Now just under 140km from the South African EEZ, Challenger continues to fight her way through currents pushing to the North and West to make progress towards shore.
Through the weekend the glider continued to pursue the way point set on Friday and after a few surfacings, Challenger made a steady turn to the east and has progressing in that direction since Saturday afternoon. However, the change in currents doesn’t seem to be reflected in any of the models.
OSCAR March 14
The latest run of OSCAR says that there will soon be a current to the south, however has the current in the immediate area pointed south west while the glider is reporting currents to the North West.
Copernicus March 14
Copernicus shows a similar field ahead of us, however it has the glider already in the southward current again contradicting what the glider is reporting.
RTOFS March 14
GLOSEA March 14
HYCOM March 14
HYCOM, RTOFS and GLOSEA all are similar today in showing that there is a weak current immediately ahead of Challenger and so after looking at the 5 models we will keep the waypoint in the same spot for now and hope the eastward progress continues.
As for recovery preparations, we are continuing to work on locking down the Algoa as the recovery vessel. The ship has room for 16 passengers and so far the Recovery Crew is as follows: Scott Glenn, Josh Kohut, Travis Miles, Chip Haldeman, Dave Aragon (RUCOOL), Rick Ludescher (RU Dean) + Andrenette & Cassidy (2 students). Lizette + Partner (film crew from RU27). Ben Allsup (TWR) Marcelo Dottori (USP), and Antonio Ramos(ULPGC)
Force Wind Sea & Honor