“Cheyenne” Charges On–One Cape Down (Two to Go): Cheyenne is still powering along, racking up another 500-plus mile day and in the early morning hours passing the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, the first of the three Great Capes on the round-the-world tour. Next up is Cape Leeuwin, at the southwest corner of Australia, and then it’s on to Cape Horn. Cheyenne sailed from Ushant in the English Channel to the Cape of Good Hope in 17 days, 23 hours, 29 minutes. (Click here for a chart of their current position). That’s faster than Orange I in 2002, which took 18 days, 18 hours, 40 minutes, and Fossett reckons he is about 430 miles ahead at the moment (the record for Ushant-Good Hope, though, was set by Geronimo in 2003, at 16 days, 35 minutes). Significantly, Cheyenne (at 46/47 degrees South) is much further south than either Geronimo or Orange I were at this point (Geronimo was at 40 degrees South and Orange was at 38 degrees South). That’s almost 400 miles closer to the Pole, which translates into a shorter track to Cape Horn as the longitude lines squeeze together the further south you go. Of course, that also means Cheyenne is sailing closer to the Southern Ocean storm track. But for the moment this strategy makes a lot of sense because Fossett and navigator Adrienne Cahalan are running from the light air trap of a high pressure system that is reaching out toward them from Good Hope. They’ll cash in big time if they succeed, according to Cheyenne’s weather router, Ken Campbell of Commanders Weather: “Winds are still excellent, but it is important that they keep getting South over the next 18-24 hrs – to manage the area of High Pressure coming SE from the Cape and get to the best wind. The sweet spot will be at between 47 and 48 degrees S. If they can get there, they’ll be cooking – and should really bomb eastwards for the next 3 days at least.”



“Hey, Steve, this southern route is great. It’s shorter…and we’ve got ice for our cocktails.”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

Annals of Invention–“Rinspeed Splash”: TWC has featured the HOV-Pod, a two-man sub, and a James Bondish car-speedboat. Latest entry in the wacky vehicles someone, somewhere might like to own gallery is the “Splash,” another car boat that distinguishes itself by flying two feet above the water on hydrofoils (instead of sitting in the water like all those other boring, unimaginative boat-cars). Vital stats: 125 mph on land, 50 mph on water, very light, very loud, no CD player. Expect to get wet…



Very Cool…But why is a fire extinguisher standard equipment?

Final JV Update for the Day…I Think: But well worth the extra verbiage, because Dave Scully, Cheyenne’s boat captain, tells the dramatic story of Cheyenne’s faulty headstay, and how the crew managed to fix it 1000 miles from port, while surfing the Southern Ocean at 20-plus knots. Here’s an excerpt, but if you are into gutsy sailing, read the whole thing on Yachting World’s website:

“The situation started at 23.30 the night before last, when Ado woke me to help with the gybe. I got to the bow to find the headstay flopping like a washing line, the rig supported by the luff tension of the solent. Bit of a shocker. There were a couple of logical explanations, none of which made sense. Justin leaped into the rigging and stabilised the situation by lashing a couple of strong lines to the partners. Then we waited for daybreak.

It seemed incredible to me that the stay had broken. It is new 40mm steel wire, and had not been subjected to extraordinary stress. Equally incredible was the idea that the swage fitting had pulled out. The most likely, though not obvious solution, was that something had gone wrong inside the furling unit. To access this, we had to unroll the sail.

Not an easy job, with a big catenary (sag) in the stay, and the boat pitching as it pursued a 20kt course eastward. Damian was up the rig at the partners, Justin and I were at the tack fitting, and the rest of the crew were on sheets and furling lines. We unrolled it a turn, then another. Justin turned to me and said: “I think this is going to work!” Just then there was an almighty crash, and the sail, still mostly wrapped around the carbon fibre headfoil, fell into the netting.

I looked around, counting the survivors. Miraculously, everyone was still standing. The sail, trailing the wire forestay, was flailing around, half on the tramp, half in the air. It was obvious that our worst fears were confirmed. The forestay had broken, and we were out of the running.”

Go to Yachting World’s site to read about the repair. And, yes, it did involve some f*cking big wrenches…



Headstay Down!: “Boo-hoo-hoo. I just can’t stand to look at this mess….”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

Geronimo Update–JV Start Wednesday: Ahh, Olivier De K finally emerges from his secure, undisclosed location to announce that he and Geronimo will hit the start line again tomorrow. Well, it won’t be as exciting as a head-to-head drag race, but it will be the next best thing if the 110-foot trimaran and the 120-foot catamaran start within 18 hours of one another. De Kersauson is famously individualistic, and rarely a happy collaborator, so it was perhaps too much to hope that he and Peyron would have a little chat and do the right thing for their sponsors and hit the line at the exact same time. Still, we got a whole lotta racing going on: Cheyenne Vs. Orange I, Geronimo vs. Orange II, Geronimo and Orange II vs. Cheyenne and Orange I. Stop, I’m getting a headache…



Geronimo Grabs a Head Start: “Au Revoir, Bruno. Catch us if you can….”

Orange Update–Back to Sea: The repair job on Orange II’s bows was completed today, and the 120-foot cat has been re-launched. Bruno Peyron an the crew are now racing to put all the bits back together and restock in time to leave the dock tomorrow afternoon, with the aim of setting out on another Jules Verne record attempt sometime Thursday morning. Olivier, oh Olivier, where are you….?



Sure, it looks good. But is Le Glue Elmer really the best way to go?

Annals of Adrenaline–Surfing Can Kill: Think surfing is just a laid back way for slackers to get a tan? Think again. When the waves get big and rough, surfing is an extreme sport: dangerous, unpredictable and sometimes lethal. At least that’s what Japanese surfer Moto Watanabe, an aspiring pro, discovered in January when he caught Oahu’s notorious Pipeline on a bad day. It’s a sad, moving story:

“The swell that Monday morning was still running at 8-12 feet as it had the day before, but the conditions had deteriorated as the swell turned more north and a weird bumpiness set in. Without a spot in the tight Pipeline pecking order, a zealous Watanabe was forced to compete tooth and nail for the undesirable scrap waves. According to East Coast ripper and self-described Pipe “scrapper” Jesse Hines, who had been chatting with Watanabe just seconds before the fateful eight-footer loomed, “the wave looked good at first, but just transformed into a monster. Even a boogie-boarder couldn’t have made that drop.” Watanabe grabbed his rail and tried to power his way backside into the left, but the wave hurled itself outward, the lip seemingly thicker than the wave was tall. He was wiped out in the lip by a bump and was driven head-first into his board in only three feet of water. Ironically, this was the first season at Pipe that he had chosen not to wear a helmet.”

Watanabe sustained severe injuries to his head and neck, slipped into a coma, and after 11 days on life support his parents made the difficult decision to pull the plug. Lesson learned:

For those who witnessed the wipeout and the aftermath like [surfers] Hines and Snyder, the accident has brought the danger of surfing Pipe back into perspective. Says Hines, “None of us had ever been that close to death before…it was sobering to be talking with this healthy young guy one minute, and to see him unconscious and foaming on the beach the next.”



“Oh Man, why did I ever give up tiddleywinks………”

TWC Quick Hits….:

Cosmologists More Certain Than Ever that Universe Is Not In Fact Ripping Apart: Well, that’s certainly good to know. Thanks, guys.

In Fact, We Might Just Have 30 Billion Years: It just keeps getting better and better….

Unfortunately, The Great Barrier Reef Won’t Be With Us That Long thanks to Global Warming: Damn. Just as I was starting to feel good…

And Sharks Aren’t Doing Very Well Either: But at least they’re eating fewer surfers….



“You bastards. I’m leaving the surfer dudes alone, but I’m going to get as many of the rest of you as I can before you wipe us all out…”

Just Checking….: Phew, Cheyenne’s mast is still standing, so it seems the repair is holding. The big cat is running hard to the southeast, about a day ahead of Orange’s 2002 record pace (see chart here), and is trying to stay ahead of the light winds of a high pressure system that is expanding fast in their direction. The only real consequence of Cheyenne’s rigging failure is that the Solent headsail–one of the primary working sails, used mostly for reaching and upwind work–is no longer on a furler. That means the crew will have to hoist and douse it like an old-fashioned hank-on sail when they want to use it. Which in turn means a lot more work at the grinding pedestals. That in itself is no big deal on a boat where almost every sailhandling job is a massive, sweat-popping chore. But it does mean that getting the Solent up and down will take more time, and that will cost Cheyenne some miles because normal practice on the boat is to fly the Solent whenever one of the flying headsails (the gennaker or the blast reacher) is being changed. The flying headsails will be used almost constantly throughout the downwind sleigh ride of the Southern Ocean, and will need frequent changing whenever the wind strengthens or eases. So the headstay problem will exact a price, both on the crew’s energies and in terms of miles whenever there are sail changes up forward. But we’re only talking a small decrease in sailhandling and sailing efficiency. And at least Cheyenne is still racing.

Back in France, Orange II is still under repair, but could be back on the water in the next day or two. Olivier De K and Geronimo are eyeing a decent weather window that looks to be open through Thursday. It’s possible Orange II could catch it too….



Cheyenne Crew Boss Dave Scully: “So I grabbed the headstay between my teeth and growled ‘Get me a f*cking big wrench’…”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

TWC Breaking News–Cheyenne Soldiers On: Steve Fossett and his 13 crew have somehow managed to put Cheyenne back into fast sailing mode (after a 16 hour repair job to reattach the forestay), so the record hunt is BACK ON (see below for more on the discovery of the problem). Here’s Fossett’s after-action report:

“The crew of Cheyenne has reconnected the Forestay. Cheyenne has gybed to the Southwest and is continuing its attempt to break the Round the World Sailing Record.

The forestay cable, which supports the mast, pulled out of its end fitting. None of us on board has ever seen this fitting fail before. The repair process took over 16 hours and was accomplished using hand tools – where this type of work is usually done in a rigging shop with specialized heavy equipment.

This is defining of the most professional distance sailors. They can fix things at sea where normally we would have to retire to the nearest port. Despite meticulous preparation, these high performance multihulls cannot be expected to make it Round the World without mandatory repairs at sea.”

It’s not clear yet whether they can push the 125-foot catamaran to maximum potential, or whether they have to baby her around the course a bit. But knowing Fossett, I’d say the repair has to be pretty solid. He’s not the kind of guy to waste his time attempting a record with a boat that can’t give him a good chance of success. Cheyenne obviously lost some of their lead on Orange (TWC reckons about 100 miles of 500), but she is still south and east of Bruno Peyron’s equivalent position in 2002 (click here to see a chart), so she’s still ahead of the record pace. TWC will watch Cheyenne’s position and speed reports carefully for any signs of impaired performance. But right now the big cat is back up over 20 knots and pointed at Cape Horn, thousands of miles down the track. Better not break down again halfway there….

Meanwhile, back in France, Geronimo’s faulty sails have been repaired (or so the sailmaker prays) and the big tri is ready to sail again. Orange II should be repaired within days. Both teams are looking at a promising mid-to-late week weather window. One last plea: START TOGETHER, you stubborn, stubborn men…



Orange’s Bow Looking, Ummm, F*cked Up…..

(Photo: Gilles Martin Raget)

Annals of Adventure–Just Keep, Surfing, Surfing, Surfing..: The local Indians call it Pororoca, which means “Great Roar.” The rest of the folks who live along the Amazon just call it “The Murderer” or “The Monster.” Just what the hell are they talking about? Some stone-age beast lurking in the jungle? Maybe a plus-sized jaguar? Nope. The Pororoca is a tidal wave, but not just any tidal wave. It happens only in February and March, twice a day over a three day period. Take the Amazon River at high tide, a full moon, and the billions of extra gallons of water added by seasonal rains, and you get an utterly predictable wall of water–up to a mile and a half wide, moving at almost 20 mph–sweeping toward the Atlantic. For most river dwellers, the arrival of the Pororoca means run like hell for high ground, wait till its all over, and then return home to salvage what remains. But for a few hardy, possibly insane, adventurers it means something entirely different. It means the world’s longest surfing wave, a wave that sweeps the surfer through piranha infested waters, past floating logs and crocodiles, and through clouds of the world’s most voracious mosquitos. And, if the surfer survives all that, the Pororoca may just mean a new world record. At least that’s what Picuruta Salazar hopes. Last year the laid-back 43-year-old Brazilian hopped up on his long board, caught a ride with the Pororoca, and surfed it for 37 minutes and 7.5 miles. Cowabunga, Dude. That was a world record, and this year Salazar will be back to try and break his own mark. The Pororoca window opens wide from March 27 to March 29, and Salazar and a crowd of other extreme surfers will be there to catch it, rip it, and…hopefully…survive it. This is some crazy surfin’ sh*t and TWC will bring you all the action in late March….



Salazar Sets Off: “Man, I hope I don’t need to take a whizz in the next half hour….”

(Photo: Rick Werneck via SurferVillage.Com)