31.03.2005
The bowl
It was around lunch, local time, on Wednesday that Brian Thompson and his team on Doha 2006 bounced back into the Northern Hemisphere leaving the autumn leaves behind and just in time to watch spring work it’s magic on a hemisphere that has suffered under a blanket of snow since the Qatari catamaran set sail almost two months ago. The equator bump was not the only bump the crew experienced. Since yesterday morning they have been sailing close hauled, pounding upwind in an uncomfortable seaway. They are ‘enjoying’ fabulous trade wind sailing on a turquoise ocean sparkling with whitecaps and laced with the froth from an occasional large rogue. It’s tedious and hot as they thread their way past two large atolls at the south end of the Maldives. At the 07:00 GMT poll on Thursday morning Doha 2006 was just east of the Maldive Islands on a course that parallels the stunning tropical archipelago. Had they been cruising Thompson and company could have dropped anchor, kitted up with diving gear, and spent a few hours exploring one of the most spectacular reefs on the planet. Instead the crew have been burning off nervous energy, brought on their rapid progress toward the finish, by playing rugby on the trampoline. Australian Paul Larsen, himself a rugby player, reported on the game in his daily log.
“The other thing to get thrown over the side recently was Jacques food bowl in a game of trampoline rugby where the ball (Jacques food bowl) got passed on to...no-one,” he wrote. The game play went something like this; 'Foxall breaks free from the galley and fires off a long pass cross field to Vincent in the mast pit. Vincent looks further cross field and fires a low pass to Delbarre near the port cuddy. Delbarre gets a hand to it and taps on to... the fresh air between the port life lines... Uh-oh.' We watched it bob away at 12-13 knots all a little speechless for a while.” The disappearing food bowl was a stark reminder that plastic pollutes. Since leaving Doha the crew have stashed all non-perishable garbage below with the intent on disposing of it properly once the arrive back in Qatar. The only trace of their passage around the world is to be the bubbles trickling in their wake, not signs of human consumption, and up until the disappearing bowl their wake had been clean. The bowl did, however, spark a conversation about the fate of the bowl as resident marine biologist (and navigator) Will Oxley described in his daily log. “The prevailing current in that part of the Indian Ocean is the South Equatorial Current which flows west at between 0.5 and 1 knots,” he wrote. “It branches north as it approaches the African Coast, a journey of over 2 000 nautical miles. This means a voyage time of around 100 days if there is not too many interruptions (e.g. cyclones, collisions with islands, hungry sharks). One possible landing point for the bowl would be the famine ravaged and war torn Somalia coast (what irony).”
In the early 80s Will Oxley did some work in the Coral Sea with two prominent Ichthyologists (fish scientists) studying the lives of larval fishes in mid ocean. Aside from the drift of the bowl, Oxley pondered how the bowl would turn from a simple eating dish to a more complex marine ecosystem. “Algal (marine plant) spores would settle on the surface of the bowl within 10 days or so and create a fine green film of slime,” he wrote. “Drifting barnacle larvae might bump into the bowl and encouraged by the algal growth choose the bowl as a useful place to settle. Slowly other critters, with a lifecycle that includes some time drifting on the ocean waves, would join the barnacles and the algae. Crabs and possibly even a coral might join the party. The bowl will be getting heavier now and less influenced by wind waves and more by the ocean currents. Because the lid was on and the bowl was empty it has plenty of buoyancy and is in no danger of sinking. However it no longer spins around but stays in the column in one orientation and this encourages further growth on that side. Along come the larval fish. Perhaps they were underneath a piece of driftwood which bumped into the bowl and they decided to change homes or perhaps as the bowl passed the Seychelles the larval fish hooked a ride while they were out looking for greener pastures (another reef). It seems that some larval fish can 'hear' the sounds of a coral reef and actively swim at speeds of 1-3 knots towards the noise to find a home. Seems amazing for a fish perhaps only a few centimetres long. This whole ecosystem would then bob along until finally it washes up on the African coast where those who are able to depart depart, and the others perish. Maybe a soldier in Mogadishu, seeking a respite from his duties, is walking along the beach and finds the bowl and takes it back to base and cleans it up to use for his rations. So much for the bowl's fate.”
The upwind slog is likely to continue for another three days as they skirt a ridge of high pressure. They have now crossed their outbound track and by doing so essentially circumnavigated the world, however it’s only semantics; crossing the finish line in Doha is the real circumnavigation end and one that looms ever closer with each bump, splash and flying fish collision. At the 07:00 poll Doha 2006 was roughly 1,800 miles from the end of their voyage around the globe. Two thousand miles to the south Tony Bullimore and his crew on Daedalus are also bumping and grinding their way to the finish although the water cascading over the deck is most certainly not tropical. Their current position is still south of South Africa where the cold water of the Southern Ocean mixes with the warm Agulhas current to provide rich feeding grounds for marine life. For the multinational crew sailing on top of the water, rather than in it, the on board fare reindexs the same; Mountain House freeze-dried meals spiced up with whatever spices are left in the galley. For Tony and his team, the finish line is still a distant 4,550 miles and many more freeze dried meals away.
To read the rest of Will Oxley and Paul Larsen’s log and all the crew logs from Doha 2006 go to www.maxicatdoha.com.
To read all the logs from Daedalus go to www.teambullimore.com.
--- Brian Hancock brian.hancock@qisel.com
www.oryxquest.com
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