has been laid to rest, it’s place taken by the solent. The comfort of VMG running has been superceded by the gut wrenching double bump of a catamaran bouncing over waves. Many of the crew followed Mark’s example, and did a bucket bath and shave. Guillermo is the trend setter in facial hair styles, and the crew now sport his characteristic pencil thin mustache and a lip drip of growth at about chin central.”



Cheyenne’s Crew Works Quickly to Clear the Equator Off the Rudders As the Big Cat Sails Over The Line…….

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