JV Jumble–A Study In Contrasts: It’s pretty simple down there in the Southern Ocean today. Geronimo: fast. Cheyenne: slow. De Kersauson and his guys are tucked nicely into the backside of a depression, and are rode the 30 knot northwesterly winds to a 543 miles day. That puts her almost 700 miles ahead of Orange 2002, but just a slim 63 miles ahead of the ghost of Cheyenne, which was also having a pretty good run at this point in her voyage. Up ahead, Cheyenne is only about 500 miles from Cape Horn, but suffered cruelly as light winds caught her during her mast track repair. That resulted in her worst Southern Ocean day yet, a paltry 265 miles, and cut her lead over Orange 2002 to just over 1500 miles. The only blessing is that the calm weather allowed the crew to do a lot of work on the mast and boat. Which turned out to be a very, very good thing, because as they worked two of the crew noticed that some bolts attaching the lower shrouds (which help hold the mast up) had sheared. Oops. They were quickly replaced, and Cheyenne is setting up for her Cape Horn rounding, which will take place in northwesterly winds of 30-35 knots. The scary part is that it is the leg after rounding Cape Horn (the passage from the Horn to the Equator) which historically has been the hardest on boats and rigs, because there is frequently a lot of sailing to weather (as opposed to easy downhill running) in nasty seas. Don’t forget to double-check that headstay repair, boys…..



“Uhhh, Steve, shouldn’t we be turning a little to the right about now…?”