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Volvo Ocean Race Weather links for the Tasman Sea Routing notes for Leg Three: Sydney to Hobart and Hobart to Auckland Volvo Ocean Race contents page Updates: January 6: Assa Abloy leads all the way across the Tasman as complex low delivers a range of conditions December 30: Nail-biting finish as winds fade in Storm Bay December 28: Slow and smoky start belies wild weather further south Waterspout creates havoc for maxi yachts December 20: Early forecast calls for light air start to the Sydney to Hobart race on Boxing Day: Image courtesy of Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Swedish Volvo race entrant SEB battles to windward in 25-30 knots of south-west breeze along the NSW south coast. During her subsequent Bass Strait crossing, in identical conditions, SEB lost her rudder and retired to Eden for repairs. Assa Abloy leads all the January 4, 2002 With just 20 minutes lead time after the Hobart stop-over, Swedish entrant Assa Abloy improved on her marginal lead by heading north of the rhumb line. With the rest of the fleet to her south, it was clear that navigators and tacticions were divided on where to find the wind. Indeed the synoptic situation remained complex: A second large low was moving into the Tasman on a west-east track that had brought it close to Tasmania's southern shores. Like its predecessor that created havoc for the yachts on their trip south from Sydney, this one also affected a huge area. It was a 'complex' low, one large circulation with several low pressure centres, each one 'dumbelling' around the other, and each one bringing a new cold front with its associated wind shifts. Bushfires around Sydney and to its south would roar to hellish heights as westerly winds circulating around this new low dragged hot and dry conditions in from the red centre. Sydney would record a record low humidity of just 5 per cent and temperatures would soar into the low 40s. For the Volvo fleet heading east across the Tasman, the local synoptic situation within the grander scheme wreaked havoc on those trailing Assa Abloy. Illbruck afterguard Mark Christensen told race headquarters that a meso low created in the lee of Tasmania following an earlier cold front created some confusion. "Our models showed that after the front passed the first night out of Hobart it was bad to be north because of a small bubble low. In fact it was bad to be south because the low tracked further south than predicted," he said. "Even so if we had left Hobart about one hour earlier, we would have avoided the low by being a couple of miles further north and following Assa Abloy's track. There was a ninety degree shift in the breeze in a distance spanning less than six miles. The first boats out of Hobart slipped through that weather window setting the stage for the finishing order into Auckland." Out in the mid-Tasman, meanwhile, the Volvo Fleet had to contend with fog and light wind - as warm air circulating around the big low to their west was forced south by high pressure over New Zealand. An inversion layer created by cold ocean temperatures kept that warm air aloft and stable fog-bound conditions were the result. Eventually northerly winds preceding the new, large low filled in with gusto. "The first front after the Hobart pit stop passed over us at close to midnight," recalled Christensen. "In general it was mild, with the average wind gusting to just over 30 knots. The front itself shifted the wind 30 degrees and built to almost 40 knots (a fifteen knot increase) within a few seconds. Unfortunately we were caught and broached, and in the process blew apart one of our spinnakers beyond repair. We also broke all the battens in the main. Still we gybed quickly, got another sail up and were in third place at the next sched. With hindsight we would have been better off if we had not been so efficient and gybed an hour later." As the centre of the complex system caught up with the fleet and general wind flow veered to the north-west, the boat furthest north won the best slant to Cape Reinga. As those northerlies gusted into the high 30s, it was clear that Assa Abloy had made the right decision. Northerlies veered to the north-east as Assa Abloy approached the northern tip of NZ's North Island. At the time a new low pressure centre - part of the same complex synoptic low that had chased the fleet right across the Tasman - was forming south of Stewart Island. Attached to that new low was a deepening trough cum cold front, the northern extremity of which brushed Cape Reinga. First Assa Abloy fell into a light-air hole off the cape, and skipper Neil MacDonald and navigator, co-skipper Mark Rudiger saw their 66 mile lead whittled down to 16 as Grant Dalton and Roger Nilson's Amer Sports One crept up from behind. But then it was Amer Sports One's turn at praying to Neptune. Roger Nilson reported to race headquarters: "We lost the nice north-westerly wind almost totally four miles south-west from Cape Reinga and decided to go close to the corner, as it seemed to be more wind there than offshore. Had the bad luck to hit the foul tide at its worst moment, full moon and max setting 3.5 knots against us. With only six knots of wind straight on the nose from the north-east it looked bad. Hardly made any progress over ground, in spite of sailing as close as we dared, right into the infamous rocks just northwest of Reinga. Two and half hours felt like forever before we picked up a fresh breeze from north-northwest, just two miles north of Reinga." As north west winds filled in ahead of the trough/cold front the fleet enjoyed downwind run to Auckland, with Assa Abloy keeping 18 miles ahead of her rival. What makes the Swedish Team's win all the more respectful, is the fact that two crew were desperately ill, Jason Carrington with gut problems that sent him into shock days out of Hobart. Race veteran Magnus Olsson badly injured his back in a fall during the Sydney to Hobart leg and team doctor Klabbe Nylof had plenty on his plate. Thank goodness he had military medical experience! Meanwhile, a heckuva battle for third place was being fought all the way down the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. Illbruck's Christensen again relates the thrill: "Thirty miles from the finish Tyco was about two miles behind Illbruck, on the wrong gybe with no spinnaker up. We then concentrated on News Corp. Unfortunately the wind shifted and dropped and gave Tyco a better angle to the finish to claim third. "That left ourselves and News Corp to fight it out to the finish. For the next 20 miles we were never more than eight boat lengths apart. With less than a mile to go we were overlapped with News Corp. The light air around North Head trapped them and we managed to sneak away. A satisfying result if not a podium finish." It was the first time in this race that Illbruck failed to take first-place, a result which has boosted moral among the rest of the fleet! Djuice Dragons, meanwhile, struggled to catch up after choosing to stay south of the rest of the fleet. That route didn't pay dividends with light airs within the general westerly flow stopping the team cold, followed by strong northerly winds which left them too close hauled when aiming for Cape Reinga. SEB arrived soon after Djuice, after setting sail for Auckland from Eden after repairing their delaminated rudder. Officially they did not finish this leg. Amer Sports Too, meanwhile, arrived in Hobart under jury-rigged forestay and rudder damage as Assa Abloy was leaving. When it finally left for Auckland some 36 hours had elapsed. Needless to say, the girls were relegated to second-last, thanks only to SEB's rudder damage. No doubt all teams will be examining their rudders closely prior to the next big Southern Ocean leg around Cape Horn to Rio! © Jamie Brown/weathber-wise.com 2002 Nail-biting finish as winds December 30, 2001 After a typically difficult Bass Strait crossing, the leading yachts in the 57th Sydney to Hobart wrestled with light airs down the east coast of Tasmania before the wind faded completely in Storm Bay. Here, the affects of high pressure finally asserted themselves. For most of the race the Volvo 60 Illbruck set the pace but just 60 miles from the finish the fleet standings turned topsy-turvey as Assa Abloy sailed around the front-runners to grab line honours two days 20 hours and 30 minutes after the start. Maxi Nicorette finished second just 15 minutes later, a respectable placing after sailing for six hours without a mainsail during a fight with a waterspout late on the first day. But then, the maxi is 15 feet longer on the waterline. Why she didn’t win anyway points to the incredible competitive nature of the Volvo 60 yachts. The rest of the functioning Volvo fleet finished one after the other ahead of Brindabella, Line 7 (a Whitbread 60 from the 1997 race) and Bumblebee 5, Iain Murray’s 60 footer which will won the race on corrected time by a whopping three hours. Other handicap winners were previous winner Ninety-Seven, second, and Sid Fischer’s Ragamuffin third. A total of 15 yachts retired, most after the first night, but a few more off the NSW South Coast and in Bass Strait. One notable example was Grundig Xena, a modified Open 60, which suffered major bow delamination after punching into headwinds deep in the strait. Skipper Sean Langman reported bunks were being broken up and cushions used to stem the leaks as she turned tail for Eden. As an aside, Grundig made repairs, entered the Pittwater to Coff Harbour race on January 2 and came with two hours of breaking that course record! Back to the Hobart: Amongst the Volvo fleet, Team SEB retired to Eden with rudder delamination after Bass Strait on the wind proved too much. Tyco knows all about that after experiencing the same south-east of Cape Town last leg. And Amer Sports Too limped into Hobart after losing her forestay. Prepared to repair that minor problem and head for Auckland the girls discovered rudder damage after colliding with a shark and were forced to cool their heels before leaving Sunday night - 200 miles behind their male rivals. Despite these relatively minor hiccups, the standings of the Volvo 60s will surely rock the establishment - all that money spent on maxi yachts has seemingly failed to increase performance. While the Volvo fleet is certainly well-prepared, Line 7’s result with an older boat and mere mortals as crew, proves that less can be more. A look at the weather After the brush with that waterspout some six hours after the start, winds settled down to come from the S-SW at 20-25 knots along the NSW South Coast and right across Bass Strait, moderating as the leading yachts passed Flinders Island. Down the East Coast of Tasmania. High pressure moved over the race course and asserted its influence with winds six knots and less during the night of December 28, local time. Yachts behind the leaders had a very slow Bass Strait crossing, wallowing in left-over wind swell which certainly made for a change from last year! The front runners sailed either along the rhumb line or east of it, and appear to have avoided wind holes close to the coast, but after they rounded Tasman Island and entered Storm Bay early Saturday morning local time, the wind failed completely. Last year, by comparison, Nicorette was laid over on her ear during one of many frontal changes. This time the bay was glass. Until this point, Illbruck led the fleet with flair - avoiding that waterspout with masterful sailing - but a risky call by navigator Mark Rudiger aboard Assa Abloy saw his yacht literallyt sail around the fleet to take line honours. As the yachts in the middle of the pack touched the Tasmanian coast, they began to feel the affects the next synoptic system: A powerful low west of Tasmania with pressure down to 970mb at its centre. Initially forecast to pack stronger winds along its cold front, this system began to ‘dumbell’, with multiple lows rotating around each other as the storm approached the Tasman Sea. As the low pressure cells each rotated around the other, one cold front after another began to lash the Apple Isle. Had this system remained intact, its impact could have been far worse. Winds backed from light northerlies during Saturday night to 15 knot north-westerlies with fast, comfortable reaching in the lee of the island. Storm Bay, however, lived up to its name when a 40 knot change burst onto the scene early on December 29. For yacht B52, the change cold blast caused rigging damage, forcing them to limp into Hobart under storm jib. But they weren’t alone For Melbourne to Hobart winner Kontrol, skippered by another Peter Blake, the change also coincided with their arrival in Storm Bay. With their mainsail ripped to shreds the winner of this tough test crossed the line at Hobart, in the dark, under jib only. On to Auckland While the majority of Sydney to Hobart competitors will enjoy a raucous New Year’s celebration in this old whaling port, the Volvo fleet had to pack all their sight-seeing into three and a half hours: That was the length of their pit stop before racing onwards to Auckland. Assa Abloy left first about noon on the 28th under her big Code 0 followed by Amer Sports One, Djuice Dragons, News Corp and Illbruck. By that evening they were reaching at 16 knots in 24 knots of building northerly breeze. The forecast calls for up to three frontal systems before gradient wind fills right across the Tasman. Meanwhile, a tropical low is developing near Fiji and may push south in time to affect the fleet as they round Cape Reinga. Whether that affect includes strong easterlies or calms remains to be seen. © Jamie Brown/weather-wise.com 2001 Slow and smoky start belies December 28, 2001 Before the start, the crew of Australian yacht Brindabella reckoned their newly-lengthened 80 foot maxi might win this year's Hobart if conditions remained light to moderate - that way nothing would break! Well, the the start was light .. and that word is too strong. But after a fluky and changeable afternoon, the first night saw 11 yachts retire - most from rig damage. The reason? Thunderstorms and waterspouts packing gusts up to 70 knots followed by 25-30 knot south-westerlies pummelled the fleet south of Jervis Bay. Last year's handicap winner SAP Ausmaid lost her mast and was one of the first to retire, while Skandia Wildthing and Nicorette both lost mainsails to the waterspout. Wildthing retired, Nicorette continued after spending six hours affecting repairs. Light start Certainly the start was light - light and variable with thick smoke haze from the worst bush fires in years. Race favourite Nicorette found herself stalled soon after the 1pm start gun, with south-west winds at deck level and a hint of a north-east seabreeze at the mast top. But it was left to the local boys to find the right wind. The Volvo 60 News Corp - registered with the Sydney-based Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and crewed by a host of Australians - and Bumblebee 5, designed and skippered by Sydney Harbour 18 foot skiff legend Iain Murray, discovered a building north-east seabreeze on the eastern side of the course and snuck away from the fleet. News Corp rounded the offshore bouy first to claim a $10,000 prize offered by ex-Shockwave owner Neville Creighton - which they later donated to a NSW bush fire relief fund. Then, in a fading north easterly, the race began in earnest. Go wide or stay inshore? The big tactical question once clear of the harbour was who planned to sail wide and who would stay inshore? The CSIRO's George Cresswell pointed out before the race that the East Australian Current would be too far to the east to affect the fleet, until it swept close to the coast, at about three knots, from Jervis Bay south. Nicorette's skipper Ludde Ingvall made his plan clear on national television when he said clearer south-west air - gradient wind between large low pressure in the southern Tasman and high pressure further west - would be found wide: Away from the affects of seabreeze. Any help from the current would only be a bonus. As the fleet headed south the north-east breeze faded, replaced a three hour calm before a small, localised front crossed the fleet and south-west to west winds filled in from behind. Illbruck skipper John Kostecki noted that the wind was got, with a sense of the desert. It blew in at 15 to 20 knots gusting to 30 knots and smelled like burning eucalyptus. Amer Sports Too skipper Lisa MacDonald said she could smell the bush fires even before the new wind arrived. Meanwhile, further south, a broad band of 30-35 knot gradient winds tore through Bass Strait. In Melbourne, associated squalls disrupted the first innings of cricket in the Boxing Day test against South Africa. While these strong gradient winds remained south of the fleet, what appeared to be a meso low, or pool of cold air at perhaps 20,000 feet, moved over the South Coast during the late afternoon and night. The thunderstorms underneath this cold air, combined with upper level winds at different directions and strengths created a shocker - Waterpouts with the leading yachts their moving targets! Waterspout
damages leading contenders Image courtesy Nicorette This dramatic view of a waterspout taken by crew aboard Swedish maxi Nicorette is not something seen everyday by offshore sailors, but neither are they all that unusual. This spout hunted Nicorette like a heat-seeking missile until it literally ran it down. Finnish Skipper Ludde Ingvall described its interior as 'all white' with 70 knot winds feeling like a wrestler grabbing at the back of his jacket and trying to fling him skyward! "It was the biggest, most awesome and aweful experience I've ever felt, Ingvall told a Sydney reporter by satellite phone. "First it flipped the 24m, 20 tonne boat on its side as it hit us, then, in the middle of it, it was clear white ... if you looked up you could see just this suction tube as if it were a huge vacuum cleaner. I felt it was like a wrestler grabbing the back of my jacket and trying to lift me off my feet "And then, out the other side, it flipped us the other way. Ingvall, a Fin who now calls Sydney home, reckons the race is just too awesome. "It can't get much harder than this," he said. "Any harder than this and we're just going to turn around and go home. That twister was just ridiculous. Jesus Christ this is a hard race!" Tasman Sea and NSW east coast Image courtesy of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology This small animation shows the weather which produced the waterspout east of Jervis Bay as the sun set on Boxing Day, the first day of the Sydney to Hobart Race. You can see the coastline of New South Wales and eastern Victoria on the left hand side of the frame. The 'corner' is Green Cape. Sydney Harbour is located between Green Cape and the 30th parallel at the top of the frame. Jervis Bay, where the waterspout occurred, is halfway between Sydney and Green Cape. Look closely at the centre of the image and you can see a circular cloud move offshore of the NSW South Coast and track to the north-east. It appears that the 'blob' is a pool of cold air at mid altitude level generating a localised low at the surface off the South Coast. To the north-east of this cloud blob is a small cold front and north-east of that is a vigorous troughline moving out of Queensland and into the Tasman sea from the north-west. Plenty of unstable weather! East of Tasmania and Flinders Island are squall clouds associated with deep low pressure (983mb). Note how clouds move to the north within this squall band, while the Queensland trough moves to the south-east and weather in-between moves to the east - lots of wind shear, or wind forces opposing each other, all along the eastern seaboard. At the surface, winds had shifted all day from south-west to north-east at the start of the race in Sydney Harbour to south-west and west off Wollongong. Automatic weather stations on Montegue Island and Green Cape showed winds backing and veering from south-east to south to south-west all day, with the last change from the south-west coming in at 30 plus knots. A weather station north of Jervis Bay showed westerly winds gusting to 30 knots. All of this confusion points to excellent wind-shear - a primary ingredient for waterspouts, or tornadoes. No doubt the proximity of the East Australian Current so close to the coast off Jervis Bay helped to create a temperature difference. While tornadoes form over land and can produce winds greater than 200 knots, waterspouts form over water and are slowed by the weight of fine water droplets in their funnel cloud. Still, 100knots of wind spinning around a 100-500 metre diameter will cause enormous damage. Nicorette and Skandia Wild Thing were lucky to escape with just torn mainsails. First hand report Illbruck skipper John Kostecki emailed race headquarters with this awesome report of how he and his talented crew outran a waterspout gunning for their yacht: "A pattern is starting to develop on illbruck. The first day/night of a leg we get extreme conditions and encounter an experience that we will always remember for the rest of our life. "We got off to a nice start out of Sydney in a building sea breeze. Eventually as we worked our way south, all the Volvo Ocean Race boats encountered a calm spot about 3 hours after the start. This was the transition between the sea breeze and the gradient breeze from the west. The westerly gradient was a hot desert feeling wind with a lot of pressure. We had 25-35 knots of wind as we reached down the coast. As we were cruising along at 16 knots, we started to see cloud build up to the southeast of us. We were expecting this as the southerly change, with cooler air from the south started making its way up the coast. As the cloud got closer, I quickly noticed a waterspout about three miles to leeward of us. We knew the change was about to hit. "At the same time I saw the waterspout to leeward, Richard [Clarke] noticed one developing to windward of us. This one developed quickly and formed a vertical funnel cloud down to the water. It was an incredible sight. Those of us who have sailed offshore a lot have seen several of these, but normally from a distance of 5-15 miles. This one developed quickly about two miles from us and started racing right at us. So we tightened sheets and tried to make some windward gage on it. The spout started moving to leeward of us at a quick pace of 40 miles an hour. Then, it started changing direction. I guess the southerly winds started to steer it more and it was headed directly at us about 1/2 mile away. Scary sight. "We bore away and tried to run away from it and we dropped our jib. The wind built to 50 knots as the waterspout got closer to us. I asked for everyone onboard to have their harnesses on and to be ready for anything. We started running away from it and it appeared to be passing to windward of us, but then suddenly it changed course again, the warm westerly winds started pushing it offshore directly at us again. Now it was only 400 meters away, blowing 60 knots and this huge spiralling cloud was nearly on top of us. We had to change course again, 90 degrees up so that it could pass to leeward. There was a moment where we were all just silent hoping that it would pass by us. It came very close to us, about 200 meters, and it slowly passed in front of us and went to leeward. "We saw 63 knots on the wind speed dial at that time. We had a helpless feeling, where this freak of nature was chasing us down. Nobody onboard has ever experienced anything like this and we all hope we never do again. "The damage? No one was hurt fortunately, but we ripped the jib on the way down, from excessive flapping in 50 knots of wind. We also ripped the main as well. We had a reef in the main and we never thought we could drop it in time before this thing came near us. So, we ripped the forward fold from the reef as it came loose in the breeze and just shredded about a five foot piece of the luff of the mainsail. © Jamie Brown/weather-wise.com 2001 AVN forecast model Image courtesy of NOAA While a deep low churns south-east of Tasmania, a secondary low will be evolving east of Sydney, creating light and variable winds for the Boxing Day start of the 2001 Sydney to Hobart. Expect south-south-east winds to fill over the New South Wales South Coast as this secondary low and its trough migrate out to sea, but winds will remain moderate at best - 15-20 knots with higher gusts in night squalls. Early prediction for Gentle upwind sailing to Bass Strait before high pressure and easing breezes create tricky sailing down Tasmania's east coast December 23, 2001 Three days out and the forecast models are calling for a light, downwind harbour start to the classic Sydney to Hobart. On Christmas day a low south of Tasmania will react with a trough line over southern Queensland and northern New South Wales to create a cold front which will sweep across the central NSW coast the night before the Boxing Day start. As the front moves out into the Tasman a secondary low is expected to form within this trough line - to the north of the deepening parent low south-east of Tasmania. The secondary low will bring light variable winds offshore and depending on the timing of its development, may create a millpond start in the harbour. As the secondary low moves east and becomes part of the ever-deepening low in the south Tasman, south-west winds will fill in along the NSW South Coast. During the first night yachts can expect 10-20 knots of breeze from the south backing to south-east and increasing to perhaps 25 knots in the occasional squall. Upwind is always uncomfortable, but compared to last year this race will be a picnic. During the first night the south Tasman low will deepen to 980 mb and within the next 24 hours is forecast to bottom out at 982mb (MRF model) early on December 30, local time However, the wildest winds created by this deep storm will be well east of the fleet. A bigger headache is an emerging high pressure cell to the west, which is forecast to move over the fleet from December 28. The European model shows this ridge extending well south of Tasmania, with very light winds over the race course while the AVN and MRF models show this same ridge moving more quickly to the east, bringing an earlier onset of northerly winds preceding the next change. Either way, the sail down the east coast of Tasmania could be a real test of local knowledge - who will avoid the meso lows and lee troughs east of Freycinet Peninsula, and who will get bogged trying to stay too close to the coast? Following right on the heels of this high is another low, forecast to deepen to 970mb before slowly moving east underneath the Apple Isle during December 30-31, with winds blowing from the north-north-west ahead of the change from early on the 29th. For fleet tailenders this will create an uncomfortable Bass Strait crossing. But for the Volvo fleet, it looks like strong zonal flow following this second large low will carry them close to the west coast of New Zealand before dumping them into high pressure early in the New Year. What lies in store for the fleet as they close on Cape Reinga is too far away right now, but keep an eye on a tropical low modelled to form south of the New Hebrides. Will it migrate south quick enough to affect the Volvo fleet with easterly winds as they round the Cape? Keep in mind that NOAA's MRF model and AVN model and the European 6 day model used in this brief are forecasting beyond 48 hours and are prone to error. But the forecasting models we see today are awesome machines and should be treated with respect. Much more prone to error is the interpretation by myself, Jamie Brown. © Jamie Brown/weather-wise.com 2001 Stay tuned here and at the official Volvo web site. Forecast Models: Build you own forecast chart using NOAA's AVN model. You stipulate latitude and longitude and what variables you want, i.e. barometric pressure at the surface or at 500mb, temperature at different levels, wind strength etc. Build you own forecast chart using NOAA's MRF model. You stipulate latitude and longitude and what variables you want, i.e. barometric pressure at the surface or at 500mb, temperature at different levels, wind strength etc. Forecast charts for the Southern Hemisphere using the European Medium Range Forecasting model. This link shows charts between three and six days in advance. 12 hour forecast of Surface pressure for the Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea compliments of Ocean Weather using the AVN model. Australian Pressure maps from surface to 200mb in six separate images thanks to the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (formerly the National Meteorological Center). All maps use the MRF model and are produced by the Institute of Global Environment and Science. 24, 48, 72, 96 hour forecast for the Southern Ocean using the MRF (Medium Range Forecast) model, compliments of the Institute of Global Environment and Science. Three to six day forecasts for the Southern Hemisphere courtesy of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts Infra-red: Animated loop of current Australian infra-red images Current surface pressure Australian surface pressure including four day forecast models using the Australian model thanks to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Surface winds: Quickscat satellite derived winds for the Southern Ocean: Great Australian Bight including Bass Strait: Ascending and descending. South Tasman Sea: Ascending and descending. North Tasman Sea: Ascending and descending. Upper level winds: Southern Indian Ocean
00gmt, 0600gmt,
1200gmt
and 1800gmt Related upper level wind charts The Aviation Weather Centre offers these terrific flight level charts SIGWX) which show the position of jet streams over much of the globe (mostly Northern Hemisphere). Because upper level winds, like the jet stream, steer our weather systems, knowing where these winds are and how they are behaving helps us to understand whether systems are moving east to west quickly or whether they will stalling because of a kink in the pipe-line. Forecasts up to 18 hours in advance. Wind analysis from the University of Wisconsin showing surface, upper and jet stream - or water vapor - winds. As well, there are charts showing wind shear and upper level divergence. For the arm-chair sailor, the low-mid level infra-red winds tell an awful lot about the sea state where the boats are. Colour-coded arrows report wind strengths and direction at different levels. Remember: Friction at the surface slows the wind down a bit, so it will never be as strong at wave height as it shows on the 900hPa chart. Ocean current information East Australian Current reports courtesy CSIRO
More great reading: Get the good oil at the official Volvo web site. Read all about the Jacques Vabre trans-Atlantic race . Playstation smashes the trans-Atlantic record by 44 hours by surfing the perfect front! Battle of the Open 60s in the EDS Atlantic Challenge: Which route works best We analyse the Los Angles to Honolulu Transpac, 2001 Follow the Challenge Mondial Assistance through the official web site and get a preview of weather conditions on the route. Catch up on all the past action of the recent Vendee Globe in our race archive. Re-live the action between the world's fastest multihulls in The Race Re-live the 2000 Sydney to Hobart yacht race! Break ice in the Ross Sea! Re-live the solo trans-Atlantic race of June 2000 and the Quebec to St Malo of last August.
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