Monday 20 August 2012

Aboard Taniwha - Part 8: Slipping the Lines



In St. John's, we have been waiting.

Waiting for the miracles to come.

Now the time has come, and so have the miracles: the miracle of the right weather to start out in, and the miracle of the right rope - a specialist very strong dyneema rope which will help the mast stay up (an essential thing for any sailing boat to have).

The rope got delayed due to a ferry breakdown between the mainland and Port-Aux-Basques. But now the weather is all good (except for a little bit of Newfoundland fog), and the rope arrived, so all we need to do is attach the rope, slip the lines, and set out between the cliffs and head for Falmouth!

Our location can probably be tracked by clicking on this link and entering the password Taniwha5C . Good luck with that, it's worth a try! This service is provided by our newest crewmember, Nathan. He is a local lad who came to see us at the dock and expressed an interest in crossing the pond, and he has tall ship experience and a good quick-learning attitude, so Nick our skipper snapped him up as the latest recruit!

The route we will be taking will approximately follow the reverse of the path of Marconi's first successful radio communication:


Our course is likely to wobble somewhat more: Electromagnetic waves might travel in straight lines (and bounce off the stratosphere), but sailing boats almost never do.

Crossing the North Atlantic should take between two and three weeks, so here's hoping for some good winds in the right direction!


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