Weather to sail

This last weekends work was all about weather. Jerry of Petit Bateau had organized sailor and meteorologist Chris Tibbs to run an OSTAR weather training session on the Isle of Wight in Cowes. Jan and I arrived Saturday afternoon to participate in the prize giving and the drinking of beers for the RIOW solo race at the Island Sailing Club.
I was clearly moved in someway by all of this on Saturday night, perhaps it was the wine, perhaps it was seeing old chums, in either case later that evening I ended up sleep walking through the halls of our hotel naked before bumping into other guests. On Sunday morning I was not sure if it had all been a dream or not but when Jan pointed out that the hotel room door was open we hastily had some breakfast and left for the Cowes Combined Clubs.
Chris Tibbs gave the skippers and shore crew of the 7 boats present an excellent insight into what can be expected in the OSTAR 2009 race. In summary :
Phase 1 – Navigating the headlands and out of the English channel approaches past the South West Coast of Ireland. We discussed wind tunneling effects between peninsulas/headlands.
Phase 2 – The open water leg. Upwind with depressions (lows) rolling over the top of you on a regular basis. We talked about how to navigate the many weather fronts we will encounter and where best to position ourselves to take advantage of the weather systems.
Phase 3 – Nearly there, tired and approaching the Grand Banks. The final thousand miles or so and depending on how far north each skipper decided to go during phase 2 we will be faced with fog and the potential of ice bergs. The currents of the gulf stream are strong and run in the opposite direction of travel, slowing down the boats considerably.
By the end of the day many, myself included, where asking why the devil we are doing this daft race. Nobody really had a convincing answer yet I doubt any will pull out of it, I don’t plan to !