Bruno Peyron and his 13-strong crew aboard the 120ft maxi cat Orange II are continuing to eat up the miles on their round the world record attempt. They are now 2,519 miles ahead of the outright record set by Cheyenne last year. And after just 32 days at sea they will be round Cape Horn tonight preparing for their accent of Atlantic.

Overnight the wind has swung round to the west creating dead downwind conditions. Although this is not an ideal angle for the big cat, Peyron is still sounding upbeat about the situation commenting from the boat this morning while clocking up 23-33kts of boat speed: “We can’t complain, we’re extending the course just a little by making some big moves to change the tack of the boat with the wind on the aft quarter.”

Chatting about rounding the Horn later today Peyron continued: “We’re going to leave the Pacific with a good ‘score’ being the key towards our exploits. Our downwind tack has slowed us down a little but I’m not at odds about sparing the boat a little in this way. The passage of the Horn is always a high point. Everyone aboard wants to make the most of it. A bit of light would be most welcome as we haven’t seen the sun throughout the whole of our Pacific crossing. The Horn evokes a lot of memories. In 1993, we experienced it at its worst, 80 to 85 knots of wind and 17 metre waves. It can be a very nasty place. We all know that there is still everything to play for after the Horn.”

Once round the Horn the conditions are likely to become fairly nasty for the next four to five days but Peyron says that once through that things will lighten up on the approach to Brazil, concluding: “We’ll make the most of that time to give the boat a good going over.”