Team Ellen - Day 12 Media Release: Swings And Roundabouts

KEY DATA DAY 12 1410 GMT: 12 hours 36 minutes ahead of Joyon (data communicated by Thrane MiniC via BT Business Broadband)
Lat/Long: 17 15 S / 031 05 W (x)
Average Boat speed: 18.89 knots (heading S by W)
True Wind speed: 15.7 knots (direction ENE)
Distance sailed so far: 4484 miles

Each hourly data shows <<B&Q>> losing a few minutes on the lead - last night over 15 hours ahead, this morning 13 hours and this afternoon 12 hours... The precious hours and minutes gained in the 11 days since the start are diminishing as Ellen fights her way south down towards the Southern Ocean: "You know when you do this kind of trip, its swings and roundabouts - we'll have good times and bad times and there is obviously a very bad time ahead of us so we're likely to lose all we've gained on Francis." This is the very nature of record attempts and statistics prove it is very rare to get ahead and stay ahead for the duration on long passages, never mind around the world. "Hopefully, there will be times when we will gain and then won't lose. That's the way it works out here, you've just got to do your best and keep trucking on and get the best out of the weather that you've got..."

<<B&Q>> having covered nearly 4500 miles is heading south, trying to navigate her way through the high pressure that has now split in two. To avoid being swallowed up by the second part of it, Ellen needs to continue her dive south. But it will not be long before Ellen makes the transition from tropical conditions into freezing cold: "We're going to plunge south pretty soon - we're going to be down at 40 degrees south before we know it and we are about three days away from the freezing conditions going under Tristan da Cunha islands and heading east in the westerlies."

The breeze will back to the NE later today and will continue to go further round to a 10-15 knot NNW wind by tomorrow. With the breeze looking stronger in the west, Ellen will have to throw in a gybe on to starboard to keep pushing south for the early part of the weekend [for the record, <<B&Q>> has been on port for a continuous seven days]. Monday will hopefully give Ellen her first real taste of good westerlies to head south-east under the islands of Tristan da Cunha towards Cape of Good Hope: "The weather is not that easy but its worth playing for because once we get those westerlies things will be a lot better."

EXCERPTS FROM ELLEN AUDIO 1200 GMT : courtesy of Geolink/Iridium
To listen to the full audio http://www.ocftp2.com/audio/ellen/em091204a_uk_e.mp3

How are things going?
Still heading south in the South Atlantic and we're approaching a group of islands called the islands of Trinidade and its getting a little bit less hot which is fantastic - now at 16 degrees south so it's not quite as tropical as it was a few days ago. Hopefully, we'll be heading south even further down into the Southern Ocean over the next couple of days. The weather is not that easy but its worth playing for because once we get those westerlies things will be a lot better.

How was last night?
Didn't have a great night really - conditions were up and down a bit and I was very worried about what's going to happen in the south because we're going to have an absolute shocker. You know the closer you get, the more you realise it's going to be pretty horrible and we're going to have to plunge south pretty soon - we're going to be down at 40 degrees south before we know it, and its not the best zone for icebergs. A bit worrying, to be quite honest, and the conditions this morning have been up and down in the last two hours - we've had the wind direction switching from 66 degrees to 100 - it's all over the place.

How is the Southern Ocean looking?
Right now, there are quite a few depressions down there - it doesn't look to bad at the moment. There is a big high sitting east of Cape Horn which could cause us a lot of problems... But the low pressures are rolling down from the north and that's what we're going to try and catch on our way south and then, hopefully, all being well, we will get into the westerlies. There's a few lows rolling underneath and hopefully we can catch one, sit on one and not get eaten by this high as it comes up from behind.

WEATHER ANALYSIS FROM COMMANDERS' WEATHER:
From: Commanders' Weather Corp 0600UTC Thursday, December 9, 2004

After another 24 hours of fast sailing in the southern hemisphere trade winds. Howver, conditions will begin to change and become less favorable during the next 24 hours.

Winds will slowly back into the NE over the next 24 hours and more N on Friday. Wind speeds will slowly diminish during the next 12 hours. We will begin to head SE and as the winds become N, we will be sailing towards the ESE, with even lighter wind speeds expected over the weekend.

High pressure is centered well to the SE of Ellen this morning. Low pressure is organizing E of Brazil and will move SE. The low will move quickly SE, so we will be left behind with a stalling, weakening, west to east oriented cold front, with light WNW winds on the north side of the front and much stronger easterlies on the south side of the front. As winds become much lighter and more westerly over the weekend, we will start to make our way south and try to catch the next low pressure area for a ride SE, into the more persistent, and stronger westerlies south of 40S.