Around the world with 11 men on Cheyenne

Adrienne Cahalan works on
the route aboard Cheyenne

Adrienne Cahalan's remarkable feat of spending eight weeks on a yacht with 11 men has definitely got to go down in the record books. As much as she obviously wanted to spend as much time on board as possible with her hunky Cheyenne team mates during the recent Round the World Challenge, she was unable to stall her expert navigation skills sufficiently. She ended up plotting a course that took them just 58 days 9 hours 32 minutes 45 seconds to complete, breaking the world record by over five days!

"It's great when they get their shirts off"
Commenting on what it's like to sail with a boat full of men Cahalan said, "It's great, particularly the Tropics when they get their shirts off. The Southern Ocean's not so much fun because they're all covered up. The thing that I really miss however, is the girlie gossip. Men just don't impart any juicy gossip. It's a different topic of conversation they don't talk about who's going out with who, like girls do, they go on deck and talk about things like the Volvo Ocean Race. Joking aside, I really enjoy their company and you get that extra bit of attention. They really look after you. I think they also love having a women on board too."

Southern Ocean difficult area
As far as the navigation is concerned Cahalan brought onto the boat her years of navigational skills and was able to put to immediate use the research from her thesis last year on Southern Ocean storm patterns. According to Cahalan, this is the most difficult area to navigate. "There is so much information available for the north Atlantic, there's nothing you don't know, it's modelled so well. When you get that far south you're on your own and there's a lot more guess work. I think that as the information improves so will the record."

Scared of breakages
Talking about her personal fears of sailing round the world she added, "The Southern Ocean is always a concern because you know you're down there by yourself. Having dropped the rig once already [aboard Maiden] I realise how remote it is. The general scary bits are the breakages and also the worry of hitting stuff, whales debris, bergs, you're always tip-toeing through a minefield and that's always on your mind, even on the last stretch to the finish line." Having completed one of the world's greatest sailing achievements, Cahalan is unclear what's in store next. "Maybe the America's Cup but I don't know if I could handle the fitness side of things and getting up at 6am everyday to go to the gym; we'll see!"

About Adrienne Calahan
A 12 time Sydney-Hobart veteran as well as navigator on Steve Fossett's 2002 Fastnet Course world record on PlayStation (now Cheyenne), Adrienne was navigator/co-skipper with current Cheyenne Watch Captain Brian Thompson on Maiden II's trio of 2002 speed records - Antigua-Newport, Cross Channel and 24 Hour record passages. She was navigator on Kingfisher's 2001 win in the EDS Atlantic Challenge, 2003 Admirals Cup winner for Australia as navigator on Aftershock, and was named Australian Yachtswoman of the Year 2003. Adrienne has been navigator on 2 RTW's: Royal & Sun Alliance's 1998 record attempt when they were dismasted in the Southern Ocean and the 1993-4 Whitbread on Heineken. She has recently completed her Master of Science in Applied Meteorology, specializing in the weather of the Southern Ocean, and has 3 times been nominated as World Yachtswoman of the Year.

More about Cheyenne and the Round the World record