Questions asked about Volvo Ocean Race boat grounding

Team Vestas Wind informed Race Control at 1510 UTC (Nov. 29, 2014; Day 11)
that their boat was grounded on the Cargados Carajos Shoals,
Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean

From SailingScuttleButt

Team Vestas Wind may likely have concluded their Volvo Ocean Race campaign when their boat was grounded on the Cargados Carajos Shoals in the Indian Ocean on Saturday night, November 29. With both rudders broken and water ingress into the stern compartment, it was a grim moment for skipper Chris Nicholson and his team.

View of the shoal and the Team Vestas grounded from the lagoon side of the reef
image via Team Alvimedica

Sitting high on the reef, the crew waited until daylight, then stepped off the boat onto the reef, later to be transferred to a local rescue boat.
Now they will stay on nearby Íle du Sud today (Nov. 30), with plans to return to the boat on Monday to remove gear and travel on Tuesday to Mauritius (Dec. 2).
Click here for the incident report.

Two questions are being asked.
Where is Cargados Carajos Shoals and how can a professional team have this kind of accident?

Cargados Carajos with a general nautical chart on the Marine GeoGarage (UKHO)
chart BA4702 (INT702) Chagos Archipelagos to Mdagascar (1:3,500,000)
NtM for BA4702 (last NTM update)

 zoom with the Marine GeoGarage viewer (UKHO)

Cargados Carajos is a group of long lying islands that are .8 square miles in area, with surrounding coral reefs.

What is says in the pilot about the Cargados Carajos shoals (NGA)...
no really true if we look at the official maps (overlayed on satellite imagery).

 IN42503A (updated 25/03/2014): Cargados Carajos Shoals (1:45,000)
Approach ENC (vector) from NHO (Indian Naval Hydrographic Department)
equivalent to NHO paper chart 2503 (1:75,000):
Approaches to Cargados Carajos Shoals -Saint Brandon- (updated 31/03/2014)

They are inhabited and belong to Mauritius, an island nation 270 miles to the southwest.
Mauritius is about 1,200 miles off the southeast coast of the African continent.

  zoom on the South of Cargados Carajos with the Marine GeoGarage
NGA 61551 (1996 3rd ed 1996 NM 04/99) NTM
based on the data from the following BA1881 chart :

extract of the BA1881 (ed 31/01/1941) UKHO chart, scale 1:121.000
from surveys by Capt Eward Belcher in 1846, HMS Samarang
(soundings in fathoms)
note : 'no vessel could venture to approach its seaward face'
UKHO NtM for BA1881
(see with the Marine GeoGarage that there is no problem of geo-referencing)

As to why Vestas Wind ran aground, Vestas Chief Marketing Officer Morten Albæk is delaying comment.
“The root cause of the accident is now under investigation. (However) we obviously hope to stay in the race.”
A team led by the Vestas shore crew is now en route to Mauritius to further assess the damage to the boat.

positions of Team Vestas Wind (in blue) and Team Alvimedica (in orange)

Team Alvimedica is motoring with sails down about 1.8 miles from the vicinity

of where Team Vestas Wind is grounded.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker was not surprised by the incident.
“When we went past there we actually said how easy it would be to hit it at night. Fortunately we went through there in the daylight. It is very difficult to see it with the electronic charts, and of course at night you wouldn’t see it at all.”

Screen of the navigation software used onboard (Expedition):
with C-Map charts at large scale, showing the Cargados Carajos Bank quite clearly.

Team Alvimedica, which had been near Vestas Wind at the time of the incident, was equally concerned about safely navigating through the area.

“We had been talking about these reefs for some time, so we were already pretty nervous about it,” noted Team Alvimedica navigator Will Oxley in front of Adrena software screen
(see video)

Dongfeng Race Team reporter Yann Riou notes how they also had the Cargados Carajos Shoals directly in their path.
“Skipper Charles Caudrelier had noticed this archipelago a few days earlier, but it’s worth noting that it’s actually pretty hard to find. In fact, to see it on our electronic charts, you have to zoom right in on top of it. But how and why would you zoom into it if you don’t know it’s there in the first place? So whilst we don’t know exactly what happened on Vestas, we can imagine how it happened.”

 C-Map charts of the grounding area displayed at a small scale :

with digital vector charts, these reefs does not show up at some zoom levels 

(at larger scale -: zoom)
Who bothers to "zoom in" when you are in the middle of the ocean?

After analyzing the early information from afar, marine industry consultant and professional navigator Campbell Field provides his opinion on the incident…
“Since Vestas Wind grounding there has been a huge amount of speculation and opinion as to how this happened, or who is to blame.

“It’s terrible for them, and terrible for the fleet and the race,”
says Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier.
“We are offshore in the middle of nowhere, and on the chart, if you don’t go on the maximum zoom you can’t see anything.”
“There are shallow spots, and plenty 200m deeper - I’m not surprised you can miss them,” he adds.
“When I was looking at the navigation a few days ago, checking these things, it took a long time for me to find them.”
see VolvoOceanRace news

“I don’t know 100% about other software packages, but Expedition routing can route freely (i.e. with no obstacles) or can be constrained by charts, or your own marks, or your own prohibited zones. Plenty of optimal route outputs run where you would have to put the wheels down.
Ultimately, it is the user who defines how the routing output is run and results used.
“The point I’m putting forward here is that software does not make someone a navigator. First you must be a navigator, and then know and understand the strengths and limitations of the tools you have.
“When this is explained to a lot of people I meet, it is usually met with confused stares. The number of software jockeys (promoting themselves navigators) in yacht racing I have come across, who expect the answers to fall out of their computer, is astounding. Take the deck screen away from them and they couldn’t get out of the marina or find the top mark efficiently if their life depended on it.
“Vestas Wind navigator Wouter Verbraak is one of the best, and firmly falls into the category of a superb yachtsman and navigator. He is one who understands the strengths and limitations of digital tools more than most will ever do. And one of the nicest guys in the sport to boot.
“Mistakes happen. Just glad they are all safe and uninjured.”

A couple of hours before...
(strangely prophetic)
"It is far better to have absolutely no idea of where one is - and to know it - than to believe confidently that one is where one is not."
Jean-Dominique Cassini, astronomer 1170

Netscape cofounder Jim Clark may have just built one of the fastest yachts in the World

From BusinessInsider

Netscape cofounder Jim Clark is no stranger to the high seas.

The 70-year-old serial entrepreneur — who's now worth $1.4 billion after investments in Apple, Facebook, and Twitter — owns two massive super yachts that he uses to compete in long-distance races.

However it's his brand-new boat, named "Comanche," that's grabbed the attention of the yachting world.

Comanche is a 100-foot monohull sailboat that can reach speeds of up to 40 mph.

According to CNN, it took Clark's team a year to finish it.

The tech billionaire told CNN that the primary goal is for Comanche "to be a record breaker" and "go really, really fast."

The yacht will get its first chance with an upcoming race that takes competitors 630 nautical miles from Sydney, Australia to Hobart, the capital of Tasmania.

It will be the first outing for Comanche.

"I wish Sydney-Hobart wasn't the first race, in fact you couldn't choose a worst race for our first race. It's like we've gone straight from the gym to the heavyweightchampionship of the world," Ken Read, Comanche's skipper, said to CNN.

"And it could end up like an F1 car blowing its engine on its first outing on the track."

Comanche and its 22-person crew have already set sail for Australia, where they will prepare for the Hobart race, which usually starts just after Christmas.Clark's other boat, the 295-foot "Athena," is currently for sale for $75 million.

Rare video of fiercely 'beautiful' deep-sea Black Seadevil

Deep-sea anglerfish are strange and elusive creatures that are very rarely observed in their natural habitat. 
Fewer than half a dozen have ever been captured on film or video by deep diving research vehicles.
This little angler, about 9 cm long, is named Melanocetus.

It is also known as the Black Seadevil and it lives in the deep dark waters of the Monterey Canyon. MBARI's ROV Doc Ricketts observed this anglerfish for the first time at 600 m on a midwater research expedition in November 2014.
We believe that this is the first video footage ever made of this species alive and at depth.

From CS Monitor

Those are the adjectives most humans use when describing the female angler fish, aka. the Black Seadevil.

But Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) senior scientist Bruce Robison offers a different perspective.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Robison told on Friday.

"I think it's beautiful. It's perfectly adapted to the habitat that it lives in and the kind of life it leads."

Anglerfish, like this Melanocetus, are among the most rarely seen of all deep-sea fishes.

MBARI researchers captured rare footage of this "denizen of the deep" in Monterey Canyon, almost 2,000 feet below the surface.

At that depth, there's very little light.

But the female angler fish is equipped with a bioluminescent fishing pole to lure food near it's jagged-toothed mouth.

Fans of the animated movie "Finding Nemo" (2003) will recall that Dory and Marlin were drawn in by the glowing lightof an angler fish and almost became a meal.

As The Christian Science Monitor has reported, as MBARI scientists explore depths beyond 200 meters (660 feet), there's very little light in Monterey Canyon.

Many sea creatures that live at this depth are bioluminescent, which means they make their own light.
With their blinking blue and green lights, many of these gelatinous (jellylike) creatures in the deep ocean look more like spaceships than animals.

"When you see one, they really are more bizarre than science fiction could come up with," says Steve Haddock, marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
Blue-green light is the most common.

That is because these colors have a long wavelength in water and are easily spotted by sea creatures.

MBARI teams have only spotted just three Seadevils in 25 years of researching the underwater canyon off the California coast.
Research at these depths is conducted using remotely operated vehicles (ROV), and the latest MBARI explorer is dubbed the "Doc Ricketts."
The ROV is operated by scientists aboard the MBARI vessel, the R/V Western Flyer, a 117-foot small water-plane area twin hull (SWATH) oceanographic research vessel designed and constructed for this purpose.

The work of the MBARI teams is explained in a new exhibit that opens this week at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The “Mission to the Deep” features a 360-degree video projection of the Monterey Canyon.

Links :

• National Geographic : Rare Black Sea Devil Caught on Film for the First Time

Search for MH370 : hopes fresh drift model will improve debris search in Australia

Research centre gets a report a week of material washing ashore in Western Australia but none are linked to missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft

From The Guardian

Australia is working on new drift modelling to expand the geographical area in which wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may come ashore, the Australian search coordinator said on Wednesday.

New search area with the Marine GeoGarage (AHS chart)

Considerations on defining the search area - MH370

Initial analysis had suggested the first debris from the plane could come ashore at West Sumatra in Indonesia after about 123 days.
“We are currently working ... to see if we can get an updated drift model for a much wider area where there might be possibilities of debris washing ashore,” the search coordinator, Peter Foley, said in Perth.

 Last week, the ATSB gave an update which includes an extension of the ‘7th Arc’ search area with a drifting approach where parts may have been caught in an ocean current, bringing them ashore of Western Sumatra after 123 days.

Foley said the research centre was receiving reports at least once a week of debris washed up on the Australian coastline, but none has so far been identified as coming from the missing aircraft.

The drift modelling supplements an ongoing surface and underwater search for the plane, which disappeared over the remote Indian Ocean on 8 March with 239 people on board.

Current search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 became all the more complicated with an internal disagreement among investigators.

The differences in their opinion resulted to the deployment of the search vessels in two separate priority areas

The chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Martin Dolan, on Tuesday dismissed suggestions there was disagreement on the search area among the five groups that make up the international team - Boeing Co in the US, Thales in France, US investigator the National Transportation Safety Board and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

The teams initially agreed an area about 600km long by 90km wide west of Perth, Western Australia, was most likely.
A new report released last month specified two high-priority areas further south.
“There is no disagreement, just the deliberate application of differing analysis models,” Dolan said.

Representation of probability distribution at 6th (0011) arc for constrained autopilot dynamics (red) and data error optimization (green).

Red flight paths are most probable paths from the two types of analysis.

Area of interest on 7th (0019) arc covers 80% of probable paths from the two analyses at 0011 and consideration of the MRC approximate southern boundary

All five groups agree MH370’s final resting place is near the “seventh arc” a curve that stretches from about 1,000km off Exmouth in WA, to a point about 2,000km south-west of Perth, Dolan said.
More than 6,900 sq km of sea floor has been searched so far.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : New map exposes previously unseen details of seafloor / Flight MH370: New search images reveal seabed details / Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Satellite data to be re-examined as ‘more difficult’ phase begins, search on ocean floor widened / MH370: How do underwater sonar subs work? / Appeal to search missing Malaysian flight / Why locating MH370 in the Southern Ocean is so difficult / Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Search reveals extent of ocean garbage / Malaysia missing plane search China ship 'picks up signal'
• WSJ : Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 hampered by disagreements

Goce gravity map traces ocean circulation

Floating buoys were used to validate the map of ocean circulation and speed
The ocean currents and their speeds (in cm/s) derived from GOCE data.
During the mission’s final year, its super-low orbit was lowered even further to obtain improved measurements of Earth’s gravity field, from which information on ocean currents was derived.
Buoys floating in the oceans were used to validate the above map, proving that this GOCE-based model is more accurate than any other model based on space-based data to date.

From BBC by Jonathan Amos

Scientists have produced what they say is the most accurate space view yet of global ocean currents and the speed at which they move.

The information has been drawn from a range of satellites, but in particular from the European Space Agency's Goce mission.
This platform, which operated from 2009 to 2013, made ultra-precise measurements of Earth's gravity.
It has detailed the role this force plays in driving ocean circulation.

The new model - presented at a Goce conference at the Unesco HQ in Paris, France - will be of fundamental importance to climate modellers, because it is the mass movement of water that helps to transport heat around the globe.
Goce carried instrumentation capable of sensing very subtle changes in Earth's gravitational tug.
This pull varies ever so slightly from place to place because of the uneven distribution of mass inside the planet.

Data on sea-surface height combined with gravity information tells scientists

where the water is piled up :
The mean dynamic topography (MDT, in cm) of the world’s oceans in the highest resolution ever achieved from space-based data.
MDT is calculated by taking the mean sea-surface height measured by satellites like Envisat, and subtracting the gravity model from GOCE.
Red areas show where water levels are above the surface of the gravity model, while blue depicts areas where the water is below.
From this, scientists calculated the speed of ocean currents.

Scientists used these observations to construct what is called a "geoid", which essentially describes the "level surface" on an idealised world.
It is the shape the oceans would adopt if there were no winds, no currents and no tides to disturb them.
By comparing this geoid with measurements of sea-surface height made by other spacecraft, researchers can see where water has become piled up.

2011 GOCE geoid

In 2011, GOCE delivered a model of the 'geoid' pictured here.

At the time, it was the most accurate ever produced.

The colours in the image represent deviations in height (–100 m to +100 m) from an ideal geoid.

The blue shades represent low values and the reds/yellows represent high values.
A precise model of Earth's geoid is essential for deriving accurate measurements of ocean circulation, sea-level change and terrestrial ice dynamics.

The geoid is also used as a reference surface from which to map the topographical features on the planet.

In addition, a better understanding of variations in the gravity field will lead to a deeper understanding of Earth's interior, such as the physics and dynamics associated with volcanic activity and earthquakes.
By the middle of 2014, no less than five gravity field models and corresponding geoids had been generated from GOCE's data.

Each version more accurate than the last.

The fifth gravity model and geoid, includes all of the gravity data collected throughout the lifetime of the mission – right up until November 2013 when the satellite finally stopped working and succumbed to the force it was designed to measure.

And it is water's desire always to "run downhill" that is a major influence on the direction and speed of currents - although atmospheric winds and the Earth's rotation are of course critical partners in the overall picture.

Clearly visible in the map at the top of this page are the Agulhas Current flowing down the African coast; the Gulf Stream running across the Atlantic; the Kuroshio Current that sweeps south of Japan and out into the North Pacific; as well as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and the system of currents that hug the Equator. In places, these great trains of water move in excess of 1m per second.

The new Goce model of ocean circulation has been checked and integrated with the point measurements from drifting buoys.
This has helped capture some of the smaller-scale features in the currents that lie beyond the capabilities of satellites, even one that made as highly resolved observations as the Esa mission.
"Goce has really made a breakthrough for the estimation of ocean currents," said Marie-Helene Rio from the Italian National Research Council's Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate.
"The mission objective in terms of geoid [measurement] has been achieved at 1-2cm accuracy at 100km resolution, and in terms of ocean currents this translates into an error that is less than 4cm/s."

Scientists can now add in data collected about sea temperature to calculate the amount of energy the oceans move around the Earth.
Computer models that try to forecast future climate behaviour have to incorporate such details if they are to run more realistic simulations.

Goce's sleek looks led to it being nicknamed the "Ferrari of space"

The 5th International Goce User Workshop this week will be looking at the many other applications that came out of the satellite's mission.
Mapping gravity variations can yield information about ice mass loss in the Antarctic, and the deep-Earth movements that give rise to great quakes.
Goce was dubbed the "Ferrari of space" because of its sleek looks and the fact that it was assembled in Italy.

When operational, it was the lowest flying scientific satellite in the sky, making observations at an altitude of just 224km during its late phases.
This allowed the spacecraft to better sense the tiny gravity variations, but meant it had to constantly thrust an electric engine to stay aloft.
When the xenon fuel for this engine was exhausted in November 2013, Goce succumbed to the force it had been sent up to study and fell back to Earth.
Eyewitnesses saw surviving debris fall into the South Atlantic, just off the tip of South America, south of the Falkland Islands.

 Photo of GOCE reentering the atmosphere taken by Bill Chater in the Falklands at 21:20 local time on 11 November.

After more than four years mapping Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision, the GOCE mission came to a natural end when it ran out of fuel on 21 October.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Earth's gravitational field mapped by researchers / Goce gravity mission traces ocean circulation / Gravity satellite yields 'Potato Earth' view / CryoSat goes to sea