Volvo Ocean Race - Tropical motorway

by Robbert-Jan Metselaar on 29 Nov 2014 Team Brunel has sailed into the tropical depression. Although the wind has moderated slightly, it is still blowing at 32 knots (61 km/h) from the south east.

According to some forecasts, the teams are going to have to cope with gusts of up to 43 knots (80 km/h) in the hours to come. And because the storm is hitting us head-on, skipper Bouwe Bekking has to take account of waves of more than sixteen feet high.

In fact this tropical depression is an area of extremely low pressure. This means that this weather system is sucking in an enormous amount of wind from neighbouring high-pressure systems. And that’s where the high wind speeds come from.

When passing through a system like that, navigator Andrew Cape will try to find the edge of the low-pressure area. In the case of an area of low pressure in the southern hemisphere, this will be the western edge because here the wind blows clockwise around a low-pressure area.

So, on the western side of this area, the wind blows from the south. The teams will use this southerly wind as a catapult. In the hours to come we will be heading north on a tropical motorway, where the boat will easily reach speeds of 30 knots or 55 km/h.