You may enjoy reading about a woman that is a very, VERY prolific sailor. This is her 3rd try.
http://www.svnereida.com/
http://synereida.livejournal.com/
She has not yet safely completed her quest. Please wish her well. Quite the busy lady.
There are several websites reporting her position almost in real time
http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionReportsDetail.aspx?callsign=KC2IOV
click on a marker to see the note attached. less than 100 miles a day is usually considered to be slow for a boat that size. But, anyone trying to travel around the world without stopping, has to conserve fuel.
Of course, many sailboats, worldwide, but especially here in the Mediterranean, run their engines a lot. The ones that baffle me are the ones that motor downwind on a perfect day when the sailing hardly ever is any better than that. If they can’t sail on a perfect day when will they ever sail?
But, that’s a whole another conversation. In a case like Jeanne Socrates, and her desire to sail around the world nonstop, even a 30 mile a day is probably a good day. Since at the end of the day you are definitely closer to your destination. Unless of course you are unable to travel towards your destination and are now further away. With sailboats in the real ocean that does happen. Get used to it. At least you could move.
Starting in about 1970, we used to read pretty much any book we could find about ocean sailing. I remember that several of the authors tried to express their frustration during slow days, by saying that they would empty their slop bucket every morning.
What is the slop bucket?
You can divide garbage into two categories. The stuff that is pretty inert and you can carry for a long time. Paper, plastic bags, tin cans that you have washed out, jars that you have washed out. That sort of thing.
But, you will quickly learn that many kinds of food scraps spoil very quickly. They draw bugs. Actually, they breed bugs, and make a nasty smell. Some of my very good friends, who are crossing the Indian Ocean at this moment, keep a little compost bucket specifically in order to create a café where their geckos can have a nice meal. They have several pet geckos on board and sometimes even a few spiders. It is irresponsible to not provide lunch for your welcome guests. One of the features of being way offshore, is that there darn few insects out there. Nice for humans, but bad for insectivores.
But I’m getting distracted from my distraction.
I was trying to say that anyone that cruises offshore quickly learns to have a small slop bucket of compostable stuff that needs to be dumped overboard at least once a day if not more often. And a much larger trash can of things that are relatively nonperishable.
When complaining about how slowly they were going several authors mentioned that they dumped the compostable garbage once a day. On some unfortunate occasions, they were going so slowly, and because there had been no wind for days, the ocean was so smooth, that they could see yesterday’s compost floating not far away.
In other words, their 24 hour travel distance, was less than 100 yards.
Not to be outdone, some authors say that they had thought that was bad, until the morning that they dumped the compostable ended the same pile. In other words their 24 hour distance was less than a foot.
I think that makes a great story. I have told it several times. But, I would not be at all shocked to find out that it was imaginary. An exaggeration, for dramatic effect.
I am writing this at 08:23 Turkish time on June 30. The most recent progress report that I see on the following link, is for 2013-06-29 22:17:14.
http://www.exactearth.com/media-centre/recent-ship-tracks/tracking-nereida/
If you can still find that point when you are reading this, you will notice that it is in quite a different direction than the previous several points. And not really headed towards the destination. She may be doing that because that is the only direction that she can go. She may be doing it because it will get her in a better position in a few days for wind that she expects to come from some particular direction. That would be a strategic move.
I can’t really say. All I can do is just watch the position reports and see how it unfolds. All the while, wishing her the very best. I’m sure you’ll do the same.
Another position report link is at:
http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionReportsDetail.aspx?callsign=KC2IOV
It seems the only update once a day, but is a good backup if the other link has a problem.
Dave
Alegria1976's Blog 