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Lexington - Captain Bob: 3/13/17. 10*. 11'. south. 115*. 23'. west



We have really gotten lazy. We have the twin head sails up, we do not trim them(can not do much) all we have to do is keep the wind behind the boat in the right direction which is about 30 degrees to either side of the stern. We do not change sail plans at night because this plan will take a lot of wind and it can be reefed by furling (rolling up partially). We have literally not changed anything in 24 hours. That is not uncommon in long passages in trade wind routes. Set the sail and ride into the sunset. During the day we could probably get a little more speed out of our asymmetrical spinnaker but it is a sail change that would not add that much. Our daily distance sailed has been comparable to when we were working harder using the asymmetrical spinnaker in the day and changing at night. We could have used the asymmetrical spinnaker at night but we were worried about the potential for squalls.

I am on watch from 9-12 tonight. I am running the generator and charging the batteries and making water. I thought we were using more energy but then realized that by sail directly west at 10 south with twin head sails, you block the sun from your solar panels for about 1/2 the day. Not everything can be perfect.

Communication: we have excellent communication for a boat. Previously we used SSB radio with small emails that worked fairly well. On this trip I have gotten lazy. Sam set us up with a satellite phone and an email service. I am typing this on my iPad. It will go to the Iridium satellite phone by wifi and then to you by satellite and internet. We can send small photos. My old SSB took more time to connect to ham stations and then send the packets. A minor problem is we are all on the same system and emails just come to whom ever clicked on send and receive at that moment. We have unlimited data and pay $150 a month. A little expensive but convenient. I think all the boats doing the World ARC have similar systems. They are fairly common. When we get someplace with good wifi, we can use our Bullet wifi antenna to pick up the wifi and the use the boat network for is all to have wifi and cell texting via wifi and skype by wifi. It is very nice. One side of me would say not to have it so convenient. It is nice for getting weather. I subscribe for a service that sends me weather products daily. I can request a lot of stuff. You email in a request the would read like this " send PYAA45.TIF". That tells a robot to send a weather surface chart by that file name. You have to study to figure it out but it works and what the file names are.

May fair winds fill your sails with ignorance and bliss!?
Bob

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