What's going on here?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 478
  • Start date Start date
D

Deleted member 478

Guest
I'm stalking a friend, via Iridium tracking, who is crossing the South Pacific at the moment. Any guesses what's happened that caused the two downwind zigzags, circled in this screenshot?

My guess is the autopilot gave them a middle finger, but in my humble opinion, that wouldn't result in a course change to leeward.

I don't know the answer, yet. I've sent the screenshot to him asking what happened. I'm sure he'll reply once he has wifi again and once he's swallowed a few beers.
Screenshot_20240526-185027_Firefox.jpg
 
KevinV said:
Hove to?
Click to expand...
Ah, could be! That makes sense, all in the interests of arriving while the sun is still shining, especially in that part of the world where the charts are known to have huge errors.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pjv
Hove to or making sail changes to slow down? That looks like he is approaching the Tuamotu Islands. If so timing is everything to get into some of the lagoons, you need to arrive in daylight at just the right stage of the tide, specially if the wind is strong.
 
Good points, but he's on a monomaran, so sail changes would be into wind.
See #3 ref timing your arrival.
 
Could be avoiding other craft?
It would be easier to guess if you knew speeds or times on that course.

I tend to be sceptical of the wind directions shown on these apps after my mate's boat was tracked going dead up wind for a few hours during the Fastnet race. So it could be tacks or gybes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top