A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

Back in ’09 we kept a “pic of day” Picassa album linked to our blog (thank you Judy for such a great idea!)  The idea was to post 1 photograph every day for the year we would be living aboard I Got Lucky.  In practice, there were days when I had nothing of interest to post and more often, ended up posting multiple photos for a day.   I wanted to share our experiences with family and friends and thought that it would be cool to have a visual as well as written blog.  It turned out to be the best keepsake we could possibly have from that year.

Once we were back home, we used the album as a screen saver for the computer in our main living area.  Over the next four years, we enjoyed those photographs randomly popping up throughout the day, every day.  We revisited friends and places and relived amazing memories.  It both motivated and encouraged us as we planned our next adventure aboard Blossom.

I’ve been anticipating starting up a new “Pic of Day”, and it’s time!  We’ve added a link to our main blog page. I’ll be uploading photos as often as I can, with the goal of capturing at least one photo a day.  I’ve all ready missed some prime opportunities for photo opts. I have to get back into the habit of taking pictures!

A man. A plan. A canal. Panama!

Sunday evening found my wife and I tensely sitting in front of the computer watching the live feed from the Panama Canal camera at the Mireflores locks.

Stephanie had got a notification that M/V Trinityborg had started moving from the anchorage just south of the canal and was headed towards the locks.

We were tense not because of Trinityborg, but because the San Francisco/Seattle game was in it's nail-biting 4th quarter.

In the end we were rewarded with a glimpse of Blossom aboard Trinityborg as they passed through the lock:

Blossom is circled.

The game, alas, did not end so well...

Next Steps: Moving East

Happy New Year!  2014 is starting off with a bang as we prepare for our move to the east coast.  I thought I would write a bit about the process since this is what we’ve been up to for the past few months.  I’ll start with finding a place to live…

This will be a two part move for us:  first we’ll move into an apartment for the commissioning period, and then we’ll move aboard Blossom.  We spoke with several people who have gone through the commissioning process and were advised to be there if possible.  This will give Martin the opportunity to learn more about the boat and to be present when the electronics are installed (he’s especially excited about that!)  It will also be easier for me to work with local vendors and have a bit more time to shop for soft furnishings and outfit the inside of the boat.  

Finding a place for us to stay in Stuart was tricky.  To begin with, we didn’t know when the boat would arrive, and therefore, when we’d be arriving.  Originally we were thinking the end of October but by mid-November we were relatively sure the boat would arrive around the end of February.  Secondly, we didn’t (and don’t) know how long we’ll need to stay in the apartment as this depends on how long the commissioning process takes.  We’re guessing 2-3 months max. Adding to the complexity was the fact that this is occurring during the “high” season in Florida so furnished rentals are at a premium and hard to find – especially on short notice.  And lastly, and perhaps the most option-limiting of all:  we have a much loved, geriatric cat and we’d like to ease his transition to ‘boat cat’ as much as possible.   

There were a few hotels nearby that said that they accepted pets. These options were extremely pricey, especially if we needed to rent for months, but we thought they could be a backup plan.  When I did a bit of research, however, we were disappointed to discover that even if a listing said “small pets welcome”, it actually meant “dogs welcome, not cats”.  A true cat lady, I was offended. I don’t think cats are potentially any more destructive than dogs, but that’s what we were told!  We also found two furnished apartments but they were equally pricey and lacked flexibility – for example, you couldn’t necessarily extend the rental time if needed because someone else may have reserved the unit – so these didn’t seem like the best options either. 

After a lot of research and an extremely productive visit to Stuart in late October, we found an unfurnished apartment available in early January with a short term lease that accepts pets and had a 45 day flexible move-in date.  As a bonus, it’s just a few miles from where Blossom will be docked and they have climate-controlled storage units for rent as well.  We found that it’s much more economical to rent unfurnished and then lease a few pieces of furniture.  The rest of the apartment will be filled with furnishings meant for Blossom.  It also means that we’ll be comfortable, having a home to live in rather than a room.  George will even have a lanai to lounge in where he can watch birds and smell the outdoors!

We’re heading out for a short visit today to set up the apartment and make it cat-ready.  We’re also looking forward to seeing Martin’s Mum and her partner, Michael, who will be visiting Florida while we’re there.

Happy New Year everyone!

Shipping Update and a note about AIS

Those of you trying to follow the progress of M/V Trinityborg will have noticed that she's been off the coast of Taiwan for several weeks now. This, of course, isn't actually the case but illustrates one of the limitaions of AIS. More on that in a moment, but first an update.

We get fowarded an email sent from the shipper to PAE with the latest update on Trinityborg. The latest read:

01/January/2014 – noon  (24 :00hrs UTC)

20*39.0 N  -  171*21.2 W

wind : W-3  -  sea-state : slight – swell: W 0,5m

speed: 14.6 knots

distance run last 24hrs: 349,6 miles -  distance to go Balboa 5541 miles

eta Balboa 17/Jan/2014 PM

eta Port Everglades 25-26/Jan/2014

That puts her a few hundred miles west of Hawaii:



Link to full map

AIS Limitations

Which brings us neatly to the limitations of AIS. Without going into too much detail, AIS is a system by which ships can broadcast their position, speed, and other details over VHS radio. In order to be able to receive this signal, the receiver must be within line of sight of the ship's antennae and have an receiving AIS system. In addition, in order to show up on the various websites, they must also share the AIS data they receive somehow.

For a ship the size of Trinityborg and a ground based antennae, line of site is probably not much more than 30 miles. This assumes that both sending and receiving antennae are 100 feet off the ground and that the sending radio is powerful enough for the receiving antenna to hear. 

We were hoping that that would happen near Hawaii, but apparently not.

I assume that the ship has been sending positional data to headquarters using satellites - radio or internet - which is how they know the details they know. AIS does not transmit wind or sea state.

I'll post up updates as we get them.