Now two weeks into our mission, the team has been looking forward to which path we will take in the coming months on 29s trek to South Africa. Our dear friend Antonio laid out four possible paths we can take:
Each of the paths stretch between 5500 and 6000km which will last around 245-280 days. The differences in the path options appear during the first 1/2 of the mission upon reaching Tristan de Cunah. This mission will be the longest of 29’s so far and the small secluded UK archipelago is the only port available to us along the way.
Later, after crossing to the north of the EEZ of Tristan de Cunha, the paths merge as piloting shifts to jumping from eddy to eddy as they pass around the Cape of Good Hope, leading Challenger back to Cape Town.
Antonio also provided us with some nice 3D imagery of the bathymetry. Featured in the image above, is a region of sea mounts and volcanos that are jutting up from the seabed. Going forward, we plan to pass to the north of the mountains just ahead of us before snaking our way to the south.
Looking to the forecasted currents, we have an interesting conflict to our south east. In the image below, black vectors represent the copernicus currents at 300m while the white currents are RTOFS. 
Both forecasts show an eddy signature to the south east, however copernicus defines it as a clockwise cold core eddy while RTOFS shows it as a counterclockwise warm core eddy.
Both forecasts however show a prominent southern current a head which we plan on catching over the next few days.
Force Wind Sea & Honor