Great American II Pulling Ahead in South Atlantic:
Sailors
Battle Fatigue
by Keith Taylor & Cynthia Goss of sitesALIVE!
Previous weeks' coverage
in the Feature's Index
(May 1, 2003 17°15'S 04°23'E / Atlantic Ocean)
After seven weeks at sea
Great American II, sailed by American adventurers Rich Wilson
(Rockport,
Mass.) and Rich du Moulin (Larchmont, N.Y.), is edging ahead
of the Hong
Kong-New York record pace set by the clipper ship Sea Witch.
Up until this week, the progress of both vessels was evenly
matched; but if
they were sailing side-by-side today, the comparison between
them would be
stark. The legendary Sea Witch had a towering wall of sail:
GAII has a rig
that would be dwarfed in her shadow. Sea Witch had an army
of crew: GAII
has just two men. Sea Witch had the technology of the 19th
century: GAII
has the benefit of 154 years of technological development.
And this week,
she has been using a new weapon.
"This is week seven on the ocean for Great American
II: it is also becoming
the 'Week of the Spinnaker'," said du Moulin, of the
1,500-square-foot sail
cut from red, white, and blue sailcloth. "We used this
sail a few times in
the South China Sea, but now it is becoming our primary speed
weapon."
Now approximately 1,800 miles northwest of Cape
Town, GAII is sailing
northwest through the South Atlantic, running with a spinnaker.
In the past
few days, winds have ranged 8 to 14 knots and GAII has
cruised along,
averaging speeds of 10 knots and opening a one-day lead
on Sea Witch. But the sail that
has been a useful weapon in their 15,000-mile non-stop
run to New York also has a double edge: Wilson and du Moulin
have been
forced to hand-steer while flying the spinnaker. While one
crew is anchored
at the helm to keep the sail full, the other is spending
his off-watch
hours doing boat maintenance. As a result, both men are fatigued.
"This is not as tough a life as on board Sea Witch,
but we have to be aware
of our limits as a two-man crew," said du Moulin. "Our
plan is to keep
flying our spinnaker until either we get seriously exhausted
or the weather
changes and no longer makes it our fastest sail."
Weather routers at Commanders Weather have directed Great
American II to
the western side of the South Atlantic. On this side of the
ocean, the band
of fickle winds called the doldrums is now at its narrowest,
and Commanders
has directed GAII to pass through the doldrums west of 30
West longitude.
Today, as GAII makes headway towards a western gateway across
the equator,
she is some 5,975 miles from New York.
Out in the open ocean--far away from pollution and the light
reflections of
land--the sky has been so clear that heavenly bodies are
not as easily
recognized. "I was startled by the rise of the moon," wrote
skipper Rich
Wilson, after a nighttime watch. "It looked like an
orange slice--the sky
so clear, right to the horizon--that I thought it was a ship
bearing down
on us at my first glance...Amazing."
Some 360,000 schoolchildren are following the adventure
of Great American
II on a daily basis through the sitesALIVE! educational program.
Some of
these students hope to be in New York when the vessel reaches
its final
destination. If GAII can beat Sea Witch's pace, the boat
will arrive in New
York sometime the week of May 26.
HOW THE PUBLIC CAN FOLLOW GREAT AMERICAN II: The website
tracking the voyage of Great American II is http://www.sitesalive.com. Daily
position reports and sailors' logs are posted on the site
for classrooms, students, and families who purchase licenses
to follow the progress of the boat.
For information http://www.sitesalive.com/oceanchallengelive/. The
saga of GAII will also be published in the Larchmont Gazette
and a number of daily papers, in the Newspaper In Education
supplements, and tracked on the AOL@SCHOOL program (keyword:
sitesalive). Some 360,000 students, including those at Hommocks,
are expected to follow the voyage.
The sitesALIVE Foundation addresses teacher training in
computer technology and funding for budget-constrained schools.
The mission of the foundation is to enhance K-12 education
by promoting the use of technology with real-world, real-time
content from around the world.
Photographs from the voyage: copyright sitesALIVE! 2003
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