An arrival off New York Harbor before noon today is now a possibility for the 86-foot sailing catamaran Explorer, racing north to set a sailing record from Miami, FL, to New York, NY.

Larry Rosenfeld, from Marblehead, MA, who is navigator and communications chief aboard the big cat, sent the following position update today, Wednesday, June 2 at 4:30 AM:

“Its 4:30 AM local time and we’re screaming in towards Atlantic City, NJ about 40 miles away – Hey, we can buzz the boardwalk!

“Our position is 38 32 N 74 09 W. We are headed 355 degrees Magnetic and doing 21 knots. Rick Burnes, the Boston businessman and veteran ocean racer who is our Team Adventure USA guest, is driving right now. I don’t know how he will ever again get back in his monohull sailboat doing 6-10 knots!

“The thing Rick remarks on is how smooth it is. We have a following sea, we are on port tack with the working jib and full mainsail. The wind is out of the west, maybe slightly south of west at about 15-18 kts.

“The power in this boat is just incredible. Ten tons accelerating in a flash as Rick finds the groove. We go from 15 to 21 kts literally within a second.

“Cam Lewis, from Lincolnville, ME, our skipper for Team Adventure, is happy to get so many first timers on board to share this experience. Bruno Peyron who owns Explorer is enjoying the ride too, happy to be on his boat again and going fast.

“At our current rate of speed, we should be arriving off Ambrose Light in about six hours at 10:30 AM, although the wind may slacken as morning comes which would delay things a bit. The goal remains to complete this voyage in less than 72 hours, or three days.

“We may have to jibe if the wind doesn’t clock a little in the next hour and a half. The moon is up behind us, lighting the way. Lots of fishing traffic. I wonder what they think with this apparition zooming by. Maybe they think we are trawling for fish at 20 knots!

“This is probably our last night out and we are savoring the experience of such a fantastic voyage.”