User:Vincecate/Migration

The maximum wave we could face determines what we have to design for. If we could be sure we never had to face over 30 foot waves we would not need to design for 100 foot waves. This would make things much easier. Little birds avoid both winter storms and hurricanes by migrating. I think if we have the right migratory pattern we could avoid storms and have a worst case wave of less than 30 feet.

Imagine each seastead uses a kite and sea anchor to move in a big circle around the Sargasso Sea once each year. The currents are almost fast enough to do this, so even a slow seastead can probably make it. I am thinking Anguilla, Bermuda, Azores, back to Anguilla. We could time it so that we were in the North-Eastern half of this loop to avoid the hurricane season in the South-West and then in the South-Western half of the loop to avoid the cold stormy season in the North-Atlantic. With computers controlling the kites and sea anchors I think we can move at the right speed to make this happen. I think if we checked historical information that doing this you would never have had to face even a 30 foot wave in the last 100+ years. Designing/building for 30 foot waves is much easier than designing/building for 100 foot waves, so this type of migration could make the seasteads much more affordable.

On the edge of this Gyre there is dependable wind. In the middle it can be calm.

Speed

If the radius of our migration path was 800 miles, and it were circular, the circumference would be 2*800*3.141592=5027 miles. Over 365 days that is 13.77 miles/day, or about 0.57 MPH. The surface currents are a bit less than this. However, down 100 meters the current is 4% of surface speed. So a spar or sea anchor will work against slower water. In any case, movement relative to the surface current could be very slow (maybe 0.3 MPH) and as you go down the relative motion will go up to about 0.57 MPH.

For the seastead designs that we have talked about so far, I think kites could move them at the needed average speed.

Climate and power usage

This type of migration keeps the seastead in a comfortable climate all year. Heating or air-conditioning may not even be necessary. In any case, it reduces the power requirements for heating/cooling which can be substantial in some climates.

Dodging bad weather

If you have the ability to move, even slow movement can be enough to get out of the middle of a hurricane's path, even if you start there. These days you can get more than 4 days warning for a hurricane. If you can move 2+ MPH then in 4 days you can move over 200 miles. This should be enough to reduce the maximum wave experienced to less than 30 feet. If you are on a route that should not have hurricanes or storms, and have the ability to adjust the route some based on the weather forecast, and can handle 30 foot waves, you should be safe.

Some seastead designs may need to count on mobility and some may not have it or need it.

Access to land

This migration path would also mean that at 3 times during the year shopping or taking on cargo would be easy. This route passes near Anguilla (and other Caribbean islands), Bermuda, and the Azores. Depending on the type of seastead, it could pull right into a harbor or just slowly pass the islands while people used a boat to go to/from land.

This makes it easier to meet with landlubbers too. You could meet them on the island or they could visit the seastead. Tourists could visit for a couple months from the Caribbean to Bermuda or around 5 months on the other legs.

Evaluating route safety

I have checked the potential route in the graphic at the top against my "Pilot Charts" for the North Atlantic.

My charts have contour lines for the chances of waves over 12 feet. The lowest probablility contour is either 5% or 10% and the places/times on my route are always less than the lowest contour line.

My charts also have chances of a gale. Where I have June is right between 0% and 1% chance of a gale during the month (should have made it just a bit lower). The rest of the time the chance of a gale is listed as 0% (they note that 0% means closer to 0 than 1% but maybe not really 0). By "gale" my charts mean at least force 8 on the Beaufort scale which might be just 18 foot seas:

So it looks like we could make a route with a 1% chance (or maybe less) of an 18 foot sea once during during the year.

It is at force 9 that waves start breaking in the open ocean, which can be particularly hard on structures

From the pilot charts my route seems safe from hurricanes. But there is more info online. There is a plot of major hurricanes. Hurricane season is from June 1 to Nov 30 but there is some chance of storms outside this time. August through October is the peak period, with 78% of the tropical storm days, 87% of the minor hurricane (1 or 2) days, and 96% of the major (Saffir-Simpson categories 3, 4 and 5) hurricane days occurring then. Can see a maps of probabilities by month. There is a non-zero chance of a minor hurricane over much of the North Atlantic in September. This might be a problem for this migration idea. However, it may be that even a minor hurricane would not produce 30 foot waves. And we may be able to dodge it.

So this route might keep you safe from waves over 30 feet or breaking waves. But would be nice to get more information. I doubt I have the most optimal route already but it gets the idea across.

Forum discussion

There is a bit more on this in a thread on the forum.