Apologies to those who tried to find this web page earlier! I jumped the
gun a little bit, setting up the cards and the notices before getting the web
hosting itself online. Oops!
This page is an attempt to keep interested people informed on the whereabouts and
progress of the sailing vessel De Liefde:
The name of the boat comes from an early Dutch exploring ship. The name was bestowed by my immediately previous owner, and I saw no reason to change it.
Latest news
Ways to follow along
The point of the MMSI number is to give you a single searchable identifier.
When underway, the boat broadcasts its location information via AIS (Class B transponder),
which is
picked up and re-broadcasted to various shoreside websites and apps. I use Marine Traffic (iOS or Android),
also in web page form, but there are many others.
Be aware that, because of limitations on this AIS location transfer
mechanism, while out at sea the messages are tracked only line-of-sight VHF
and by satellite, and not routinely picked up by the stateside web services.
(Other boats in the vicinity see us just fine.) It can be somewhat
heart-pounding to sit on shore and wonder whether the boat has disappeared
from the earth, or just from the map. I speak from experience. Don't panic.
And if you want to follow along the weather reports, I recommend Windy
(an app, iOS and Android) or a
web-based service
PredictWind. Here too there are others.
Itinerary
We are intending the following itinerary (updated here as proposed becomes
actual):
- *Annapolis to Bermuda, 5 January 2019 to 10 January 2019.
- *Bermuda, for repairs, 10 January to 24 January 2019.
- Bermuda to St Maarten, 24 January to 30 January 2019.
- St Maarten to St Lucia, 30 January to 3 February 2019.
- St Lucia to BVI, 6 February to 17 February 2019.
- BVI to Turks and Caicos, 20 February to 23 February 2019.
- Exploring Bahamas out-islands, 25 February to 7 March 2019.
- Abacos, 7 March to 25 March 2019.
- Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, to Annapolis, 25 March to 15 April 2019.
Portrait gallery
Staying in touch
We have two satellite phones on board, and propose to check each for incoming text messages at least daily:
- Inmarsat +870 776 225 438
- Iridium +881 6524 03678
In addition, you should be able to reach us by writing to
svdeliefde@myiridium.net.
Be aware that texts and e-mails to the boat address are shared among all the people on the boat at the time, so are not particularly private. Private messages should be conducted by voice, or (when in port) over WiFi.
A note on S/V versus S/Y.The US sometimes refers to sailing vessels, or S/V for short. The rest of the world, where this boat will be much of the time, refers to S/Y or sailing yacht, without any connotation of pretentiousness. See for example a Cruisers Forum thread. However, the name sydeliefde is already taken in many contexts (Gmail, myiridium.net, etc.), possibly by the previous owner of this boat! (Looking into it.). So: be aware that some of these identifiers and addresses are spelled with a v.
Or write to Eric at my snail-mail address.
meanders@gmail.com
Last updated: 23 January 2019
