Sunday evening - Simon Says It's Solved (plus Sam and Anna messages)
Catmojo
Matt
Sun 7 Jun 2020 23:14
Our intrepid Uk-based forecaster Simon Says that a rather fabulous idea might be to ride the winds on the side of the lows from SE to NE, whatever the heck that means. In practice, Simon Says we have to sail northwards and a bit eastwards for a few days, whereupon some wonderful winds will arrive from the north and west to waft us all the way to Lanzarote. Hurrah! So we're having a crack at that now, starting since earlier today Sunday on a course of just about due north. This bit of the trip is therefore a repositioning run of (say) three days after which we should be able to get to Lanza in another (say) eight days, give or take, maybe, perhaps, and it's not confirmed, only provisional.
I oughta thank Simon for his wise advice on the trip so far, and emphasise that our routing isn't ultimately His Problem at all. We don't want him fretting about it too much. He's just helping us out as a fellow boaty type, what with having access to more and better information with WiFi, and also of course his knowledge of stuff like "riding the side of lows" is useful too.
One thing Simon may be unaware of is Mojo's sometimes quite highish speed. He commented the other day that the AIS system was probably playing up, with the boat doing 8 knots into what he thought was 9knots of wind - but the wind was higher and to one side, altho yes, the boat was doing 8 knots. Every time I put the mainsail up, it always does 10 knots. Sam says he get a bit bored in single-digit speed.
Mojo can touch 10knots in just 10 knots of wind, which is quite fast for a floating 3-bedroom apartment. At the moment the wind is around 9knots, and Mojo is galloping along at 8knots. I daren't touch the sails when it's doing this well. Oops and now it's 9.3 again.
It's much colder at night now with lower sea temperatures. We get pleasant Med-stytle sunshine during the days, but at night the fluffy clouds turn black, ooer. But again, we're at the softest time of year for this trip weatherwise so there won't be any Hellish Storms. Sam was rather hoping for a Hellish Storm, but only a bit, like (say) five minutes for the video.
The messages have been flooding in since (for example) Sam's family worked out how to send messages. No, Sam has had hardly had any messages at all so far, but yesterday he got some that said "haven't you been getting our messages?" and "your brother has been messaging every day" which is a very good start. Somebody has been sending messages but which suddenly stop halfway through, and example being just now when the message was sent once when half completed, and again when completed and signed "Broseph Stalin" which sounds like it might be Sam's brother, or a crank call from Moscow.
Anna had briefed her contacts NOT to message her, but has now decided that it will be fine to hear from them anyway even if not too important- use the IridiumMessaging site or there might be an App. If you write in Dutch or Spanish, then only Anna or Ampi will be able to read the messages haha. (uitleg onderaan deze blog!)
Ampi gets lots of messages, all in Spanish. And as far as I can tell, we get all the messages from James and Simon perfectly. If you get a Bcc copy of the blog, James asks if you could NOT "reply" by email because it goes to him, not the satphone. Use the ridium Messaging messaging thing, and please SIGN your message else we have to guess who it is. Although that's quite fun too. Hi from me to Tony in SXM, and to GB! in GB whose messages all come through fine, and thanks!
From Sam - Max thanks for you messages from today, up until today they havent been coming in so whatever you did differently worked, are you sure you didnt send them to me on whatspapp?! Mum - thanks for your incredibly challenging riddle, it took Anna all of 4 seconds to reply "The Sea!" (with complete confidence so that must be right?) also the crew voted against sailing into Deal for a cup of tea sorry! Dad nice to hear from you Ali and Lora send my love to the kids! Penny - hope you are enjoying being back on court send my fomo to the tennis crew! Pat - say hi to the boys (but not to rich i dont care how he is doing) Looking forward to seeing everyone back home whenever that may be, we are discussing staying in Lanzarote and Ibiza and Barcelona for a few more months so who knows! TENNIS!
From Anna - Gezien de korte bedenktijd (van 6 uur) voor deze trip over de Atlantische oceaan, heb ik niet zoals mijn mede-crewgenoten, mensen kunnen inlichten over de mogelijkheid berichten te sturen naar de boot. Wij kunnen hier alleen via de blog op antwoorden. Hier volgt een korte uitleg als je een berichtje wilt sturen: Ga naar deze website https://messaging.iridium.com/ en vul dit nummer in 881631514957. Start je bericht met voor wie het bericht bedoeld is en van wie het bericht is (maximaal 160 karakters). Wanneer we een bericht ontvangen horen we een hard geluid dus graag alleen een bericht sturen tussen 4PM en 11PM (Nederlandse tijd). Ik weet dat ik Fleur heb verteld alleen een bericht te sturen als het heeeel belangrijk is. Waarop zij antwoordde: 'Maar als er iets ergs gebeurd wil je dat toch niet weten midden op zee'. Dat blijkt dus niet zo te zijn, dus we krijgen lieve/grappige berichtjes van mensen die ons volgen. Wij kijken altijd uit naar berichten van het vaste land!