The first leg, California to Hawaii had 400 miles of headwind in the beginning. It took 3 tries to get past that. The second leg, Hawaii to the Marshall Islands, had several hundred miles of countercurrents in the beginning and the end. It wasn't fun going the wrong direction for days at a time. On this third leg, Marshall Islands to Australia, there are groups of islands, rocks and reefs in my way that are really going to challenge my navigational skills.
Getting REACH to go where I want her to go isn't that easy. She's heavy and the conditions often dictate quite a bit of the route. Looking at the red line going across the chart above and you can see how vulnerable I am at times. Open ocean is a good thing, Reach performs at her best, but in close quarters, it's a tough one. I have to calculate my progress every couple of hours and make corrections all day long. Sometimes this means rowing through the night. Recently, studying the pilot charts (charts with detailed weather data), I came up with a wild idea. After the first couple of hundred miles out, instead of fighting it, I will try to run with the equatorial countercurrent heading east, away from Australia, for as long as I need to set me up on a much better angle to get around the the Solomon Islands. Though I'm not too concerned, my wife Stacia fears I might get stuck in the current and end up going all the way back across the Pacific. If I can get around the Solomon Islands and into the Coral Sea, I have another navigational hurdle. That is to get through Torres Strait, the pass off the northeast corner of Australia, and into the Arafura Sea. It's a pretty tight fit. Again, there's a bunch of currents, reefs and islands to get through. The plan is to make for Darwin, Australia.
For the voyage buffs and navigational nerds, here's some technical information. I will take off from about 7 north by 171 east trying to stay due south if possible. 47% of the time, winds are blowing Force 4 from E to NE. My compass might read 180, but I'm hoping for an OGH of 200-220. I'll work this until I hit the 1-1.5 kt equatorial countercurrent at about 5N. Depending how wide and strong it is, I hope to cross the equator somewhere around 170E or a little less. If not, I might have to head over the northern part of Malaysia. At 60 miles per degree latitude, I would have covered a little more than 400 miles so far, just warming up and getting my rhythm. At an average of 30 miles a day, this will be my first 2 weeks. South of the equator, the winds turn E to SE @ Force 4. The Coral Sea is dominated by strong SE winds around 60% of the time. My bow might be pointing at Brisbane, but we'll probably be doing 265 over the ground. I sure hope I'm close to 10 S at that point. I'll have red and green navigational lights confusing me like crazy as I head past the Great Barrier Reef and through Torres Strait. I draw less than a foot, so if I'm not hearing crashing surf, I should be OK.
Under flat conditions, I do about 1.5 knots. Any currents stronger than that, they got me and can take me. My GPS will feed me my progress 24 hours a day. As I sit here now in my dry, warm office looking over the charts of a quadrant 6,000 miles from me, it all makes sense in theory, but I know I really have no idea how it will go until I am finally in the middle of it all. I'm going to go all out to row to Darwin, but between the weather, currents and all the other things I can't control, I figure I have about a 65% chance of making it. If I can't get to Darwin or some point in Australia, I'll probably end up in Papau New Guinea, Indonesia or Malaysia. It's going to be a tough leg and I can't be too choosy. I'll consider it a success just to hit dry land on the other side because that would finally complete the Pacific Phase for me and I would have the longest of the three oceans under my belt. That will feel great. I just want to stay safe.
The whole intention is to somehow try to make it around the world under oar power and I do this one ocean at a time, one leg at a time, one mile at a time and one stroke at a time.
