Team SCA coach Aksel Magdahl gives us a preview of the weather and course the team will face over the next 5000 miles of racing. After completing the two short course laps and then sailing to the Buddha, the boats will be passing Sanya outbound just before sunset. They will be upwind in 25 knots of wind, with a push of 30 knots midway to the Luzon strait, in the relatively choppy sea state that prevails in South China Sea. In the Luzon strait the sea state will get even more choppy as they sail through the Kuroshio current, setting against the wind direction at 2-3 knots.
The weather forecast is more uncertain from there, but typically they will be sailing close to upwind in the trade winds to the Solomon Islands, in around 20 knots of wind.Closer to the Solomon Islands they can expect a big hot unpredictable area around the Doldrums and South Pacific Convergence Zone which lies close together in the Western Pacific.
When they get through the light winds they should be close to upwind again, in southeasterly trade winds in the wrong hemisphere, having to choose lanes either side of the high New Caledonia and Vanuatu islands. Closer to New Zealand the weather varies with the low and high pressure systems passing by from the Southern Ocean. (www.teamsca.com)
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