2002

Ocean Planet Report
Thursday, November 14, 2002 1230gmt
Pos: 21 57S, 29 18W Heading 200T @ 10-11kts

Still moving nicely to the south in very nice conditions. Some squalls with big windshifts but nothing too dramatic. If you wind up on the wrong side of a rain downpour the wind temporarily shuts down and waits for you to dump the water ballast in an attempt to keep moving. As soon as you do, of course, then you get hit with new wind, so you heel way over, then have to refill the tank and off we go again. But we may be screeching to a halt soon…

Bernard, Thierry, and Emma have arrived in Cape Town, and soon Graham will be there. Simone on Tiscali has installed Bernard’s spare mast and is on his way, but is far behind me with a long way to go. I wish him good conditions, I know the feeling!

Brad up ahead is parked in a high pressure zone that is moving west to east in front of me. There’s nothing he can do but sit and wait, but that’s the way sailing is. He has had conditions that favored being ahead when he made an early escape from the Doldrums, so sometimes it’s good to be ahead, and sometimes not so good!

Luckily for him there’s no real side road around this parking lot, so I’m just barreling down on him. The wind should fill in soon as the high moves east and merges with the main south Atlantic high. In fact, we may have some really fast conditions in a couple days. Since it was just a matter of time before catching Brad (easy for you to say), this could be a fun situation. Perhaps we’ll actually get to see each other and get some good pics.

I’ll keep you posted!
Bruce