Joe Harris is closing on his first week at sea on his quest to circumnavigate inside 137 days. He has said he needs to average 8.0 kts on his trip to beat this record. Based on my calculations from his position relative to Newport, he has sailed 1981 miles over 160 hours roughly so averaging a bit over 10 kts over roughly 160 hours.

Joe Harris walking aft on GS 2 at his departure last Sunday 15 November 15

The last couple of days he has managed to get a few pictures off the boat and sent an update indicating a new speed record for GS2, 24.5 kts. Building up a time buffer when you can is always a good idea.…

This is the inside of a Class 40. Not Joe’s but they are all basically very similar. In this image, you see the “chart” table across the top of the “galley”. Lap of luxury they are not but they are great boats to be at sea on, especially for this kind of voyage.

Below is a cut and paste of his update from Thursday afternoon.

Hello Friends-

It continues to be wet and woolly out here in the North Atlantic as the Northeast wind from 20-45 knots continued unabated. Squally, rainy, gusty conditions prevail, as we navigate around a low-pressure system just to the East.

Last night it really blew hard- but I had prepared well and had three reefs in the Mainsail and the ORC#4 heavy weather jib and we were able to withstand even the gusts up to 46 knots without a problem.

(What is not mentioned here is the loud racket aboard the boat in these conditions. The noise of the wind whistling around the rigging, the waves landing on deck and the swoosh as the boat speeds thru the water.–Coop

This is a blow I was on a while ago. This is NOT Gryphon Solo 2. This is intended to give a sense of what 45 knots looks like. It is blowing about 50 with higher gusts in this picture. We were bringing this 50 foot boat from HI to SFO–this is in the North Pacific in August I think.

With confidence in my sail plan, I was able to get some pretty good sleep, which is really important for continued good reasoning and functionality. I am also eating more now that my body has grown accustomed to the motion of the boat, and had a great Beef Stroganoff freeze dried meal before going to sleep last night. This morning it was a delicious Apple Crisp (apples, cinnamon and granola) for breakfast and I am feeling pretty good. I am also taking these Juice Plus vitamins that my friend Cyndee Novitch got me just before departure that are meant to replace all the fresh fruits and vegetables I was not able to bring along. Should be a pretty good balanced diet once I get settled in.

A screen shot of the Yellow Brick Tracker aboard Gryphon Solo 2 time stamed 1600 EST 20- 11-15. He is roughly 48 miles SE of Bermuda and 1870 miles SE of Newport

So the short-term weather is another two days of the heavy stuff and then a few days of light stuff before breaking through into the Southeast trade winds which, looking longer term, will propel me down towards our Leg One waypoint at 10N x 35W, just north of the equator.

Weather map by Predict Wind for Gryphon Solo 2’s position, 28n x 56 w roughly for 0000z Friday evening 20-11-15. He is basically at the southern tip of the green area in the upper left of the map.

This will set me up for the passage though the Doldrums and then out into the South Atlantic trade winds. That is the Ken Campbell/ Commanders Weather plan as adopted by yours truly and I am excited to have gotten off to a good start and my hope is to get to that first waypoint in less than the 15 -17 days we had estimated for Leg One of the 10 Leg RTW journey. I show 1,862 miles to go- which at 8 knots would be about 10 days- so fingers crossed I am able to keep up the speed.

GryphonSolo2 is holding up well to the pounding. I am experiencing some problems with the water maker that seems to have some air in its system, and is producing fresh water only very anemically and not close to its specified 1.5 Gallons per hour. However, I may need to wait for more settled conditions to really address it.

Screen shot from theYellow BRick tracker showing Gryphoin Solo 2’s metrics at 1600 EST 20-11-15

So that is the Day 4 report- hopefully the level of drama will decline as the weather chills out and I settle into onboard routines. I was able to (painfully) send the first photo back yesterday and will attempt to send more.

Happy 9th birthday to my daughter Sophie Grace- a big day for my special girl- (Just think on this too for a minute.) Coop

Love to all-

Joe

(and the other Joe-Coop…)