Fossett Challenges - Still 900+ Miles Ahead Of Orange

Wednesday 24 March 2004 - 1710 GMT - 462 miles East of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Cheyenne took two bites at the trough of Low pressure blocking her progress, but finally got through earlier today, posting a hard-fought 127 nm across the water since this morning's report (10.6 kts avg spd). At 1710 GMT Steve Fossett and crew were making 17.5 kts Eastbound on a port tack, with plans to switch to the N/NW later tonight as the wind 'clocks' to about 040 degrees (NE). The lead over Orange's 2002 RTW pace is now estimated at around 920+ miles

Further tacking between 33 - 31 W longitude over the coming day should see Cheyenne reaching the beloved Trades for better speed North.

As Steve Fossett wrote this afternoon:
"Second Try Across Trough:

Our attempt yesterday (Tuesday) to cross the trough north of a Low failed. It started normally enough with light winds as we sailed East - and actually got to the East side of the trough. But then we were stopped cold last night as the Trough redeveloped in front of us. We had turn north and invest more time before making another attempt.

This morning we made our second attempt and it worked. We are now free of that complicated weather pattern, but with a loss of a day on our projected schedule. We will now tack upwind for a day to reach the Tradewinds, then hopefully have a fast track to the Doldrums - our next problem area.

Steve"

For further details and regular position updates, please see: www.fossettchallenge.com