01 March 2006
Cirrus is going again !
Cirrus is going again on the Pacific Cup, the sailboat race from San Francisco to Hawaii. You are invited to follow our trip on this website.
Is Cirrus a seaworthy sailboat?
Cirrus is a veteran on the Pacific. Her first Pacific Cup was in 1998, followed by the next Cup in 2000, and then again in 2004. So with all trips back and forth, she has navigated the waters between San Francisco and Hawaii six times. This year she'll do #7 and #8!
What will happen?
The race will start for us on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 on San Francisco Bay, in front of the San Francis Yacht Club at the shoreline of the city of San Francisco. During the trip we will be sending e-mails from the boat, which will be automatically posted on this blogging web site. If all goes to plan, the mails will come in daily intervals, on occasion also more frequently. If you would like to know what to expect, please visit the links on the left sidebar of this website to see the emails from the trips in 2000 and 2004.
How can one send an email being 1000 miles away from land?
Typically, emails are being send via either short wave radio or satellite telephone. In 2000 we used short wave radio, in 2004 we used satellite telephone. In both cases the bandwidth is VERY limited, and the connection is VERY slow, and not very reliable. Think of computer connections by modem as they were some 10 years ago. But we can manage.
How can you participate?
First, of course, as a reader of our messages. But, we also enjoy feedback from our readership, in particular when we are in some kind of trouble - check the reports from our previous races, and you will understand. This website has an advantage in that it allows you to add your own comments, encouragement and questions to the postings. To do so, simply click on the link "Add a new Comment" at the end of each posting, and follow the instructions in the pop-up window.
While we - during the race - cannot read these comments directly, our boat nanny Valerie, who will stay on shore, will make sure that any relevant posting will reach us. At the same time she will also make sure that any information illegal for us to have during the race - like competitors details, or weather forecasts - will not go forward.
For all the "geeks" among you
These Cirrus postings are available via RSS feed by simply adding this url to your newsreader: http://cirrusblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml.
I join Google in recommending Mozilla Firefox as browser and newsreader. Adding an RSS feed here is very easy: Look into the browser address field, which will look like this when you are reading Cirrus' blog (click graph to enlarge) :
Then click on this logo 
at the right hand side of the address field. Click ok on the pop-up dialog box, and you have an RSS "Live Bookmark" installed.
If you are wondering why you would even want an RSS reader, then check out this site.
Aloha,
Ulli
Is Cirrus a seaworthy sailboat?
Cirrus is a veteran on the Pacific. Her first Pacific Cup was in 1998, followed by the next Cup in 2000, and then again in 2004. So with all trips back and forth, she has navigated the waters between San Francisco and Hawaii six times. This year she'll do #7 and #8!
What will happen?
The race will start for us on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 on San Francisco Bay, in front of the San Francis Yacht Club at the shoreline of the city of San Francisco. During the trip we will be sending e-mails from the boat, which will be automatically posted on this blogging web site. If all goes to plan, the mails will come in daily intervals, on occasion also more frequently. If you would like to know what to expect, please visit the links on the left sidebar of this website to see the emails from the trips in 2000 and 2004.
How can one send an email being 1000 miles away from land?
Typically, emails are being send via either short wave radio or satellite telephone. In 2000 we used short wave radio, in 2004 we used satellite telephone. In both cases the bandwidth is VERY limited, and the connection is VERY slow, and not very reliable. Think of computer connections by modem as they were some 10 years ago. But we can manage.
How can you participate?
First, of course, as a reader of our messages. But, we also enjoy feedback from our readership, in particular when we are in some kind of trouble - check the reports from our previous races, and you will understand. This website has an advantage in that it allows you to add your own comments, encouragement and questions to the postings. To do so, simply click on the link "Add a new Comment" at the end of each posting, and follow the instructions in the pop-up window.
While we - during the race - cannot read these comments directly, our boat nanny Valerie, who will stay on shore, will make sure that any relevant posting will reach us. At the same time she will also make sure that any information illegal for us to have during the race - like competitors details, or weather forecasts - will not go forward.
For all the "geeks" among you
These Cirrus postings are available via RSS feed by simply adding this url to your newsreader: http://cirrusblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml.
I join Google in recommending Mozilla Firefox as browser and newsreader. Adding an RSS feed here is very easy: Look into the browser address field, which will look like this when you are reading Cirrus' blog (click graph to enlarge) :
Then click on this logo at the right hand side of the address field. Click ok on the pop-up dialog box, and you have an RSS "Live Bookmark" installed.If you are wondering why you would even want an RSS reader, then check out this site.
Aloha,
Ulli
