Volvo Ocean Race - report from sailonline.org 24 Oct 2008
Well, I’ve passed the island of Fernando de Noranha, within hours of the first of the real Volvo boats - but they started a day later than the SailOnLine players did. Now for something completely different: a 3,400 mile beat to the finish in Capetown, starting in the trade winds but eventually meeting the hefty perturbations of the southern polar front. Deciding whether to go south and cross the Atlantic later, or go east first, may turn out to have been more critical than deciding which side to go when crossing the doldrums.
Even the real boat navigators changed their minds, but I actually set out with the eastbound course in mind - then changed before it was too late. Let me explain.
The first few times I animated a five-day forecast, what I saw was a straightforward beat against the trade winds, until I reached an area of variable winds closer to the Cape. It would be slow, but predictable, and it wouldn’t need constant attention until the last few days. Going south from Fernando de Noranha, I saw a fast reach for the first half, but a rapid descent into the swirling vortices and dead spots of the south Atlantic depressions, all hurtling round the globe. Even allowing for the fact that the east-west distance down there was less than it appeared to be on the chart, it looked a long way to sail. The good winds were strong, but they occupied a smaller area than the bad or feeble winds. I would have to work and plan hard if I wanted to make good use of this route, and initially I was prepared to bet that enough people would fail for me to do reasonably well by following the eastern route.
It took a day and a half (during which I climbed steadily up the leaderboard as I tacked on windshifts every six hours or so) for me to decide that this was a boring route to guaranteed mediocrity. I had also been reading informed comment in the reports on the real race, and began to believe I understood how to approach navigating the southerly course. As I saw it, the technique was:
“Head south as fast as you can, keeping an eye on the depressions as they race past in the lower latitudes. Try to anticipate well enough to catch a ride on one. When you fall off the back of it, go as fast as you can in the direction of the next one. And so forth, until you end up with everyone else in a huge flat patch outside Capetown.”
As the days go by, I’ll tell you where this strategy takes me. Whatever the end result, I’ll get some practice at open sea navigation and matching my pace to that of passing weather patterns. And it won’t be boring.
