01.12.2004
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DAY 4: STRESSED ELLEN ON BOARD B&Q AND CANARY ISLANDS ON THE HORIZON...
KEY DATA AFTER 4 DAYS 7 HOURS: 1 hours 58 minutes ahead of Joyon
(data communicated by Thrane MiniC via BT YAHOO!)
Lat/Long: 29 49 N / 016 50 W (80nm NE of Canary Islands)
Average Boat speed: 20 knots (heading SW)
True Wind speed: 18 knots, unstable 5-25 knots for last 2 hours
Distance sailed so far: 1375 miles.
Update based on data recorded at 1510 GMT...check http://www.teamellen.com for the latest data updated hourly...
IN BRIEF:
* HIGHS AND LOWS OF SOLO RECORD ATTEMPTS...after big night in 35-40 knots of wind and rough seas, Ellen pushes ahead of the record..."I've been surfing at speeds between 16 and 32 knots [almost 38 miles an hour]! We've got 35 to 45 knots, and the seastate is just ****** huge..."
* TODAY UNStable CONDITIONS AND EXTREME FLUCTUATIONS IN THE BREEZE - from 5 knots to 25 knots in last couple of hours - demand constant attention on deck trimming the sails, turning an over-tired Ellen into stress ball...
* QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Dry mouth...not eating properly yet...not totally got my head in to this..." (see below)
* B&Q PASSES ISLAND OF MADEIRA IN EARLY HOURS OF THIS MORNING keeping east and clear of the wind shadow ... NEXT LANDMARK IS THE CANARY ISLANDS 80 miles south west, hoping to pass to west of the islands at approximately 1800 GMT tonight...
* OPTIMUM ROUTING FROM CANARIES...get as quickly as possible to 27-28N/20-21W and choice of gybing for breeze to the south or stay on starboard and set-up for one gybe to the Equator, taking the westerly option (ie staying on starboard) is the favoured choice for now...
* WHERE WAS JOYON AT THIS STAGE? Joyon was approx 125 miles east of Ellen's track - forced by the weather to stay east, Joyon at one stage ended up just 20 miles off the North African coast. Joyon managed to push south west finding favourable Trade Winds to reach the Equator in an exceptional time of 9 days, 8 hours and 23 minutes...
INTERESTING FACT: In the 2000 Vendée Globe, it took Ellen 5 days, 10 hours to reach the latitude south of the Canaries on her 60ft monohull, in the 75ft trimaran it has taken just 72 hours!
ELLEN CALL - 1000 GMT:
Stressed Ellen this morning as breeze activity under cloud mass made for difficult conditions. A couple of hours later, Ellen was sailing in more consistent breeze - the highs and lows of solo sailing...
"I'm nervous still, wind all over the place, just shifted through 120 degrees - it's just in the clouds but it shouldn't be like this. Breeze is due to die but, until I can get out of this cloud mass, its going to be like this...its gone from 8 knots to 25 knots and that makes it very hard onboard. We are heading all over the place...not good for our positioning on the Canary Islands ahead of us. Right now our boat speed is just 8 knots and I'm heading for the islands. Can't leave the boat for 5 minutes without something happening. Hope it's going to stablise soon.
Dry mouth, not eating properly yet and not totally got my head in to this. Going to try and fix the leak on the fresh water tank to make myself feel happier! Problem is that with the wind shifting all the time, I don't want to get stuck down below, as I keep having to rush on deck to trim the sheets."
WEATHER ANALYSIS FROM COMMANDERS' WEATHER:
From: Commanders' Weather Corp 0600UTC Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Low pressure is moving away and as we continue SSW, flow relaxes and winds will become substantially lighter. Wind speeds will drop off to 10-18 kts during the day on Wed. Wind direction will be indexly NNW early then tending more N. Should have slowly diminishing seas out there as well.
Pretty good wind angle today, so should make reasonably good mileage, even with the wind coming down. Will be heading in a more SW direction today as the wind clocks. High pressure around 45n/27w will ridge southward towards 35n during the next 36 hours. Goal is stay in best breeze and also stay far enough south of the high - our rough aim will be around 27-28n/20-22w
Wind will become NE and be fairly light, 10-16 kts for part of Thurs, then we should get a little stronger breeze Thurs night and Fri (15-22 kts)
Wind directions are TRUE, wind speed in knots, time is UTC
Wednesday, Dec 1
1800: 350-020/11-17, still large oscillations while in the clouds and clouds
won't clear until 28 30N or mid to late evening
Cloudy to partly cloudy, still a squally shower or 3. Wind pressure will be the type that drops out of the sky, so blue sky areas and leading edge of shower could see gusts to 20-24 kts. Partly cloudy to fair after midnight. Seas slowly diminishing to 5-8 feet tonight.
Thursday, Dec 2
0000: 350-020/11-17
0600: 010-040/10-16
1200: 020-050/11-17, near 28N/22W
1800: 030-050/12-17
Partly cloudy to fair Thu and Fri. Seas 4-7 feet
http://www.commandersweather.com
Click here for further information on Sailing Speed Records http://www.sailspeedrecords.com and here for information on Ellen's campaign http://www.teamellen.com
For further information, please contact Offshore Challenges:
Lou Newlands or Lucy Harwood
T: +44 (0)870 063 0210
E: lou@offshorechallenges.com or lucy@offshorechallenges.com
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B&Q has over 350 stores in the UK, China and Taiwan and employs about 40,000 people. With its sister DIY company Castorama which has stores in France, Italy and Poland, B&Q is the biggest DIY retailer in Europe and third biggest in the world.
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