Ocean
Planet Vendée Globe Update:
Monday, January 17, 2005
Position 53 29S, 78 09W, @ 14:09 UT
Screeching... To A halt!
The
last few days of running towards Cape Horn have
been among the very best of the trip so far. There
was plenty of wind, and we were able to "select"
how much we wanted by careful positioning with
a big weather pattern as it went by. We also had
huge waves, the kind that Ocean Planet and I like
that are formed by a steady breeze. These giant
"tradewind" swells are great for surfing
but don't break too much.
These
waves when they have time to build, I like to
think of them as older, wiser, and with much less
of an attitude as the waves around small intense
storms. The sea has many powerful faces, and some
are friendlier than others. Some of these old
fellows were a good 30 feet high and quite the
roller coaster ride if you can catch them.
This
week's subject on www.oceanplanet.org
and www.bigelow.org/vendeeglobe, is ocean weather.
Weather is a very humbling science to try to understand,
but is endlessly fascinating. Have a look and
see what you learn for yourself about how the
winds work to form these waves.
Sadly,
our fun approach to the Horn is about to screech
to a near halt. No good thing lasts forever and
the wind is going to conk out leaving us with
several hundred miles to go. There is the possibility
of having to fly the spinnaker to get around the
famous corner! Conrad on Hellomoto might make
it around before it shuts down, even though we
did indeed catch up a bit over the past few days.
He is still likely to be on the other side of
the "Bozo Zone" that is forming in front
of me and escape. Oh well! At least at the moment
it doesn't look like a storm will jump on us before
we crawl around.
Speaking
of weather, many have been asking me what "grib"
files are and how we look at them. Below is a
shot of my Euronav SeaPro software (www.euronav.co.uk)
displaying a grib file over the Cape Horn area
(also note the approach of Ocean Planet on the
left of the screen):
You
can't see it very well in this pic, but there
are little wind arrows and small text on the screen
giving wind direction and velocity. You can display
the data for different times, including several
days into the future. Being only a NOAA computer
program's prediction, it is often wrong, but it
is better than nothing! This "grib"
data comes in rather small data files and is available
on the internet and by email. Computers set up
as grib "robot servers" automatically
send the files when they get an email specifying
what area and time period the data is requested.
Most people use a small program to create the
email request, although you can do it manually
if you know how. Maxsea "Chopper" and
Oceans "Weathernet" are examples of
programs to get data, although for this Vendee
the race directors disallowed the use of "Weathernet"
for reasons that none of the English speaking
skippers understood. We joked that perhaps it
was because there wasn't a version written in
French....;-)
Much
of today's ocean "sailing" involves
staring at these files along with weather fax
or satellite pics for hours and hours on the boat's
PC. While it is true that today's navigation itself
is made easy by GPS, the tactical analysis of
weather is perhaps more intense and time consuming
than ever!
Ack!
The wind is dying and I have to go put up more
sail! Gotta run!
Bruce
Schwab, Skipper
USA 05/Ocean Planet
Web: www.bruceschwab.com
Education: www.oceanplanet.org
Email: bruce@bruceschwab.com
Phone: 843-670-6582
