Steve Fossett’s 125ft maxi-catamaran PlayStation set off on an attempt on the Christopher Columbus Route (East – West TransAtlantic Record), in the early hours of Saturday morning from the Puerto Sherry in Cadiz.

Fossett and his experienced international crew of 11 are attempting to break the Cadiz – Canaries – Bahamas course record (officially registered as 3,884.83 nm by the WSSRC – World Sailing Speed Records Council, set in June 2000 at 10d 14h 53m 44s by the 110ft maxi-cat Club Med, co-skippered by Grant Dalton (NZ) and Bruno Peyron (FRA).

Reports from the boat yesterday morning show they have successfully passed through the Canaries and the mood onboard upbeat as they head towards the Bahamas.

Skipper Steve Fossett relayed his comments by phone: “We’re going well. We’ve lost some time going south, but we are still looking good. Our focus is on making this a good record attempt, so we’re not pressing for super high-mileage days. We’re taking a consistent approach – and aiming not to make any mistakes.

“The crew are sailing really well as a team. They’ve got the experience – with only three guys (Tim Zimmermann, Simon Fisher, Will Howden) not having sailed with us on previous world-records. Still on a good pace to reach San Salvador for this record.”

Watch captain Dave Scully once added:”Today’s highlight was sliding by the Canary Islands. The lights of Lanzarote had been visible for most of last night, and by mid-morning we were entering the passage between Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. Fuerteventura means ‘strong wind’ in Spanish, I am told, and they are not talking about digestive disturbances.

The following breeze gathered meters per second as we passed between the two islands. We had reefed down in anticipation, but found that the blast reacher was too much, and replaced it with the solent. The meter was reading in the high forties, and the implacable Pete Melvin, at the helm, spurned suggestions of further sail reduction, and pushed the knotmeter to it’s highest level this trip – at about 35 kts.”

Navigator Brian Thompson added his views: “We have now rounded cans, and on port gybe heading south to avoid the wind shadow of Gran Canaria – the wind reached a steady 44 knots in the funnelling effect of the islands (up from 22knots before).

“We got to within 2.5 miles of the island before gybing away from its the calms. We are now under one reef and solent and the wind is starting to drop towards 30, so soon we will have the reacher up again.

“Strategy for the TransAtlantic awaiting us is simple – to maximise our VMG (Velocity Made Good) downwind, to get south, to gybe on the windshifts – and not to break anything.

“Due to the high pressure covering the great circle route to San Salvador, we will have to sail well south, down to 20N at times, according to the predictions of our weather router Pierre Lasnier.

“This will put us almost 500 miles south of the rhumbline. Interestingly Club Med – who did this record in June (2000) when the High is further north – was 100 miles north of the rhumbline at one point..

“We are looking at their daily positions and the average speed we need to stay ahead of the record. As we rounded Gran Canaria we had averaged 20.73 since the start, ahead of the 15.2 required.

“We had a good run to the Canaries overall, a little too slow at first, but then we gained in the 2nd half when the wind held in the north, allowing us to aim at the island on starboard gybe. The next section will not allow us to be always heading at the mark, so keeping our current average will be difficult.

“The key is to stay in the wind, even if we have to sail more miles.”

PlayStation’s E-W TransAt Crew

Steve Fossett (USA) Skipper/Watch Captain

Dave Scully (USA) Watch Captain

Pete Melvin (USA) Watch Captain

Brian Thompson (GB) Navigator

Peter Hogg (NZ) Crew

Mark Featherstone (GB) Crew

Dave Calvert (USA) Crew

Miki Von Koskull (Fin) Crew

Will Howden (GB) Crew

Tim Zimmermann (USA) Crew

Nick Legatt (ZA) Crew

Simon Fisher (GB) Crew