Jessica Watson's Round-the-World Voyage

[04 Marine]

Hi Mike,

Even a trip around the world has to have rules. She is headed north to comply with one of the rules. To be a true circumnavigation she need to have sailed on both sides of the equator. Accordingly, she is headed north so as to cross the equator before going back to the south towards Cape Horn. There are a number of rules that must be adheared to, you should take a look at her web page as she has clearly spelled out what she must accomplish.

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

That puts her around the cape around January. The pilot chart says...well its mostly out of the west, southwest with 30-40% vessels reporting force 7 winds. There will be ice, or at least she will be below the extreme limit for glacier ice. Anyone else read that the same? I need to brush up on my pilot charts. The Mid Atlantic chart I used in my crewing days read in knots for wind speed on the rose, this one reads in gales, and there are a lot of "flags a flyin" if ya know what I mean. She really seems to be eating up the miles.

My cat went missing a few nights ago and, along with being totally bummed out, it got me thinking about singlehanding offshore without my cat. Many singlehanders have/had an animal aboard, Jessica does not. Frankly, that impresses me most. I don't think I could do that, I have always sailed with a human (well that could be up for debate ) or I have singlhanded with a cat or dog aboard. Funny, maybe I could add this to the "What is the definition of Solo, unassisted RTW thread" .

Erika

Yes but think how demoralizing or depressing for her if that said animal was to get lost at sea...I think she is wise to not have another potential mind bender aboard.

Every week she is out there I get more excited....Kool Kid...very cool kid indeed.

[MikeinLA]

Originally Posted by 04 Marine

Hi Mike,

Even a trip around the world has to have rules. She is headed north to comply with one of the rules. To be a true circumnavigation she need to have sailed on both sides of the equator. Accordingly, she is headed north so as to cross the equator before going back to the south towards Cape Horn. There are a number of rules that must be adheared to, you should take a look at her web page as she has clearly spelled out what she must accomplish.

Thanks, Marine, I never knew that. I'll read up on her site.

Mike

[CaptainMurph]

Originally Posted by MikeinLA

Knowing absolutely nothing about offshore routes, why does it look like she's headed for Los Angeles? I assume there is a point where you turn south, correct?

Mike

To make a cirumnavigation, she needs to cross all lines of longitude - and the equator - leaving from and returning to the same port.

Her northerly track has been (with a bit of dodging Fiji and Samoa) the great circle route from Sydney to the Line Islands. When she crosses the equator, she only needs to do the other 23,000 miles south and then east.

It's a big ocean.

Murph'

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

That puts her around the cape around January. The pilot chart says...well its mostly out of the west, southwest with 30-40% vessels reporting force 7 winds. There will be ice, or at least she will be below the extreme limit for glacier ice.

The winds are alternately from the NW before a front, then switch suddenly to SW after the front, and then die away to nothing for about 6 hours until they start up again from the N before the next front. 30% force 7 and above is about right.

THere is typically no ice right around the horn, you usually have to go quite a ways south there to get ice. BUT around South Georgia, a bit further east at the ame latitude, there can be quite a bit of ice.

Another danger area, that is not as well known or discussed is further east around the kerguelen islands - typicaly bad weather and nasty seas there. We have known quite a few boats get dismasted there.

[Ocean Girl]

Thanks estarzinger, that is some great info. That does reflect the rose for that area. I was a bit unsure if I was reading the pilot correctly, it indicated SW winds just as likely as NW winds, with a westerly average. I need to look up where the Kerguelen Islands are.
Cheers,

Erika

[TaoJones]

Jessica Watson is now just a couple of hundred nm from the equator, so she should be crossing the line within the next couple of days. From her latest blog entry, she writes:

After crossing the line I'll be sailing north another 200nm up around Kiribati Island, my rounding point in the northern hemisphere, then south back across the line and on to Cape Horn.

I posted the quote as evidence, probably, that Ms. Watson is not doing her own navigating. Chances are very good that her "team" in Australia are not only weather-routing her, but handling the navigation, as well.

Why do I say that?

Well, there is no "Kiribati island." Kiribati, the shortened version of The Republic of Kiribati, is actually a country, and it is composed of several islands. It now appears that she is intending to round Kiritimati before heading for Cape Horn.

In the local dialect there, "ti" carries the English "s" sound - thus, Kiribati is pronounced KEER ih bahs, and is the local pronunciation for "Gilberts." Kiribati is actualy an amalgamation of islands that formerly were parts of the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line Islands, with the Line Island group representing the eastern extremity of the nation.

Kiritimati, the major island in the former Line Islands, is the apparent rounding point for Ms. Watson. It is pronounced KEER is mahs - say it out loud, slowly, and you will discover that it is the Gilbertese way of saying Christmas.

So it looks like she will be having a very early Christmas, this year.

Here are a couple of informative links:

Kiribati - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kiritimati - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TaoJones

[Stillraining]

Or just a 16 year old cali girls way of shorting things up.

Merry Keerismahs..

[sec906]

So when Ms. Watson looks at her charts, and sees an island that has the label "Kiribati" next to it, wouldn't it be perfectly natural to refer to it as "Kiribati island"? The only meaning I'd read into it is that she isn't a geography expert on this little place.

She's thirty days into this journey and doing quite well on it so far, doing an excellent job of transparently documenting an awful lot of what she's encountering.

I just finished the book Lionheart by Jesse Martin, also from Australia, who sailed around the world at age 18. I'd recommend this book for anyone following Jessica's trip.

[paradix]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

Chances are very good that her "team" in Australia are not only weather-routing her, but handling the navigation, as well.

TaoJones

Can I ask why posters on this forum continually put quotation marks around the word team when referring to Jessica's support team? My interpretation is that there is a derogatory implication - that the quotation marks are somehow a put-down of those people. I'm a little insulted if that is the case, and more than a little perplexed. I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but down here Team is a positive word describing people working together for a common goal. I feel a certain positive pride, and certainly no shame, in being a (peripheral) member of Jessica's team. My apologies if I am misinterpreting your use of quotation marks.

Jessica's weather information is being provided by Bob McDavitt, who is based in New Zealand, not Australia.

I have no doubt that Jessica is an excellent navigator and knows exactly where she is going. As I understand it, her blogs are sent to her land-based support team who tidy and post them from shore, and since their navigation and sailing abilities are likely to be much poorer than Jessica's, it's likely that the translation from Kiritimati to Kiribati happened on shore and not on the boat.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by paradix

Can I ask why posters on this forum continually put quotation marks around the word team when referring to Jessica's support team? My interpretation is that there is a derogatory implication - that the quotation marks are somehow a put-down of those people. I'm a little insulted if that is the case, and more than a little perplexed. I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but down here Team is a positive word describing people working together for a common goal. I feel a certain positive pride, and certainly no shame, in being a (peripheral) member of Jessica's team. My apologies if I am misinterpreting your use of quotation marks.

Jessica's weather information is being provided by Bob McDavitt, who is based in New Zealand, not Australia.

I have no doubt that Jessica is an excellent navigator and knows exactly where she is going. As I understand it, her blogs are sent to her land-based support team who tidy and post them from shore, and since their navigation and sailing abilities are likely to be much poorer than Jessica's, it's likely that the translation from Kiritimati to Kiribati happened on shore and not on the boat.

A fair point Paradix and while I am in general a JW supporter, I can't help thinking that this is NOT a SOLO RTW voyage if she is getting serious assistance from a shore based team. While she is free to make the trip however she wants to and use her own definitions as to what SOLO constitutes, for me solo means by oneself without any other assistance.

I accept that she needed assistance before departing and that is in line with what most sailors do but after waving goodbye, well she should be on her own IM(not so humble)O.

[paradix]

Originally Posted by Wotname

A fair point Paradix and while I am in general a JW supporter, I can't help thinking that this is NOT a SOLO RTW voyage if she is getting serious assistance from a shore based team. While she is free to make the trip however she wants to and use her own definitions as to what SOLO constitutes, for me solo means by oneself without any other assistance.

I accept that she needed assistance before departing and that is in line with what most sailors do but after waving goodbye, well she should be on her own IM(not so humble)O.

A fair comment, and what one person defines as solo may always differ from another's. But has ANY solo RTW voyager in recent decades NOT used outside weather assistance? And done all their own forecasting by looking at the sea and skies around them only? Apart from getting guidance on the weather (which seems to me logical and sensible), I'm not sure what other "serious assistance" you're inferring that she's getting... Unless asking Mum where the cheese is stowed counts.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by sec906

So when Ms. Watson looks at her charts, and sees an island that has the label "Kiribati" next to it, wouldn't it be perfectly natural to refer to it as "Kiribati island"? The only meaning I'd read into it is that she isn't a geography expert on this little place.

Perhaps she should have stayed at school a bit longer

[paradix]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Perhaps she should have stayed at school a bit longer

Yeah, because she's learning nothing at all where she is...

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by paradix

Can I ask why posters on this forum continually put quotation marks around the word team when referring to Jessica's support team? My interpretation is that there is a derogatory implication - that the quotation marks are somehow a put-down of those people. I'm a little insulted if that is the case, and more than a little perplexed. I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but down here Team is a positive word describing people working together for a common goal. I feel a certain positive pride, and certainly no shame, in being a (peripheral) member of Jessica's team. My apologies if I am misinterpreting your use of quotation marks.

Jessica's weather information is being provided by Bob McDavitt, who is based in New Zealand, not Australia.

I have no doubt that Jessica is an excellent navigator and knows exactly where she is going. As I understand it, her blogs are sent to her land-based support team who tidy and post them from shore, and since their navigation and sailing abilities are likely to be much poorer than Jessica's, it's likely that the translation from Kiritimati to Kiribati happened on shore and not on the boat.

I take your point, paradix, but nothing derogatory was intended in my use of the quotation marks around the word "team." Rather, I did so because, while I have seen references to her "team" in print previously, I have no knowledge if it refers to one person on shore, or ten, or a hundred. I did come away with the impression, however, that there is some sort of organized effort supporting her voyage from within Australia, and I don't just mean those with a rooting interest in her endeavor.

In fact, it would be wonderful if you would inform the readers of this Forum as to your understanding of who the persons are who comprise Team Ella's Pink Lady. In addition to her parents and her weather router, there are undoubtedly others who deal with certain specific aspects of the myriad details in support of her effort. You would seem to be the right person, in the right place, to flesh that out, paradix.

Or if, in fact, there is no "team," as such - just a loose confederation of interested parties who are providing some form of support when, and as, they can - that would be interesting to know, as well.

I hope this explanation clears up any misunderstanding for you, paradix. No derogatory sub-text was either intended, or to be inferred, in my use of quotation marks around "team." Who knew that four little dashes carried such power?

TaoJones