Pushing South // Day 2

EXPEDITION COMMENTARY // RUSH LABS

First check on Shaun’s progress this morning… all looks good. His drift over night was favourable and it looks like he made an early start. SQ has covered almost 40km now which is excellent progress for a trip that will end up being some 2500km’s. He has not been live for a full day yet so me may break 50km or so. Of course, distance covered is not necessarily an indicator of progress, SQ is still 27km off the cost of Australia. We expected the East Australian Currents to push Shaun as far South as Sydney (Latitude) having made some solid progress East.

1. shaun says:

   January 21, 2010 at 7:41 pm

   Hi Cliff
   Thanks for your input and concern. Shaun has a team of ocean weather experts who are advising him of the right course to row. He is aware of the EAC eddies and is looking to slip between two favourable ones today!
   Great to hear from a Mairangi Man and a Taka old boy!
   I’m sure when Shaun arrives home he’d love to share some stories with you!
   Cheers
   Bucky

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2. Cliff Collard says:

   January 21, 2010 at 10:21 am

   Hi Shaun. As an ex Takapuna Grammar boy (1960’s) from Mairangi Bay and a yachtie having sailed my own boat across the ditch, I feel some empathy and am following your progress with interest. Question: Why in the name of Neptune are you heading headlong southwards. I assume you are familiar with the fact that the East Australia Current is not a coherent S-going stream but rather a dynamic series of eddies flowing in all directions. I further assume that you have checked the BOM site (www.bom.gov.au)and realise that there is currently a gyre with anticlockwise circulation strategically situated directly E of Coff’s. I presumed you would head E first entering its warm S-flowing 2 knot stream about 50 nm offshore then ride that stream as it initially flows S. At about 31 deg S latitude the stream swings conveniently E, maintaining its 2 kt velocity, and thence runs right out to about 160 deg E longitude S of Lord Howe Island and clear of the EAC. One seldom gets such a golden opportunity with the EAC gyres and I am surprised that you have not seized it.

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