For most of her life GANNET has been a lake boat.
As nearly as I can determine from documents that came with her, her first owner lived east of San Francisco, but then in only a few years she was sold and moved to a lake in northern Texas, and then sold and moved to Duluth, Minnesota on Lake Superior, from where I bought her and had her towed first to Lake Michigan and then San Diego.
At the moment as you know she basks in warm Hawaiian water.
Several days ago Larry, a sailing friend from the Chicago area, sent me a link to an article about ice still on Lake Superior, which was verified by the above NASA Earth Observatory photo. It was taken on May 23, three days after GANNET and I sailed from San Diego.
GANNET thanks me.
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From the time I bought GANNET three years ago last month, the flow of stuff has been into her, often replacing old with new, but in. Now the tide has turned and, except for consumables and a few other items, the flow is out.
Several things, small and large, have been disposed of here in Hilo. Things I told myself I might use, but won’t. Or am so unlikely to they can’t justify taking up space on remote chance.
And I continue to refine stowage. Replacing objects that are easily accessible, but don’t need to be, with some that need to be accessible and weren’t.
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GANNET is a simple boat.
Well, not completely.
If you have read the passage log, I expect you will be surprised to learn that there are eleven GPS chips on board. When I first wrote that entry I counted only nine: iPad. iPad mini. Three Garmin handhelds, one of which came with the boat and two from THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, Garmin Quatix watch, Yellowbrick, Velocitek ProStart, and the Nikon AW1 camera. Yes, I can navigate by camera.
Since then I have remembered that the Torqeedo has an imbedded chip to measure speed and range and a Dual XPS150 bluetooth receiver in case the iPads couldn’t get a signal at sea.
Not all of these display positions. The Yellowbrick, Velocitek and Torqeedo do not.
The iPad mini with iNavX was a success as a chartplotter and provided positions all the way across the ocean. I took the iPad from storage once just to check and it too got a fix in mid-ocean.
I even used the mini in the cockpit the final morning inside an Aloksak bag through which the touch screen still functioned.
I almost forgot. There is a sextant aboard too.
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The highest and most massive mountain in the world is a few miles from me, but I have seen only the gradual lower slopes trailing into the sea. The rest has remained hidden in and above the clouds. Everest is of course higher above sea level, but this mountain is higher as measured from its base on the ocean floor, and is said to be more massive than the entire Sierra Nevada range.
I take all this on faith, as I do the existence of the mountain itself. But it, rising almost 14,000’ above sea level and lesser, but still substantial mountains on Maui to the north compress and speed currents and trade winds that give the channel between them a fearsome reputation. I hope to cross it at night and remain far offshore.
Today, after a Skype call to Carol, I’ll row ashore for lunch and a last walk. Then return to GANNET, scrub, dry, deflate and stow the dinghy; and otherwise return GANNET to sailing mode.
The Yellowbrick is still activated. The tracking page is: http://my.yb.tl/gannet/ You should see movement again by 1800 or 2400 UTC tomorrow, Sunday June 15. Hawaii is -10 UTC. I will sail with the wind for Honolulu on a course leaving Maui and Molokai to port.
The distance is about two hundred miles, so I should reach Honolulu Tuesday, variables being when the wind comes up in Hilo, which as I know can be late, and not entering the harbor at Honolulu at night.