NOTE FROM JEANNE: My computer malfunctioned on the 10th of May and can not be fixed, so I am without direct email capability for the rest of the trip. My friends have set up an email-to-radio relay for me with an email address of my radio call sign (KC2IOV) at mv dot com. Please use this email address for any important messages but understand that everything gets relayed to me over the radio and so the capacity is very limited. I will reply to email as soon as I can but there may be long delays in replying and some messages may not be replied to until I make landfall at the end of my trip. But as of this date I am doing well! Note: Any Yahoo Group members' replies to my email will not have been received.
Thursday 16th May 2013
Over the day, the course has been 020T, speed has been 4-5kt. Priority at present is avoiding the tiny Baker and Howland Islands ahead just N of the equator. Their positions on my chart-plotter display were confirmed last night by Mark, N1UK - good to know exactly where they are, since I will past them in the dark - they have no light. [We remember Amelia Earhart as we pass them. There is a day beacon on Howland Island named after her. She came down somewhere near by in her little plane in 1937.]
Weather faxes are showing good weather: E winds across the equator until I reach the ITCZ which is at 4-5N. Satellite photos still show it is clear ahead, with no major convection until the ITCZ.
Other priorities are checking the weather continually and looking in detail at the sea bed in the Hawaiian Islands chain out to beyond Midway. We might want to pass through somewhere, so I have noted all the many hazzards - reefs, islands, seamounts....lots of them!
I am writing this singing along to music playing - getting into the equator crossing party mode already - expect to cross the line tonight - 2:30-3:30am(Friday 17th of May) at approximately 176W, passing 30 n.ml. E of Baker Island.
24hr DMG to 2300GMT: 106 n.ml. Strait of Juan de Fuca: 4000 n.ml.
From KC2IOV/MM By HF radio. Copied by Jim, WB2REM Port St. Lucie, FL
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