9/29/07 UPDATE
I have added a new page to the website titled “Captain’s Log”. Check it out for the daily reports from Captain Rod while Raven is at sea.
Mike and I are high and dry here in Tucson but Raven has left Hawaii and is on her way to San Diego! Rod reports the boat position by email every 24 hours, and we have a professional “passage weather consultant” (my term – he calls himself “The Weather Guy”) monitoring the boat’s position and providing timely weather forecasts and marine conditions, along with a suggested strategy for the route to be taken.
The Hawaiian Islands (I learned last trip) are located farther away from a large land mass than any other place on earth! The track on the photo above from Honolulu to San Diego is about 3,000 miles. It would be a few hundred miles shorter if Raven could fly in a straight line like the crows do it but that’s not how wind and sailboats work. We’re expecting the trip to take 2-3 weeks, hopefully with no unexpected happenings. There are four crew aboard – in addition to Rod as captain, Elize has returned as temporary delivery crew, along with Nick, a competent sailor from New Zealand, as our other crew member. We also have a fourth person aboard, Brandy from the yacht Alsumar, who just needed a ride home.
Four crew members make keeping watch easier, as it is 2 hours on, 6 hours off, so plenty of sleep if the ride doesn’t get too rough.