16th April
Frasersboat
Sun 16 Apr 2006 21:29
terrrible mileage day but worse than that a terrible direction day.
Below i also enclose our forcast for the next few days that make the
situation serious for us.
Date Wind Sea
16 16 s<>se 4 nw<>ne confused
17 8 s 4 nw<>ne confused
18 8 s 3 nw<>ne confused
19 8 e 3 nw
20 12 se 3 sw<>nw confused
21 16 e 4 nw confused
Right at the moment the wind is actually blowing from the SW and the way our
boat points we are having to steer 310T which is only 50 deg from true
north. This is miles from where we are wanting to go. The forcast shows
little change.
The problems for us are as follows.
1. Again without the hoped daily mileage we will run out of food in 22 days.
2. Without a dramatic change of wind direction from the that forcasted we
will be further away and further north in 3 days than we are now not 100
miles closer the finish
3 If we keep going north we may not be able to retreive the situation and
actually miss Antigua.
4. Crossing into the Carribean will enable us to have rowed an ocean but
what about our landfall, how far we miss by will determine whether a tow is
viable or we find another landfall.
5. We cant use the sea anchor to help either as that is used to stop us
blowing away in a gale across a sea not moving very fast. In this case the
sea and wind are moving together so the anchor would just let the slide
continue.
All we have done all day and what Mick is doing now is row against the
forces trying to hold our position. Last count he was rowing 40 degrees off
target at half a knot. Its mind numbing depressing hard work. We dont know
what else to do other than keep working against it until it chnges in 3 days
or more. (and nights).
It is all very difficult to put into perspective when we are both tired and
without reservation ready to stop and finish. We
It all is a bit worrying especially as we can sense a growing imoatience
from everyone including us to finish the job and get on. It is so
frustrating as we have explained before being here without the normal wind
and wave patterns designed to help.
We have prooved that when conditions are in our favour we can put a big
mileage together but this is so frustrating.