A few days ago Changabang entered the Pacific Ocean, still on deck of MV STAR LIMA. She’ll then stop in Guatemala, Mexico and finally in San Diego, maybe on March 7th 2020. The shipping company has gone silent so I have no information about how things will proceed in San Diego: communication is not their forte!
Paper charts
I think I’m done with the paper charts I plan to buy. Besides small scale charts for all oceans, I have bought medium scale charts for Torres Strait, Cape Horn. Some of the small scale charts are from NGA and pretty outdated, and although, I don’t think that any islands or rocks are born on the open sea, offshore buoys have been deployed .
Electronic charts
I’ve downloaded Navionics charts on two iPads, which is good except that iPads don’t have GPS. I also downloaded the charts on my small Android cell phone. I want to download them to another tablet or two. To protect them from water and shocks I plan to store all electronics hardware in a somewhat waterproof/shockproof case, maybe each wrapped in aluminium foil.
Not alone
I don’t know what it is with Belgians but there’s another skipper who’s preparing a Class40 for a circumnavigation. His goal is to beat the current record and his boat is much faster than Changabang, but then we don’t have the same problem. He needs to be beat a record, and, if anything, I’m just cruising along hoping to make it safely back home. I’m talking about Gaetan Thomas. He’s much more experienced, younger, stronger, has a better boat, a solid team, etc. His odds are higher by at least an order of magnitude but wouldn’t it be nice if two Belgians were to hold the Class40 records, one in each direction. Dream on, baby, dream on!
Friendly support
I continue to reach out to companies and parties who can help us with donation, discounts, used material. It’s really great to see folks being enthusiastic and supportive. Although there has been no recent development I’ve listed our supporters here for now. In fact, if you’re interested in joining Team Changabang and are willing to commit to helping get us to the start line and onto the finish line, please drop me a note. If there are enough of us maybe I’ll think of some sort of merchandise, a T-shirt maybe?
