White Plains CitizeNetReporter - The Great Race: GAII Pushing to Keep Pace in The Heavies of Indian Ocean

WPCNR ADVENTURER'S LOG. From Cynthia Goss. April 16, 2003 28°46'S 39°32'E / Indian Ocean: The course of Great American II, the 53-foot trimaran sailing from Hong Kong to New York to challenge a 154-year-old passage record, has mirrored that of her nemesis Sea Witchthis week. Although Sea Witchsailed this passage well over a century ago, the wake of the clipper ship is very present to modern adventurers Rich Wilson (Rockport, Mass.) and Westchester's own Rich du Moulin (Larchmont, N.Y.) on Great American II.

"GAII and Sea Witch have been winding through each others' wakes the past two weeks," said crewmember du Moulin. "Imagine if we were here at the same time: we probably would have sighted each other. It's a real race to the Cape (of Good Hope, Africa)!"

The Relentless Seas

But the path these two vessels have cut across the Indian Ocean is the only thing they have in common: thirty-two days out from Hong Kong, Great American II is reporting sea conditions unlike anything Sea Witch had encountered thus far.

For much of the week, GAII has been sailing in large, confused seas--and this boat and her crew have been getting thrashed.

"How can a boat survive such a beating?" queried Wilson in a satellite email. "GAII is all heart and incredible strength, but even she must have a limit. The forces that have been exerted on her since Saturday are overwhelming. Waves that shock the pontoon, that then shocks the rig: you wonder how could it possibly be still standing? How could that pontoon not have caved in yet?"

Sea Witch Passage Benign in Comparison

In stark contrast, in Sea Witch's logs of January 1849, Captain Robert "Bully" Waterman recounted a string of pleasant days at this point in the journey, with lighter winds and clear weather.

The trimaran's course is north of the clipper ship's, but both vessels are neck-and-neck. The logged positions for day 32 are approximately equidistant from the Cape of Good Hope.

Sea Water in the Oatmeal

This week's reports from the GAII crew don't focus as much on the horse race taking place over the span of thousands of ocean miles: Wilson and du Moulin are pushing as hard as they dare, trying to preserve their boat, and reporting on the rigors of daily life inside what Wilson has dubbed "a washing machine."

Not the Place for Tender Technology

GAII has had a GPS failure, so they switched to the backup GPS antenna and were able to calculate their position. But every time a wave hits, the jarring motion causes them to lose their position.

"Of course, if you had a new stereo system, and every 60 seconds or so, hit the shelf it was on from the underside with a sledgehammer to make it jump off the shelf, after a while you wouldn't expect it to work," explains Wilson. "That is exactly what we have here. The GPS transceiver is next to my bunk. When these waves hit the underside of the cross beam, it lifts me right off the bunk, and it hurts: make no mistake, it hurts. So how could electronics possibly survive?"

Seepage and Seasoning

Even provisions are not safe from the conditions. When he went to get a snack, Skipper Rich Wilson found 1 inch of water in their snack bin; then found soup and oatmeal in 4 inches of water in another bin. Wilson went on deck to learn that water was forcing its way through the sealed port-side solar panel cable hole that comes in through the side of the boat.

"Every wave that was crashing tons of water into that side of the boat was forcing a drop through there," he said. The drops accumulated until some provisions and pots and pans were swimming in seawater.

The Heavies

The crew on GAII did not expect to find these sea conditions so soon in their passage. The size of the waves--reported from 10 to 18 feet, with some waves swelling to 25 feet with crests--is not the sole problem: it is the waves' confused patterns. Earlier in the week, Wilson reported seas that seemed to arise out of nowhere and descend on the boat.

The Cruel Capes

But the crew's concern is not just focused on the present tumult onboard: they are wondering what lies ahead.

"It is known that off the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas that the appalling seas can break ships in half," reported Wilson earlier this week. "We are 1300 miles from there, but from our satellite imagery, we know that we are in an eddy of current that must be contributing to this confusion. If this is what it is like off Madagascar, what can it be possibly like off the Cape if we get the wrong weather?"

GAII's next waypoint is the Cape of Good Hope, where she'll turn north into the Atlantic Ocean and head for the finish line at New York's Statue of Liberty.

Follow the Adventurers

Some 360,000 schoolchildren are following this adventure on a daily basis through the sitesALIVE! educational program--and the students are learning about math, weather, problem-solving, and other disciplines in the context of GAII's live drama. Some of these students hope to be in New York when the vessel reaches its final destination. If GAII can beat Sea Witch's pace, the boat will arrive in New York sometime the week of May 26.

* * *Tacks and Jibs

HOW THE PUBLIC CAN FOLLOW GREAT AMERICAN II: The website tracking the voyage of Great American II is http://www.sitesalive.com. Daily position reports and a Captain's Log are posted on the site so classrooms, students, and families who purchase licenses can follow the progress of the boat. For information, go to http://www.sitesalive.com/oceanchallengelive/.

The saga of GAII will also be published in a number of national, regional, and local papers, in the Newspaper In Education supplements, and tracked on the AOL@SCHOOL program (keyword: sitesalive).

Great American II's Newspaper In Education participation is supported by the sitesALIVE Foundation. Established in 2002, the Foundation addresses teacher training in computer technology and funding for budget-constrained schools. The mission of the foundation is to enhance K-12 education by promoting the use of technology with real-world, real-time content from around the globe. Some 360,000 students are expected to follow the voyage of Great American II.

For a chart showing the relative positions of Great American II and Sea Witch, go to http://www.sitesalive.com/ocl/private/03s/pos/ocl3position.html

Note: WPCNR has been following the Great Race between a Larchmont sailor and his companion adventurer as they try and break the Clipper Ship Sea Witch's Time Record for sailing from Hong Kong to New York. For a chart showing the relative positions of Great American II and Sea Witch, go to http://www.sitesalive.com/ocl/private/03s/pos/ocl3position.html


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