“Just to give you brief update after the night. It is early morning here and we negotiated pretty heavy and powerful weather all night. The wind was gusting up to 50 knots. According to the forecast we are in the wing of a depression that centres deep South, but we only had 12 hours of gale. That’s the advantage to being up north – yes, we add more miles but reduce the chances of being hit by severe weather for a prolonged period. It was even exciting to see the storm come and go from the cockpit of my big and strong boat knowing that it will only last a short period. It would be a completely different feeling if I knew that we are in 3 days of storm. Here in the Southern Ocean it’s not the force of the wind that counts but the period of time it is blowing across the vast and uninterrupted surface creating dangerous conditions.
All is well on board and as Bob Williams said: “Fedor hug the @@apos@@outside rail@@apos@@ of the racecourse (45S)”. We are sailing alongside the Outside Lane and with the wind swinging from NW to SW we leave plenty of zigzags on the chart. I’m a bit concerned for NNE winds forecast for March 30. I hope it will stay more North rather than East. I have limited options in the current circumstances: sail north and cross the Racetrack boundary or sail south towards the iceberg zone. We will see how things develop. Regards, Fedor”
Forecast from Lee Bruce:
“As Fedor mentioned, the frontal shift will cause the wind to back, but the residual NW waves will make conditions difficult. The wind should already be changing, and although it will be strong, the worst will stay to Fedor’s southeast, as the low intensifies but moves south eastward away from him”.
He still should try to get in as much northing as possible, because the forecast has another 24+hrs worth of N/NNW wind, starting about 30/00Z.
29th March 08 /0000 UTC: W 35 gusting 45-50; squalls; backing and gradually weakening.
29th March 08 /0600 UTC: WSW 30-35, becoming WSW 20-25 knots.
29th March 08 /12oo UTC: W 20-25 knots.