Abby Sunderland - SoloRound

[clockwork orange]

Hud,where are you finding mileages covered?i would love to see 24hr runs posted daily from both the girls voyages.
Steve.

[Hud3]

The link that sec906 posted has her daily position reported as xx miles below the Equator, so you can do the math.

[dpex]

Am I misinterpreting things here, or is there something decidedly odd about Abby's latest post?

I quote....

"Are you out of fresh food? Yes, I have been for quite awhile now. And no, I don't do any baking.

Will I go to Easter Island? I'm not planning on it. Since I was able to re-start from Cabo san Lucais I am still hoping to go the rest of the way with out stopping.

Is your AIS working? Yes, my AIS is working, both transmitting and receiving. I had been having trouble with it at first but it is up and running now.

Re: reefing in 5 knots In the picture in my last blog where the main sail is reefed, I had to reef so that I could reach to hook the main sail back to the truck on the mast. It somehow unscrewed itself. Its much more comfortable to have the sail to sit on while sitting up on the boom and I took the picture while I was up there. Don't worry, that reef came right back out as soon as I was done.

RE: outer track for staysail sheet: There is an outer track for the stay sail sheet and jib sheet, but as I have had the jib out for most of my trip so far I leave the jib sheet running through the outer track. If I was going to have my stay sail out for any length of time I would switch them."

Does that all seem as odd to you as it does to me?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by dpex

Am I misinterpreting things here, or is there something decidedly odd about Abby's latest post?
I quote ...
... Does that all seem as odd to you as it does to me?

No, but I can be quite dense.
To what do you specifically refer?

[dpex]

Originally Posted by GordMay

No, but I can be quite dense.
To what do you specifically refer?

I referred to 'it' above.

But now we have a post asserting she's bored....Albeit, an admission which came as a question.

To me....and of course only to me....that suggests a mind-set of AB-Z thinking. As in, can we just get 'this' over and done with. It sits in stark contrast with the attitude of other solo-circumnavigators, and does tend to support the posit that Abby has been pushed into this voyage rather than having been pulled into it for the pure pleasure of doing it.

I guess the trials of the SO will tell us more.

[dpex]

Phew! I think we can all relax a bit. Her last blog shows she's getting wedged in to way of things.

Single-handing is a bit like being in prison....not that I have, but I've read enough about it....

The first little while is serious culture shock till, one day, you wake up and everything is kinda normal.

We can just hope her wee speedy boat is up to taking a few really hard hits and that she is also up for them.

[John A]

Originally Posted by dpex

Single-handing is a bit like being in prison....not that I have, but I've read enough about it.....

Reading someone else's preciptation and then interrupting that preciptation based on your own experiences doesn't prepare you for reality. To put it another way, you don't have a clue until you've done it.

Single-handling is an individual endeavor, something that is not enjoyed by everyone. One must be very comfortable with who and what they are.

It's interesting to compare the atitudes of Jessie and Abby from their post. Jessie sounds quite happy with her voyage, Abby is struggling a bit.

Regards John

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by John A

Reading someone else's preciptation and then interrupting that preciptation based on your own experiences doesn't prepare you for reality ...

I'm not quite certain what you intend to say; since PRECIPITATION refers to eitherrain, sleet, hail, snow and other forms of water falling from the sky, or the condensation of a solid from a solution during a chemical reaction; and PRECIPTATION has no meaning, of which I'm aware.

Why would anyone interrupt someone's preciption?

What would prepare you for reality?

[John A]

Rather than continue this in an improper thread, where I'm at a disadvantage to the more judgemental/intellectual of this forum, I'll PM you.
regards John

[GordMay]

John:
I've read your PM, and take note of your criticism (which I understand), but I still don't know what you intended to convey in your post #127.
What would prepare you for reality?

[slomotion]

After Hud's post on Feb. 27th, I haven't been able to follow much in the succeeding posts in this thread at all. Abby certainly indicated that she was anxious to experience some more boisterous conditions. She's getting them now and seems very pleased about it.

[GordMay]

This thread is less about Abby; than it is about what WE THINK about Abby, her adventure(s), and allied topics.

I’ll agree that “interrupting someone’s preciptation” might be a little off-topic (or not; if/when we find out what it means), as might be some of my more dubious contributions.

To read what Abby has to say,
Goto ➥ Abby's Blog

Today is Day 55 (3/18/2010), and she’s about 262 miles North of “The Bloop”
The Bloop is located about 50̊ 0' 0" S, 100̊ 0' 0" W.
The Bloop was recorded by NOAA during the summer of1997, on the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array. The sound rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute, and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km. The origin of the sound is unknown.
Five other significant unexplained sounds have been named by NOAA’s Acoustic Monitoring Project of the VENTS Program: Julia, Train, Slowdown, Whistle, and Upsweep.

More ➥ http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics.html

[Jim D]

Well, it's always risky to guess, but I suggest the words John may have intended to be "perception" and "interpreting".

~

[GordMay]

Assuming Jim D’s (thanx) interruption is kerwrecked; I’d translate thus:

“Reading someone else's perception, and then interpreting that perception based on your own experiences doesn't prepare you for reality ...”
becomes comprehensible, if not defensible.

Rereading John ‘s post, I also note the much clearer, though no less indefensible: “To put it another way, you don't have a clue until you've done it.”

I’ll agree that experience and understanding are related; but to suggest that knowledge is impossible without experience is ludicrous.

Personal or practical experience is often touted as a uniquely valuable source of knowledge. Assumptions about the necessity, superiority, or insightfulness of “first-hand familiarity” with a phenomenon can shape our perceptions of an individual’s expertise. These assumptions can be superficial, however. Prior experience can have benefits, but is not an unassailable source of knowledge and should not be treated as an unqualified “good.” Having “done it right” would certainly be more useful than merely having done it wrong (although some of us do learn from our mistakes).

[Charlie]

Wild Eyes is on track to see some weather. I was lining up the Passageweather Forecasts and the location of where Wild Eyes is now and she is on course to arrive at the Cape with a 980 mb low, 35 to 50 knot winds and 5 to 8 meter seas. I hope that the weather routers have some magic up their sleeves. If it were me I would slow down and try to ride down the back of the low. but there is a 960 mb low behind it. I am scared for her now. There aren't many places to pull in along the west coast of South America and all the reading that I have done about them they are very difficult anchorages with complicated anchoring techniques. She says she is having fun in her first gale 35 knots. She is 10 knots shy of a gale. Say your prayers everyone. This is the test of what Abby is made of.