Hey Tom,

...and stuff like updating his blog... (grin)

Following the voyages of people like Jeanne Socrates, I'm always amazed how much they are posting to their blogs/websites, uploading photos, etc... Simply keeping in touch with your shore team, weather routers, etc, that has to wind up being a HUGE consumer of energy... I know whenever I'm somewhere and am playing on my computer a lot, I sometimes have all I can do just to keep my laptop charged, forget about keeping up with refrigeration, and so on...

In one of his posts, he refers to a boatspeed of 9 knots being his 'break even' point of energy independence. Anything above that, and his hydrogenerators were making an excess of amps... Under 9 knots, however, he was running a deficit, and had to start turning stuff off... He even admitted that there were times he altered course from his desired heading, simply to be able to sail a faster point of sail, in order to get the hydros amped up... UFB...

Again, given the extraordinary amount of expertise that was brought to bear on this project, I'm really surprised they didn't have a better sense of the supply-to-demand energy balance figured out before he shoved off...

best regards,

Jon