A few old friends who followed this blog during the race have called to tell me they read every word, and found it fascinating. During the week before the race, Jon and I coordinated to set up this blog on WordPress. We both wanted to write about the experience of the race. I knew Jon was a good writer, as he can tell a good story, and that talent contributes to his writing. I expected I would write more than I did, but the 3 postings I did make during the race were from the heart.
The role of skipper was very demanding. I focused on the needs of the boat, including the following: make regular entries into the ship’s log, monitor the batteries, fuel and water, download GRIB files (weather prediction files) for navigation purposes over the satellite phone, and then analyze those GRIB files in our routing program, Expedition with my co-navigator, John. In addition, I occasionally got hungry and prepared a meal for the crew, or if it was dark and cold at night, I made tea or coco for everyone before going up on deck. The conditions during the day were more relaxing, and I found I would start to think about a blog posting. But at night, it was more of a challenge to get up, dress and get up on deck. After driving for an hour like a bat out of hell on a wavy surface, I was drained. Sleep came easily; the goal was to get ready to go do it again. My point is that my blog postings came from an insight, an observation, a desire to share, and they flowed easily, but I did not have the as much time to write as I expected. Knowing that everyone was contributing to be blog took the pressure off me. And once we started getting feedback that people were following it, it took on another dimension.
One old friend commented how curious it was that we were in a race a thousand miles offshore, and asked how did we make regular postings to a blog? We made the blog posting using email. Our primary connection to the Internet was the Iridium satellite phone, which provided voice, SMS text messaging and data transfer capacity. I have an account with Sailmail, which is an email service for sailors and cruisers, that compresses and encrypts emails and strips off attachments, so the email does not waste precious sat-phone minutes. I configured the blog up to receive emails with special tags, to indicate who wrote it, the date and topic, and to force publish it immediately. The resulting process of writing a blog was pretty easy; just sit down and write an email that tells a story, and send it to the secret address.
Now that Avion is less than 400 miles away from San Francisco, I must clarify to everyone that I am the owner, but not currently the skipper. I am back on land, and providing daily support, but the return delivery skipper is David. He has 4 other crew with him, Nico, Jon/Juan, Lindi, and Angie. David did a great job preparing Avion for the delivery while the boat was in Kaneohe Bay, and also during the delivery in his role as skipper. Avion is about to return safe and sound, with extra fuel and water. I am really proud of everyone involved for the extra effort of making the complete round trip.
This blog has been a rich experience. We have had almost 4,000 site visits since starting it. I might keep this blog going to provide a forum for ongoing discussion, analysis of the race, and a place to post pictures. It can also be a place to follow Avion’s new adventures in the coming years. For now, I just want to thank the readers, our families and friends. Thanks for your interest, and stay tuned for more. Tom
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