Weather to go or not
( Last Updated: 17-12-2007 )
Where is Oyster Shack??
Brief statement from the team
There are many people asking the question, Where is Oyster Shack?? How come La Mondiale and Orca have set off and the Oyster is still sitting in port?….
It’s possibly one of the biggest gambles in recent ocean rowing history. The fact is you get one chance to set off from the Canaries and one chance (normally) to go after the speed record. Due to the crew injury onboard Oyster last week – we are very fortunate to have a second shot at the record.
There are many things that will make a campaign successful, a good boat, prepared crew, accurate navigation but possibly one of the most important things is good weather. As with previous campaigns, we have taken professional weather routing advice from Lee Bruce – a well respected weather router with many years experience in trans ocean record attempts.
The view has been clear – the window is not favourable to leave at this time. The 35 day record is a tough challenge by anyone’s standards and even to potentially lose 24hrs to adverse conditions could scupper your chances of achieving the goal. The forecast shows that from the 18th to the 20th December there will be headwinds on route – up to 25 Knots directly from the West. Forecasting is always pretty tough to view accurately but we as a team have decided not to take that chance.
So we sit in port whilst the other two record attempt boats are out on the water… Will the gamble pay off? Will we catch them? Will they be affected by the weather?
The answer is, we don’t know. The next two days will reveal all. As we wait in La Gomera with a tense nervousness, we raise a toast to the crews of La Mondiale and Orca. Itching to climb back into the arena – the Oyster crew are on your heels…
Simon Chalk and the Oyster Shack crew, Marina La Gomera, Canary Islands