This morning brought a wonderful sunrise with the moon still well above the horizon. Those of you old enough to recall the days before Sat Nav and GPS will recognize the navigational benefits this used to confer. Not only good visibility during the evening, but you could get celestial lines of position during the night if it was clear, and sometimes a crossing LOP from a planet. A few days after the full moon, during the day offered crossing LOPs from sun and moon. Hence the cruising fleet tended to move on a full moon.
We are often asked if after a lifetime of sailing we find crossing oceans on a motor yacht boring. Obviously there is not a lot of sail handling to do. But on a passage like the 2010 edition of the ARC we are spending significant amounts of time picking our way through the unusual weather. Between downloading and analyzing raw grib files with Expedition, comparing the results to the fax charts broadcast by the Tropical Prediction Center (Florida) over NMG in New Orleans, and throwing in our own observations and those reported by other yachts, there is little time for boredom.
Unlike sailing passages where we are hunting angle and pressure, the goal now is comfort. Given the conditions this year there are two choices: don't go and wait for better weather, or try and get quickly through the area where headwinds are developing, before they become really unpleasant. Eleven knots of steady progress creates a lot of weather options, so we are busy playing what if games. This morning we downloaded the latest GFS grib model from Saildocs using our Iridium Sat Phone and service provider UUPlus. The 30K file took one minute and 45 seconds of air time.
We then ran three routings with Expedition. One with a hitch south, one north of the great circle, and a third direct. Expedition outputs the data in tabular form giving true wind speed and angle (and a lot of other data). We then take the TWA and TWS information, which are the bottom line in terms of comfort, and import them into an Excel spreadsheet. This makes it easier to compare the results. The current GFS weather model shows the direct great circle 40 miles shorter, with slightly more wind than the southern route. The increased wind is offset by better angles and a shorter period of time before the breeze goes aft. So for now we are back on the great circle.
While we have given up the challenge of the two of us making seamanlike crossings under sail, we are still working at doing the best job possible with Wind Horse under power. Along with weather and routing, this includes maintenance checks, and trimming fuel and water for maximum comfort and safety. Our hull responds to trim like a high performance sailboat. Upwind and when going slow we want the bow down. In surfing conditions and when cruising faster, we benefit from bow up/stern down trim. We started this trip with even trim, and have been using fuel from aft. However, we are now using the forward tank in anticipation of the sleigh ride we hope is coming. We can also move fuel and water around as required.
These days at sea have time for a bit of photography, always a challenge on a moving platform. The moon photo accompanying this report was shot this morning with a Canon 500mm F4 lens on a 7D body. ISO was 200, using shutter priority at 1/1000 of a second. Needless to say keeping the moon in the lens was not easy.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the galley on Wind Horse is busy with preparations today, wind waves on starboard bow and swells from two directions notwithstanding.
As of noon today (GMT) we have 1945 miles to go, the sun is shining, and all aboard the good ship Wind Horse are enjoying being at sea.
ARC-2010-Passage-3-320-2192