Courtesy of WOWSA, Pacific Ocean.
With Tropical Storm Maliksi is bearing down on the Discoverer and its crew and Ben Lecomte.
The storm formed in the Philippine Sea, off the northeastern coast of the Philippines with bands of thunderstorms circling the center, rainfall and gusty winds up to 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph). Maliksi is forecast to move parallel to the coast of Japan – right in the path of The Swim, Lecomte’s 8,721 km transoceanic stage swim across the Pacific Ocean between Japan and California.
Lecomte’s dryland team reported, “Ben had no choice but to pause in the face of a rapidly developing storm until the situation is safer. The boat has redirected to safer water until the storm subsides.“
Lecomte reported in his blog, “There is a long list of forces outside of my control that I can’t change. This only thing I can change is the way I think about them and react. Weather is on top of this list. For the sake of the overall effort, the only option for us was to go back towards land and anchor in a protected location, let the system pass and then sail back to where I stopped to resume swimming.”
Lecomte’s swim can be followed on the Seeker [see here] and on his website.
His live tracker can be seen here and a Facebook link is here as escort pilot Yoav Nevo head for safer waters.
First mate Tyral Dalitz is shown above in a squall before the swim started.
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