Greta hitches a ride on La Vagabonde

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Exile

How realistic is their Dec. 2nd deadline for making Gibralter? By my count that's an 18-day crossing.

roughly 3200 nm ,need to make about 160-170 miles a day and average 7 knots plus, quite do able as long as they can head east and not south!

conference is till the 13th so as long as she gets there before the end to make a speach it would be a fait accomplis and a huge kudos to all concerned

[fivecapes]

Originally Posted by Exile

...but maybe their Outremer can exceed expectations if/when the wind becomes more favorable.

Even so, speculating it might be an overloaded O45 that can't really be pushed too hard with a landlubber and toddler on board.

[gbmacca]

Apparently - as she sailed to America - refusing to fly - two people had to fly across to sail the boat back. False economy??
Also when asked about who is backing her - her parents (entertainers) and a marketing syndicate guru - they refuse to answer! Think they're up to $20mill in donations --- so far ---
Think I'll have a go as a 'Elderly Pacifist' - 'Climate Extoller' and see how much I can raise!!

Any donors???

[Exile]

Originally Posted by atoll

roughly 3200 nm ,need to make about 160-170 miles a day and average 7 knots plus, quite do able as long as they can head east and not south!

conference is till the 13th so as long as she gets there before the end to make a speach it would be a fait accomplis and a huge kudos to all concerned

OK thanks. The overall scheduling sounds much more realistic now. It will be interesting to follow their track.

[Budawang]

Crossing the north Atlantic the wrong way with a toddler in November would make me rather nervous to say the least. The last time they crossed in the other direction in season it was a real ordeal. Performance cats might be fast but they don't give a comfortable ride in heavy weather. They have plenty of aussie chutzpah that's for sure.

Originally Posted by fivecapes

Even so, speculating it might be an overloaded O45 that can't really be pushed too hard with a landlubber and toddler on board.

[crankysailor]

Originally Posted by ttex

I like the guy earlier in this thread who was talking trash about Rile'y experience and then confesses he has never crossed an ocean.

Classic.

Hmm.. I don't know, do I have to be a car racer to be able to say, gee.. that guy is always so blasse about security, driving without a seat belt and with a beer on one hand and the steering on the other... now entering the Dakar rally might finally teach him a lesson.. "oh what do you know! you are not a racer!! classic!" o_O

Anyhow, in a probably futile attempt to bring this back to sailing.. I don't think he is that nuts to try this stunt just like that. I don't think Nikki Henderson just happened to be strolling down the dock and they said "hey Nikki! OMG we are such a fan, wanna come to Europe on a sailing trip?! yes? cool!". He is putting his family's life on her hands. And given her record it is a reasonable bet. I myself wouldn't have the balls to put myself on that boat (let alone my son) but I do want it on record, I am a pussy.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by flyingfin

Actually, their track indicates they may just be trying to get far enough out into the Gulf Stream to avoid reverse flows and pick up NE flow....Based on these water temp readings.
https://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/global/monitor/

According to Windy.com, they are well past the Gulf stream.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by admiralslater

I wonder who the real snowflakes are , it seems to be grumpy old whiteguys

You have invalidated any good argument you might have presented.
Take a breath, admiral.

[Imagineou812]

Perhaps you would prefer to have a 73 year old narcissistic pumpkin faced mysogynist throwing a "temper tantrum" on the white house lawn claiming that global warming is "a hoax" after pulling out of the internationally recognized scientific backed Paris accord ? Think about this......it is yours / our generations that have sold out hers and your very own children !!! Get over yourself and weigh the scientific facts !!!

[Barbaria]

Originally Posted by atoll

roughly 3200 nm ,need to make about 160-170 miles a day and average 7 knots plus, quite do able as long as they can head east and not south!

conference is till the 13th so as long as she gets there before the end to make a speach it would be a fait accomplis and a huge kudos to all concerned

Tested the Weather 4D program to see what route it would suggest based on the approx position of the boat yesterday. Polar used is for a Hanse 495 so not really the same thing at all.

NB 193 MB.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16Z...5qzv0QUACU3Ea-

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by intervivos

Take a look at the comments on this "news" article. Absolutely brutal.

Wow, you're right, these people that read the daily mail seem rather vile! I couldn't believe how ignorant and downright stupid some comments were.

A few people are even asking where Greta's parents are, even though it says several times in the article that her father is sailing with her. Just goes to show what people really "read"...

Bring this back to sailing, not sure I would want to sail a light performance cat in the atlantic this time of year....I hope stardom hasn't clouded their judgement and this ends badly. Do they even have AIS? Couldn't find them....

Well, it can be a rough ride no matter what boat you are in. The Vagas have quite a few miles under their belt but not so much heavy weather experience. Hence it sounds very prudent that they also have an additional pro sailor on board.
Trust me, they're not going to risk the safety of their little boy!

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by StuM

According to Windy.com, they are well past the Gulf stream.

Seems they have some head winds a couple of days. From sunday a few days of southerlies and then westerlies the rest of the week.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Reefmagnet

I don't care who disagrees with me. I quote facts.


Some enlightening reading for you outside of news.abc.net.au


https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@...0Article151988

Here is a fact - your linked article does not contain a single mention of fire.

So I am at a loss to understand its relevance the fire ferocities discussion.

Another fact - the article was written in 1988 and the last mentioned drought was the 82/83 drought.

So it hard to understand how it speaks to current droughts (or fires).

One last fact - career firefighters disagree with your facts.
One of you must be wrong.

[Stickan]

I agree with many contributors to this thread who thinks that Greta is taking an unnecessary risk in her timing and maybe choice of boat. I which her best luck, there is at least one very competent sailor in the crew. But the reason I am writing is some of the absurd posts about climate change. I know that one should not feed the trolls, but there may be persons that get confused by some of the arguments. I think that the only reasonable thing is to do like Greta says: Trust the science.

I have retired now, but I worked 14 years with research on energy conservation in buildings and got a PhD and wrote some 40 articles and research reports. I remember attending an international conference in Sarajevo in 1989. There was a keynote speaker, a senior American professor who said that the risk for climate change was substantial and it was a wise insurance policy to invest in energy conservation. Political leaders like Margarete Thatcher said similar things at the second IPCC conference the same year.

In 1990 I moved away from scientific work and got a position as director for Environment and Nature Conservation at a County administration board in Sweden. From 2000 I was also responsible for work on Energy conservation and Climate Adaption. I retired 2015. So I have followed the development of science and policy in fields related to Climate Change for 40 years.

I am appalled by some of the contributions in this thread. Writers who pretend that they have facts that are unknown to established science and falsify current consensus on the risk for drastic climate change. 98-99 % of all active scientist in the field agree on the basics of Climate Change and believe that the risks are very grave, just as Greta says. Up until 2000 there were scientists who argued that the models were not good enough and more data and research were needed before one should take action against Carbon release because of the costs. But in the last 10 years there have been so much data that shows Climate Change is real. Many of the changes are also faster than the rather conservative forecasts from IPCC. The changes in ice coverage at high latitudes are alarming and the extremely warm summers shows what is coming within decades. There is ample data that shows how nature is changing and species are moving north. This creates stress and together wind land use and pesticides biodiversity is threatened and some scientist believe that this is an even greater threat than Climate Change.

My view is that the current situation is truly alarming and the most likely scenarios look very grim.

In Sweden there is a common acceptance for the basic scientific facts, even the far right has stopped being climate deniers. However there is disagreement on what to do. But that is reasonable, there should be a political discussion about what actions to take. However we are not doing enough, even in Sweden we need to do much more.

To have a political and ideological discussion on basic scientific facts is to me not the rational way to handle our future. But I know that others think differently. But you can’t vote about the law of gravity or other natural laws.

I wish that I am wrong but there are absolutely no science data that show Climate Change to be non existent.

[Chotu]

@Stickan, there are a lot of Americans here on the board so you can't expect much. Ha ha. (I'm one too).

@gbmacca, They didn't move the racing vessel she did her first crossing on just for her. It is continually going back and forth across the Atlantic. Since her trip it has already went back to Europe, got hauled out, then back to Brazil and is once again heading to Europe. She just jumped on an already existing boat with already existing transatlantic plans the first time. That did indeed have no carbon footprint.