Hey Steve,

Amazing no one was seriously hurt in this one, what a relief to hear that all the crew is safe... All credit to the ALVIMEDICA team for standing by, sounds like all this was well-coordinated by the VOR officials and handled in a very professional manner... Interesting YouTubes from ALVIMEDICA...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qTmChaeqpo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZaWloyK2vQ#t=214

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFy8cKotMUQ#t=317

Tons of speculation on this one, but signs appear to be pointing strongly towards an error related to layering of the e-charting software being used, an possible 'under-zooming' of the area at the time... THE classic electronic navigation mistake, of course... Here are some snippets from other boats, etc:

“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.”

Team Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker said his crew had noted the damage of the reef as they sailed past it earlier in daylight as they led the fleet.

"When we went past that we actually said how easy it would be to hit it at night. Fortunately we went through in daylight," Walker said on the race website as the fleet reacted to the news.

"There are different layers of charting so it's very easy not to see it on the electronic charts and at night time you wouldn't see it."

So, certainly appears to be a cautionary tale re the use of e-charting, particularly for passage planning... Of course, a quick glance at a paper chart of the South Indian Ocean would have indicated the presence of that archipelago... Hell, that thing shows up on my freakin' 12" GLOBE I have sitting here on my desk, fer chrissake... (grin)

Fascinating story to come, I suspect there will much to be learned from this one... But the main thing, of course, is the relief that the crew is safe, the VOR definitely dodged a bullet, bigtime, with this one...

best regards,

Jon