From: OmanTri
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 01:14:44 -0000
To: update
Subject: Friday again

It’s friday again – the past few weeks have really gone so quickly, we find
outselves coming in to the last weeks of the trip so soon.

The last 24 hours has been one of change – we started out still with our
rough sea 3 reefs and staysail, and we have ended up with full mainsail and
solent jib. It’s dry on deck, we are heading exactly where we want to go –
and making ground to the north very quickly, as we left the 40s yesterday
we saw a couple of flying fish – seem to be a long way south, but a sign
things are warmer already. Being dry on deck is a novelty again, and Loik
just came off a long stint on deck totally dry, and without having to wear a
foul weather jacket!!!! everyone’s mood is reflected in the change of
weather.

The real end to the south for us was probably a long line of cloud that was
the front that brought the change of wind and wave conditions. We had seen
it on the satellite pictures, we could see it for 5 hours before sailing out
from underneath it – one min 18kts , the next 3kts the sea changed
instantly too – unreal….. a huge line of cloud, a big rolled edge to it
stretching as far as the eye could see in each direction. after 2 hours of
shifty and variable ( 3-19kts of wind we were away to the NE making
progress to our routing waypoints, and a general feeling of a line being
drawn between two parts of the journey.

What next – a tour of the islands of the Indian ocean. I had no idea there
were so many, and in some places some giant underwater plateau – some just
50m deep surrounded by 3500m deep ocean. It’s going to be interesting to see
how the weather shapes up for us… as we head north we need to be careful
not to get pushed too far West, as out there south of Madagascar there is
very large low, that if we end up too far W will provide NE winds ( and
fairly strong) and facing another few days upwind right now just wouldn’t be
fun. So by going NE now we are ensuring we have good E and SE winds all the
way to the Doldrums ( around 10S-12S) and once through these – easier to
write than to do we are into some N winds – sometimes from NW and somethimes
from NE…. so we’ll be looking to choose a side of the indian ocean to
favour, and head that way for awhile before making our final approach to
Muscat. Right now the favoured side is the Indian side passing somewhere
close to the group of islands that make up Maldives. Crossing the equator a
week from now would be a good target to choose and could keep us on track
for a total time of around 70 days, though lots can change in 2 weeks, and
certainly the forecast that far ahead is of limited value. Have a look on
the chart of Cochin in India – this is where the Volvo Ocean race visited,
and their experience of getting there varied greatly – one boat only
managing 48nm in a 24hr period, so ETA predictions change very quickly. The
greatest challenge of modern offshore racing is that the boats have such
great variaition in speed. So a small increase ( or decrease) or even a
10shift in the wind direction will add (or reduce) many knots of
oatspeed – added to that a large seastate factor where we must also protect
the boat and our sevles from travelling too quickly over too rough a sea.

It’s as frustrating for you specators as it is for us onboard not knowing
when we’ll finish exactly, but that’s meant to be part of the fun! This is
a natural driven sport, and that means we have to live with the variety
that nature is going to give us!!!