Last night, was the first time the temperature dropped since we left Yokohama and I didn’t have to keep a damp T-shirt on my chest to keep me cool.
Today was a little different than usual; our route and progression were going to be very important because of the location of an eddy. Eddies are big circular rotations located north and south of the Kuroshio. We are on the south edge of the Kuroshio and for the past few days, we have been pulled toward the south near an eddy.
In few miles the current makes a sharp turn north, then east, then another south to finally flow back to the east. Following the current would add up few hundred miles, instead, we want to keep on going east.
East of the Kuroshio as it curves north, there is an eddy. The eddy is rotating counterclockwise, if we enter it at our current latitude or lower, we would north-westside and be carried south instead of east. If we found ourselves in that situation we wouldn’t have any other option than to ride it all the way around and end up on its eastern side, right where we need to be. This would add few 100 miles to our optimum course. Instead, we want to progress east and pass north of the eddy.
The waves and wind were coming from the east and we were heading north-east to try to resist the southern pull.
After the first few hours of challenging swim against the waves, we got the feedback we were hoping for from our crew on Seeker who closely monitored our course throughout the day. We were progressing east-north-east, exactly what we all were hoping for.
At the end of the day, I was more tired than usual, I swam for over 8 hours and kept a faster pace to fight the waves and the pull of the current, we covered 20 miles.
Brian and Mark were on the dinghy and stopped me a few times to get the pieces of debris they could reach from the RHIB. We got a glass bottle, a white plastic container (butter or yogurt?), a yellow plastic crate, and green net (about 2×15 meters). Fortunately, nothing was caught in it, fish were swimming around and through it.
Ben
Swam: 16.71 NM
Weather conditions:
Partly Cloudy (could coverage 3/8)
Wind speed: 15 kts
Wind direction: ENE
Waves height: 1 m
Waves direction: ENE
Water temperature: 26.5°C
2 thoughts on “[DAY 110] The Eddy”-
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It is always interesting to read your daily encounters. Very enlightening! Your perseverance and continual strength through the ups and downs is truly inspiring. Happy to hear your forward endeavors have been fruitful these past few days in spite of the inevitable readjustments along the way. Be safe and Stay well.
I have been wondering how the current is affecting your swimming. It is interesting to see the last couple days how much less distance you are covering, though I know your effort is still 100% or even more than when you were with the current. I’m very curious to see what happens once you are east of the Kuroshio!