2011 02 11-½ way mark, Leaky Hatches, Sat Phone Charging by Angela

2011 02 11-½ way mark, Leaky Hatches, Sat Phone Charging by Angela

Via Sat Phone to Deb

Big Blue is half way to Barbados.  They are continuing to move at a great pace, covering nearly 90 miles each day.  At this rate, they should be in Barbados by March 1^st.

Angela has successfully built an external charger for her Satellite phone batteries.  The Iridium FAQ guys were instrumental in the success.  They were able to send me info on the batteries and the phone so Angela could build a charger that works.  They tried stuff out at their shop.  They took pictures of the set up and drawings of the battery with a key to the connectors.  Their mock up called for wires to be taped to the connectors at the bottom of the phone.  It worked but the taped wire became separated from the connectors because of the constant movement of the boat.  Angela was able to make a charger the battery was able to slide into and make connection with the contacts.  She will keep them on the charger for 2 hours then take them off after her rowing shift.  This means starting tomorrow, I can begin sending the 160 character messages from family, friends and the Guestbook to the boat again.

The deck hatches have been leaking.  Steve has made gaskets/seals for the hatches out of Ziploc bags.  He also has been pumping the water out of the deck hatches.  They have one trash hatch, but it is getting full.  Angela says that hatch is very smelly.  They don’t throw anything overboard on purpose, as they want to be kind to the ocean.  That being said, people continue to lose things overboard because some of the crew have difficulty remembering to tether things to the boat.  Luckily, the crew is remembering to clip themselves to the boat.  The Dakine coiled paddleboard leashes are working great when the seas are calm.

Deb