So Donald and Power Of One have added another 1600nm to their tally and arrived home in Savannah, Georgia. Well done!
I had quite a scare this afternoon when I checked on their position as the little ‘SPOT’ device that plots the boat’s position, and sends it to the progress map, reported the last update some 4hrs prior to the time I checked. I sent Donald a text to ask if everything was okay and I had no reply from him. I know he doesn’t communicate that much out there over the satellite phone but once a few hours had passed, and still no response, I started worrying a bit.
So I thought I might be able to find him via his AIS (Automatic Identification System) device which sends a position to a central database, and is used by maritime vessel tracking systems as a supplement to marine radar. Marine vessels can see other marine vessels plotted on their navigation systems via the AIS position, so very handy to have for safety – if it is switched on. There are a number of online websites that you can view the AIS positions of ships and boats in real-time, I use Marine Traffic mostly.
Unfortunately Donald’s navigation software, Adrena, still wasn’t working from having failed during the Rhoute du Rhum race, so that meant his AIS wasn’t working either as they are linked together. So I couldn’t see him but then I started looking for other marine traffic that may have been in the vicinity of where his last reported position was. This is when I got a fright as you will see from the image below that one of those big, closed vehicle cargo carriers – RORO I think it’s called, for Roll-On/Roll-Off – looked as though it had crossed very close at the time when and where his last position had been reported!
I messaged Debra to ask if she had heard from him and didn’t hear back immediately either. So now it was just a matter of waiting and hoping to get word at some time that everything was still fine. A few hours later Donald and Debra got back to me to say all was fine and that he had just crossed the sandbar into the Wilmington River – phew, relief! Donald hadn’t realised the SPOT device had stopped working, and he had no success in getting it revived. Electronics are great – when they work! In Donald’s words:
“All good, except Spot who I noticed 20 minutes ago. Tried resuscitating but no go. 8 nm from outer buoy and calm seas. Neptune has granted me safe passage.”
I replied that I had been worried because of the AIS info and it coinciding with the last Spot position report, he responded with –
“That was legitimate worry. Two vessels called me very close to say I appeared on radar within a mile. AIS clearly not working…”, “Very sobering. Come all this way with everything ocean has to offer and get taken out by a ship on the way in. Won’t leave without AIS and Adrena working again.”
Later update msg – “Inside the Sound doing up to 10 [kts] SOG (speed over ground). Phew, I’m home, that was a difficult one, despite a very pleasant and quick voyage on balance.”
Power of One 