Saturday, May 29, 2010

Slow Goin'

Day #2, Friday, May 28, 2010
Time of Report: 2100 Z
Position: 32.11 N, 79.29W
Heading: 140, bearing 128
Speed: Apparent Speed is 3.4 knots; Actual Speed is 2.5 knots

In every blog posting, we’ll be using the format above. For those who are not as “tuned in” to all of the nautical lingo, here’s a quick lesson on a few things:
1. When we talk about time in the report, ‘we’re using Zulu time, which is Greenwich Mean Time. During daylight savings, East Coast time is minus four hours, so in this example, 2100 Z is the same as 1700 EDT
2. We will show two types of speeds, Apparent (through the water) and Actual (over the water). Here’s the difference, the Apparent speed is the speed of the boat relative to the water with which it is in contact and Actual speed is the speed of the boat with regard to a fixed position.
3. A Rhumb line is a line crossing all meridians of longitude at the same angle, i.e. a path derived from a defined initial bearing. That is, upon taking an initial bearing, one proceeds along the same bearing, without changing the direction as measured relative to true north.

Rewinding to Thursday, on their way to sea, Woody & JD spent a little time on a sandbar. The incoming tide allowed for them to gracefully slide out around 2030 Z, but due to unfavorable tides and wind, they had to motor out of the Sound. Thursday night, the winds were light and they motored part of the night to keep moving. JD reported an incredible sunrise on Friday morning, as he had the 0400 to 0800 watch. He said it was one of those that you in religious/spiritual materials and I got the feeling it was a wonderful way for him to welcome in his first day at sea. Friday was spent with adverse light wind, right on the nose and an adverse current and they spent the day tacking back and forth with 120 degree arcs (typical tack arc should be 90 degrees, to give you an idea). It sounded pretty frustrating but they were keeping their spirits up. Dinner was Chicken Alfredo, and Woody described their rations to me. The have three large black trash bags, one is for mutal rations, such as the Chicken Alfredo, and the other two are for individual rations. They expected to enter the Gulf Stream on Saturday morning which will fetch them North, and by the Spot-Finder, it looks as if they are right on track.

Bill Tumlin (BT) is expecting to hear from Woody tonight at 2200 Z to give him a weather report, and Alice (his wife) talked with him and got a report once they hit the Gulf Stream and said it was a beautiful indigo blue, and that they were speeding along.

On another note, here’s the link to the YouTube that Parker, Woody’s son put together for him for the Bon Voyage that we weren’t able to view that evening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axBufuE4qHo&feature=email

And for one of the most famous quotes of sailing times…. There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. - Water Rat, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

More Soon! Tracy