4 June Check in

Not quite as far west as I calculated...progress has been (once again) slow! Winds have been a light 5-10 knots and variable, and will continue that way through Tuesday.  Bascially kind of crappy light wind.  Then a small but strong (50 knot winds at the center, but fortnunately that is a couple of hundred miles off) system will blow past on Friday.  They are hoping to catch some of the front winds of that system and get to the Azores by Friday. 

They are 700 miles from the Azores (position:  39.14N, 46.42 W), which should get them there about Friday night or Saturday morning.  Every time I think about how long this is...to be on a boat for 35 days with the same four guys... just to get to the Azores and have another 6 day sail to go...sweet mother of Mergatroid!.  That's a badge of honor that I will pass up, thank you.

Next check in will be at 4 pm EST on Monday.  BTW, my intuition was right, Code was trying and trying to get through yesterday, but could not get a line. 

Waiting for Code's next check in

I did not hear from Code yesterday as expected, but that shouldnt rattle anyone given the poor connectivity of the cell phones in between satellites out in the ocean.  We had a very poor quality call on Wednesday, so he is probably trying to get through.  (No worries...if they are in trouble, there is the GPIRB which is highly reliable!).  See the image below to get a sense of the satellite phone coverage.  There are 4 satellites which are stationary.  Best coverage is in the center of the circles (circles are percent of calls that go through) and as you move out it is weaker.  There is some overlap and right now they are in that 10-15% layer (I am not sure if overlapping is necessarily additive).

Weather is looking good for them for the next week (hooray!!).  They had a windy day yesterday/last evening, but winds are looking calmer and wave heights are diminishing to 6-9 feet.  They should be having a lovely day of sailing today. 

Tomorrow is 1/2 way on the route!

Mini update:  Next checkin call from Code will be at 4 pm EST.  I will update the website again after that!

Had a technically challenging conversation tonight with Code.  Maybe it is because they are halfway, which may be that they are switching satellite coverage from the US to Europe.  I could hear about every other word, at best.  He could hear me better, which is good, since I am the weather lady.

They are currently at 39 N and 51 W.  They go about 3 degrees per day (mini update:  I checked and it there are 53 miles for each degree at 39N...obviously the miles/degree varies depending where you are N/S.  At the equator it is something like 69 miles because the world is fatter there!  The longitude is alway 69 miles/degree because longitude doesnt change as it goes from pole to pole, not around the world like a series of belts).  The Azores are at 28 West.  So by tomorrow (Thurs) night, they will be at 48 W, then 45 on Friday, and so on.  Winds tomorrow afternoon are diminishing, it looks like about 10 to 15 knots, E/NE (direction that it blows from).  They had a windy day today and will be windy for most of the night (about 20 to 30 knots from the North) and they were happy to hear that things are going to give them a break, at least for tomorrow.  Triple reef was in for some of the day today.  Winds look like they kick up again

Kids had a minute to say hello and goodnight (of course, now they are mad at me for making them go back to their beds..., oh the joy...).

So far, it sounds like it has been a long haul with winds blowing unpredictably in unusual directions.  Could it be related to the heat wave we're having, record tornados in the midwest, and flooding in the south.  Climate change at work.

31 May Check in

Just 1280 miles to go (to the Azores).  Winds are coming from west/southwest and making for a lot of hand steering rather than the autopilot.  Oh well, says Code, he would rather have winds from the stern than from the bow (neither one is ideal), and it is better to have some wind than no wind.  They're making progress now at 40N, 56W.  Slowly but sure.  Winds look more favorable for the rest of the week.  Once they are at least half way there, the motor goes on the rest of the way!!

26 May 2011 Check in

They are at 34.34N and 63.35W.  Heading North/Northeast toward 40N to catch more favorable winds.  Winds should be shifting from the south/southeast starting Tuesday (yeah!!).  Everything is going well!  

Next checkin will be about 8 pm Saturday night.