Today's Report
June 23/11 0800 JST
Position: 23°11'N, 158°33'E
Remaining to Yokohama: 1,443 nm (ETA: 15-16 days)
ClearPoint again showed its value yesterday – due, ironically, to its absence.
A software glitch caused a data freeze that we waited several days to ask them about, so Saito-san has not been able to take advantage of the wind indications this powerful weather service has been supplying as a Supporting Sponsor for more than 3 years.
The ClearPoint tech team got right on it and determined a conflict had developed with the Tropical Storm data. "Try turning that off and see what happens," we were told, and we did. ClearPoint was back to its usual realtime pinpoint accuracy. This morning they had fixed that conflict so we could also see the path of the 2 storms that just moved up from the Philippines into Korea, well west (by about 2,000 nm) of NBSDIII's position (image).
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| Tracks of 2 storms are shown. At far right, the cross mark indicates NBSDIII's 0800 position. |
When Saito-san called this morning we already knew he had gotten a bit too north, and into an area of weaker wind. "You better jibe more south," we advised. "I know!" he said, In fact, he already had about an hour earlier, turning the boat onto a southerly heading of 205°. "Right now boatspeed is just 3 knots, maybe 3.5," he told us. Wind had fallen off to 8-10 kts. On ClearPoint lighter winds show as light blue and light green. Yellow indicates stronger winds, and a happier Saito-san.
Three days ago the blue area was well away to the north, but in the meantime it moved toward NBSDIII and NBSDIII had moved toward it.
So, ClearPoint proved itself again, showing that it doesn't take much N-S latitudinal distance to make a 2-knot difference in boatspeed. Just 25 nm lower and he'd still have had those highly favorable 15 kt Northeast Trade winds he enjoyed for most of yesterday.
Things were expected to improve in 7 hours, though, and he should be back into better winds by about mid-day.
***
Not one but two milestones were reached during the night. His circumnavigation just passed the 27,000 nm point AND put him over 50,000 kilometers since he departed Yokohama. Later we'll determine how much more the total is after adding in the unassisted portions of his three Cape Horn roundings – at least 1,000 nm more.
Not one but two milestones were reached during the night. His circumnavigation just passed the 27,000 nm point AND put him over 50,000 kilometers since he departed Yokohama. Later we'll determine how much more the total is after adding in the unassisted portions of his three Cape Horn roundings – at least 1,000 nm more.
[Click to enlarge]
***
Distance in last 24 hours: 95 nm DOG / 94 nm DMG
Total distance completed: 27,020 nm
To Yokohama: 1,443 nm (measured)
To Hachijo Jima: 1,298 nm (measured)
To 150th longitude (turn up to north): 465 nm (measured)
Average daily DMG over last 4 days of sailing: 108 nm (measured)
ETA to Hachijo Jima: 12 days
ETA to Yokohama: 15 days
Heading: 205°
Reported boat speed: 3.0 – 3.5 kts
Average boat speed: 4.0 kts
Weather: Clear; warm
Temperature: 29.0° C
Barometer: 1014 hPa
Wind (from): 8-10 kts ENE
Waves: 1.0 m
Sails: Genoa 90%, staysail 0%, mainsail 3pt reef
Engine: 0 hrs
Generator: 11 hrs in 3 sessions
[Weather and wind forecasts are from ClearPoint Weather, a Saito 8 Supporting Sponsor.]
