Author: Seth
Picture: Beauty Shot!
Google Earth Location: Please see our tracking location on the right!


This will be our last blog for quite a while. We will not have the ability to send email from the ocean, so please don't get disappointed if you check back and the same message loads.

If you want to track our progress there are now two links on the right side of this page to do so. One link will show you our progress in relation to all the other boats and the second shows our own tracking device that we will keep for the remainder of the year. Both use Google earth so you can see exactly where we are (this whole thing isn't nearly as difficult as it used to be).

Our planned route will take us just south of Bermuda before we make the turn south toward the islands. This tactic should help us cross the gulfstream more quickly and avoid the uncertain weather in that area of the atmosphere. And depending on how this little rain storm "Paloma" develops in the coming days we could see our plans altered. Maybe even a complete diversion to Bermuda to wait out the bad weather. But more than likely we will cross the Atlantic before the storm catches up and it might even provide some much needed westerly wing to help us along on our journey east. I can certainly tell you that we are all watching this storm closely and will alter our route accordingly.

During the crossing we will check in twice daily with the Fleet Commander (Davis Murray) who is crossing on a Swan 52. He will provide weather updates for us via our SSB radio and track our position as we cross. Another nice safety feature of the cruising rally.

And life aboard should be more comfortable now that we have a water maker. Assuming we make some good progress early we will have the ability to run our generator in order to make water and charge our iPods and other gadgets. And we might even get an occasional shower now that we can make water at will (except E gets one every day) and we will definitely have more than enough to drink (which can be a big safety concern).

As for food, we'll fish the entire time and will see if we can bring in something big and tasty. We also have loads of grocery store food items to keep us full. Our only complaint will likely be from the cold weather we will experience before crossing the gulfstream - which might bring temps in the 40s or 50s. Without any shore power we won't be able to turn our heat on, so it's back to the good ol' days of no heat for us. Hopefully we get to the gulfstream quickly and can tear off our layers more quickly.

But mostly we expect to get lots of reading done, listen to great music, steal each other's money in Poker and learn how to play better backgammon. Not too bad a crossing, we hope...

But what a day today was to get us ready. We finished our watermaker installation, put in new hour meters for the engines, installed a block on the top of the mast for the Geneker Halyard, washed the boat, installed our jerry cans, brought our laundry in, went food shopping and put everything into its assigned place. And just to make things really stressful, one of our batteries stopped working and we will have to hunt around tomorrow for a replacement before our 9am departure! Life is certainly exciting these days.

Please wish us luck with the crossing and we will post our daily updates when we get to the other side. Wow, we are really going!