13;44.476n 114;93.106w
Farr Gone Blog
Stuart Cannon
Tue 29 Mar 2011 17:00
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Eureka!
after many foggy headed attempts I have got the
bloody thing working. The first few days after leaving I was so fatigued that I
couldn't think too straight so messing up was easy. Plus of course if I had a
mac it would have been plug and play. I hear Will chortling as I type this but
its true. Macs are better on boats. I originally planned to install a mac mini
but all the other expensive needs meant the budget evaporated before then. I
satisfy myself with the Ipad which is great.
I think the main reason for the breakthrough was
that we were becalmed last night so I pulled down the sails and got 5 or 6 good
hours of sleep. Does make a big difference and I've even cleaned up and done the
dishes!
Just before we were becalmed the sailing was great,
flying along at 8 to 9 knots but like so many things it came to an abrupt
halt.
Boat is going well but several minor repairs have
been required. Second night out a nav light bulb blew and changing that was a
challenge, leaning out over the bow and not dropping a tiny phillips head screw
while changing bulbs and not falling over.........about half an hour it
took, at a dock less than five minutes.
The ocean is truly mesmorising, huge mountains of
water, the colour of fountain pen ink at school (was it Quink?) powerfully roll
their way to some distant destination, to spend that force on a reef or cliff
somewhere. Waves are great. The water doesnt actually move that much, mainly up
and down but the force that is travelling so slowly through the water is
powerfull enough to raise billions of tons of water 20 feet in the air. The
force was generated by the tickle of wind on its surface. You can see I've had
too much sleep, I'm crapping on.
The days are passing very quickly as there is
always so much to do. The variable wind means constant attention to sails and
all the usual housework done with a twenty degree rocking to add a degree of
difficulty. All good fun.
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