Talked with Shane

I talked with Shane and Walid via the satellite phone this morning. All is well and they are preparing for some rougher weather ahead. Shane had tried to call me yesterday with some computer/camera/FTP server problems he had with the on board camera but its all worked out now and he says its taking great pictures. Shane had some problem uploading a picture so he is going to email me one to post when he gets a chance and I'll get it right up.

He pointed out that when you look at their path on the iboat track link it shows them heading slightly north past the 43rd parallel. This is normal and their intneded Great Circle path that is actually shorter than heading due East. One of those globe vs flat mercator projection map things.

First Blog from Sea

It’s been little over a day at sea.  The winds have been cooperative at 15-25 knots.  We have had some rough swells, and I am still growing my sea legs.  I’m finally able to spend some time below (let alone write an email) without getting sick.  The stars are amazing!  The Milky Way is a white blanket across the night sky.  You can even see an occasional satellite streak across the black.  The wake of our boat is also spectacular.  Every now and then we hit patches of bioluminescent algae that glow a firefly blue.  We have some rough weather ahead.  A storm is brewing two to three days out that we are keeping a close eye on.  Should be fun.

Test Pix

Just a test

Underway

Shane just called:

Sunny, beautiful, low pressure system moving up from the cape, not a lot of wind but underway. Last look at land as they pass Logan airport on the way out of the bay through hippocrate channel. And they just passed the around the world bio diesel boat.

2:20 PM EST

Good luck Shane and Walid!

The Perfect Storm

We are waiting for a low pressure system to move through before heading out. We should have 30+ knot winds for the first few days. Look at all the yellow and red! How cold could it really be?!? The little circles outline our intended path across the Atlantic.

Boat Cam Pictures

A high definition camera was installed on the boat to take a time lapse movie of the entire voyage, shore to shore. It's an IQeye501 that takes a 1280x1024 image every 5 seconds and stores it to a 1TB RAID USB hard drive that is attached to the navigational computer on board running an FTP server.

Before the camera gets ripped off in a tidal wave here are a few shots of what it all looked like:




And some day and night shots from the camera after it was installed:

How to Contact Us

So the pony express doesn't seem to work well in the middle of the Atlantic, but we do have satellite phones and email:

Shane: shanemhaas@gmail.com

The Night Before

It's raining in Boston, but the winds look good. Just enjoying a couple of beverages after a wonderful meal at Les Zygomates. We have been provisioning the Gryphon during the past couple of weeks at Boston's Rowes Wharf.

Pictures from dinner the night before at Les Zygomates.