07.44S 105.39W
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Fri 14 Mar 2008 04:26
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Hello everybody
Not a lot to report today ,we are just approaching
the 1000nm mark roughly a third of the way to our destination.We were net
controllers today which means that we have the responsibility for collecting
everyone's position and reporting back by e-mail to Rally Control in the
Uk.
Basically this all starts at 10am Leg Time (the
time adopted by all the boats in the rally at various stages of our voyage)
because we travelling a long way on this leg our time zones change three times
on pre-determined day to bring us into line with the time zone in the
Marqesas.At the moment our leg time is 20.00 hrs (8pm) uk time is
4am.
The roll call starts with 2 min silence to allow
for any yachts with emergencies to contact net control ,with the rally now
spread over 700nm the only radios capable of operating over these distances are
call SSB to operate these we have to take a special exam (the course lasts 5/6
days and it is brain damage) unfortunately the radio's require good propagation
as they bounce the waves off the ionosphere when its good they are brilliant and
when its bad a challenge.
Anyway when its bad we have to relay messages
between boats to cover the distance anyway it can take an hour to take down the
positions of 30 boats and then send them back to the UK so the net controllers
are only on one day per week our day is Thursday other boats do the other
days.
We have just been trying to make up ground today
after a 24hr run of 116nm (the previous day was 164nm) due to a lack of wind its
starting to pick up again but we really need about 15 knts to get us moving up
in the 7knt + range.We are now 2hrs into our watches Jenny 1800 to 2100 Ellie
2100 to 2400 Peter 2400 to0300 Alan 0300 to 0600 Jenny 0600 to 0900.Coming
across the Atlantic we varied our watches by advancing them everyday but these
watches suit our sleep patterns so they are fixed.
Weather at present Wind 12knts SE our course is
roughly SW we are making 6.5 knts over the ground and the sea is lumpy and
uncomfortable.
That's all
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