Fossett & Cheyenne cross the equator

Equator crossed Sunday morning as skipper and crew drive for home

543 mile daily run takes Cheyenne to 1645 mile (3 day+) lead on current RTW record pace

654 miles N/NE Recife, Pernambuco (Brasil): Still driving hard after 50 days on their official Round The World Sailing record attempt, American Skipper Steve Fossett and his crew of 12 on board the maxi-catamaran Cheyenne crossed the Equator at 08:13 am today (Sunday 28 March) and re-entered the northern hemisphere. Seven weeks of hard sailing, plus a powerful 543 mile run over the past 24 hours leaves them with an imposing lead of more than 3 days over the current global record (set at 64 days 8 hours 37 minutes in 2002 by French Skipper Bruno Peyron on the catamaran Orange). Fossett and Cheyenne are now on Day 51 of their RTW attempt, and hope to reach the official start-finish line between France and the UK in a further 10 days time.

Steve Fossett was pleased at today's milestone, but aware that the task is not yet complete: "We have 22,000 miles behind us and just 3200 to go to the finish. We will sail it hard, but at the same time try to control the risk of breaking anything which would stop our attempt."

This voyage has already been marked by several breakages - and extraordinary repairs en route by Cheyenne's experienced international crew. A broken forestay (critical to holding up the mast) was fixed at day 19 off South Africa. The track holding the mainsail on the mast tore off just before Cape Horn. "The creative ability of these guys to make major repairs without stopping will account for our success if we break this record," Fossett said.

Steve Fossett is best known for achieving the First Solo Balloon Flight Around the World in July 2001 - after six spectacular attempts. But he is also, of course, an accomplished sailor who has set 21 official world records since 1993, including the TransAtlantic Record from New York to England in an astounding 4 days 17 hours (2001) and twice setting the 24 hour record of sailing (1999, 2001). But the Round The World Sailing record is the target that still drives him:

"This would cap my sailing career. The Round the World record is the most important of all. And to be the first American to hold this record in almost 20 years would be another bonus."

Team meteorologist Ken Campbell of Commanders Weather has estimated that Cheyenne could finish as early as 1800 GMT on April 7 (60-1/2 days). The finish is a N-S line from Ouessant island France to the UK landmark 'The Lizard' in Cornwall - where Fossett and his crew started just over 50 days ago.

The last American attempt on the global sailing record was the successful solo voyage of Dodge Morgan, who sailed around the world from Bermuda in 150 days in 1985-86 on American Promise. His record was broken in 1990 by Titouan Lamazou of France in 109 days. Since then, the RTW record has been successively reduced to the present 64 day target by the great multihull skippers Bruno Peyron (Fra) in 1993, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GB) & Sir Peter Blake (NZ) in 1994, Olivier de Kersauson (Fra) in 1997 and Bruno Peyron again in 2002.