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What a homecoming! After a smooth passage through the doldrums, and barely a beat to windward against north-east trades, Club Med landed on the right side of a massive Atlantic low - positioned unusually far south. Now the big blue cat is reaching towards Gibralter, 1000 miles ahead of Innovation Explorer ... February 28, 2001 It was big. Very big. And it made more than a few navigators scratch their heads in amazement. When a massive low began to form mid Atlantic on February 25, all eyes aboard Club Med and Innovation Explorer turned to its south-east perimetre and tried to judge when they would encounter its favourable winds. According to Elena Caputo, crew aboard Innovation Explorer, North Atlantic weather had never looked so different: February 25: "Both Roger and Skip are amazed at the effects of this huge low pressure which is spanning the whole North Atlantic and radically changing the wind patterns of this area. They have never seen a south easterly in the NE trades during all their Whitbread years! Innovation Explorer is only at 6 degrees north and the low is still centered around 33 degrees north, but the effects are already felt as the wind is slowly twisting. The big depression seems to be a huge weather system and its effects in the next few days are unpredictable. We may find ourselves passing through the Straits of Gibraltar with 50 knots of wind and who knows how mainland Europe could be affected!" Well, Europe has been spared - at least the initial onslaught. This monster system stalled soon after birth, swirling in place for much of 48 hours. And despite its huge size - more than 1500 miles across - winds rarely topped 50 knots. Winds in the south-east quadrant, where skippers might expect the strongest gusts, averaged in the 30 knot range according to quickscat images and failed to affect waters further afield as much as navigators Mike Quilter or Roger Nilson would have liked! While winds were from the south-east, giving Club Med the rare opportunity to broad reach towards the Straits of Gibralter, the big blue cat would flirt with high pressure west of the Canary Islands for more than three days before collecting the kind of horsepower this storm had advertised! Glum mood aboard Innovation Explorer Innovation Explorer, meanwhile, slips further and further astern - losing 300 miles in three days as she battles with light winds in high pressure squashed between the mid-Atlantic low and the doldrums. Loick Peyron, Skip Novak, Roger Nilson and crew should collect favourable winds of decent strength about the same time as Club Med, based on the last position report, but are unlikely to reel in any more miles before the finish at Marseilles. Skip Novak aboard Innovation Explorer, February 27: “We are still trying to break through the front to try to get free from the effects of the high pressure. We are still confident and we think we should be able to manage it tomorrow during the day. Roger is doing a lot of work on the Internet to get hold of as much data to work with as possible.
“One problem arises from the fact that the low is very far south –
which is unusual – and there are no existing models from which to predict
what will happen in the coming hours and days.”
“We are going to be best runners-up. It’s quite a boring time and everyone is kicking their heels.” Angry horn Meanwhile, Team Adventure is approaching the horn in 17 knots of wind from the north west. Their boat speed is just 19 knots - which says a lot about disturbed sea conditions. If the sea was smoother, Cam Lewis would be pushing his maxi cat into the high 20 knot range. Warta Polpharma, 500 miles astern, has been battling heavy sea conditions since February 21 - at one point sailing under bare poles. Models point to a wicked low forming on top of the Polish cat as she approaches the horn- making her passage out of the Southern Ocean one to remember! Poor Tony! Team Legato must have stepped on a black cat. With an enforced layover in Wellington to repair injured crew, they re-entered the southern ocean only to find themselves in an all-too familiar situation: No frickin' wind! They are almost 3000 miles astern of Team Adventure. © Jamie Brown/weather-wise.com 2001 North Atlantic in infra-red,
animated Images courtesy of Intellicast From its sudden inception on February 25, this monster low developed quickly, to encompass much of the mid North Atlantic. It looked big enough to wipe out modern European civilization - or so it seemed to some of the crew aboard Innovation Explorer. But, in fact, the jet stream above conspired to keep it trapped and it stalled in position before dissolving into a multi-centred low and slowly moving east. By rights Club Med should have benefited from this monster pressure system sooner, being well-placed on its south-eastern flank. Instead it flirted with high pressure west of the Canaries as the low stagnated. Three days after its formation, late on the 28th, westerlies associated with the dissolving low reached far enough into the east Atlantic to benefit Club Med - and at the same time Innovation Explorer. One thing's for sure ... Surf's up along the coast of Morocco! North Atlantic jet stream winds,
animated In the first frames of this animated sequence the jet stream, traveling east over New England and the Canadian Maritimes, takes a dog-leg, as it bends sharply to the north, trapping in place the emerging low and a high pressure zone to its west. The pressure gradient between the two systems is intense - 50 knots at the surface and upwards of 130 knots at 500hPa and 300hPa. This intense and cold north-west wind feeds the storm - developing over warmer waters - from the surface upwards, causing massive rising of moisture and cloud formation. North Atlantic water vapor (jet
stream) winds Image courtesy of Tropical Cyclones
group, This chart shows winds at 500hPa (green) and 300hPa (yellow) flowing into the heart of this emerging low at a rapid rate. One flag equals 50 knots and we are seeing upwards of 130 knots flowing from the north-west. At jet level and above, 200hPa (blue), winds are flowing towards the north at up to 60 knots, venting moisture out of the heart of the low and allowing more cloud to rise and condense. North Atlantic mid-level winds Image courtesy of Tropical Cyclones
group, 50 knots of wind just 1000m above the surface (green barbs) emphasised by typical squall clouds to the west of the low's emerging centre. North Atlantic mid-level winds Image courtesy of NOAA. Despite this storm's massive size, and the copious amounts of precipitation it dumped on the open ocean, winds around its perimetre were less than one would expect - in the order of 30 knots. This quickscat image shows surface winds up to 50 knots, but no more, and only in the storm's north-east quadrant. Synoptic situation and fleet
positions Any normal punter would have laid money of Club Med's ability to grab hold of the winds being sucked into this low and ride them all the way through the Straits of Gibralter within a couple of days. Here she was sailing on a broad reach in 10.5 knots of south-east wind doing 23.7 knots over ground. More importantly, it seemed a sure bet that winds would come around to the south-west and increase. It seemed from this position report that the big blue maxicat was home and hosed ... Synoptic situation and fleet
positions ... 24 hours later and the low has refused to move to the east, stalling. Club Med is slipping into high pressure off the North African coast. Here she is reaching in 9.3 knot of breeze from the south-east doing 14.8 knots of boatspeed. Synoptic situation and fleet
positions At the latest position report, Club Med has picked up south-southwest winds at 13 knots. The favourable slant and extra wind speed has brought her boat speed up to 20.5 knots. Picture courtesy of Virtual Spectator. Five day wind and synoptic
forecast Image courtesy of NOAA. The end result of this system will be westerly winds increasing as the Club Med and innovation Explorer approach the Mediterranean and will indeed propel them home. Five day wind and synoptic
forecast NOAA's model came close to predicting the big mid-Atlantic low, but placed it further to the north-west. More great reading: Catch up on all the past action in our race archive. Here it from the horse's mouth at race headquarters. re-live the action between the world's toughest solo skippers in the Vendee Globe. Re-live the Sydney to Hobart yacht race! Break ice in the Ross Sea! Re-live Bernard Stamm's record-breaking Atlantic crossing |
