Evanston: 25 meter waves and two knots
Evanston: 25 meter waves and two knots
I was surprised to read Robin Knox-Johnson quoted: “One of the biggest challenges he'll face is when he's coming up against these massive 25 meter waves in the Southern Ocean.”
Sir Robin knows better than that. I am not saying that there has never been nor never will be a 25 meter/82 foot wave in the Southern Ocean; but on three voyages totaling more six months south of 40º in which I experienced Force Twelve storms more than a half dozen times, I never saw a wave anywhere near 25 meters high; and I don’t recall that Knox-Johnson claimed to have done so either on his non-stop round the world voyage, which was mistakenly reported in the article as making him “the first person to sail around the world.” Sic. And sick.
I don’t know why Sir Robin feels the need to pander to the media and the public when the reality of the Southern Ocean is quite enough.
A 25 meter wave would be a freak, not the norm. I suggest that perhaps no one has ever seen such a wave from a small boat. Or if they did, it was the last thing they saw.
I’m on record as preferring to understate than over. I think the biggest waves I’ve ever seen were perhaps 30’ to 35’. A breaking 30’ wave is quite big enough.
The Knox-Johnson quote was from an article about a proposed trip around the world non-stop in a 10’ boat. A reader, Jim, sent me the link for which I thank him. I had known of this trip before, but not that it was intended to be non-stop. I have deliberately not used the words ‘voyage’ and ‘sailor’ because in another article, when the man who wants to make it was asked if his average speed will be four knots, replied, “Oh, no. Nothing like that. Perhaps two knots.” Two knots is boring. A two knot average is not sailing.
Anyone who knows the world’s currents knows that if you put something in the water in many places and it stays afloat it will cross an ocean. A bottle in the Gulf Stream off Florida has a good chance of ending up in Europe. Another off north Africa may eventually bob in the Caribbean. And anything in the Southern Ocean will keep on going east indefinitely. All probably averaging at least a knot.
When CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE pitch-poled west of Fiji, I averaged a knot drifting northwest in a 9’ inflatable tied to the swamped yawl, which was a pretty effective drogue. Had I cut the inflatable free, I would have averaged more than two knots.
CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE sailing did average about four knots and often more, with best noon to noon runs of more than 145 miles.
During my twenty-six hour swim after sinking RESURGAM I averaged five knots with no boat at all. I’m a good swimmer, but not that good. I was carried by the Gulf Stream.
Sails down, with seven to eight knots of wind behind her, the Torqeedo in neutral, GANNET makes 1.8 knots as she approaches her slip in San Diego. This is much faster than I like, but I have learned that she weighs so little that when I turn her bow into the wind, she stops.
So if Sven makes this trip, non-stop or otherwise, it will say something about endurance, tenacity, and logistics--I note that he apparently does not know of Kindles and plans on carrying four hundred books. But it will say nothing about sailing. Two knots is, at most, a controlled drift.
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The lovely photo above was not taken by me, though I would have been proud to have done so; but by a man I do not know, Andy Fishkind. It was forwarded by Roger, a friend in South Carolina. The catboat is Andy’s; Roger’s catamaran is on the other side of the dock. To my eye--and that expression happens in my case to be precisely accurate--the photo looks like a Winslow Homer watercolor. I like it a lot. I thank Andy for permission to share it with you and Roger for sending it.
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I have a couple of windows open. In Chicago. In December.
As many of you know, it reached 71ºF/21.6ºC here yesterday, only the third 70º December day on record. We were warmer than San Diego. I am not tempted to move GANNET back.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012