I haven't written in a while since my crew is doing a lot of that - and doing very well based on the emails I have been getting.
The crew current, and those who have since left, have been the best. They all found their way shipboard, developed sea legs and jobs they like beyond sailing and standing watch. I have had so much help I feel like I'm the guest.
We have had two issues to deal with, one of which you may have experienced when trying to communicate with us, namely our high seas email system. For the benefit of those gonna be sailors and those of you with boats trying to decide on equipment I'll tell you the direction I went in radio gear.
The basic radio for ship to shore or ship to ship/bridges is the VHF radio. Stray Cat has two hard mounts and one handheld. By the way, don't buy the West Marine submersible handheld for about $150.00 it won't take a wet ride in the dink.
VHF is line of sight so the earth's curvature limits the range of the signal to about 25 miles. One of my antennas is mounted 65 feet atop the mast so if I were trying to talk to a land base station, such as the USCG who's antenna is two hundred feet tall, I may be able to reach out 100 miles.
You get the idea; VHF is to limiting for off shore work so that brings me to the SSB, single side band transceiver, about $1,300.00 for starters then an antenna tuner for about $800.00 plus an antenna and counterpose ground system. All installed and running with the assistance of very expensive technicians, about 3k.
You will need a special radio license to operate the radio and it's not easy to prepare for the test. This radio, I have an ICOM 710 sends a signal out in voice or data that some how bounces off the upper atmosphere then back to earth many times and covers great distances. I have talked and listened to people thousands of miles away, it's what you might otherwise have heard of as HAM radio.There are a few times a day that it is not to reliable, sun rise/set and midday and when there are anomalies such as sun spots.
Not done yet, if you purchase a modem for about $900.00, USB it to your laptop and buy certain software, you can send emails. Well, I have had every kind of problem with the system - mostly with my provider.
I have backed that entire system up with a SAT phone for voice and the ability to get online for about $1,900.00. The SAT phone system works world wide and is very reliable at about a dollar a minute. That system also failed me because of the provider.
I can tell you that trying to resolve these problems on the high seas has been a real treat - and an expensive one - but it's done and we're good to go again.
The other problem is all about the wind. Stray Cat is a sailboat and to cover great distances wind in a favoring direction would be nice. While planning this trip I read the pertinent Pilot Charts that show each month of the year the recorded wind direction and velocity plus currents for a hundred years or more. After reading that and other references I was sure that we would have trade winds at about 15 kts on the port beam.
You guessed it, we have not had any trades; we have had light wind on the nose for three hundred and fifty miles. We have used passing squalls to sort of sling shot off for a few hours of real spine tingling sailing a couple times a day, but overall, we are not sailing as much as we need to.
Currently we are about 150 miles off the cost of Colombia and 195 miles off Panama running on one engine at very low RPM. Remaining fuel may get us to a land fall, maybe. The weather forecast tells of two tropical waves headed this way with east winds so while I might not normally wish for a wave we will welcome these two.
We're having a great time being and dealing with what sailors have always dealt with, so not to worry we will get there on time, smiling all the way.
Mark
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