Passage planning like God
Catmojo
Matt
Mon 15 May 2023 07:44
Horta is a mere 150miles behind after 24 hours of gently puttering south-east, and Santa Maria is 40nm to the east of me.
Having the Starlink WiFi on board means that I can use the marinetraffic website to see ships from far over the blue horizon. Or at least confirm that there’s not much around. The nearest ship is 32miles away, beyond my AIS.
Obviously I don’t want to be “playing in the motorway” too much, so I use the “density” feature that shows the heavily used bits of sea, and try avoid those areas. But there’s no avoiding the main traffic routes in/out of Gibraltar at 36N.
Meanwhile I’m heading kinda upwind ESE to give more downwind space in the likely stronger breeze from Wednesday. Gently rolling seas here and the still-flimsy wind hasn’t yet turned to come from the north, not yet…