April 2009 Archives

One of the objectives of the Tahina Expedition is to explore the undersea world and marine life. We will of course snorkel and scuba dive and use underwater cameras and video. But, scuba diving involves a lot of work, equipment, and careful safety precautions and is less practical to do every day with only two of us on board. Of course, the ultimate solution would be to have our own underwater submarine, but our boat isn't big enough to carry a multi-ton submarine.

A year ago I discovered a really cool company that makes a product that seemed perfect for our needs. This product is an underwater remote operated vehicle (ROV), but it's not a really big one like you may have seen on TV in the past. This one is classified as a "Micro-ROV" - and is only about the size of a small backpack. The ROV is loaded with gadgets including video cameras, motors for maneuvering, and a grappling device (or "hand") to pick things up. You use a control panel up on the surface with computer display, switches, and joystick controls, and you can even use an X-box wireless controller for driving the ROV. For a gadget loving geek, who also loves the water, you really can't find something much better than this - an underwater robot! After watching a couple of videos of this thing in action, I decided I HAD to have one for our trip!

The company is called VideoRay (http://www.VideoRay.com) and their devices are used in a wide range of applications from marine research to crime scene investigations, from ship inspections to TV documentaries. The oil and gas industry use them to make inpsections in situations which would be hazardous to divers. They are even used for tourism to show people shipwrecks! Last fall I attended a VideoRay conference of users of the devices and was amazed at the innovative things people had added to their ROVs including stereoscopic cameras, sonar, 3D tracking, and more. And, there were all kinds of entrepreneurial applications of the ROVs as well.

So, last summer I made a presentation about the Tahina Expedition to VideoRay, and discussed several ways we could use their ROV to help generate underwater video content to share with the world. More importantly, we could add the content to our Google Earth layer so people can see geotagged videos of various underwater sights including coral reefs, sea life (fish, dolphins, whales, sharks and more), shipwrecks, and who knows what else? VideoRay was very supportive of the Tahina Expedition's goals, and we worked out a deal where the Tahina Expedition will be able to use one of their ROVs during our trip!

It is my great pleasure to welcome our newest partner for the Tahina Expedition: VideoRay. They are a great company with a really amazing product. If you have any need for an underwater video capability or un-manned underwater applications these are the guys to contact.

Even better news for the Tahina Expedition: a VideoRay ROV is being delivered to Tahina right now! Expect a post soon showing the delivery of our new ROV, which I plan to call Rover. :-)

Today a custom canvas shop is starting to install a new spray dodger for Tahina. The spray dodger is like a windshield in a car. It provides some protection from the wind, rain, and spray. We're starting with a two sections which will cover just the front (like a front windshield). The material is made from a very clear plastic that is just barely flexible enough to be rolled up when we want to put it away. There will be a track at the top and bottom and zippers on both sides. We will then have pieces made for the corner that will provide some protection on the sides. The picture below shows the approximate position of the front spray dodgers outlined in "yellow":

Believe it or not, the biggest factor for getting this installed on our boat is the wind more than rain and spray. You are more frequently at the helm on a non-rainy day - since normally you plan your sailing around the weather. But, you also plan your trips so you can sail, so wind is hopefully present! As the boat picks up speed (unless you are going downwind), the apparent wind is higher. So, although the true wind speed may only be 15 knots - if you are going 9 knots at a 45 degree angle to the apparent wind your apparent wind speed is 20 knots! (See a True and Apparent wind calculator) This much wind in your face can not only get annoying, but quite cold when you consider wind chill factors. So far, Tahina gets a lot less spray at sea than our previous smaller boat. But, obviously the dodger will help with spray and rain as well.

Welcome to the Tahina Expedition Blog! Today we are finally opening this new web site to the general public. This blog will document all aspects of our exciting travels as we sail around the world on a five year journey starting this year - in 2009. My name is Frank Taylor, and I'm probably best known for writing the Google Earth Blog. My wife, Karen Taylor, will also contribute to the blog during our expedition.

A big part of the Tahina Expedition is to use Google Earth to document our travels and share them with the world. We will be using GPS, giga-pixel panoramic photography, aerial photograph, underwater photography, and a variety of HD videography as well. All of the data will be viewable through Google Earth in addition through the Tahina Expedition web site. Google has partnered with us to help share our unique content with the world through Google Earth. And, we hope to raise awareness about environmental issues facing our oceans, and factors threatening marine life and people as well. There will be several other partners announced in the coming months.

Our real departure will begin when we leave the US later this year (near the end of hurricane season), but the blog will share the current phases of our preparations and any sailing adventures we have until the big departure. Our biggest job left, outside of adding new equipment for the boat, is preparing our house to be sold and getting our lives in order for the long hiatus from our home country. The blog will describe some of these challenges as well.

Previous Posts

You will find we have already made many posts during the past few months. The posts were made to document some of the unique experiences and challenges since we purchased our boat Tahina, and then beginning our planning and preparations for our five year sailing circumnavigation of our beautiful planet. Those of you following us closely will want to check out all 35 earlier posts. But, here are some of the more significant posts:

• Picking up Tahina - this post provides details on our 4 day delivery of Tahina from the Bahamas to North Carolina. It includes photos and Google Earth file.
• Moving Tahina to Carolina Beach - This post summarizes our boatyard work after delivery, and then moving the boat down to Carolina Beach, NC. It also includes photos and GPS track with Google Earth.
• Tahina Circumnavigation Route - this explains our general route plan - which will evolve as we make our way around the planet.
• Google Partnership - This Google Earth Blog post was the announcement that Google will be partnering with the Tahina Expedition.
• Preparing for a Circumnavigation - Some background on what is involved in preparing for a big trip like this.
• Breaking in Coconut - This post talks about our first runs in our new dinghy which we named "Cocounut".
• Miami Trip - We took Tahina down to Miami for the boat show in February. There are lots of posts related to the trip, but the main series of posts on the trip itself starts here in St. Marys, Georgia. One the way out to sea, we came as close as you can get to a nuclear sub! Read the later posts for more on the story.

Today I spent some time creating a photo tour of Tahina which shows photos of the outside and inside of the boat. You'll see that Tahina, a 50 foot sailing catamaran by a South Africa boat builder called St. Francis, is a beautiful boat both outside and inside. We have nice accommodations and all the features necessary for both a long blue water cruise, and comfortable living for our five year trip. Read more about Tahina (including specifications and links to the boat builder).

I've also thrown together an initial Tahina Expedition photo gallery which includes slideshows such as the new Tahina photo tour above, and also all the recent passages and other photos shown in the blog and Google Earth content.

This is all part of the preparation for officially announcing this blog to the general public.

View Larger Map | View in Google Earth

The route Tahina will be taking around the world is partially determined by winds and weather, and partly determined by our desires to see certain places. Most sailing circumnavigators take the trade wind route which is from east to west. The trade winds are favorable winds for a sailing vessel (generally in the same direction you want to go). These winds are also generally favorable speeds and fewer storms if you go during the right times of the year. The route takes those leaving from the eastern US through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific to eventually end up near Australia. Then it takes you north of Australia across Indonesia and into the Indian Sea.

From the Indian Ocean we will have to choose whether to go the shorter route through the Red Sea and Suez Canal (the southern Red Sea being somewhat dangerous due to the increasing incidents of piracy). Or, we could take the MUCH longer route around the continent of Africa across the Atlantic and northwards then back east to get to the Mediterranean (if you're determined to sail and visit the Mediterranean waters). After visiting the Mediterranean, we would cross the Atlantic via the Canairy Islands and possibly the Cape Verde islands and complete the circumnavigation in the Caribbean.

The route you see in the map above is our current rough draft. Our plans may change as we go along. We think we will learn about other places we want to go along the way, and weather and other factors may alter the route. We will start by going out to Bermuda and then down to the Caribbean (the winds make it easiest to go to Bermuda first). After passing through the Panama Canal, we definitely plan to stop at the Galapagos Islands before heading to the French Marquesas. Also, we plan to see the total eclipse of the sun near Tahiti in July 2010. We include a trip down to New Zealand, then back up to Fiji and other Pacific Islands. We plan to spend six months in New Zealand, from November 2010 through April 2011, while avoiding the cyclone season in the south Pacific. It's been our dream to visit New Zealand for many years. Then we want to return to see more Pacific islands before heading to Australia. We also currently plan to visit Indonesia and Singapore, and Thailand.

Another important point: we will extend our travels over land and by plane to see other countries not visited by boat. We currently plan to visit China, India, and several countries in Africa in addition to the many countries close to the rough draft route we have drawn. And, we may change this route to change the countries/islands we visit by boat as well.

You might think there is no way we would take the longer route to the Med. But, we are currently favoring the longer route. It gives us the opportunity to visit more African countries and see some really unique islands. And, we may even be able to visit Brazil if we complete the Atlantic crossing before continuing northeast to the Med. The longer route would add about 9,000 nautical miles further than the Suez Canal route. That's about 50 days of extra sailing. Out of five years, that's not a huge amount of time.