Orange II is speeding towards The Lizard on the final stretch of her New York/Cape Lizard record attempt. The wind, although remaining satisfactory in terms of strength, is becoming more variable in direction. On a direct course ? unless there is some damage ? they seem to have won their bet… But if they have to gybe, things could well turn out differently.

Peyron commented: “In the end, it didn’t work out to be that easy, but we didn’t slow down during the night, in spite of the heavy seas. We continued to battle our way through. We are now really close to the finishing line, as, to be exact, it is only 128 miles away now! We’re currently to the north of Land’s End but the wind keeps changing direction… if there is a small hiccup, we’ll get through it anyway, but if things ease right off, we’ll have to tack.

“The wind has got up again, but at dawn this morning we were slowed right down with some fairly weak winds. Having said that, we were still doing 22 / 23 knots. Things are better now, as our speed is varying from 28 to 30 knots, and if I place my little cursor on the finishing line, the computer calculates that we’ll cross the finish in 4 hours and 32 mins (situation at 11.40 CET). But it keeps on changing, so anything is possible for the better or worse.

“On a direct course, there won’t be any problem, as our average speed is good enough to do it, but if we have to tack, things are less certain. I’m repeating myself but even if we’re really channeling our efforts as we enter the Channel, it’s all down to a question of minutes! Moreover, such a minuscule time difference is unheard of in the history of this record… But 120 miles isn’t that far, and we’ll soon know the outcome!”

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