JV Jumble II–Cheyenne Is About To Put the Pedal Down…: Almost half a world away, in the cold and wet, Steve Fossett’s Cheyenne has passed through a ridge of light airs (which dropped their Day 24 run to just over 400 miles) and is lining up in front of a fast-moving cold front. The pre-frontal winds are from the northwest, which allows Cheyenne to sail almost directly on course toward the next gate off Cape Leewin, about two days away, and also to line herself up with the big Southern Ocean swells. That means surfing, Baby! And this is the basic setup in which big mile days are possible in the Southern Ocean. Once the front passes over, the wind will shift to the southwest and the seas will become confused and dangerous to sail at high speed. So the key is to stay ahead of the front as long as possible, which will be quite a race because right now it is moving at 30 knots. Here’s navigator Adrienne Cahalan on the general strategy:

“We have settled down into a corridor of 50S now for this section of the Southern Ocean. 50S is the mean axis of the storm track and allows us to sail maximum east at the shortest longitudinal distance realistically possible. At 50S one degree of longitude is only about 38 miles whereas at 40S one degree of longitude is about 45 miles. So when we sail about 11-12 degrees of longitude each day being further south represents a net gain in distance of about 80 miles a day just by sailing at a lower longitude (the great circle route as opposed to rhumbline).

Weather wise however, we are limited by how far south we can go as the centres of the low pressure systems tend to sit around a mean position of about latitude 60S (also known as the circumpolar trough). If we get on the south side of a low pressure system we are into head winds, which is disastrous. In the South Pacific Ocean we will sail at a little lower latitude at around 53-54S to stay in the centre of the storm track. We will also leave our approach to the Horn hich is at 56-57S, until the last minute if possible.

So as the barometer continues to drop we prepare for a couple of days of fast sailing in probably the roughest conditions yet. The next 2 days and into next weekend we may see 30-40kts which we can not escape by diving north so it will be important to keep it all together and the boat in one piece.”

If Adrienne, who’s Australian, sounds like she knows what she is talking about, she does. She’s the top woman ocean racing navigator in the world–in addition to being a great person–and just completed an advanced degree in meteorology. Her thesis? Southern Ocean weather.

Cheyenne is now 1206 miles ahead of Orange 2002’s pace after 24 days at sea (chart here), and is probably going to stretch that further in the next few days. If the boat holds up we could see Cheyenne’s first 600 mile day of the voyage…..



Formal Dinner: “Eat up, boys, we’re going to surf this incoming depression all the way past Australia….”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

Leave a comment