Two nights running we have been able to talk freely to Keahola 8, over 500 miles away!
What follows is a technical interlude; you can skipt to the last couple of paragraphs if you just want to know what we are up to!
We send and receive e-mails from Cleone daily - hence these musings which, for all we know, may go straight into your "Deleted Items" box still in that dark black script which denotes them as being un-read. Our e-mails are typed up as normal (on the Skipper's lap-top, as a rule) and then sent via our Iridium satellite phone. Ed Wildgoose in London runs a wonderful ISP service called Mailasail, which over half the yachts on this rally are using. His computers process all our ingoing and outgoing e-mails, screening them for viruses and removing and storing for us anything attached (such as pictures) to the incoming stuff. Since satellite phone time is expensive, this allows the minimum airtime to be used for incoming mail. You can also phone us on the Iridium, but I would not as it is very expensive (up to £8 per minute!) and anyway to save power (more on that, maybe, in a later piece) we don't keep the Iridium on all the time. The satellite chain allows us to use Iridium anywhere (even the North Pole, as various people (not us) have proved), so it is also a hugely useful safety system. Other boats on the rally have already used it to get medical advice, for instance. In theory at least, you can surf the net on Iridium, but at 9Kb/Sec (for the technically minded) it's very slow, and hence expensive - most Iridium users don't.
Besides the Iridium, we have three radios. A normal marine VHF gives us excellent short-wave communcations with a range of about 50 miles. This we use for talking to shore-stations (when they are in range) such as the Coast Guards and Harbour Authorities when we are appraching port. And in port they have a multitude of uses - summoning water taxis and talking to our friends and neighbours, for instance. And at sea, the VHF is always switched to Channel 16, the International Distress and Safety and Calling channel; this allows us communications with passing ships. World ARC has a nominated chat-net channel, so we also monitor that as well, so we can pick up anything from other World ARC yachts in range. But we have not seen any commercial ships on this leg, and apart from the first 3 or 4 days there have been very few yachts passing either way! The work-horse of World ARC fleet communcations is the SSB (Short Wave) Radio. Not so long ago, all ships used SSB for the vast majority of their communcations, and the airwaves were alive with teleprinters, telephone calls, 'ham radio' users and all sorts of commercial and private voice traffic. Nowadays the vast majoirty of this traffic uses satellite communcations, so the medium and short-wave bands are relatively free of traffic, and free to use. Depending on atmospheric conditions and the frequency used, even small SSB sets can give just about world-wide coverage - hence my being able to chat to Keahola 8 during the evenings. On World ARC we have two daily nets. At noon, the Duty Radio Operator holds a Roll Call, noting down all yachts' positions and weather. The net is also available in case anyone has a problem. There is a wealth of knowledge and skills amongst the WARC crews, and advice on medical matters, the weather, fishing and any technical problems is freely shared - when at sea, this is undoubtedly one of the most important and useful hours of the day for the vast majority of yachts. And of course there is lots of chat, with skippers and crew just wishing to pass the time of day with their mates on other yachts. We have a secondary schedule at the end of the day, 9 o'clock in the evening, in case their are any problems or advice needed, or just to report the triumphs and tribulations of fishing, cooking and sailing. The final radio set is a little hand-held VHF set - ideal for short-range stuff when coming into harbour, or for the crew to take ashore with them so that they can tell the Skipper when his beer is poured cold and ready for drinking.
And we have two more communications systems. There is a passive AIS set, which automatically gathers information from all commercial ships (mandatory for all ships over 150 tonnes), giving their name, number, position, course and speed and presenting it on a "radar" screen. This has a range of out to 32 miles, and is an invaluable aid, particulary in bad weather or at night, in helping us to avoid running into other ships. And finally, in case of a real emergency, there is our EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon), which when activated sends our position to passing satellites and planes, and within 20 minutes tells the UK coastguard that we are in distress, and exactly who and where we are. And we hope we never need to use this last one.
End of Technical Interlude.
We have had another cracking day's sailing, adding another 165 miles to our total, and bringing the Marquesas that much nearer. Our hitch-hiker is still with us, sadly still using the foredeck as his lavatory, and swooping off on fishing trips at will, returning satisfied and sleepy either to perch on the pulpit or to sit comfortably on the deck. What a booby he is. Perhaps he's off to the Marquesas as well - maybe for a fishing holiday? There has been the odd cloud and the odd light shower, with the wind freshening and moderating every so often. This has been enough to keep us on our toes, and though we've not used the Spinnaker again, we have flown and stowed the Mizen Staysail, and reefed and unreefed all the other sails. Elizabeth has been cooking and fishing again, and the Skipper has been threatened with having to bake some bread - all of our fresh has either been eaten or has gone mouldy and been used as fish-food. But a Norfy omlette (an occasional treat) has been promised for lunch, which puts this particular chore off for another day. And we did have a fish on the line (the Skipper claims it was not very big, but Elizabeth knows better - she says it was huge), but sadly it refused to come to the gaff, and we lost it.
Hopefully all our readers are as well, warm, sun-tanned and happy as we are.
James, Chris & Elizabeth
Yacht Cleone
At sea
07.41S112.34W