The crew are now onto day 6 of their voyage, and conditions haven’t been particularly kind: Bad weather is making life difficult for them, with cold, wet nights and seasickness as a result. 🤢
•
So with crashing waves and bad weather, in the pitch dark, and facing backwards – how on earth can they navigate?! 🤷‍♀
•
This pre-recorded video “All about Navigation”, is episode 3 of our “What do you need to cross an ocean in a rowing boat” series, and the crew explain how all the onboard technology, keeps them on track. 📏
•
As you can see, the Whaleboat has a lot of clever kit on board, GPS, Chart plotters, a custom autopilot system, but their secret weapon is Fritz! 🙋‍♂‍
•
Fritz the weather router (we introduced him a while back) – will advise the crew every day of the best direction to row in to take advantage of the weather, currents and sea state. ⛈🌊
•
Sometimes Fritz will give co-ordinates to aim for, sometimes he’ll just give a direction to row. The crew can enter either the co-ordinates or the bearing into their chart plotter, which talks to their autopilot, which controls their rudder…so all the crew need to do is row, and not fall in! 🚣
•
Whilst sat in the rowing positions, illuminated digital read outs tell the rowers some of the detail that is being shown on the chart plotter inside the cabin. Their bearing, speed, and distance are all displayed which allows them to keep an eye on their progress. And if they’re approaching another vessel an alarm will sound allowing them to contact the vessel on the radio to make sure they don’t hit each other! 💥
•
Thankfully the worst of the seasickness seems behind them and the crew are starting to settle into their brutal shift pattern. 💪
—
Read about the Front Row ocean crossing on www.jointhefrontrow.be
—
Main partner: Libeco Belgian Linen
—
Creative geniuses: Yanina and Felix at www.andreleon.be