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February 12, 2007
A New Routing
LOCATION: Arabian Sea Crossing
Day: 13
SEE WHERE WE ARE!
Longitude: N:16°96435
Latitude: E: 066°37268
Heading: 210°M
Wind: westerly, force 1
Miles from Mumbai: 423
Miles to Djibouti: 1,337
Now that we have fresh water aboard and even managing to coax a good gallon a day out of one of the handpump operated watermakers (the 35 Survivor, held together with strips cut from the cooking pot lid), our priorities have shifted to the next problem in line which is actually making forward progress. Whether we are experiencing a seasonal anomaly to be expected for this time of year, or some larger scale disruption attributable to global weather change, the bottom line is that for the past 7-8 days we have been pedaling against a very stubborn westerly breeze that has slowed our westwards progress to a crawl. Even with toiling around the clock in tight 2.5 hour shifts in the daylight hours and 3 hour shifts at night we are only able to clear between 20-25 nauticals every 24 hours. The planned mileage for the voyage was an average of more around 45 miles per day with two pairs of leg on board.
The problem appears to lie with a region of weak high pressure lying in an east-west position immediately to the west of our current position and south of the Arabian peninsular. What we've essentially been trying to do this past week is punch through the eastern edge of the high and through the middle of it, but with only 0.3 of a horsepower at our disposal for the engine this is proving brutally hard on the knees and with little reward to show for it. For this reason we have a new plan of action which will hopefully still keep us north of the island of Suqutra and remainder of the horn area which is well known for piracy. We'll drop down to around 15 degrees north from our current latitude of 18 degrees and try and use the more predominant northeasterly and easterly winds in that region to slip underneath the high with better mileage than we've been getting. Then before reaching the renowned island of Suqutra we'll head northwest again to rendezvous with our original route just south of the Yemen coast, and try and maintain the minimum recommended clearance of 150 miles from the Somali coast to avoid any unwanted visitors.
We are beginning to develop our anti-pirate stragegy. Nudity and huge beards will be a must of course, to fool them into thinking we're barking mad (shouldn't be too difficult by that point in the voyage). Plus daubing our faces with the remains of the marmite might make them think twice about coming aboard. My only worry however is that they might feel like they're putting us out of our misery by shooting us anyway.
jason
Posted on February 12, 2007 12:55 PM