Saturday 18 October 15:35
Delta Lloyd – Matt Gregory (navigator)
My parents and my sister sent an email to the boat this morning wishing me a Happy Birthday. As part of their email they asked: “What flavor birthday cake will you have on board? Can they make that in freeze dried form? If not, will anything else take place of your favorite Baskin Robins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake log?”
I would do anything for a Baskin Robbing ice cream cake log roll right now. I think that someone reading this blog should, immediately, go out to get one and then write me an email with a detailed description of it’s fabulousness so that I can live vicariously through you.
For the past week we’ve been eating freeze dry food. We only have 3 regular varieties: Chili con Carne, Sweet and Sour Chicken and Chicken Tikka with Rice.
We have three servings of each of these per day. On Wednesday spaghetti bolognaise popped up in the daily food bag and it was absolute euphoria on board at having a new flavor.
As a special Birthday treat the crew all sang Happy Birthday to me early this morning, which was followed up with a special treat; Freeze dried custard with blue berries. It was tasty but not quite up to par with a nice thick slice of Baskin Robbins cake…aha, a slice of “heaven”
Meanwhile, there is still a race going on. We are just about to enter the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone, otherwise known as the Doldrums. This is an area between the Northern and Southern hemisphere’s easterly trade winds. It is an area known for light winds, squalls and, generally, difficult sailing conditions. Right now we are headed right for a very large convection cell. This cloud is about 75 miles in diameter and depicted in the screen shot 250 miles to our southeast:
The cell is moving to the west at, just about, the same speed that we are traveling south. Right now the cell is building, but by evening time the day time heat convection that is fueling its growth should be reduced and the moist air, suspended at high altitudes, will start to fall.
The moisture in the cloud will condense into rain. This effect will cause winds like a helicopter; in the middle of the cloud the wind will be falling out of the sky and towards the edges the winds will radiate outwards. The fleet should be positioned to the North of the cell when it passes.
This means that the north easterly gradient wind will be canceled by the southerly wind that the cloud produces….or, perhaps, the cloud could make so much wind that we will be sailing upwind in a southerly breeze as it passes.
I’m waiting for the 1800 GMT and 0000 GMT weather forecasts to see how this cell moves and changes. For how this will play into our 24 hour strategy: It is impossible to get in front of the cell, so our escape back into the easterly gradient winds is to go east when the cell arrives since that’s where the new wind will fill from.
Fortunately we have a great eastward position on the fleet and are bow forward of everyone except for Puma and Ericsson 4. There will be a big shake up in the leader board after this cell passes the fleet. Hopefully we can take advantage of it better that the other guys.