S/V MONTAUK LIGHT will make the 500 mile passage from Portugal to Madeira, and then will depart for St Thomas after a few days. The crew will then proceed on a SSW course in order to get further south and into the trade winds, then curve westerly to head for St Thomas. They expect to make 150 NM per day. The picture above shows the planned route and the prevailing winds. If the weather follows the predicted pattern, S/V MONTAUK LIGHT should be sailing off the wind the entire trip. The prevailing wind and water currents in the Atlantic rotate clockwise, and the rhumb-line for this cruise is in the SE corner of that quadrant. The prevailing winds could be interrupted by storms or weather systems, and we will be following that closely.
Bradley Mabe, a professional meteorologist and Maryland School graduate, will be providing weather forecasts to the crew for the duration of the trip. Communications between Bradley, the crew and the school will be via e-mail over single side band.
We will discuss the route, weather and actual progress here on our blog as it happens, so please join us! To follow the discussion, add comments or ask questions, see the comments to this blog post. To follow their actual progress on Google Earth, click HERE.
