20 27 895N 020 21 059W

Fair Do's VII, Atlantic 2008....
Professor John Shepherd
Wed 26 Nov 2008 09:18
Morning Blog Fans,
 
A bit more narrative for those who have not followed the delights of the GRIB files (which I have now become a connoissuer of) - basically the series of merging lows in the mid atlantic has significantly disrupted the normal trade winds which usually give you a reliable and constant 15 - 25 Knts north easterly (right up your chuff).
 
Therefore there is going to be a drifter for over a 1000  miles between the gran canaria and St Lucia (on the rhumb line) - this is not an issue if you are motoring, but for us hardened seamen (correct spelling) we have been forced/advised by our router (Chris Tibbs - legend at this sort of stuff) to head South (towards southern ocean - no icebergs seen as yet) where the trades are still working and forecast to be reliable well towards end of next week.
 
So we have been soul searching and plucking up the courage to sail massive extra distance by sailing both sides of the triangle (instead of the hypotonuse) and stay with the pressure which is always stronger east and south.
 
So, we are awaiting Chris' ideas (which he gives us at 10 every day from the e-mail which we copy to blog at 0600 - and therefore you read) - between now and then we download GRIBS (mathematicsal predictions of what will happen in terms of breeze strength and direction based upon years of collecting pressure and data and applying the models to current data and pressure.
 
For us this means we have a think before we get Chris' gospel and come up with what we think will be the right call - as well as running the optimum route through Deckman (software on our onboard computer) which gives us theoretical optimum route based up weather gribs and its knowledge of the boats performance. What it does not give us is any risk management and it does not understand that we are the heaviest the boat has ever been (in terms of food and water [and possible grim - really do have soem fresh aromas now]) and therefore achieving these speeds (particularly at night) is a challenge at the angle the computer suggests. Therefore, we have ignored Deckman up to now (though it has informed our thinking) and we are pretty happy with where we are in terms of leverage against our competitors and our positioning compromise between rhumb line to where we are now headed (just NW of cape verde islands) and keeping south and east as long as we can for the pressure.
 
So that is the plan, we hope it will pay off. The only thing we woudl aim to change right now in terms of our position is to be further down the track - nothing in terms of our east/west debate.
 
Hope that has added some colour to why we are spearing off iceberg hunting to Antartica! P.S. This also means that distance to finish on ARC site is nonsensical as all the boats in our class nearer (all further north as well as west) are going to have a double sh*fting as things go on they are already taking it hard now).
 
In terms of life onboard, we have no time to get bored at all - quite physical sailing the boat most of time, loads of tidying and bailing (not too much don't worry!) and sorting and planning route to be done.
 
Yesterday we had a huge day pushing south as hard as we could which required sailing the boat fully loaded up in 15- 17 KNTS of breeze returning 12 - 15 KNTS of boatspeed fairly consistently.
 
Paul is just drying the pots next to me - I wish he would not do it naked.
 
Bacon butties comign up shortly! Hurry up Paul stop reading what I type and it might happen quicker......
 
We have seen more dolphins awesome phospheressence trails through the night and a big turtler waved his under carriage at us on his way past today.
 
We are expecting a long trip - approx 16 days in total, maybe more - sorry to those rendezvousing in St Lucia - you'll have to keep the rum on ice a while longer. Shoudl give more time to acquire cocunut bra's, or girls wearing cocunuts bras for Paul - he is house trained you can tell them, as he has been principal house keeper (surprise as we thought Clingan would be the scrubber - so to speak).
 
Personal messages - we have had soem great e-mails, not got time to reply to all but really great to know we have some people following us at home and we appreciate your interest and sentiments:
Emily - we have decided that nuero surgery would be appropriate and we have some test cases aboard ready for experimentation, sorry its cold. Chicken Pathia shoudl be hot enough to induce the latest addition to the shepherd clan.
 
Kirsty - great facts, keeping them as a surprise for the lads when they are all up, planning to ration them but more would be appreciated.
 
Jarrod/Deborah - B*gger, B*llocks and Bre*sts - that should satisfy your thirst for a more racey blog!
 
Sparky - awesome info keep it coming.
 
bacon at the ready and GRIBS to analyse!
 
Duncan