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Scarlet Oyster - Scarlet day 4, the North South divide



Its beginning to warm up a fair bit down here, so at least the rain is warm!
Speaking of rain we have already had a few biblical downpours! The temps
are still a little cool to shower in these clouds, so they are quite an
inconvenience, especially as they play havoc with what little wind we
actually have...

The Southern route on this crossing seldom proves fastest, I am sure that is
the case this time too, but it is the safer option in some cases. We have
somehow got a long way south with minimum penalty so far in terms of
placings, infact we are currently leading our class! This is despite
driving over 420miles to the south of others in our class in less favourable
winds too!

Even from this far South our routing keeps trying to send us North into the
stronger winds, the problem is the forecast wind is rather too strong up
ahead on the north route with potentially very strong head winds. These at
best would be very uncomfortable, and rather slow going under storm canvass!

If we want a route without 30knots on the nose, then it seems we may be well
placed, it wont be a fast crossing however! I expect most of those in the
North will want to avoid such conditions also, so I expect to see them make
their way South quite soon, this looks a tricky job under sail alone as the
wind is light and variable in the middle, it will be interesting to see how
it all plays out!

An interesting thing about the routing software is that it gives no
concession to comfort or even saftey, purely seeking out the theoretical
fastest route. Looking at the routing North for us I see it expects us to
average 13knots at times, as the polar plot we are using shows 13knots when
broad reaching (and surfing) in 35knots of wind, the reality is we can match
our polars when driving the boat as hard as is possible, but 1000miles from
land in pitch dark, no one in their right mind would ever do so!

Also upwind it would expect us to make 8.5knots into 30knots (albeit not
quite full upwind), the polars don't really take sea state into account, or
that you would likely break something if you tried to sail that hard into
the likely waves! The computer would also assume we have all 10 crew on the
rail hiking, I have checked with the team, they are not sure about sleeping
on the rail for 12days!

Anyway enough about weather models and computer software! Things onboard
are getting more settled into a routine, food has been great (Thanks to my
amazing wife who flew to Las Palmas to precook all our evening meals). The
first pig leg has been almost devoured, Ill keep the other one back till
halfway. It is pretty hot already downstairs when we have to close all
hatches in rain, we are hoping that this is not going to be a constant
feature.

Today (Friday) is one of our crews birthdays, I have not yet broken it to
Ben that he needs to make a cake for Cristian, could be tricky with no
flour, having watched a few episodes of the Great British Bake Off I feel
qualified to critique any creation that is presented however!

Looks like another cloud coming to 'rain on our parade' so best get kitted
up to help the troops on deck.

All for now from a warm and reasonably comfy Scarlet Oyster!



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