Dancing with Linda
Written late on August 17th
Day: 56 Odometer: about 1,884M
Position: N24 56’ W146 37’
Distance from start: 1,503M
Nearest land: Point Kumuhaki 559M due 236T
Waikiki Yacht Club by my course: 664M due WSW
ETA: early in September
RECORDS as running totals
Solo career total in days at launch: 845 now 901
Overall career total in days at launch: 928 now 984
Solo career total in miles at launch: 27,595M now about 29,479M
Overall career total in miles at launch: 31,083M now about 32,967M
==> Ralph Tuijn (NL) leads the last one with 35,635M
Actual distance rowed in miles until Waikiki will append to my existing career totals at launch in solo and overall categories; to become official, London based Ocean Rowing Society must adjudicate supporting GPX files from my chart plotter and YB Tracker.
—-oOo—-
Hello dot watchers — In case you were wondering why that dot on the tracking page is meandering southwest then northwest again, you are at the right place.
This summer has been busy with storms and unusual wind patterns. Jason Christensen on shore with far more access to information has been carefully monitoring distant tropical storms south of Mexico for their potential impact on my safety. I try to keep up with him using the rendering of GFS model that I download by satellite modem into the PredictWind app on my smartphone and also receive spot marine weather forecasts by OCENS using an inReach device. In addition, I can send a query string to saildocs.com to download a discussion of weather events in the eastern Pacific or about a specific storm.
Tropical Storm Linda which formed south of Baja Peninsula on the heels of TS Kevin, later turned into a hurricane. Looking at long range forecasts, Linda was supposed to pass NE of me as a post tropical remnant low, so I happily worked SW toward Waikiki, fully anticipating the NE winds leading the storm to further help propel me.
With each forecast, the track for Linda turned more west than north and now it is expected to run WNW within the band of N21.5-N22.5 latitudes when in my vicinity this weekend. It will pass halfway between my location and Oahu!
When I descended to N24.5 four days ago, I was challenged by an unusual pattern of southerly winds; this even forced me on and off the para-anchor multiple times. Right now the seas have been set in a northerly pattern with junk waves still arriving from my south. Even with the NE winds I expected to lead Linda, I feared I would not make enough southing and would end up in front of the eye of the storm with winds potentially gusting to 50 knots.
So I took my rowboat back up to N25 latitude to let Linda pass south of me on Fri-Sat. I will stall here without rowing or at times deploying the para-anchor. I will then commit toward Waikiki this weekend. This dance with Linda has cost me lots of time; ETA some time in early September unless TS Marty, wherever it is lurking, pulls a hat trick on us between now and then.
The good news is that TS Linda will have mopped up well the area across which I will row toward Hawaii, lowering the sea surface temperature. It takes moisture and warm water to intensify a tropical low pressure system into a tropical depression then a tropical storm. Think of the low pressure core of each storm as a giant vacuum which sucks up the warm sea surface. Then that subtle mound of water begins to flow downhill by gravity toward the outer periphery of said mound. As more warm water flows out radially, cooler water from below the surface rises in the center to replace it. This stirring cools the sea surface. That is why it typically takes 10-14 days between each storm to leave the storm nursery in the height of the season.
My hope is that Linda, as tricky as it was to figure out how it would proceed, may actually delay the onset of another storm which may affect my crossing. Let’s hope so!
Erden.