Sailing at a speed of 29.1 knots late last night, Steve Fossett’s maxi-catamaran PlayStation and her 10-man crew remain ahead of schedule to break the 11-year-old TransAtlantic Sailing Record. Averaging over 600 miles per day, two days out from New York, they’ve also set a new 24-hour record.

‘After completing our second day of this attempt at 1719GMT,’ said Steve Fossett, ‘and – assuming that Jet Services 5 (June 1990) had sailed at a constant speed – we were 383nm ahead of their run, with a little more than 1,600nm to reach The Lizard.’

According to navigator Stan Honey, the 24-hour run was 687.17nm which (pending ratification by the WSSRC) should be a new record. ‘We recall,’ said Honey, ‘that Grant Dalton and crew on Club Med set the current record in the Southern Ocean at 655.13nm (7-8 February 2001) during The Race.’

‘We are still managing to stay in front of our cold front/gale. The wind is currently 33 knots from south-south-west, and we are sailing at about 30 knots. It is foggy now, because of the warm southerly wind blowing over the cold Labrador current, but we are nearly past Flemish Cap, and the water should be warming.’

More news when we have it.