2002

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Ocean Planet Report
Ocean Planet Update and Message to Anne Thomas’ 5th Grade Class
1807 GMT, Monday, Sept 16.
Position: 40 33 N, 68 06W

Hi everyone,

It has been more than 24 hours since the start of Leg One from New York. The start was very intense since I was very nervous, and we all had to maneuver in very close quarters in the harbor. I did a very conservative start with the mainsail alone just to leeward of the bulk of the fleet and waited a few tacks for things to open up before unrolling the jib. After that, OP and I did well and slowly moved up to the front of the fleet! In fact, in the light air just outside the shipping channel we passed Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group to be in first for a little while. Ocean Planet is really good in light air, so I had an advantage. Where we are not so hot (yet) is on a windy reach, so when the predicted southwesterly wind came up Bobst and Graham Dalton on Hexagon came steaming by and slowly pulled away.

This morning they were pretty far in front of me (the three of us are staying a bit further south than the others in the fleet), but I’m not pushing that hard as there is a LONG way to go…
Jerry (and Spencer?) from Anne Thomas’ 5th Grade Class asked how I sent the little storm video from Newport. I took the movie with a little digital camera that loads the movie file onto a floppy disk. Then I transfer the file from the disk to my computer where I send my e-mails from, and attach the movie file to the e-mail update I send to home. From there, my girlfriend Jeanie sends it out to our mailing list of everyone who has signed up for the updates. That’s how it gets to you! And yes, there were people inside the boats when they were rocking around at the docks! In a way it is safer out here if there is a storm since there is very little to run into, only a few freighters and boats…..;-)

More tomorrow….

Bruce