Shakeup Coming?

My parents and sister sent an email this morning wishing me a Happy Birthday. They asked “What flavor birthday cake will you have on board? Can they make that in freeze dried? If not, will anything else take the place of your favorite Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake log?”

No.

I would do anything for a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake log roll right now.

Someone reading this blog should, immediately, go out to get one and write me a detailed description so that I can live vicariously. Since we left Alicante we’ve been eating freeze-drieds. We have three (three) varieties: Chili con Carne, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chicken Tikka with Rice. We have three servings of each per day. On Wednesday, spaghetti bolognaise popped up in the daily food bag and there was absolute euphoria on board, having a new flavor. The crew sang Happy Birthday to me early this morning, which was followed up with a special treat: Freeze dried custard with blue berries.Tasty but not quite up to par with a nice thick slice of, you know.

Meanwhile, there's 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.

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, and for now it is building. By evening, however, the daytime 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 will yield winds that are sort of helicopterish; that is, in the middle of the cloud the wind will be falling out of the sky; 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 northeasterly gradient wind will be canceled by the southerly wind that the cloud produces. Or, perhaps, the cloud could build so much pressue that we will be sailing upwind in a southerly as it passes. I’m waiting for the 1800 GMT and 0000 GMT weather forecasts to see how this cell moves and changes.

How does this 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; the new wind will fill from there. Fortunately we have a great eastward position on the fleet and are bow forward of everyone except Puma and Ericsson 4. I think there will be a big shake up in the leader board after this cell passes.

Matt out