Cheyenne…Almost…Done: After 58 days of high speed sailing, the thirteen crew aboard Cheyenne are finally approaching the finish. Even if they lost the rig now, they could probably drift over the line in time to break the record. But if they manage to hang onto it they should go from racing to celebrating around noon EST today, which would be a monster time of 58 days 10 hours. They’d be home even faster if they hadn’t run into an unforecast light air bubble off the coast of France last night, which slowed them down big time overnight. Dave Scully had a novel, and accurate, I think, assessment of what was happening:

“I believe that these micro depressions probably form on concentrations of plans and ideas of what one will do when one finishes. The rising hot air generated by the discussion of these ideas sucks up cold surface air, disrupting gradient wind flow, creating dense fog, and dampening expectations. They are generally brief in duration, but may interact with larger scale circulation to create progressively later and later arrival times. (for more information, look up “Temporal and Spatial Ambiguities Triggered by the Approaching Finish of Long Distance Sailing Events”, by the same author.)”

The big cat is back up to speed now, and the crew is naturally speculating on life after sailing. Brian Thompson, who has gone through this transition many, many times, points out one very odd effect:

“It will be interesting to see how it feels to be back on dry land after 58 days at sea. Normally the only really strange experience is being a passenger in a car; the speed, the silence and the smoothness is very bizarre. When the car goes over 30 miles an hour you can find yourself reaching out for the mainsheet traveller, ready to ease, but you can’t find it..”

So don’t go driving with Brian for a few days. Look for an update when this thing is in the bag…..



Hail Cheyenne, Fastest Boat On The Planet (For Now)