We’re now more than two days into our giant detour to the southeast. For the most part, the wind has cooperated – we’ve had really nice sailing as we track down the extreme southeast fringe of the low pressure system.
When we first made the decision to try to skirt around the bottom of this low, we needed to know which way to head. To do that, we tried to determine a track that would keep us in good wind for keeping the boat moving, keep us out of the no-wind area in the center of the low, and give us the most favorable angle on the wind once we sailed around the bottom of the low. And because the low is moving steadily south, we needed to pick a course that would accomplish all of these goals not now, but a few days in the future.
To do that, we used the two weather models that we download via our satellite connection to pick a point to sail towards. Amazingly enough, we’ve only had to make one minor course correction from our original choice over the past three days – both of the weather models are that good in the near term.
Of course, the weather is probably easier to forecast when the entire North Atlantic is dominated by a single weather feature – this low is a giant spinning disc about 750nm in diameter, which is almost half the distance from Bermuda to the Azores. But even talking that into account, the forecasts have been amazingly accurate so far.
We’re hoping that holds true when we get into the stronger winds and upwind sailing on the east side of the low.
Alls well aboard Madrone.
Day Seven
161nm
34 13.2N 45 34.1W
