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BT - Official satellite telecom supplier to Clipper Ventures
8 Aug
by Colin de Mowbray
This report comes to you very early as I leave for Heathrow at 0445. Do not be alarmed, I am not running away, just picking up my favourite South African Aunt. At 85 she still rides her bicycle for miles and miles, and, also visits Clipper yachts when they go into Cape Town! Anyway I digress and it is no arrival in good old Blighty for our gallant crews in Antiope and Ariel for a while.
A general view may be of use and I would welcome comments from the increasing number of visitors to this site. The ice reports from the NOAA website are interesting and show that the current ice position is worse than last year. You can get to this site by going to
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/East_
Arctic/Greenland_Sea/Greenland_Sea_South
You may wish to save this as one of your 'favourites' and give it a sensible name such as NOAA Ice Plot. You are now almost on the way to being a complete ice expert. There is however another chart which we are getting by fax and that comes from the Det Norske Meteorologiske Institutt, which, if you will excuse the informality, we will call the DNMI. Their ice report is considered the most detailed for the area but we do not have easy access to the historical charts.
Going back to NOAA, can I suggest you look at the following charts (bearing in mind they are from our American cousins and so are in the format MM/DD/YY). If you are not familiar with the signs just look at the top figures in the bubbles which show the coverage in tenths:
8/5/98 This is the most recent chart and shown where the ice is. The DNMI chart is slightly more refined and shows less ice near the coast.
7/9/98 This shows what the ice was like this time last month. Very much thicker.
7/31/97 and 8/14/97 This is an interesting comparison of the ice this time last year. As you see no problem at all (and consequently very little challenge for the crews).
11/7/97 This is interesting as it illustrates Sir Robin's point of how the coast remains ice free until near the end of the year.
11/21/97 Here the ice is starting to develop again -not a good time to hang around.
Well all that goes to show that the two boats are in an improving situation and so it is merely a question of time before they get free. Luckily with our excellent Inmarsat Communications, supplied by BT, we can be in constant touch with the boats - what a tremendous advance this is!
Ariel 2040 GMT 7 August
Jim Thom (Skipper)
Now at Ikateq and due to pop back into Ammassalik (65 37N 37 37W) later tonight to pick up shore party. It has mainly been a day of gaining information and planning. It is now foggy again. We are set for a 0600 local departure tomorrow morning and hopefully bring you more news then.
All well. Jim
by Colin de Mowbray
it gets dark at about midnight according to the cloud cover etc. It then starts getting light soon after 0300 in the morning. The fog is quite common but obviously limits their movements. The weather at present is dominated by a low to the south of them at Kap Farval (the bottom of Greenland). This is causing light easterly winds which is not helping clear the ice clear.
As before they will be proceeding with caution but in the knowledge that if they do not manage to slip past the ice they have full shore support and stores where they are.
I have resisted telling them about the lovely weather in the UK. If there are any more developments I will add to this report at around 1600 UT (GMT)
Tune in tomorrow to follow progress. A special attraction is that I hope to have a feature back from the two famous marine artists onboard Ariel, David Cobb and Peter Gunnet; that is if they can get their mitts on the key board
Colin
BT - Official satellite telecom supplier to Clipper Ventures
The log entries are produced from messages sent by both Clipper yachts via their InmarsatC using BT satellite services. They are compiled either by Colin de Mowbray or David Cullen and the intention is to have them published by 1000BST daily (but they are sometimes late!)
If you know of people without access to the Web who would like to follow the Clipper please note that both voice-back and fax-back is available on 01234 711550
Comments, feedback and other articles are welcome and should be addressed to either: cdemowbray@clipper-ventures.com or dcullen@clipper-ventures.com
Should you wish to communicate with either of the Clippers please refer to the article 'Satcoms made easy' (Yes, it's a lie) is a news items dated 11 June 98 on the Clipper Ventures' Home page
BT - Official satellite telecom supplier to Clipper Ventures
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