Planned Route of Circumnavigation - Part 1
12 October 2017 | 160 Miles West of Varkrug South Africa
2:00pm Thursday 12th October 2017 (UTC+1 ) A few people have asked me how I arrived at the planned route for my Westabout circumnavigation and I will attempt to provide the answers. This will come in several posts as when the blog contains pictures, which I hope will explain things better, it can only handle so much at a time. How did it all start? When I purchased Katherine Ann, then named Reflections , I thought of doing some interesting trips and browsing the web came across the World Sail Speed Record Council. The WSSRC is an International body formed through National sailing councils which has been tasked by them to promulgate and recognise all sail speed records on water - but not on ice or land! There are many records including Round the World and I was surprised to see none existed for Westabout Non Stop, Solo and Unassisted, for a vessel under 40 feet. I made enquiries and familiarised myself with the requirements. Basically the journey must measure at least 21,600 nautical miles in the shortest possible direct route, consist of a Westabout crossing of all meridians of longitude at least once but not twice ( therefore excluding a double circumnavigation of the Antarctic Continent) and having only one physical turn point that is a fixed object such as an oil platform or island. There is an additional, technical, feature that you don't have to travel further South than Latitude 63S. In the first picture posted here you will see the Great Circle Route from Brisbane to its Antipodal point in the North Atlantic via the Cape of Good Hope. In the next post you will see a picture of the continuation of that journey, virtually from the same point via Cape Horn.The length of this trip is very close to the required length of 21,600 miles, but as there are no islands just there the point has been shifted about 500 miles East to the island of Hierro in the Canaries. You can see this in picture Three where one of the spots has been shifted to Hierro in the Canaries and the Route modified to agree more with that taken. In picture 4 I have again put a few spots on the general idea of the route home. Interestingly the minimum distance for this route is promulgated at 21,755 miles so just within the requirements but I expect to travel something like 26,000 miles. Under the rules I carry a small black box that records but does not relay my position every 300 metres for c onfirmation downloading and also I have to report my position every hour - one of the reasons for my Windy Tracker but of course it is also nice to let my friends and family know where I am. --------------080501010904090802090007--