One Girls Ocean Challenge

Saturday February 26, 2011

The 10am update: Diane deployed her drogue last night due to very depleted batteries and being too tired to hand steer. She had just enough battery to run the autohelm while she deployed. She picked the spot as it provided a lot of sea room while she slept and he hadn’t seen any traffic in a long while. She didn’t know if she would have such condition when she got closer to Inagua.

Everything is fine. The batteries indicate fully charged (she thinks they’re lying because when a load is on them, they show less of a charge). She’s fully charged and ready to go again. And yes, she had all her alarms on while she slept.

Friday evening Paul reported & Tim is finally blogging: Diane checked in at 5:43pm and didn’t really have much to add other than that she is getting really tired of sailing into the wind and is hoping to use the kite for all of the next leg. 15hrs and 90 nm is the distance to the next turn. The battery issues seems to be resolved for now and they are charging.

Rather then get splashed from another wave it’s time to put her jacket back on which is tricky while hand steering and talking on the sat-phone. She’s says goodbye for now and may check in later. She need’s to make dinner and stow gear before it gets dark.

Saturday afternoon, is showing a last update from 11am this morning. Expect either it wants to be fed some fresh batteries (it is not connected to the ship’s batteries), or as it automatically turns off after 24 hours, Diane may need to re-turn it on.

The tracker shows her turning at Inagua and heading north west about 3:22pm Saturday.