The lead over the current record holder Steve Fossett and his "Playstation" is comfortable at twelve hours. But Bruno Peyron still fears that the damage to the rudder of the "Orange II" could thwart his plans at the last moment. On the other hand, if everything goes well, the goal will be reached around 6 p.m. tonight.
Then "Orange II" would not have cracked the four-day mark for the route from New York to Lizard Point. The old record from 2001 (4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes, 6 seconds) would still be undercut by an impressive twelve hours.
But all of this is still speculation. Because in the last few hours the multihull has become slower and slower. During the past 24 hours, the speed dropped from a good 30 knots to "only" an average of 25 knots.
The skipper is concerned about the damaged port rudder. The day before yesterday the cat had collided with an object floating in the water. Peyron says nothing about the severity of the damage, but states that the crew is now required to be extremely careful to get the boat safely across the finish line.
A few hours ago there was also almost a collision with a Norwegian cargo freighter. Shortly after the radar alarm was triggered, it suddenly appeared out of thick fog and stopped at "Orange II" at 20 knots speed. The Kat itself was underway at 30 knots under gennaker at this point. Only at the last moment could the Kat be braked and put on a different course. Peyron indicates the approach to a few 100 meters.
After a brief moment of shock, however, they quickly returned to the old course and will now look out more intensively, according to Peyron.