Still on the long route

Thomas Coville and Sodebo lining up for a tricky Friday

Wednesday February 9th 2011, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Image above courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and PredictWind.

 

Date Lat Long Spd Crs Spd Spd Dist DTF v IDEC
      Inst   4hr 24 hours      
09/02/2011 11:00 28°28.44'S 035°06.69'W 14.3 156° 15.1 20 478.9 19 773 -378.8
09/02/2011 09:00 28°00.97'S 035°08.26'W 11.5 198° 17.6 20.7 495.9 19 791 -357.8
09/02/2011 07:00 27°37.30'S 035°13.33'W 18.5 164° 21 21.5 515.3 19 809 -337.8
09/02/2011 05:00 26°59.29'S 035°23.72'W 21.5 159° 22 22.1 529.3 19 840 -334.2
09/02/2011 03:00 26°16.36'S 035°25.31'W 23.5 189° 22.2 21.9 526.5 19 867 -330.6
09/02/2011 01:30 25°41.83'S 035°21.06'W 21.2 189° 22.3 21.7 521.8 19 886 -333.2
08/02/2011 23:00 24°47.62'S 035°12.73'W 20.7 195° 23 22.3 535.5 19 914 -341.4
08/02/2011 21:00 24°05.11'S 035°00.01'W 21.5 195° 22.6 22.4 538.1 19 936 -345.4
08/02/2011 19:00 23°19.74'S 034°44.38'W 23.4 199° 21.5 22.3 534.1 19 952 -345.3
08/02/2011 17:00 22°36.86'S 034°25.37'W 25.1 201° 21.1 22.1 530.1 19 965 -337.7
08/02/2011 15:00 21°56.29'S 034°14.71'W 23.3 192° 21.6 22.3 535.9 19 983 -336
08/02/2011 12:15 21°00.83'S 034°00.04'W 17.6 191° 22.8 22.9 550.2 20 008 -321.1
08/02/2011 11:00 20°34.72'S 033°49.27'W 22.1 199° 23.5 23.2 555.8 20 018 -310.6

Now at the latitude of southern Brazil, Thomas Coville and Sodebo continue to eat up the miles in the wrong direction. As a result her deficit on pace setter Francis Joyon's IDEC is now up to 378 miles.

While the depression that is creating the northerly flow Sodebo is currently enjoying remains in the mouth of the River Plate between Argentina and Uruguay, the maxi-tri is now heading due south, her skipper and routing team presumably satisfied that this course will be the best compromise between staying west enough to remain in the strongish winds from the depression and east enough to reduce the number of miles to sail. Nonetheless the wind is dropping as she encroaches on the high to the east and while Sodebo was happily racking up 21-22 knot averages up until 0900 today, so it is currently plummetting. 

The Sodebo routing team are expecting the depression to head east causing the breeze to fill in over the next 24 hours. The GRIBs show the centre of the depression remaining where it is but its reach extending east, so that the northerlies or northeasterlies should fill in more firmly for Sodebo over the next 24 hours. But as we mentioned yesterday more crucial is what the high to the south/east is doing. Unfortunately Sodebo is about a day early on the scene for the high blocking her route to the Southern Ocean is due to head northeast leaving favourable northerlies in her wake, on Saturday. However Sodebo will be knocking on the door of the high on Friday... So Friday will be light and one imagines that Coville will have no option other than to soldier through it. All will be good after this though as she is then straight into powerful westerlies. However on his present course, Sodebo will still be passing into the Southern Ocean (40°S) some 1,250 miles west of Francis Joyon's track on IDEC. IDEC reaches 40°S on the equivalent of Friday night in Sodebo time.

 

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