"Largest solar powered boat"

Day 146 - 20.02.2011

Weather forecast: Cloudy and rainy, wind from south east with 15 - 20 knots, close to squall lines.

Distance traveled in the last 24 hours (20.00 hrs –20.00 hrs): 124 miles (230 km)
This morning Patrick finally catches a young tuna. This gives us the possibility to have a festive dinner tonight to celebrate our first 10'000 nautical miles, i.e. 18'520 km. We come closer to having made half of the total distance of our world tour. It is unbelievable.

Today the weather is less advantageous than predicted. We await a favourable current ahead of us, but it turns out that it lies more than 200 km behind us. We therefore have to reduce our power and our speed significantly. The sea is also rougher, with trade winds getting stronger.
We have a kind of small communication centre on board, Inmarsat C, Fleet Broadband 250, which allows us to have internet access and satellite phone. An Iridium station (worldwide satellite phone) and two portable Iridium phones. Then we have two VHF and one BLU, a radio which allows us to directly contact a station in Europe and send / receive emails if the satellite connection fails. Thanks to all these technologies, which on TÛRANOR PlanetSolar are powered by 100 % solar energy, we permanently are connected with our base in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, and with our meteorologists in Toulouse.
Have a good start into the new week.
Raphaël and Crew

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