Stanley Paris circumnavigation

[boatman61]

Ahh... the sea is a great equaliser.. the high tech/spec boat is now worse of than I would be in my simple little 22ftr with hot food and plenty of power..
Says a lot for the KISS principle..

[MarkJ]

If his freezer is off and he looses his frozen food so soon into the voyage I would abandon it, return to St A and get another hyro grnerator and some spare props.

The lesson, here again, is it doesnt matter how much money and publicity you throw at a voyage you need to get out and test the boat.

Also being on a time limit artifically set, 150 days, means someone divided the miles by the days and got to a boat speed and decided that the water generators would cope.... A prudent method is to double what you think a passage will take, say 300 days, and then work your boat speed generating capacity for that, and cloudy skys. Then it more likely to carry spares because 300 days to have those gadgets work is a loooong time.

The boat may be slick and the operator experienced, but the problems are similar to any passage.


Mark

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

SNIP

The lesson, here again, is it doesnt matter how much money and publicity you throw at a voyage you need to get out and test the boat.

Also being on a time limit artifically set, 150 days,

SNIP

In a sense these two are related.

My take is the most dangerous thing you can have on a boat is a calendar. To me it seems silly to say he had to wait a couple of days to start the trip because of weather, not to mention saying it will take 150 days to complete the trip.

It took me six weeks to sail my catamaran from Marathon to the Dry Tortugas and back. While it is common for me to hit 10knts in the right conditions as everyone knows you sometimes have to wait for the right conditions.

One additional thought, when Bank Pop won the Jules Vern Trophy they credited not only great sat weather reports but also great reports of where the flotsam and jetsam was. Going fast is great, but not if you hit something while doing so.

Best of luck to Paris in his sailing.

[estarzinger]

Still going slow . . . . I continue to be puzzled by his weather routing . . . He has been heading right along the "no wind axis" toward the center of the high (and no wind) rather than heading for the shortest path toward wind. This high is no mystery and quite clear and decently forecast in the gfs gribs.

[estarzinger]

Below I have laid Paris's track on the wind map



and a bigger overview:


The high has been and is forecast to slowly pull west.

[K_V_B]

Originally Posted by sparau

Sure, wind and solar powered oil drilling, refining and transporting to make the epoxy

The day might indeed come that oil is to valuable to be burned for energy...

[estarzinger]

He's made decent progress, and is relatively well positioned off Brazil.

Probably about to have a slow spell as he punches thru the doldrums.

[OldFrog75]

Does he have support boats bring him provisions along the way or do "the rules" for a non-stop circumnavigation allow him to stop in ports along the way?

[estarzinger]

^^ no . . . he can have no physical assistance. He has food for the whole trip on board.

[OldFrog75]

I understood he was pursuing a West to East circumnavigation so why is he sailing so close to Brazil rather than head straight across to South Africa? Did he change his mind and decide to go East to West around the Horn?

[boatman61]

Because if he goes straight across he'll hit a dead zone and then head winds... he's heading to pick up the winds that swing E and then NE and along the coast and then swing across toward Africa.. not the shortest but a lot quicker route.. take a look at a pilot chart and you'll see the logic.. sort of an upside down N Atlantic pattern..

[estarzinger]

He is heading for Cape Hope . . . but . . . #1 There are E/SE'ly winds right along that area and a current flowing to the NW. So you tend to get pushed toward that bulge of Brazil. and #2 he needs to be on the western side of the Atlantic anyway, because out in the middle of the ocean is a big semi-stationary high pressure system, rotating counter clockwise. So the favorable winds are down the west side and then swinging toward Hope as you get below the high. If you try to go straight you get either headwinds or no winds.

Big accidental gybe described in the blog, a little bit of not too serious boast damage. But I hope Paris himself is ok, sounds like he got hit quite hard in the back with some hardware.

[steamgoat]

Sounds as if he's getting a bit beaten up,possible cracked rib? Hope he is OK as he's got a long way to go.