May 2007 Archives

This is the shortest of postings, only to say that we have made it.  Continental asked that I rearrange the contents of each box, so that no one box was over 50 pounds.  That all but wasted the duct tape which I had purchased/borrowed to seal each box.  I was amazed that I was able to actually get the boxes to the 50 pound mark.  They then asked for $100 for the extra box I had.

I then noticed that the flights were delayed about 30 minutes, so I asked if I could get on the 9:00 am flight, instead of the 9:30 which we were to be on.  It turned out that the 9:00 am flight left at 9:33.  We were the second to last flight allowed to leave because of a storm.  The front was literally at our edge of the runway when we took off.  The 9:30 flight was delayed for over two hours, which would have made us miss the connection.

We arrived at the boat in the full heat of the day, so we headed straight to the pool.  We were in the water so long, that Robert's toes started to bleed.

We can not believe we are writing this, but it is true.  On May 30th, 2007 we will be back on the boat in Mazatlan, Mexico and heading south for Panama.  This is just in time to watch the hurricanes blow on by. 

We could not be more excited.  So if you have not already, take the time to subscribe to this site, because we plan on having frequent and regular updates.

What you see before you is a true work in progress. I have spent the first week in May (2007), trying to set up a blog platform based upon Moveable Type. For all of you who still pine for the days of DOS and typing in DIR, you would love Unix and setting up Moveable Type.

It has been a bear.

But, it is done, at least the setup part of it.  Things have gone well enough that I have switched over the main home page to be that of the new Movable Type system.  The "Navigation Links" section will take you to portions of the site which I have not converted over yet.

I'm not crazy with this red color, I would like to change it to blue.   Many of the navigation links take you to pages in the old web site which I have not converted their style/theme.  But all of that will come.

On a positive note, I have all of the posts which mirror most of the pages in the "Travel Photo" section back on the main GoReads.com web page. I don't have the pics of what we have done back in Kansas, for that you will need to look at those in the Travel Photo-Time Ashore section.  I'm hoping/trying to get those setup in a photo gallery, but the "bear" is still fighting me on that desire.

If you have any thoughts you can try out the comment functionality below, people have scared me on the concept of spam, so for now you will need to register.  Super easy to do and will work with thousands of other sites based upon Movable Type or Typepad software.

For a more traditional approach you can use the email / form note back on the main site.

One last bell and whistle... you can now subscribe to a RSS/ATOM feed so that you can stay updated on our trip.  If your not familiar with feeds, an option is also provided so that you can receive an email anytime there is an update to the site.

The longer we do this the more practical we get about our goals. If and when we reach Panama, we hope to then turn east through the canal and into the Caribbean sea.

I have stopped saying when I think all of this will occur, I'm tired of being wrong.

We returned to our home in Overland Park, Kansas during the holidays. As feared, we have been sucked back into the world of the suburbs and all that goes with it.

The law of inertia says that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and and object at rest tends to stay at rest.

We have found ourselves resting in Kansas and we can not get out of this state. Our sailboat "Calpurnia" is in Mazatlan, Mexico waiting patiently for us to return.

We hope you will take a minute and leave us a note on our Contact page and let us know you were here. Check out the "Travel Journal" category for a synopsis of our travels with photos and tall tales.

These Eastern Pacific and Atlantic - Caribbean storm feeds will be activated by NOAA on June 1st, 2007

Historical tracking charts for all hurricanes during 2006 in both the Eastern Pacific and Atlantic

Historical tracking charts for all hurricanes during 2005 in both the Eastern Pacific and Atlantic

Selected Caribbean Shortwave Weather Reports

DON ANDERSON'S RADIO SCHEDULE

Beginning June 20, 2006
My ham call N6HG
My private coast station, SUMMER PASSAGE RADIO WPXU557
My Valiant 47 “SUMMER PASSAGE” WBX8756
Oxnard CA

Where to get weather in the Bahamas and Caribbean:

• The Bahamas
• The Eastern Caribbean
• The Northwestern Caribbean

Pacific Seafarer's Net  14.300MHz daily at 0300UTC

Original Post

"The first stage in the development of this type of hurricane is a tropical wave. A tropical wave is a trough at low latitudes. ... 
At the same time it grows vertically, a tropical trough or wave moves westward at speeds averaging 10 to 20 knots. During peak season in the North Atlantic, tropical waves are often seen crossing the ocean in succession from east to west separated by four to eight degrees of longitude.

If you are in the Caribbean during hurricane season, pay careful attention to the wind direction. Any slow and steady change from the normal easterly direction could indicate the approach of a trough or wave.

As a tropical wave approaches, you will see the wind back from east to northeast and north. As the trough passes, the wind will continue to back slowly until it reaches a southeasterly direction. ...

The majority of hurricanes that move from the Atlantic into the Caribbean in August and September follow a west-northwesterly course in low latitudes, often reaching the U. S. East Coast before curving north and northeast. In late September and in October and November, hurricanes are likely to move to the north and east, passing through the Yucatan Channel or over Cuba, Florida, or the Bahamas.

In October and November, movement of hurricanes is often toward the north into the open Atlantic. ...As the hurricane's center recedes from you, barometric pressure rises and winds begin to subside. Seas also subside, but the wind decreases sooner. A fully risen sea can often take days to subside.

Welcome !!!.  Google tells me that by far this page is the most visited page on my website.  Each week about 50 people or so from around the world visit my pages dealing with weather. All things related to weather can be found in the "Weather Channel" category 

I collected all of these links to help me easily find the weather info for a specific region and help me as we plan our trip.  I am surprised, but glad to see that others find this helpful as well.

Below are links for both the Pacific and Caribbean weather, where you can get up to date satellite and surface analysis forecast.

I have also added a up to the minute graphic on wind conditions in Aruba, I would like to sail the "wrong way" and head East from Panama.  The wind and swell strength and direction are making that tough.

If you have a minute, go to our "Contact Us" page and leave a note saying hi and if this info was of any help to you.

We have become a fan of Google Earth and have found this a helpful way to visually document our journey.  Here is a current .KMZ file to work with Google Earth.

When downloaded, along with Google Earth, this file will show you graphically all of the places we have stopped and a little bit of info on each of them. 

We are not done adding background info to the .KMZ file, but this is a good start and we think it will be helpful to those interested in traveling the inside passage.