Yesterday’s 557-mile entry in the log marked a seventh consecutive day’s run of more than 500nm for skipper Steve Fossett and the 125ft maxi-catamaran Cheyenne on their Round The World record attempt. Yesterday they continued their streak across the south-west Pacific Ocean – and extended their lead over the 2002 RTW record holder’s position to 2,222 miles – an advantage of five days. They are currently 3,139 nm west of Cape Horn

With threatening weather building to the south later this week, Fossett and navigator Adrienne Cahalan plotted a course slightly to the north-east, sacrificing a little of the advantage of a shorter, more southerly passage east for the potential option of being able to quickly move back to the ‘roaring forties’ from the ‘furious fifties’.

In addition to being over 2,200 miles ahead of Orange’s 2002 record track, Cheyenne and crew are also over 1,100 miles ahead of the 2003 RTW position of Geronimo after 31 days – at the time considered a very fast passage.

Brian Thompson, watch captain, reporting on brianthompsonsailing.com this morning said: “Looks like more of the same weather for the next few days and then we get the rough stuff coming on Thursday onwards.

“The time is changing rapidly as we charge eastwards at over 15 degrees of longitude a day, the dawn is shifting by an hour a day and we are adjusting our mealtimes every four days or so to keep them aligned with local time. Our watches remain on GMT which is very simple, although better if you set your watch to 12hr rather than 24 hr time, otherwise dawn is at 1800 rather than 0600.”