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Trimaran
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Ellen
Macarthur
Thursday, 30 December 2004 at 09:27
KEY DATA DAY 32 0810 GMT: 2
days 3 hours 45 minutes ahead of Joyon
OMEGA: Official timekeeper for Ellen MacArthur
Lat/Long: 52 15 S / 141 E (560 miles SSW Tasmania / 1050
miles W New Zealand)
Average Boat speed: 20.01 knots (heading E by S)
True Wind speed: 25.3 knots (direction NW by N)
Sea temperature: 7.3 degrees C
Distance sailed so far: 13,273 miles at an average speed
of 17.3 knots
(data communicated by Thrane MiniC via BT Business
Broadband)
Update based on data recorded 0710 GMT...check home page
for the latest data updated hourly
IN BRIEF:
* FAST CONDITIONS FOR LAST 12 HOURS in NNW to NW 24-32
knot breeze: "Good run, averaging over 20 knots at
110 degrees, we're smokin'...! Put staysail down and
swapped to Solent to go deeper and further south. We're
28 knots right now, nice, and earlier did 32.29 knots
not bad with a wind speed of 28 knots, almost a record!
I think 36 knots is the fastest so far on B&Q."
These fast speeds have resulted in Ellen breaking the
two-day barrier in her lead over Joyon's record for the
first time in her solo record attempt. As Ellen
approaches the midway barrier, another 500 miles further
along the race track [see Jargon Buster below explaining
how the halfway point is measured], her mindset remains
pragmatic, as the fact remains that only one man in
history has raced solo, non-stop around the world on a
multihull: "It's a long, long way home, it's not
over until its over and Francis' time is the only record
time."
* MORE DIY ON BOARD B&Q... Keeping the 75-foot
multihull in order is an ongoing daily task with a job
list that keeps getting longer as B&Q undergoes more
wear and tear in the harsh Southern Ocean conditions:
"When I put the Solent up earlier, I looked at
halyard only two strands left, lucky we were downwind.
If it had parted the halyard would have ended up in the
mast, I felt very lucky to have spotted it. So I have
re-spliced it and spent two hours doing it. It had
broken just like gennaker halyard on the Vendée [4
years ago], right on the end of the splice sitting on
the sheave at top of mast. Lucky it didn't come down,
only two strands of the kevlar halyard were left, that's
only one-tenthth of diameter. You earn your luck a bit,
but that was lucky!" Then there's more to come as
Ellen considers a rig check, if conditions allow, before
entering the second leg of the Southern Ocean - the
Pacific Ocean: "I've redone the lashing tack of the
Solent, and I've switched the runner cover over. I've
got some water in the back beam. Going to wait until
gennaker [Solent] out of the way though, its too hard at
the moment. I've got a few other things to do. Might do
a rig check as we get closer to New Zealand and check
the lashings at the top of the mast. Be good to do
before entering next part of the south..." Keeping
a handle on all the jobs that need to be done is an
important psychological achievement: "I feel on top
of things, even in the bad stuff, I kept checking, kept
problem solving, never putting things off until later. I
think I'm better at that now than I ever have been. I
have made an improvement on myself!"
* FLATTER SEA CONDITIONS EASE THE GENERATOR AGONY...
"Have just done my first charge without having to
restart the generator, it was so refreshing!"
Previously due to the violent motion, Ellen has had to
manually restart it every few minutes, making it
impossible to rest for the hours of charging necessary
to keep the batteries going, and hence the auto-pilots
and everything else. The sea state may be flatter but
the depth has decreased sharply as B&Q passes over
an 'ocean mountain': "We're just going over a
seamount, 1600 metres of depth from 3200 metres. I find
all that stuff fascinating... We know so little about
the ocean floor..."
* OUR NIGHT, ELLEN'S DAY... If you are thinking how
amazing it is for Ellen to be doing all this DIY during
darkness, remember she is in the Southern Hemisphere. So
night time in Europe, is day time for Ellen. The sun
rises around 1800 GMT and sets at 1100 GMT providing 17
hours of daylight...
* B&Q PROGREESING QUICKLY EASTWARDS BUT DIVE TO THE
SOUTH ON THE AGENDA as a wall of high pressure [no wind]
stretches across Ellen's path from south-east Tasmania
down to 50-51 degrees south and 160-165 degrees east.
Commanders' are advising Ellen to head south of the
light wind zone but then come back up to pass north of
Campbell Island sometime on Sunday. This will increase
the north-south divide between IDEC and B&Q,
currently 600 miles, but not to B&Q's advantage as
Ellen will be sailing more miles to get south around the
light winds but then back north-east to avoid the ice.
The objective is to keep B&Q away from the ice area
to the ESE of Campbell Island which is situated 350
miles south of mainland New Zealand. This is also the
same path taken by Joyon once he had cleared the
south-east cape of Tasmania...
* ELLEN'S OC SAILING TEAM MATE UPDATE: Nick Moloney on
Skandia, crosses the International Date Line from east
to west in 7th place in the Vendee Globe, surfing away
from New Zealand and onwards towards Cape Horn. Nick
Moloney
WEATHER ANALYSIS FROM COMMANDERS' WEATHER 0600 GMT:
From: Commanders' Weather Corp 0600UTC Thursday,
December 30, 2004
Ellen continues between high pressure just SE of
Tasmania and low pressure well off the W and SW. This
pattern is producing a potent NNW to NW flow, generally
between 24-32 kts. This will keep her moving along very
steadily towards the ESE. Expect this pattern to hold
until 09-12utc Friday with the wind then starting to
diminish. This should allow continued good boat speed
for the next 24-30 hours.
By 12utc Friday, high pressure will have nosed down
towards 50-51s/160-165e and will stay in that area thru
12utc Saturday. Winds will decrease and tend to back
after 12utc Friday. Goal will be to come along the
bottom side of the high where we can maintain some
breeze. Winds will become light on Saturday, but the
very light conditions likely nearer the high, around and
north of 51s. We will want to come NE some around this
time and probably aim to pass north of Campbell Island
sometime after 00-06utc Sunday. This will be a safer
course to try and avoid the ice area to the ESE of
Campbell Island.
Strategy:
1) Continue what you are doing - ESE course
2) Waypoint around 53-53 30s/155e
3) A more NE hdg around and after 03-06utc Sat passing N
of Campbell Island
4) Mainly E heading once past Campbell Island
Wind forecasts
Wind directions are TRUE, wind speed in kts, time is UTC
Thurs, Dec 30
09: 330-350/24-32
12: 330-350/25-32, near 52 20s/143 30e - wind may come
up a few kts 10-14utc
18: 325-345/24-30
Considerable clouds. A few isolated showers
Seas 15-20 ft
Fri, Dec 31
00: 320-340/24-30
06: 320-340/24-30
12: 320-340/20-25, near 53 20s/155e - winds diminish
Cloudy to partly cloudy. Seas 13-18 ft and diminishing.
http://www.commandersweather.com
JARGON BUSTER: MIDWAY POINT
MacArthur could be at the halfway stage of her attempt
in another 24-30 hours based on the theoretical distance
of 23,965 miles that her shore team are using to measure
her progress. When the data shows 11,982 miles to go,
that is the midway point for B&Q. The course
distance is based on what is considered to be the
shortest possible practical route around the world - of
course, one will always sail more distance through the
water than that, since one can rarely take a direct
route - due to the weather. On the Data Panel online,
MILES SAILED reflects the actual distance sailed through
the water (currently 12,936 nautical miles). MILES LEFT
is the miles left to sail based on the shortest
practical route from current position to the finish, the
reality being that B&Q will sail more miles than
suggested in this calculation. So far B&Q has sailed
12,936 miles through the water [at an average speed of
17.2 knots], with 12,791 miles left to go (and 11,174
miles covered of theoretical shortest route) on a
typical optimum ie shortest course around the world.
PARTNER OF THE DAY : OMEGA
Official timekeeper of Ellen MacArthur
12:56pm
(UK) 30 December 2004
Macarthur
Sailing Ahead in Round the World Record Bid
Yachtswoman
Ellen MacArthur was today surging ahead of the fastest
time for sailing single-handedly round the world,
putting more than two days between her and the record
time.
The 28-year-old, from Cowes, Isle of Wight, was, at
12.45pm today, two days, five hours and 30 minutes
ahead of the current record holder, Frenchman Francis
Joyon – her biggest time advantage since she set off
on November 28. Joyon sailed solo and non-stop
round the world in 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and
22 seconds.
MacArthur has benefited from fast winds during the
past 12 hours helping to push through the two-day lead
mark as she sails 560 miles south west of Tasmania and
1,050 miles west of New Zealand. Despite the
growing lead, MacArthur remained calm today about her
prospects of breaking the record as she nears the
halfway point.
Speaking from her 75ft trimaran B&Q, she said:
“It’s a long, long way home, it’s not over until
its over and Francis’s time is the only record
time.” MacArthur must cross the finish line at
Ushant off the French coast no later than February 9,
next year if she is to better the standing record.
Her challenge has not been affected by the tsunami
disaster because in the open ocean it only takes the
form of a rise in water level, according to a
spokesman for MacArthur’s support team. The
spokesman explained: “An increase in water depth of
8 metres when in 3,000 metres has no effect
fortunately for the sailors out there. “It is
only near land that it can have such devastating and
terrible consequences.”
OBSTACLES AHEAD 30 Dec 2004 - 12:46
"We've certainly got a few obstacles ahead of
us - part of those obstacles are a light wind area,
which is a ridge of high pressure coming down from
the north west..." Another obstacle is the ice
zone to the east of Campbell Island. Read below
transcript of Ellen's conference call today...
CHEESE & CHOCOLATE ON THE RUN! 30 Dec
2004 - 12:37
Ellen has discovered another downside to using the
back-up generator that runs at temperatures up to 45
degrees - it is melting the Babybel cheese in her
weekly food bags and the packets of chocolate
buttons have turned to powder from being repeatedly
melted!
WORLD CLOSING IN... 30 Dec 2004 - 12:26
"We are sailing under a blanket of thick cloud
cover, it's like your world is closing in... Before
it got dark, you could only see 200m ahead. We are
travelling pretty fast too so it can be daunting but
we are not expecting any ice here, although the sea
temperature has gone down to 6 degrees..."
Latest update from Ellen during conference call.
ANOTHER 450+ MILE 24HR RUN 30 Dec 2004 -
09:41
The fast conditions continue in good 25+ knot
north-westerly breeze putting B&Q over 2 days
ahead of Joyon's time... See Day 33 full story
below...
COMMANDERS WEATHER 30 Dec 2004 - 07:14
See below weather analysis from Commanders' Weather
based in the US... They expect the good, NW breeze
to continue for up to another 36 hours but the huge
patch of light wind off New Zealand may force
B&Q much further south than anticipated....
TSUNAMI NOTE 30 Dec 2004 - 06:19
Repeat of previous posting, as still lots of
questions coming in on this one - a Tsunami is
usually not even noticeable in open ocean, as it is
a surge rather than a wave. An increase in water
depth of 8 metres, when in 3000 metres has no effect
- fortunately for the sailors out there. It is only
near land that it can have such devastating and
terrible consequences.
UNDER THE SEA...MORE FROM ELLEN CALL 30 Dec
2004 - 05:47
Ellen 'We’re just going over a seamount, 1600
metres of depth from 3200 metres. I find all that
stuff fascinating. We know so little about the ocean
floor....What else to report....we’re 28 knots
right now, nice, and earlier did 32.29 not bad with
a wind speed of 28 knots, almost a record! I think
36 knots is the fastest so far on B&Q.'
ELLEN CALL: WE'RE SMOKIN' 30 Dec 2004 - 05:42
'Good run, averaging over 20 knots at 110, we’re
smokin’...put staysail down and swapped to Solent
to go deeper and further south,and I looked at the
halyard [Kevlar rope holding sail up] only two
strands left, lucky we were downwind. If it had
parted the halyard would have ended up in the mast,
felt very lucky to have spotted it in time...'.
Ellen back on form-'I feel on top of things, even in
the bad stuff, I kept checking, kept problem
solving, never putting things off, I'm better at
this now'
ANOTHER 450 MILE DAY, AND 2 DAYS AHEAD FOR 1ST
TIME 30 Dec 2004 - 05:00
The sun is soon set for Ellen, (if there was any
sun), its still Southern Ocean grey out there.. The
pace continues relentlessly, with B&Q's average
24 hour distance still above 450 miles, only 30
short of the outright monohull solo 24 hour record
to keep it in perspective. 2 days (5% only) ahead.
Commanders' latest forecast in brief - 'lots of wind
to continue for next 36 hours (25 to 35 knots, 30
sustained), seastate to subside slowly'. Tricky
stuff ahead for NZ...forced deep south for now...
LATEST NEWS SIGNING-OFF 29 Dec 2004 - 20:48
No real change to forecast through to Friday evening
with consistent NW breeze but problem on the horizon
- this in from Commanders: 'Significant changes to
GFS Model concerning ridge /high. If correct you
will need to route south to 53-54s.' Forcing Ellen
further south to avoid the light wind zone but her
objective will be to get back to the north to pass
to the west of Campbell Island (south of NZ) to
avoid the ice zone south-east of NZ... Latest News
signing off until tomorrow...
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LINKS
TO OTHER SITES ON THIS STORY:
Vendee
Globe: Jourdain Reaches Hobart; Leaders Take on the
Pacific
Ellen
MacArthur Sets Solo Record To Cape of Good Hope
Vendee
Globe: Roland Jourdain Devastated by Keel Damage
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ELLEN MACARTHUR -
SOLO NAVIGATION RECORD ATTEMPT
