Teething Problems

Things are really coming together. The wind generator arrived yesterday and Fed Ex tried to deliver the wind vane today (they sound similar but are SO different and we need them both) . The wind generator gives us power from the wind and the wind vane helps helm the boat. Both big, essential additions to Kika which will reduce the stress and strains of a long voyage. We still don't have the wind vane but it's within our reach which is closer than we thought it would ever be. We found it on ebay and all seemed well at first, but early on, things went awry. The sellers we're uncommunicative and unhelpful when it didn't arrive. As time went on, they relinquished all responsibility and accused Nick of attempted fraud over the non-delivery. It seems Fed Ex have saved the day, though lets not count our chickens cos neither of us have laid eyes on it yet. It's very existence has assumed mythical proportions with us - I'm sure it will be disappointing when it finally arrives.

Kika:

Weather links

Below are some weather sites we've found useful. It's useful when we're in an Internet cafe without our bookmarks. Most of the links have been lifted directly from Frank Singleton's site

• Meteo France GDMSS sea area forecast. We've found Meteo France to be the most consistently accurate forecast we use. The forecast gives a 48 hour outlook. Its updated 9.00 and 21.00 utc
• NOAA´s National Weather Service, specifically:
  • NOAA North Atlantic briefing
  • North Atlantic forecast
  • Offshore waters forecast for the southwest and tropical north Atlantic and Caribbean Sea
    
  • Fax charts for the NW Atlantic
  • US National Hurricane Center
• The US Navy has a great public weather site. The wealth of information can be a little overwelming, the main links I use are:
  • Atlantic surface wind predictions
  • Wind and significant wave height predictions
  • Tropical Atlantic wind speeds
  • Unclassified US Navy weather charts
• Weather online Trade Winds Zone 1
• UK Met office satellite imagery
• PDF of 'Worldwide Marine Radiofacsimile Broadcast Schedules'
• Fax schedule links
  
• Windguru was helpful while we were storm bound in Barbate
  
• Pacific
  
  • Fax wind/wave charts - Tropical East Pacific