Norfolk Bound!

Saturday, May 02, 2009, 1900 EDT

Hello Friends!

I met with our skipper last evening at his house for some last-minute instructions on weather and communications. He informed me John Sr. arrived in Norfolk on Thursday night and found Brain Waves fully rigged and tied to the pier awaiting us.
Don seemed a little taken aback that everything had gone so perfectly to plan: the sat phone arrived on time (and worked), the EPIRB arrived (on time), Brain Waves was hauled up, loaded, transported, unloaded, put in the water, and rigged exactly on schedule with no damage or problems… It would be nice if something minor went wrong, just to break the spell before we left, he mused.

As if on cue, we received a call from John Sr. that the life raft wasn’t in Norfolk…it was in Annapolis. This error was actually made several months ago when ordering a 6-man instead of 4-man boat. The leasing company misunderstood from where we were embarking. A few phone calls and we knew what had happened. John, Sr. volunteered to drive ½ way to Annapolis and the apologetic manager of the leasing company met him ½ way. Problem solved.

Now the rest of the team is well on their way to Norfolk. The Skipper left this morning. He was to pick up Rod and Ken as he passed through Detroit. They passed through Toledo around Noon, and are now probably just Southwest of Washington DC. I’ve been following them with the SPOT.

Fort those of you who don’t know about SPOT yet, it’s a device very similar to the “tethers” used by law enforcement for house arrest. It sends out a satellite “ping” every time a button is pressed, indicating its current latitude and longitude and time. No, I didn’t attach it to Rod’s ankle or anything. It’ll be on the boat all the way to Bermuda and back. If you want to follow along, check out this link: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0RT03ouxA51qMgqZQ77WgedJMa8HoDmFl

I’ll keep you updated on the news as it becomes available.

Tom Tietjen