Monday, October 26, 2009One Week Down and the Shore Crew
Well we've been out here a full week now and into day 8 today! I've just been doing the maths and we covered 740nm in week 1 which is as much as I'd ever hoped for and pretty good considering some of the windless days we've had. If anything, the first week's run puts us very slightly ahead of schedule, but I hate to say that so early on!
We're near Norfolk Island which sounds like a pretty interesting place so I'll have to add it to the list of places to stop off at next time. Not long now till the Tasman is ticked off and then it's on to the equator.
Something I maybe should have done long ago is to introduce you all to my amazing shore team. If you ask me, they're the true heroes handling all the tricky stuff back home while I have fun out here! Here's just a few of the people I rely on and talk to every day, the complete support network is made up of even more amazing people with all sorts of different skills. And that's not to mention all the people who worked on Ella's Pink Lady and all our sponsors, it's more like a huge big extended family than anything. So along with all you guys thinking of me and Ella's Pink Lady I'm not really alone out here.
Firstly there's Bruce the Project Manager. Bruce and his wife Suzanne have worked on the voyage full time for most of the year, were hugely supportive before then and a big inspiration to me. I love Bruce's calm 'can do' approach and I talk through boat performance, conditions, any potential shipping etc with Bruce.
I talk to Dad (Roger) on the sat-phone twice a day for the official skeds (slang for a scheduled talk normally by radio). Dad's great for talking through any little problems with me and is kept busy chasing up all sorts of bits and pieces. It's nice to talk to Dad and hear all the ins and outs of what's going on at home.
Then there's Scott and Andrew who handle a lot more than just my management and media. Scott's always there to patiently help me work through the camera systems and the some of the sat communication gear. Andrew looks after the blog, sponsors and other news updates.
Bob McDavitt (the ambassador for New Zealand's met servos) is providing all the weather forecasting and routing us around the worst of the bad weather. It gives me a lot of confidence to have such a good idea of what's coming.
And lastly Mum (Julie) keeps me up to date with the outside world, forwarding on emails, sending me any news that I might find interesting. She's also the one who packed all the food so when I can't find something she's the one I ring!
More soon.
Jesse
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Perfect conditions and food
Well, perfect is about the only word for it out here today, we're doing 6.5 knots on a broad reach heading for a waypoint below Norfolk Island. The wind was just getting up above 15 knots so I pulled the first reef into the main this morning to keep the motion comfortable and to make the steering easier on Parker (the windvane).
It's such a nice day that I've just spent the morning sitting up on deck enjoying it all, watching Ella's Pink Lady sail along and listening to music. Today there's little speckles of white streaked across the water, as if they're there just to break up all that blue! Just think how great it would be if it were like this every day. On second thoughts maybe it would get a little boring!
It's taken awhile but I think the enormity of the voyage and everything that's happened over the last few months finally caught up with me today, surprisingly it didn't make me feel at all daunted, just proud of all the people who got us here and a little overwhelmed, wow this is it! And it's so much better than I ever dreamed! Still there's a lot to get through yet but I know we can do it, one leg at a time. I'm about half way between Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands now.
So rightyo, foods another big thing that I get a lot of questions about, here goes;
It was definitely a bit of a mission and Mum has done an amazing job of putting together a tasty menu that will last 8 months, plus extra just in case. Ella's Pink Lady doesn't have refrigeration (because it draws too much power) and after a lot of forced sampling, I concluded that fancy
sports foods and most freeze dried food, just wasn't going to work for me.
With a lot of help and advice from other sailors and from Gray Slater a dietitian from the University of the Sunshine Coast, I ended up with a pretty good diet that's amazingly close to normal food. My main meals are range of about 10 different meals called Easyfood which is pretty amazing, tasty stuff that only needs to be heated and lasts on the shelf for 18 months. Breakfasts are normal stuff like cereal and porridge and I'm able to bake my own bread (I think I'm going to have to try my first loaf soon because the stuff I took, is getting very stale!) and things like scones in the pressure cooker. Other than that there's tined fruit and veggies,
plenty of treats, hot drinks and etc.
I'll see if I can remember to tell you more about what I'm eating as we go, tonight, I'm planning to have Easyfood lamb chops (they are so nice!)with deb (mashed potato) and asparagus.
Ok, that was too long in front of a computer screen so I'm off to enjoy the rest of the day and maybe have a bucket bath in the cockpit.
Cya,
Jesse
Friday, October 23, 2009
Slowly
Today was more of the usual stuff for me, playing with cameras, catching up on a little sleep, keeping us moving, carefully monitoring my power ins and outs, feeding myself, the usual tiding up, lessening to music (there's noone to complain about my taste or volume I like to play it at!) and sending a few emails. It probably doesn't sound all that exciting but its keeping me happy and I still can't see myself ever getting bored, there's always something to do. Sailing around the world sure isn't all high action and excitement but quiet days reading are part of what I signed up for.
Not much wildlife around today, just Ella's Pink Lady, myself and lots and lots of blue, what more could anyone ask for?! We are not moving too badly again now, doing 6knots under full main, headsail and staysail.
Sorry I'll have to keep this short today because I better go and turn the HF on for a radio sked. As always, thanks to you all for all the support, I can't believe how many people are following the blog. It means a lot to me knowing you're all out there thinking of me!
Jesse
SOURCE:
http://www.youngestround.blogspot.com/
FCUBOOK
Gudang ilmu untuk semua
0 Response to "INTERESTING JOURNEY OF JESSICA WATSON"