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Ships Log |
The Planned Course and the Real Time Actual Course
On this page you will see two maps; the first explains the
intended course and the second map will show Pendragon's
real time position made possible by GPS satellite
technology. We are greatly in debt to
Horizon Marine Ltd
for donating the position tracking services for free.
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The Course
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1. The yellow line represents Pendragon's expected (initially planned) course.
2. The green line represents the Great Circle Route.
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What's the Difference?
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When traveling long distances over the earth's surface, the shortest distance is seldom
a single compass heading, known as the rhumb line, but rather a curved course which
represents the intersection of the earth's surface and a plane passing through the
two end points and the earth's center. This is known as the Great Circle Route.
As is obvious, however, sailing the Great Circle Route is sometimes impractical. In this
case doing so would require at least a couple of portages. There are often other
reasons not to adhere to the Great Circle Route: currents, icebergs, fog, storms, wind
direction etc.
Our planned course (yellow) leaves Manchester, Massachusetts, USA and heads for the Gulf Stream,
at Point 2, to avoid the lower limits of fog and ice and to take advantage of favorable currents which will help us eastward. From
there, we will follow the gulf stream Eastward half way to the Azores (Point 3).
At that point, we will head Northward again to avoid the Azores High (light winds)
and to pick up another favourable current flowing towards the British Isles. From there,
we expect a straight shot to "The Lizard" and on to Falmouth, UK.
Now, the actual course will no doubt vary from the planned course due to variations in
weather, currents, and sea state. If we have the ability to alter our course closer to
the Great Circle Route, we will be able to save some time.
Check back here to follow our progress.
The position map below is a real time satellite fix on
Pendragon. Each degree of latitude represents 60 nautical
miles. You will find more details on the Horzon Marine
website, click on the link below.This track log heading
south shows the Pendragon's shake down voyage
undertaken in late May. We sailed nearly 700 nautical miles
and experienced some pretty testing conditions to say the
least.
POSITION TRACKING
DONATED BY HORIZON
MARINE LTD.
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