St Helena High
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 26 Sep 2011 12:11
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Monday 26th September 1118 UTC 1218
BST
13:57.501S 008:09.119W
Wind: SE 15 Knots, COG 310 Deg True, SOG 7.0
knots
This whole route from South Africa as far
as Ascenion Island is downwind. There is some considerable risk of taking a
tanking on the early part of the passage from a passing low but after
several days you should be able to hook in to the South Atlantic High and that
should carry you into the SE trade winds. These same trade winds blow
steadily SE right across a belt South of the equator and they will blow you on
down to Brazil and into the Caribbean where at this time of year you must finish
below the hurricane tracks at 13 degrees north. Brazil is still not a bad
option ..... but my mind is fixed on trying to sail on to the Canary Islands at
least before heading home in early November for some family celebrations.
However there is a lot of water to go under the keel before
then.............
My timing leaving South Africa gave me a good
weather window and for the most part I have had favourable
conditions. However I am sailing at the slowest averages on my whole
circumnavigation so far. That is because the wind will probably average 15 knots
from almost directly behind me making for slow rolly progress. I will do well to
average 150 miles per day, well down from my normal 200 miles. My first day
out from St Helena saw me cover a respectable 180 miles but I had some stronger
winds in the first day than I have now. Since leaving South Africa over 2,000
miles ago I have almost not had to use any engine at all so have
almost all my fuel reserves other than what the heater was using on the
first nights down south and of course what the generator has used.
My idea was that I would need to use the engine to
get through the horse latitudes - the Doldrums - and that will probably be
the case. However although my progres is slow and the winds light at 15 knots I
am dreading the forecast sub 10 knot winds north of Ascension to the Doldrums.
So what I have done is sailed a course deep down wind and to the south west
of Ascension which will allow me to to come round to starboard onto these
lighter winds to hopefully make something of them. On the other hand I am
not due to pass Ascension for another three days it is still over 500 miles
away.
Fortunately I have had no dramas so far and I hope
that is the way it will continue.
On arriving at St Helena which I should have told
you has a population of 3,800 and is 47 miles square, I had not seen another
human being for 11 days! Have you ever gone any length of time in your whole
life without seeing another human? It is a strange thought but it did not bother
me one bit.
Yesterday again I had another strange occurence
which I can only imaging is related to atmospheric conditions around the
stationary high pressure system round St Helena. I received an AIS signal from a
ship which was 215 miles away! Normal range would be VHF range say about 25
miles max.
A pilot blog reader who mailed me said this was
a more full explanation of the phenomenon:
Tropospheric Scatter - Tropospheric scatter is the most common form of tropospheric
enhancement. Tropo-scatter is always present to some degree just about
everywhere. Tropospheric scatter at FM and TV frequencies is caused when the
paths of radio signals are altered by slight changes in the refractive index in
the lower atmosphere caused by air turbulence, and small changes in temperature,
humidity and barometric pressure. The signal is scattered in random
fashion. The tiny portion of the transmitted signal that is scattered
forward and downward from what is called the "common scattering volume" is
responsible for signal paths longer than the normal line-of-sight
horizon.
It has been great hearing from blog readers from
all over the world. I have in the last few days received among others, e-mails
from New Zealand and also Central China! My New Zealand correspondent kindly
kept me up to date with the rugby scores. Though the communication was
impressive unfortunately the result was not however it sounded like a tight
game. Any more rugby news? Someone fancy giving me a short run down on the
competition so far? I am investigating my facts a little bit here and I did
not get any answers to the question about why central BC Canada, may be closer
to me than Portland Oregon which it is 900 km north of. Also I thought my New
Zealand reader may have been further away than the Sidney reader but
no.
To understand this first you have to know and
believe that the world is round. In the first case it is because the great
circle route probably makes Portland further away than the BC reader though just
by less than 100 nm. In the second case New Zealand is closer going west from me
than Sidney is going East! It's a funny old world...........
Breakfast today was three free range St Helena
eggs, scrambled. Also, and because I was still on a "high" from St
Helena I was thinking of having a bit of a gourmet day today with lobsters
for dinner tonight, I was going to have some good Scottish smoked salmon with
the eggs. However after having been opened about eight weeks ago, when I took it
out of the fridge even I couldn't eat it. When I opened the packet it ran
off of it's own accord and jumped overboard. Not to worry I'll get it the
next time it works it's way round the food cycle!
Us Scots are accused of being tight but we're not
at all. We just hate to see waste. There are many possitive aspects to this
characteristic not least for the environment and tomorrow I think it's time for
a bit more thought provoking heavy duty blogs. Assuming no drama consumes me
before then. Go and mentally prepare yourself for a controversial
view.
In the meantime keep mailing me at rhiann {DOT} marie {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com
I am still waiting to hear whether the blog is
the number one read Mailasail blog or not. Hopefully I should find out this
week. In the meantime what have you done to help the campaign? Have you mailed a
link to any friends. If you don't have any friends 1) you should get
out more and 2) e-mail a link to a colleague or
aquaintance.
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