| At sea. Shepherd Ocean Fours Rowing Race: Express delivery of Argos beacon for Team Hesco |
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| Monday, 26 June 2006 | |
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Teresa Page: The Argos tracking beacons fitted to each of the competing rowing boats have two purposes. Their main purpose is to automatically transmit position data up to a satellite every 10 seconds which in turn, are collected by a data centre in Toulouse, France and turned in to GPS position information on a constant 2 hourly basis. This helps us, as Race Organiser to know where the boats are at all times and enables us to run a race results system on the website for friends, family, supporters and the general public to follow the race. The beacons also have a second function which enables the teams to send coded messages to Race HQ should their other forms of communications (i.e. Iridium Satellite telephones) be down. The beacon onboard Boat #4 – Team Hesco has been sending false coded messages to Race HQ and therefore, race support vessel, Sula was instructed to deliver a replacement beacon to Team Hesco yesterday. Weather conditions yesterday from a sailing point of view were great but the visibility was down to less than 200m – not at all good for locating rowing boats. The dense fog also interrupts the satellite phone connectivity so whilst Stuart, First Mate was dealing with position information updates, support vessel skipper, Mark was busy plotting the projected position of Team Hesco, based on their speed and course. By the time, Sula arrived in the projected area of Team Hesco, visibility was down to 100m. However, after a couple of calls on the VHF and a blast of the fog horn, Team Hesco appeared out of the fog. It was very eerie moment but a well planned procedure on the behalf of the support vessel crew, which put them within 500 meters of Team Hesco under very difficult circumstances. Team Hesco now have a new beacon after a short chat with crew they continued on there merry way. Spirits on board Team Hesco are good and their departing comment was an order for fish and chips on Sula’s next visit! Race Support Vessel, Sula is now making her way towards Boat #3 – Yorkshire Warrior for a routine visit. Posted25/06/06 12:22:10 PM http://www.oceanfoursrowingrace.com/ |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 26 June 2006 ) |
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