Sailing Around the World: Eastward or Westward

Sailing Around the World: Eastward or Westward

Sailing the world can be accomplished using two directions namely eastward of westward (Liu , Liu, & Wang, 2011). However, the eastward side is the most preferable because dominant currents and winds on the southern hemisphere makes the boat move faster. Sailing around the world is risky and dangerous and therefore requires a sailor to understand several atmospheric elements to be able to circumnavigate successfully. First, it is important to note that forces of sail comes from the movement of air. The movement of air is attributable to speed and direction of the wind. Therefore, the speed and direction of the boat will depend on the speed and direction of the wind.To sail around the world, the sailor must start and return to the same point (Baklanov & Grisogono, 2011). This mean the boat will have to cross the equator and all meridians of longitude. Additionally, the sailor may cross some of the meridians more than once. The shortest route that a vessel must cover is at least 21,600 nautical miles in length computed based on the perfect sphere. It is assumed that the bout will go around the Antarctica in latitude of 63 degrees south (Liu , Liu, & Wang, 2011). Therefore, 1 degree of longitude at 63 degrees south will be equivalent to 27.24 NM.

As noted in the opening paragraph sailing around the world depends largely on weather patterns. Despite that the westwards route is friendlier than the eastbound direction, this paper founds that eastward fastest route. The eastbound direction benefits from westerly trade winds across the south pacific, north of Australia, across the Indian Ocean south of the Equator. Apart from the sailor taking advantage of the trade winds, there are also cyclones and hurricanes to consider. Hurricanes are as result of warm waters that occur especially at the end of summer. The worst and major storms occur in the northern hemisphere between July and October. On the other side, southern hemisphere experience dangerous storms in between December and April (Baklanov & Grisogono, 2011). However, the Eastern South Pacific and South Atlantic are characterized by few cyclones.The best time to leave London will be the end of March as the cyclone season winds cool down. This will give the sailor an opportunity to sail through the cyclone zone until November when he or she has to make a stop at South Africa. A stoppage at sound will enable the sailor to avoid the storms in the Indian Ocean. Then the sailor will start the journey again in the mid-January to cross the South Atlantic and Caribbean before the Start of Hurricane in June. Eastern South Pacific experience less few cyclones therefore, the sailor can travel all the way through and be able to cross Artic Ocean that between mid-July and mid-August when the ice is less likely to block the vessels to the starting point ate London, England.