As a senior citizen and grandmother who has always been close to sailing, I envy you, but at the same time I am very happy for you. It will be a wonderful voyage whether you best the record or not. The biggest thing I’ve sailed was a Lightning, so visualizing your modern and automated setup is not so easy. However, I am looking forward to your timely reports.

My question is: when you pass the Galapagos, will you go inside the island or pass west? I understand the currents are strong so you may have to compensate.

All the best and good wishes from my whole family. …Ursula

P.S. My great-grandfather owned and sailed clippers around the Horn and was lost at sea in 1853 in a storm near Panama. I visited Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego.

by Rich Wilson

Great to hear your great-grandfather was aboard a clipper, but sorry to hear he was lost at sea. The sea is a stern taskmaster and ultimately decides the success or failure of each voyage, ours included. Do you know the book "Greyhounds of the Seas" by Cutler? It has many clipper records and routes described. Some were incredibly fast. Lightning, on a voyage from Melbourne to Liverpool averaged 15 knots for 10 days across the southern ocean. What sailboat today could match that?

Our chosen rival Northern Light had a 355 mile day, nearly 15 knots. It would take perfect conditions for our speedster Great American II to match that. Another terrific author is Alan Villiers, about sailing ships in early 20th Century. What hardships those sailors and those aboard the clippers went through is incomprehensible to both Bill and me. If we are able to better Northern Light’s time, we would never say that that makes us better, only that we sailed on the same sea and in our own way and era challenged ourselves to our limits.

It’s easy to be brave in a warm dry living room, but ultimately, neither of us would ever want to change places with the clipper sailors.

We will be well to the west of the Galapagos Islands. I had the pleasure of crewing for Steve Wales in a Lightning class boat in the North American Men’s Senior Championship in 1970. We came third.

 

How do you know how many miles were traveled? …Danie

by Bill Biewenga

On board Great American II we have several instruments to keep track of our mileage. One of the most common is the speed log which consists of a small paddle wheel that protrudes from the bottom of the hull. As the tiny paddle wheel rotates it creates an electrical impulse which is measured to determine how fast and how far the boat is traveling. Another log that interfaces with our other instruments determines the speed of the boat by measuring how far a magnetic field is distorted as the boat speeds through the water.

The magnetic field is created by a small transducer under the hull. When the water is moving past the hull, the field shifts and it is the amount of the shift that indicates how fast and how far the vessel is traveling. But the mileage indicator that we use the most is on our shipmate GPS. Overhead satellites give us a constant update on our position and by measuring the rate of change in our position, the GPS (Geo Positioning System) is able to give us our speed, total distance traveled and range and bearing to virtually any other location on the planet.

 

As a dentist I was wondering what precautions you may have taken for medical problems and especially tooth problems. …Best of luck, Charles

by Bill Biewenga

While still in Boston, we were given a vast amount of help in building our emergency medical kit by Carol Di Pietro, a nurse with over 12 years of experience in various Boston hospitals and in a wide range of areas. She had also worked for several years on charter boats in the Caribbean so had a great understanding of the medical problems we might encounter and how to treat them. She worked in conjunction with Dr Robert S Gould, MD, author of "The Boater’s Medical Companion".

Dr Gould also has a significant amount of sailing experience. Both of them spent time with us explaining some basic medical procedures as well as making sure that we had most of the medical supplies that we might need. For potential tooth problems we felt that the first, best approach would be a visit to our own dentists for thorough check-ups before departure. In our medical kit we also carry Orajel for tooth pain, Anbesol for other mouth disorders and material for making temporary fillings.

We also have other pain relievers, should the need arise, but hopefully, we have tried to avoid most of the common problems through early detection and correction.