North Pacific Logbook

Also documented in this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RWgnOFycA0g

“We are relying on very fragile systems. We depend on Devine's ancient iphone 5 for navigation and for weather, and today it developed this weird bug, which scared me. My phone died early on in this trip, I'm not sure why. As I was charging it off a rechargeable battery one night, it began vibrating and would not stop! Then, I couldn't charge it anymore and the battery went flat. We've got an older phone with Navionics and Iridium mail as backup, but I worry, as I hate depending on these flimsy, buggy devices. I am angry that we didn't plan this better. We talk a lot about over-reliance on tech, yet we keep making mistakes. Though in truth, we had 3 working phones and we did not think it possible that all 3 would fail at the same time. Our safety is tied to the working of these devices and it is scary. It is dumb and I am angry.“

James Hamilton, distinguished engineer at AWS, has been living in a boat for several years now, and he's frequently traveling somewhere in the world. [0]

He's currently somewhere in Norway.

[0]: https://mvdirona.com/

If you love the wilderness, love being out there in nature, this is as close as you can almost get in our modern world. I have an incredible respect for people who do these adventures and live to tell their stories...

and then tell them in a way that resonates with the way I would tell the story too...

This is a really cool resource that contains some magical bits. For example:

> Week 8 July 26th 0400 Realized that the GRIB files I downloaded yesterday were lower resolution weather, and did not rightly show the severity and extent of the weather running along the coast of BC. Upon seeing the detailed forecast this morning, we triple-reefed the main and braced for impact. The weather was horrible. We got huge waves, lots of wind and thick, thick fog. I was very discouraged, disheartened with what lay between us and our goal, yet another monster on the ocean, one my body and mind were just not up to facing. We were both sad, and angry for a while. We sat inside wishing it'd all end now. Then a group of dolphins appeared in the fog. A large group! Devine saw them swimming around the boat, they kept us company for a long while. We could hear them chatting through the hull, like several squeaky toys were being squeezed underwater. Everytime I heard a squeak it made me smile, it made us feel better and gave us the courage to push on. Thank you dolphins for being there with us, as always.

I also enjoyed the philosophical musings at the end.