From: OmanTri
To: update
Subject: Saturday morning
Date: 28/02/2009 04:36:59


It’s 330am, it’s just starting to come light – sunrise is at 04:30 but the
sky is already lightening up, the last 24hours has seen some of the best
sailing of the trip so far, our average SOG for last 24hrs has been 18.26,
but we have slowed considerably the last 12 hours, so we did have some good
spells where hour after hour that average was well into the 20 kts. The
sunrise was spectacular too. For the first time on this trip there was a
much more organised swell, and we surfed away happily doing up to 30 kts at
times, just pilling on the miles, switching between full mainsail and Reef
1 as the wind moved between 22 and 27 kts. Our heading was nearly perfect
too – we would have prefered to be a little more S but it was great just to
see the speeds we were achieving, it’s important to be fast to the East
rather than be a few miles north or south right now. Sea tempretures have
fluctuated enormously, sometimes 12, sometimes 16 degrees C, this is to do
with a swirling current further inshore which smaller swirls come from,
mixing warm water from the N indian ocean with the cold waters of the
Atlantic.

It is important to be fast because we are being hounded by a light airs
zone that is moving quickly from W to E behind us.. This area of High
Pressure is likely to finally catch us on Sunday when we’ll have to wriggle
through it’s clutches and end up sailing NE – this will be our exit lane to
the north, and we’ll slowly start an assent into the indian ocean. Crossing
40S on the way north somewhere around 55E, by this time the zone of light
airs has moved of and left behind it some N winds so we’ll be upwind for a
few days, until we reach some SE trade winds – allowing us to head N and
directly towards Muscat. ( will be 3800miles ahead of us by that time). That
of course is the theory and is the result of quite a few hours head
scratching and trying something like 30 different computer simulations…the
practical applicaton of it could be very different, but the last 24hrs speed
have given us a great chance of pulling it off. What happens if the HP
catches us earlier? – well for one thing Thierry will get to practice
fishing again, and we’ll just be upwind for longer, likely adding 24/48
hours to our trip……IF and it’s an unlikely IF, the HP slows down and we
manage to keep ahead of it for longer, we’ll be upwind for less time and
that will put a few smiles on faces as we reach the SE trade winds more
quickly.

A little while ago we passed south of Cape of Good Hope, the 3rd and final
of our great cape caper. As usual we passed well to the south 470 miles to
the south, and in darkness with 3/5 crew asleep….. so no major celebration
or ceremony, just keep pushing on…. The Cape is the most famous of land
marks, however the southern most point is Cape Agulhas, some 70nm further E.
so whilst we have passed the 3rd great cape, we have passed many more capes
on the trip, just not so many have become engrosed into popular culture in
the way of HOPE and HORN

But until we pass the southern most point we are still in the atlantic – the
indian ocean is just 40 nm ahead…. For 4 of us it’ll be leaving our ‘home’
ocean but importantly for Mohsin it represents getting back into his part of
the world ( despite being at 42S) He can look North and know that home is
not so far way. ( a straw poll onboard suggests between 15 and 20 days
away…. we’ll have to see how good that prediction looks after we have
hooked into the SE trade winds)

We have started to use up food bags stored in the back of the boat, bag 51
opened today – a real sign that we are pushing through to the end…. we
have been using bags stored under the generator up until now, but the boys
( Hooch/Mohsin) of the aft cabin ( nicknamed the Al Bustan) will be happy
of the extra room it gives them.

a couple of people emailed asking if we are listenting to any music, and
whilst we do listen to the iPod occassionally, it’s hard to do in rough
conditions as you can’t hear if there is a flap on deck, so it’s saved for
more quiet times. I have included a selection of the songs that seem to
keep coming up despite having over 3000 to choose from. I’ll conduct a bit
of a survey next 24hours to see what other people are listeneing too.

Don’t read too much into this list, other than a poor taste in music…..
they are just songs!!!
and in no specific order

Guillemots – Trains to Brazil
Killers – Human
Green day – good ridence
Gabriella Cilimi – Sweet about me, Echo beach
Embrace – Ashes,A glorious day
Depeche Mode – everything counts
The Beloved – I love you more, hello
The ailerons – dig a hole
The Holloways – generator
Kings of Leon – Knocked up
Oasis – Champagne Supernova
Roxy music – Oh Yeah
Sugarbabes – Girls
Violet Femmes – Blister in the sun
Buffalo Springfield – Stop, Hey, what’s that sound


attached is our current ‘work’ the maxsea routing chart to bring us E then N
Maxseathoughts.JPG – our current worksheet on maxsea

blue route is european model route
green route is GFS route
blue line with triangles is an indication of current circulation
red crosses with dd/mm next to them are 80 day pace boat locations
yellow circle with dots are old commanders routing ponts ( should a proposed
northern route)
blue circle with hhddddd next to them are current commaders est positions
short green line commaders routing suggested point
hatched area estimated posn of H sunday 00z
purple vertial line cape good hope
blue vertical line cape agulhas
red horizontal line approx path of H sunday – tuesday 00z
black horizontal line vendee ice gate
two blue vertical lines to E approximate ‘gate’ for turning north