With the start of the week, a new way point was issued at 35˚ S 11˚ E to try and maintain a 90˚ angle to the strong current that plagued Challenger through the weekend.

RU29_20160215_waypoint

As the week went on, the strong currents continued to push our glider westward away from our goal of the shores of Cape Town.

Antonio reached out with maps from Copernicus showing that the western jet could be from a large cold eddy – the center eddy of the ‘solar system’ we have now snaked back towards the middle of.

CURRENT 220m 20 FEB 2016

According to the forecast, it looks like we will need to start making some progress if not east, to the north, otherwise there is another clock wise rotating cold core eddy that has the potential to pull us further west and away from our target.

The discussion has also opened up with our friends Seb and Fred down in South Africa as we prepare to secure a boat for 29’s recovery.  With the glider being only a 2-3 day boat ride from Cape Town, we are hoping to get a boat that will allow an overnight operation such as the RV Alpa Delphini that was used on multiple occasions.

Force Wind Sea & Honor