Ellen Only 25 Minutes Behind Record Solo TransAtlantic
Jun 28, 2004 09: 12 EST
“It’s going to be very, very tight there is no doubt about it,” said Ellen MacArthur this morning. At 6am this morning she had only 246 nautical miles to go with just under 20 hours left on the clock to make it to the finish line off The Lizard before the deadline at 00:44:42 GMT tomorrow to beat Laurent Bourgnon 7d, 2h, 34m trans-Atlantic record. "the wind instruments went completely haywire which meant the autopilots steering the boat lost control...it was a scary moment,” this just hours before reaching the busy shipping lines near the finish.
Weather forecast predicts average wind speed of around 20 knots through today from the south-west turning more west but diminishing later tonight to less than 5 knots after midnight. Ellen needs to average 16 knots to finish ahead of the record and make history with the fastest solo Atlantic crossing. She has averaged less than 2 hours sleep per day for the last 6 days bringing on her very first hallucination and has only eaten 3 hot meals since leaving New York. “I was pretty close to my very first hallucination last night...I slept in the cuddy and then woke up in a start, didn't really know where I was but checked around the cockpit and then I could see there was a ship in the distance. As I got closer I could see her lights and I was convinced it was another competitor who then told me the ship was a first aid ship sailing with him and I am thinking he can't do that, you can't take a ship with you across the Atlantic! It took me a few minutes to realize I was imagining the whole thing.”
I think we still have a chance of breaking the record but it's going to be very, very close and it all depends on how long this breeze we've got with us stays - it's as simple as that. We will hang on to the breeze as long as we can, keep driving the boat and I think we will have to do one more gybe to come into the finish but it's going to be very, very tight but there is a chance...
Elapsed Time: 06d11h50m
Ahead/behind record: -8nm, 0h27m Behind
Existing record: 7d2h34m42s
Distance covered: 2609
Distance to finish: 246
Position: 49 23 31N, 11 29 21W
Average boat speed (VMG) towards finish so far: 16.72 knots
Average boat speed (VMG) now required to beat record: 16.4 knots
Current boat speed: 20.7 knots
Sailed in last 24h (point to point): 459.95 nm
Sailed in last 12h (point to point): 234.38 nm
Ellen MacArthur shot to fame when she became the fastest solo woman to sail round-the-world in 2001’s Vendee Globe. Now she has her sight set on breaking the world solo speed record over the next two years in a brand new £1.5million trimaran designed by Nigel Irens. Named Castorama B&Q, after its sponsors, the 75 ft long triple-hulled boat is built for speed, said to reach over 35 knots. Ellen is eyeing several records including the 24-hour distance record as well as making it round-the-world fastest. Typically, trimarans are fast boats, but trickier to handle in high winds. After last year’s dismasting on her catamaran Kingfisher 2 in the Jules Verne Challenge and everything it took to come this far, Ellen is thrilled to be on the water again.
Webcam image of Ellen courtesy of Team Kingfisher.
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