Friday January 6th
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Last update
from sea (on this leg) - Friday
6th January The satellite
phone system works but is very basic in that I can send and receive compressed
email but the speed? is not sufficient for internet which would allow us to ask
Google important questions about sea birds, recipes and the host of other
questions that arise in everyday life at sea. Hooking up the
satellite phone is a bit of a kerfuffle.
We have a little laptop running a dated email package - so basic that it
has a dial -up facility – but that is what in needed here. The computer ‘talks’ to a router by wifi
and the router is connected to the satellite phone by cable. Additionally, I fix an antenna to the
A-frame on the stern and run a rather uncooperative cable through the boat to
connect to the satellite phone.
When everything is connected, we can send a number of pre-prepared emails
in one shot of satellite connection.
A dozen emails, a diary post and a weather forecast request typically
takes 3 minutes of satellite connection time. After we arrive we can revert to wifi-powered devices and use Whats
App and email for
comms. We are still
running fast and moving around a lot in a following sea with twenty knots of
wind behind us. Yesterday the
trip meter showed 162 miles run from noon to noon -our best yet. Travelling west we have had to put the clocks back every 15 degrees
of longitude to keep daylight aligned with daytime (or tummy time). We were already GMT minus one hour at
Cabo Verde and put the clock back another hour a few days after we left. With each of us having then
having to steer for three hour watches, no one wanted to ‘cop’ the extra hour
for the next clock change so we moved it back twenty minutes on each of three
successive watches one afternoon to GMT -three hours. We’ll put the clock back another hour
when we get to Grenada to come into line with them. So, looking
forward to showers, rest, a beer or two, eating out and easy communications with
family and friends, All best,
Tony, Brian and Morag |