Able Was I Ere I Sailed into the Saint Helena High

As the VOR fleet sails south past Brazil a key decision is how close to hug the coast. Vestas, which previously made the gutsy call of splitting to the east of the fleet in the doldrums, now appears to have made another gutsy call. In the past 12 hours they’ve cut well to the inshore side of the two leaders. It puts them farther from the finish in Cape Town, but if it means they sail in stronger wind it could be worth it.

The big decision coming up is how to cross the Saint Helena High, that big dark patch of low winds in the forecast map above. Once the boats are south of it and into the westerlies of the Roaring Forties they’re going to be gone. Did you see that photo of SCA surfing at 30 knots I posted last night? They’re going to be doing that, except they’ll be doing it while surfing the huge waves that roll up from the Southern Ocean. It’s going to be wild, probably some of the hairiest sailing they’ll do until they dive deep into the Southern Ocean in Leg 5.

But first there’s that Saint Helena High to get across. It’s named after the remote South Atlantic Island where Napolean was sent to live out his life after he escaped from Elba and ruled for the Hundred Days. I’ve wondered what it must have been like for him there, so isolated, while the events of the world passed him by.

Any VOR racers who make the wrong call cutting across the high are going to get a chance to know how he felt. They’ll be sitting with no wind while the rest of the fleet turns the corner and takes off.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/100924850656.