2002 – 2003

Ocean Planet in the Around Alone – Update
Tuesday, April 29, 2003 1200gmt
Position 31 10 N 64 16 W

Hi all,

AARRRGGGGHHHHH! As you might have noticed by our position, we have hardly moved in the last two position reports. On the night before last, I successfully cut through a front to get the new wind on the other side, which is as good as I could hope for given my position relative to the front. Simone was farther to the northeast which allowed him to sort of get by the right side of a slightly lower pressure center in the trough, putting him further north and ahead, but not out of reach if I could get the new NE wind first….

Yesterday the wind lightly filled from the WNW just as it was supposed to, and slowly clocked around so that I could tack and sail a good course on starboard. A position report after going upwind for a while showed I was gaining on Simone….all according to plan. The wind continued to clock a bit more and was scheduled to increase late in the day according to THREE different weather models that were in agreement, which is rare.

But they were wrong of course, things changed, and instead of increasing the wind shut down completely. I hoped it was a temporary glitch…..but after several hours I downloaded a new weather “grib” file and…surprise! Nice rotten, pesky little weak low crept up from behind and sucked the wind dry. I’m stuck! Brad is too, and we are both going insane. Or, more insane, that is.

This looks bad. Simone will stretch out (then he’ll park, too), and of course Thierry and Emma are roaring up from behind while we all sit here. Looks like the weather has a real sense of humor as it will likely squish us all to together then torture me with a reach to the finish where I’ll get walloped by the wide boats…what to do?

Go swimmin’, that’s what. While we were drifting around this morning, I took a few shots..

Hoping for wind,
Bruce and Ocean Planet