⭕️ Wrong way ⭕️

"We are effectively sailing the wrong way around the world" 🌎 ... This comment by skipper Anna barely registered with me at the time, such the excitement about setting off was huge. There she was, in Antigua, on deck, holding a map and showing our projected course to Aruba. And, as I looked at the map and listened intensely to her briefing, this sentence was unconsciously lodged into my memory only to reappear now, 2 1/2 months later!

I have been absorbed by a very interesting book that was offered to me. It tells everything about the Jules Verne Trophy - its origins, its concept, its winners etc. And it was there that those words suddenly come back to me: “We are effectively sailing the wrong way around the world”. Why? Is there a ‘right’ way and a ‘wrong’ way then? The answer is, yes, if you are looking for speed (which is definitely not the case for SV TravelEdge on its journey to collect data on plastics in our oceans).

The objective of the Jules Verne Trophy is to circumnagigate the world unaided and without stops. Any size of sailing boat can participate with any size of crew and depart at any point in time. The idea of this trophy is to have as few rules as possible ; so as long as you sail around the world, from the start line to the finish line and via the 3 capes (Hope, Leeuwin and Horn) you qualify.... To win the trophy, the first winner would have to compete this circumvinagation in under 80 days, they would then retain the trophy until their own record was broken. And so on...The idea behind was that, as boats technical advances started soaring in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it could be possible at some point that a boat could sustain an average speed of 12.8 knots to cover the 26,000 nautical miles in 80 days. And in 1993 it was!

eXXpedition is going around the world East to West - from the UK, through the Atlantic, through the Caribbean Sea (Yeah!), through the Panama Canal and then onto the Pacific, around Australia, Indian Ocean, Cape Good Hope, up through the Atlantic (plus a detour to the Arctic) before going back to the UK.

Everyone else (and this started in the 19th Century with the commercial ‘Clipper Route’) goes West to East: Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, Atlantic. Everyone else means very much that - whilst the route is no longer used as a trade route, it has been replaced by adventurers, crazy sailors, exploits seekers and many races (The Golden Globe, Volvo Ocean Race, Around Alone, Vendee Globe) follow this route in order to take full advantage of the Roaring Forties winds. The strong west-to-east air currents are caused by the combination of air being displaced from the Equator towards the South Pole, the Earth's rotation, and the scarcity of landmasses to serve as windbreak.

So, go West for speed, go East for the more scenic route. eXXpedition will take 2 years, the record around-the-world currently stands at 40 days!

But is that really the case? And if it is, why did Bernard Moitessier not turn around at Cape Horn for a casual sail back when he decided to abandon the very first Golden Globe Race race and settle in Tahiti rather than terminating (and, who knows, perhaps winning) in France the first around-the-world race? Why did he choose to carry on via Cape Good Hope (again), Cape Leeuwin (again) and effectivelly do a 1 2/3 around the world circuit (and, unknown to him, win a record* for this anyway)? Why did he decide not to ‘plod along” on the ”scenic route”?

* record for the longest nonstop passage by a yacht, with a total of 37,455 nautical miles in 10 months

Perhaps because it’s not that scenic after all....and “rounding the horn” (at a latitude of 56’ south - compared to Cape Good Hope’s 35’S latitude) is hazardous the right way round, let alone the wrong way round! There are the fiercest winds, strongest currents and highest waves. At least going West to East a sailing boat is not battling the wind and currents face on ; which before technology meant pretty much standstill (or sinking). Modern boats are significantlky more efficient to windward and can make a East to West passage of Cape Horn (as they do in the Global Challenge Race).

Thankfully SV TravelEdge cut through via the Panama Canal rather than trying Cape Horn one direction or the other.