Update from Ship Operations Manager 23rd March 2011
Hi all,
I bet you are wondering where the TENACIOUS updates have been this last week. Well, the ship and crew have been battling some rather lumpy North Atlantic weather en route to Horta on the Island of Faial, one of the Azores Archipelago see; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faial_Island
With the ship rolling around like a very roly thing on a roly day on Planet Roly, her Inmarsat Mini-M e-mail system has been particularly 'pants' (that's technical speak for not being able to hold a satellite signal!) so updates can't be sent out from the ship. Of course they keep in touch with the ship operations department on a daily basis, but that is through the Inmarsat-C satellite system which is so expensive to send messages that even Bill Gates would think twice about sending one!
So I thought I'd update all the TENACIOUS readers myself. Up until the 21st March all was, as I've mentioned a bit lumpy. Before you read any further, to save any worries from concerned family & friends, all onboard are well.
At 0840 GMT on 22nd March in a position about 400 nautical miles due West of the Azores (38° 10.1'N, 038° 36.3'W for nerds like me!), a weather front passed overhead resulting in 80 knot winds (that’s 92 miles per hour in English), the ship rolled about 60 degrees to port, which in nautical speak is a bloody big roll!. The ship lost a life raft overboard (inflated & now gone), a few deck locker box lids, a couple of life rings, a smoke/light float and more importantly the great big tub where we keep the spuds. The spuds are now sadly presumed missing at sea…
The position of our missing safety equipment has been reported to the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in the Azores as all equipment can be traced back to the vessel it came from and we wouldn’t want another vessel raising the alarm when they found some TENACIOUS safety equipment floating in the middle of the Ocean. Any passing vessel would investigate a life raft in the sea of course.
23rd March,
Today’s update from TENACIOUS at 1155 GMT, is that weather is a lovely WSW force 4 (the right direction for a change!) and the ship is sailing and rolling along nicely. In the words of Captain Barbara Campbell "The crew are all very cheerful and happy and loving the experience"
They are currently about 300 nautical miles West of Horta and due to arrive 1100hrs this Friday 25th March, where there will be a bit of ship fixing to do before departure on Sunday 27th.
No doubt as soon as mobile phones get into range of a phone mast and burst back into life, you’ll all get to hear of their exploits (and will do for many years to come…).