September the 28th:
What a beautiful day... we ’re going along the coast, we ‘re watching flying fishes and there are no clouds... . On top of this at the moment Marcel is baking pancakes for us. I don ‘t know how they will taste, but we ‘re gonna try it again on John’s way... pancakes with lemon. I’m curious...
This beautiful day will bring us soon to Denia (of course the plan has changed again) to visit the city of John and unfortunately he stays there to be with his dog. Lucky we have a new member of the crew now, Jurgen, because otherwise we would have to much space to sleep on Ocean Diva II.
Although I’m very excited to visit the port of Denia and to watch the motor yacht of Mario and the sailing boat of John. Of course both captains talked a lot about their boats on this trip.
While I’m eating now ( I ‘ve to admit) a delicious pancake, I can ‘t believe me and Brittany almost have to leave Ocean Diva II. She ‘s so nice and big that you can do a lot on it: you can race with the Dragonfly or other racing boats , you can listen to the wind and fly above 17 knots, you can climb like a monkey in the mast, you can struggle with a rope and brake your finger, you can dance like in the disco, you can cook not-canned meals and have a nice barbeque, you can fish on the stern without results, you can relax on the net or doing catch, you can sleep close to the engine and sleep like a baby ... and yes we did it all and I will miss it... so before this moment is over, I’m now going to enjoy a bit more of the sailing...
Written by Lynn
Maidens trip of a new build Fast Catamaran 74
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
John - Memoirs from the Diva
As the final leg of my journey approaches, the familiar coastline of rugged Andalucian hills gently drifts by on the port side and the waves and swell glide by on the other.
I joined the trip at the start in Rochford, France. Having delivered boats with Mario, the skipper, previously I knew it was going to be an upbeat trip. It is never a dull watch when he is in his party mood. He is a little lad with a big smile when you have just reefed the sails in pouring rain and a kicking sea he invariably returns the helm grinning to announce ‘’w ell that was fun shall we do it again’’.
I run an engineering company in Spain, I have done engineering work on Ocean Voyager boats in Spain at Denia and Ibiza so knew that long distance cruising comforts are few and far between. To get the chance to sail one long distance was an opportunity I could not miss. When I first saw her, Ocean Diva II was open, exposed and an imposing sight. The mast towered over the cranes in the adjacent work yard. The modern lines, aggressive red colour scheme and Brunellian strength of construction throws down the challenge of - Play with me… if you think your tough enough!
The first days in Rochell were spent investigating lockers, fitting sails and helping where we could. Then the big day we went to sea trials with OY engineers to move her to her new tempory home. The journey had started.
Setting the Main Sail gets her going but launching the Geniker bumps her into hyper-drive. We took a beam reach across the bay from La Rochell and watched as the OY trimmers pushed her up to speed. Pack up your PlayStation, turn off the Wii this thing is fun… you have got to try it.
After a frustratingly short glimpse of what she could do we got back to the reality of the job in hand. Ocean Diva II is an open deck, fast reaching party boat. Our job was to get her 2000miles safely, crossing; Biscay, one of the most unpredictable patches of water - Atlantic , one of the most aggressive and Mediterranean, one of the most underestimated. I have worked on boats in Spain for 5 years and sailed the Med extensively. I have seen some of the most disturbed waters and strong catabatic winds come from nowhere in the matter of minutes.
You meet a new group of people on almost every delivery or voyage. Preparing the boat and shopping is the first chance you get to establish the team dynamics and see everybody’s strengths and weaknesses. Before we knew it we were ready to go, everybody contributed 100% and we had fun throughout. That is how it has continued through the rest of the journey. People have joined us and left us. We have seen wind and rough water but we have had a thrilling joy ride and enjoyed evry minute. The personality of the boat is defined – A fast, fun party boat.
Good luck ‘Orange Project’ with your new toy. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on your boat. It has been a. Thank you.
To Mario, Britney, Lynn and Marianne who were there at the start – We have come a long way together…. It’s been a Blast. Love ya.
To everybody who has joined us on route thanks for contributing to my experience.
I joined the trip at the start in Rochford, France. Having delivered boats with Mario, the skipper, previously I knew it was going to be an upbeat trip. It is never a dull watch when he is in his party mood. He is a little lad with a big smile when you have just reefed the sails in pouring rain and a kicking sea he invariably returns the helm grinning to announce ‘’w ell that was fun shall we do it again’’.
I run an engineering company in Spain, I have done engineering work on Ocean Voyager boats in Spain at Denia and Ibiza so knew that long distance cruising comforts are few and far between. To get the chance to sail one long distance was an opportunity I could not miss. When I first saw her, Ocean Diva II was open, exposed and an imposing sight. The mast towered over the cranes in the adjacent work yard. The modern lines, aggressive red colour scheme and Brunellian strength of construction throws down the challenge of - Play with me… if you think your tough enough!
The first days in Rochell were spent investigating lockers, fitting sails and helping where we could. Then the big day we went to sea trials with OY engineers to move her to her new tempory home. The journey had started.
Setting the Main Sail gets her going but launching the Geniker bumps her into hyper-drive. We took a beam reach across the bay from La Rochell and watched as the OY trimmers pushed her up to speed. Pack up your PlayStation, turn off the Wii this thing is fun… you have got to try it.
After a frustratingly short glimpse of what she could do we got back to the reality of the job in hand. Ocean Diva II is an open deck, fast reaching party boat. Our job was to get her 2000miles safely, crossing; Biscay, one of the most unpredictable patches of water - Atlantic , one of the most aggressive and Mediterranean, one of the most underestimated. I have worked on boats in Spain for 5 years and sailed the Med extensively. I have seen some of the most disturbed waters and strong catabatic winds come from nowhere in the matter of minutes.
You meet a new group of people on almost every delivery or voyage. Preparing the boat and shopping is the first chance you get to establish the team dynamics and see everybody’s strengths and weaknesses. Before we knew it we were ready to go, everybody contributed 100% and we had fun throughout. That is how it has continued through the rest of the journey. People have joined us and left us. We have seen wind and rough water but we have had a thrilling joy ride and enjoyed evry minute. The personality of the boat is defined – A fast, fun party boat.
Good luck ‘Orange Project’ with your new toy. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on your boat. It has been a. Thank you.
To Mario, Britney, Lynn and Marianne who were there at the start – We have come a long way together…. It’s been a Blast. Love ya.
To everybody who has joined us on route thanks for contributing to my experience.
Crew Stories
The Crew......
27th september 2010
After a good old fashioned english breakfast made by John we were headed for Malaga. We spotted a boat from the Volvo Ocean Race, the Lithuation team. The wind was in our back and pretty good, we did an average of 10 knots. Pretty soon we were in competion because it was clear they were headed for the port of Malaga as well. Needless to say that it was a good competition and after trimming our salis and some giping we beat them. We met them in the port later.
We picked up our new crewmember Jorgen and decided not to stay in the port of Malaga because it was a commercial port: ugly and pricy as well. So at midnight we sailed for another port where we are now, which is Almerimar. For our Dutch readers: something like Almere Haven, probably, only totally different. Much nicer than the commercial port: with showers, launderette, everything you need after sailing for a couple of nights.
Marcel and I started the first watch from 23.00 to 2.00 o’clock. The waves were according to Marcel 3 to 4 meters high. I wasn’t sure, it seemed high and my nightvision... is good for very large ships nearby. The wind was picking up and Ocean Diva glided over the waves making waves of her own too, like the diva she is. Speedwise we had a new record: 17.7 knots! Ocean Diva wobbled like never before, I love it when I go to sleep it’s really soothing in combination with the sounds of the water and waves.
Now we are relaxing a bit, doing some shopping, getting something to eat this evening and we will leave around 2 in the morning.
Written by Marianne
27th september 2010
After a good old fashioned english breakfast made by John we were headed for Malaga. We spotted a boat from the Volvo Ocean Race, the Lithuation team. The wind was in our back and pretty good, we did an average of 10 knots. Pretty soon we were in competion because it was clear they were headed for the port of Malaga as well. Needless to say that it was a good competition and after trimming our salis and some giping we beat them. We met them in the port later.
We picked up our new crewmember Jorgen and decided not to stay in the port of Malaga because it was a commercial port: ugly and pricy as well. So at midnight we sailed for another port where we are now, which is Almerimar. For our Dutch readers: something like Almere Haven, probably, only totally different. Much nicer than the commercial port: with showers, launderette, everything you need after sailing for a couple of nights.
Marcel and I started the first watch from 23.00 to 2.00 o’clock. The waves were according to Marcel 3 to 4 meters high. I wasn’t sure, it seemed high and my nightvision... is good for very large ships nearby. The wind was picking up and Ocean Diva glided over the waves making waves of her own too, like the diva she is. Speedwise we had a new record: 17.7 knots! Ocean Diva wobbled like never before, I love it when I go to sleep it’s really soothing in combination with the sounds of the water and waves.
Now we are relaxing a bit, doing some shopping, getting something to eat this evening and we will leave around 2 in the morning.
Written by Marianne
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Crew Stories
September the 26th :
Arriving at Lisbon Port Alcantara we had to call the marina to open the bridge, at first there was no answer so Mario kept on trying by vhf. He got an answer “the bridge is open” we didn’t see it opening so we got an annoyed answer. After more than a hour the DragonFly arrived, they had the same problem especially because they used Ocean Diva as calling name. John had prepared a nice chilli con carne for the crew while mario arranged a mooring for the DragonFly “Archimedes” .The dragonfly entered the mooring and of course they had a problem with the mooring rope (tangled in the bow thruster) Again Mario went with his head in the water. Problem solved.
After transferring Marcel back to the Ocean Diva the crew said goodbye to the crew of the DragonFly “Kristof, Joris, Saskia”, unfortunately for them the trip ended in Lisbon. The DragonFly will stay at Lisbon for a couple of weeks.
John set sail and left the mooring key heading for Malaga. Wind 10 to 15 knots up to Cape Vincent. The swell got bigger 3-4 meters and on top of that the waves generated by the wind which added an extra half meter. The Diva handled it like she was enjoying it and so did we. A few hours later the crew prepared to get some sleep and started with the watch. 20 minutes later we received a call on the vhf, Mario responded and woke up the crew to change the course and prepare for a jibe, John got up in his underwear, Marcel only in his shorts, Marianne and Lynn (in full sailing gear) where still on deck, Brittany was on her brake. It was a fishing vessel which easily could have taken a different course, we think it was just to mess with the Ocean Diva. After we passed he turned on the spot more than 180 degrees.
Early in the morning the wind dropped. The gennaker was set. Wind dropped further we needed to fold the gennaker again. But it got stuck on the furler. John had to do some acrobats on the gennaker sprit attaching a rope above the sea, together with Marcel and Brittany eventually they got it, waking up everyone with a lot of noise. Lynn and Mario had to dodge 2 vessels but this did not cause a lot of problems.
The Crew......
Friday, September 24, 2010
Foto sites
Lots of fotos
- 2010_09_DragonflyBeachingInFjordSpain
- 2010_09_OceanDivaOnFjordsInSpain
- 2010_09_DragonflyOnFjordsInSpain
- 2010_09_OceanDivaDragonflyLacoruna
- 2010_09_OceanDivaIITravelPicsSpainFrance
- 2010_09_DragonflyTravelpics
- 2010_09_LifeOnBoardOfOceanDivaII
- 2010_09_DragonFlyCrewBeforeRochefort
- 2010_09_trapOceanDivaII
- 2010_09_LynnHands
- 2010_09_OceanDivaGijonLacorunaDay4and5
- 2010_09_LifeOnBoardOfDragonfly
- 2010_09_OceanDivaSantanderDay3
- 2010_09_OceanDivaTripDay2
- 2010_09_OceanDivaTripDay1Afternoon
- 2010_09_LaRochelleOceadDivaDragonfly
- 2010_09_OceanDivaTripDay1
- 2010_09_OceanDivaIINightTripOutOfRochefort
- 2010_09_visitBoatshowLaRochelleBeforeOpening
- 2010_09_OceanDivaIIInRochefort
- 2010_09_visitNautitechCats
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Stories by Crew
September the 20th:
These days everything is pretty quiet on Ocean Diva: no accidents, no night watches, no rain, no dolphins, we ’re just enjoying sailing, islands and rocky scenery. Although every time the trimaran comes closer to Ocean Diva, the races, the parties and crazy games begin... the good part is that Dragonfly can try as hard as she wants but really is no match for Ocean Diva! Not only is Ocean Diva much faster, but she also has the best crew!
Last night we anchored nearby Camarinas, Spain. Ocean Diva and Dragonfly were tied to each other for a nice barbeque dinner. John was frying potatoes with a secret recipe from his grandmother which took ages and never saw the dinner table. Fortunately Kristof was in charge of the barbeque and we could eat some lovely steaks and chicken. After dinner some of us took a refreshing dip in the 15 degrees ocean, which is pretty cold, at least that is what they told us :-). Next morning we finally ate John’s potatoes, except for Lynn who insisted that eating potatoes in the morning is not possible.
Now we are almost reaching Portugal, which is a very exciting moment for Marianne. One of her favourite things to do on Ocean Diva is changing flags. She loves the formal and ceremonial moment. So at the moment nice breeze.. some music.. cup of tea.. we could think of worse things to do!
Written by Lynn and Marianne
These days everything is pretty quiet on Ocean Diva: no accidents, no night watches, no rain, no dolphins, we ’re just enjoying sailing, islands and rocky scenery. Although every time the trimaran comes closer to Ocean Diva, the races, the parties and crazy games begin... the good part is that Dragonfly can try as hard as she wants but really is no match for Ocean Diva! Not only is Ocean Diva much faster, but she also has the best crew!
Last night we anchored nearby Camarinas, Spain. Ocean Diva and Dragonfly were tied to each other for a nice barbeque dinner. John was frying potatoes with a secret recipe from his grandmother which took ages and never saw the dinner table. Fortunately Kristof was in charge of the barbeque and we could eat some lovely steaks and chicken. After dinner some of us took a refreshing dip in the 15 degrees ocean, which is pretty cold, at least that is what they told us :-). Next morning we finally ate John’s potatoes, except for Lynn who insisted that eating potatoes in the morning is not possible.
Now we are almost reaching Portugal, which is a very exciting moment for Marianne. One of her favourite things to do on Ocean Diva is changing flags. She loves the formal and ceremonial moment. So at the moment nice breeze.. some music.. cup of tea.. we could think of worse things to do!
Written by Lynn and Marianne
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Lynn & hands
no comment appart from the fact I didn't realize Mario is also a very capable nurse next to a captain.
Gijon Lunch + Trip Day 5 and 6, 150 miles Gijon & La Coruna
We had a very nice lunch in Gijon with the group. First time we went to a restaurant with the complete team. We have eaten very well and were charging is for the nightrip we were going to do. We came in very late in Gijon and most of us have barely slept that night.
The trip to La Coruna is about 150 miles.
Trip started very bad, rain, fog, quite some wind.
Lots of serious waves again.
We were also very tired, was not the ideal start to do such a long trip.
We started around 17.00h
But everything turned around to the good and we had a fantastic trip.
Lots of changing wind conditions, no wind, lots of wind, fog, sun, dark, different wind directions, ...
We did the trip 3h faster than planned.
At the end we had a nice sail race between OD and Dragonfly.
This time OD was to first to enter the marina but we were very close.
The atmosphere on board was fantastic. We decided to have a small party between 2 and 5 am with some good music from DJ Saskia.
We managed to find good spots for the 2 boats and while I am writing this the girls went out for shopping.
We heard on OD everything went fine as well but people are getting tired though, it is good we can get a couple of hours decent sleep tonight.
We will probably leave very early tomorrow morning.
The trip to La Coruna is about 150 miles.
Trip started very bad, rain, fog, quite some wind.
Lots of serious waves again.
We were also very tired, was not the ideal start to do such a long trip.
We started around 17.00h
But everything turned around to the good and we had a fantastic trip.
Lots of changing wind conditions, no wind, lots of wind, fog, sun, dark, different wind directions, ...
We did the trip 3h faster than planned.
At the end we had a nice sail race between OD and Dragonfly.
This time OD was to first to enter the marina but we were very close.
The atmosphere on board was fantastic. We decided to have a small party between 2 and 5 am with some good music from DJ Saskia.
We managed to find good spots for the 2 boats and while I am writing this the girls went out for shopping.
We heard on OD everything went fine as well but people are getting tired though, it is good we can get a couple of hours decent sleep tonight.
We will probably leave very early tomorrow morning.
Friday, September 17, 2010
planning day 4 & 5: Gijon to La Coruna
We have to do about 150 NMiles to get to La Coruna.
That is a hell of a trip and the weather report is not ideal, a lot of waves again.
But the good part is the wind is again coming from behind us.
Plan is to leave around 17.00h and get to La Coruna before it gets dark the day after.
This is probably the most difficult part of the trip.
We need to round the most northerly point of Spain (very close to Portugal).
There can be a lot of wind here and lots of current and waves.
Let's cross our fingers. Hopefully we manage to avoid too much seasickness and no more accidents.
That is a hell of a trip and the weather report is not ideal, a lot of waves again.
But the good part is the wind is again coming from behind us.
Plan is to leave around 17.00h and get to La Coruna before it gets dark the day after.
This is probably the most difficult part of the trip.
We need to round the most northerly point of Spain (very close to Portugal).
There can be a lot of wind here and lots of current and waves.
Let's cross our fingers. Hopefully we manage to avoid too much seasickness and no more accidents.
Lynn & hospitals
3.30 am
We (Lynn and Kristof) went to a bar to ask for a taxi to head to the nearest emergency hospital.
Together we probably speak 5 words of spanish, which is better than the taxi's driver english which was 0 words. We found out English or French does not help you any further in Spain. Not even the most simple English sentences seemed to make a difference.
The other item we were short of was cash money, together (I borrowed from Mario) we had 100 eur.
Lucky Lynn has a very good insurance (Eurocross), we called them and we opened a file.
The taxi driver brought us to a nice hospital, we were very quickly helped.
They even found a doctor who spoke some english.
They made an X-ray and we found out the top of one of the fingers is broken, the nail was also ripped off, as well as some quite serious injuries to the hands (like burning wounds). They couldn't help us any further in that hospital, because the injuries were on the fingers we had to go to another hospital (a university hospital 40 km further) where they have a plastic surgeon.
They put some bandage around the hands .
We didn't have to pay anything we only left the coordinates of the insurance company. People were very friendly.
6.00am
Also in that hospital they extremely friendly and we were helped very soon.
They confirmed the diagnoses and the plastic surgeon was called in.
She arrived very soon and took care of Lynn.
They put a metal fixation around the finger as well as took care of the burning wounds.
Again we did not have to pay anything.
We were back at OD II around 7.30am and we still have 10 eur in our pockets.
Lynn is going to stay on board for now, we will see how it goes. She needs to take good care of her hands and replace the bandages very regularly.
This shows how quickly an accident happens.
We (Lynn and Kristof) went to a bar to ask for a taxi to head to the nearest emergency hospital.
Together we probably speak 5 words of spanish, which is better than the taxi's driver english which was 0 words. We found out English or French does not help you any further in Spain. Not even the most simple English sentences seemed to make a difference.
The other item we were short of was cash money, together (I borrowed from Mario) we had 100 eur.
Lucky Lynn has a very good insurance (Eurocross), we called them and we opened a file.
The taxi driver brought us to a nice hospital, we were very quickly helped.
They even found a doctor who spoke some english.
They made an X-ray and we found out the top of one of the fingers is broken, the nail was also ripped off, as well as some quite serious injuries to the hands (like burning wounds). They couldn't help us any further in that hospital, because the injuries were on the fingers we had to go to another hospital (a university hospital 40 km further) where they have a plastic surgeon.
They put some bandage around the hands .
We didn't have to pay anything we only left the coordinates of the insurance company. People were very friendly.
6.00am
Also in that hospital they extremely friendly and we were helped very soon.
They confirmed the diagnoses and the plastic surgeon was called in.
She arrived very soon and took care of Lynn.
They put a metal fixation around the finger as well as took care of the burning wounds.
Again we did not have to pay anything.
We were back at OD II around 7.30am and we still have 10 eur in our pockets.
Lynn is going to stay on board for now, we will see how it goes. She needs to take good care of her hands and replace the bandages very regularly.
This shows how quickly an accident happens.
Day 3: Santander to Gijon
Nice wind in the back but large swell. We had about 2.5-3 m waves, lucky with 12-15 sec in between.
You can see this if you look at the pics and see how the ocean diva hides behind the waves.
Around 19h we were doing some wonderfull sailing, a race between OD and Dragonfly. Dragonfly was losing but we changed sailes (put 3 on) and it looked like we were coming closer again.
The weather was looking very bad, Mario (captain OD) decided to play safe and they put a reef in the sail (=made the sail smaller). Lynn was trying to take the head sail down but got stuck with her hands between the winch and the ropes. She was quite badly hurt. Mario fixed her up as good as he could.
We heard about the accident over the VHF. At that point we were in the middle of the sea and had to sail for at least 7 more hours to get into the Marina (first suitable Marina).
We (Dragonfly) arrived very late in Gijon, around 2.00am and had done about 85 NMiles (x 1.8km).
Most of us have been a little seasick but all by all we did well.
We had a lot of wind from the back.
Joris and Kristof waited for the Ocean Diva which arived around 3.30h.
Lynn and Kristof went to the hospital.
You can see this if you look at the pics and see how the ocean diva hides behind the waves.
Around 19h we were doing some wonderfull sailing, a race between OD and Dragonfly. Dragonfly was losing but we changed sailes (put 3 on) and it looked like we were coming closer again.
The weather was looking very bad, Mario (captain OD) decided to play safe and they put a reef in the sail (=made the sail smaller). Lynn was trying to take the head sail down but got stuck with her hands between the winch and the ropes. She was quite badly hurt. Mario fixed her up as good as he could.
We heard about the accident over the VHF. At that point we were in the middle of the sea and had to sail for at least 7 more hours to get into the Marina (first suitable Marina).
We (Dragonfly) arrived very late in Gijon, around 2.00am and had done about 85 NMiles (x 1.8km).
Most of us have been a little seasick but all by all we did well.
We had a lot of wind from the back.
Joris and Kristof waited for the Ocean Diva which arived around 3.30h.
Lynn and Kristof went to the hospital.
Boat Show In La Rochelle
On Monday while waiting for the window to get out of the harbour Bruno CEO from Nautitech took us to their stand on the boat show in la Rochelle.
This boat show only opens on Wedn.
Some fotos:
This boat show only opens on Wedn.
Some fotos:
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Internet over slow lines
This blog item does not talk about ocean diva but is a more technical blog to explain how to get better & cheaper get Internet connectivity when being on the road and using GPRS or a satellite link.
Did you realize how much bandwidth is being used when you go online.
Things like gmail are very chatty and use a lot of bandwidth even skype is quite bad.
I did some tests and measured how much bandwidth is being used.
When you do an average session you quickly use 1 MB per minute.
The cost of satellite internet is about 12 USD per MB (if bigger volumes are being bought, this is the price over Inmarsat).
If you are unlucky and one or more programs are doing an update over the internet you are screwed. Today many apps like picasa, office, windows, adobe pdf reader, ... all do their own updates. Most of them don't ask and just do it.
They use http (main web protocol) to do it over which means it is very hard to detect and protect against.
So without extra measurements a normal user could easily use 100 MB per working day (only in the case where you make sure you don't download much): result 1200 USD per day.
There is in fact absolute no need to use so much bandwidht.
Going back to the basics what do we need
I am convinced that a system can be designed which allows us to work and use 100 times less bandwidth.
So why do I need 100 MB then today?
Most of it goes back that in IT today people do not bother about resources any more.
Developers think its all free, CPU resources, storage, bandwidth, ...
On school they learn how to use modern development languages and they forget about the basics.
The more userfriendly the websites get the more they go back to the servers to fetch information all of this results in more bandwidth.
Is there a solution?
Last weekend together with Jan we put a system together which can help.
I am thinking about designing something which can make our live even more easy and do a better job then what we put quickly together.
The easy solution (without central server)
We put a server in a datacenter which is doing a lot of the work for us.
For who is this usefull, anyone being on the road and using GPRS/UMTS or Satellite internet.
For the ones using satelite this is a must, do not just connect a PC.
I hope this information was useful.
Kristof
Did you realize how much bandwidth is being used when you go online.
Things like gmail are very chatty and use a lot of bandwidth even skype is quite bad.
I did some tests and measured how much bandwidth is being used.
When you do an average session you quickly use 1 MB per minute.
The cost of satellite internet is about 12 USD per MB (if bigger volumes are being bought, this is the price over Inmarsat).
If you are unlucky and one or more programs are doing an update over the internet you are screwed. Today many apps like picasa, office, windows, adobe pdf reader, ... all do their own updates. Most of them don't ask and just do it.
They use http (main web protocol) to do it over which means it is very hard to detect and protect against.
So without extra measurements a normal user could easily use 100 MB per working day (only in the case where you make sure you don't download much): result 1200 USD per day.
There is in fact absolute no need to use so much bandwidht.
Going back to the basics what do we need
- email: in its simplest form is some text
- some websurfing: if we would re compress the images and the text this should be about 50 KB per page
- some chat maybe, also some text.
I am convinced that a system can be designed which allows us to work and use 100 times less bandwidth.
So why do I need 100 MB then today?
Most of it goes back that in IT today people do not bother about resources any more.
Developers think its all free, CPU resources, storage, bandwidth, ...
On school they learn how to use modern development languages and they forget about the basics.
The more userfriendly the websites get the more they go back to the servers to fetch information all of this results in more bandwidth.
Is there a solution?
Last weekend together with Jan we put a system together which can help.
I am thinking about designing something which can make our live even more easy and do a better job then what we put quickly together.
The easy solution (without central server)
- I installed a nice piece of software/service called propel (see www.propel.com). This software compresses web & email traffic. They do this by re compressing the images and compressing the text. Expected compression ratio is 4 to 5 which is already quite impressive.
- Install a personal firewall (I used comodo firewall, which is free). Install it to do very aggressive firewalling so that it asks about every program who wants to connect to the Internet. This will allow you to make sure that only applications which you want to allow to use Internet do so. Propel will show a popup when an app wants to access the internet. Only allow the apps which are relevant to you e.g. your webbrowser.
- Avoid using sites like gmail.com which are highly interactive & chatty.
- Avoid using sites how use SSL (can see this if the address starts with https://...). Eg. gmail.com uses https... If you use ssl propel can not compress the information stream. No caching & re compression will happen resulting in much more bandwidth usage.
- How to read email then: read your email from gmail over IMAP (still not the most optimal solution but helps you to save on bandwidth) and only download headers. Then decide per email what you want to download.
We put a server in a datacenter which is doing a lot of the work for us.
- Do everything as explained above +
- On server in datacenter:
- Install dovecot (imap & pop3 email server)
- Install postfix (smtp server)
- Install getmail (mail fetcher)
- Install squirelmail (easy web based client for email)
- Use getmail to download the mail from google and store locally on the server (look for examples on the internet)
- Postfix allows you to send email, dovecot allows you to use imap or pop3 without SSL from your mail client (the propel accelerator software can now work well and compress the pop3 & smtp email stream)
- optional: Install an SSH or TELNET server and you can over a very low bandwidth connection use mutt (shell text based email client).
- optional: install openvpn and enable the compression option, use the vpn connection to access the internet. This would give you 2-3 times benefit.
- Create a new tool which downloads the email on central server, extracts relevant text, put this text in a new intermediate format, compress this format, create a tool for client side which will download this content, expand again on the client to emails, expose as a local mail server, use your normal mail client to access the local mail server.
- Create a new http web proxy which does good compression and caching.
- Create some good sync tools to make sure all relevant content gets downloaded to the client.
- DISCLAIMER: none of this has been created yet.
- BUT IF WE WOULD DO: it could save 100 times on bandwidth so 100 times on internet satellite cost. For many people this would be the difference between working on remote locations and only spent 10 eur a day in stead of 1000 eur a day.
For who is this usefull, anyone being on the road and using GPRS/UMTS or Satellite internet.
For the ones using satelite this is a must, do not just connect a PC.
I hope this information was useful.
Kristof
we are moving again (Santander-Gijon)
we left Santander around 13.00h.
The engine has been checked, we didn't find a fuel filter but should be ok.
OD has fresh water.
We have lots of food & drinks, ready to go...
We will do about 90 miles and then hopefully sleep somewhere, the sea is quite rough and no wind. Waves about 2.5m heigh, a long swell (wave period of 12-15sec).
Not very comfortable but doable.
We tried everything with the sails, spinnaker, code0, ... to be able to sail but no luck, just not enough wind.
Joris & Saskia are on board now, nice to have them here. Saskia promised to make us better food (unlucky she is seasick in bed now) and Joris is on duty for probably the next 20h (we didn't tell hem that yet ofcourse).
We can see the OD II behind us also trying to sail, my guess is they are under engine as well.
I am using earplugs, hate the noise of the engine and am on the couch with the laptop preparing some slideshows.
Jan did an amazing job to allow me to get on the internet wherever I am.
We still have about 75 miles todo and our avg speed under engine is about 7.
The engine has been checked, we didn't find a fuel filter but should be ok.
OD has fresh water.
We have lots of food & drinks, ready to go...
We will do about 90 miles and then hopefully sleep somewhere, the sea is quite rough and no wind. Waves about 2.5m heigh, a long swell (wave period of 12-15sec).
Not very comfortable but doable.
We tried everything with the sails, spinnaker, code0, ... to be able to sail but no luck, just not enough wind.
Joris & Saskia are on board now, nice to have them here. Saskia promised to make us better food (unlucky she is seasick in bed now) and Joris is on duty for probably the next 20h (we didn't tell hem that yet ofcourse).
We can see the OD II behind us also trying to sail, my guess is they are under engine as well.
I am using earplugs, hate the noise of the engine and am on the couch with the laptop preparing some slideshows.
Jan did an amazing job to allow me to get on the internet wherever I am.
We still have about 75 miles todo and our avg speed under engine is about 7.
Stories
14 september 2010
First night sailing Gulf of Biscaje, so me and Lynn took turns to watch, together with John and Mario who switched every 3 hours with each other after we started 1,5 hour to bring as much variation in the night as possible. The autopilot is staying on course, our task is to spot other night travellers and keep track of the wind, the weather and everything else that could affect the course were taking. We navigated, spotted on the sea map the coordinates to keep track of the journey and in case of emergency. We spotted a hoover (yellow light) and more exiting, the first dolphins! Mario turned the light on under the boat and we laid down on the trampoline to watch the competition the dolphins did with the boat. Of course they lost eventually.. or they did get bored and went for a snack, who knows! We tried to wake the crew, but didn’t succeed. And blowing the horn seemed drastic. We expect to see some more sea life on the way anyway.
Now it’s 3 o’clock, we’re headed for Santander, Spain. The weather is lovely, the wind is about 6 knots and according to navigation we should reach it in about 12 hours. However nothing is certain at sea with the wind and the weather. But arriving in the dark should be exiting as well, and Mario can show off his night vision and good seamanship again.
In the mean time we are doing 8 knots and destination 7 hours.. Would be nice if we could keep this wind.
Written by Marianne
September the 14th:
This morning (at 6 o’clock!!!) I heard Kristof and Mario talking so I decided to wake up. When I came on the deck I saw they already had done a lot of work with the help of John: the dingi was up again and the trimaran was attached on the buoy where Ocean Diva II was hanging before. After a while everybody woke up because they smelt the aroma of coffee.
We went to the port of La Rochelle to get the fuel for Ocean Diva II and also the mechanic came to fix a part of the starboard engine. Mike and I decided to look for delicious French “croissants” as breakfast because we thought this was going to take a long time. Although... we just came back on time. The tanks were filled with the 900 litres fuel and the engine was fixed.
On the other side of the marina we were meeting the trimaran again and we did the second cleaning of Ocean Diva II (she ‘ s still that big and now oh so white!) When we were finished, I couldn’ t believe we were actually leaving for our long prepared trip to El Gouna, but we did! Marianne and I were so excited!
P.S.: I still have to laugh with our first arrival in La Rochelle. Brittany and I sitting in the cap: ‘’Hi, we ’re looking for a big red boat???’’
Written by Lynn
Arriving Of the Crew.
The crew arrived in Paris where John had the last seat in the TGV. on it's way down to La Rochelle. He was lucky. First needed to get a train from Charles de Gaulle to central station and from there on with the TGV.
After arriving at La Rochelle change over to a train direction La Rochefort sur mer. He called me when he was arriving. Waited at the train station walked back together. For the first time he saw the Trimaran DragonFly 35 "Achimedes" on wich we would sleep the first nights. He was astonished "great piece of kit" We dropped the bags and went immediately to the Ocean Diva II. He has worked on an older version of Ocean Voyager. But in these colors and setting again amazed him.
The second part of the crew landed a couple of hours later. Lynn and Brittany first problem phones did not work in Europa they came from Egypt. Because of the later hour they took a cap to central station. And also the TGV to La rochelle. Arived in La Rochelle where at the late hour no trains left for La Rochefort sur mer. They had to take a taxi again and still without a phone. With the taxi drivers phone Lynn and Brittany called me so we where finally togheter.
We tried to visit the restaurant but at 21.30 hours we could not have a nice dinner anymore. We then brought the bags to the Trimaran. And went downtown for a nice dinner. We had some laughs and headed back to the Trimaran everybody had had a long journey. So it was quit in 15 minutes.
Prepairing for arrival
The crew is arriving by train today, still need to arrange sleeping bags mattresses.
Very happy to meet the crew after being alone on the trimaran for 8 days i started to miss a bit of compagny to discuss the great voyage we are about to make.
I got the direction for a shop but it was a walk of 2 hours one way. I found the gear and headed back with 27.5 kg. Again 2 hours but took me a bit longer.
progress report
Everything starts looking good again, appart from the weather.
Engine seems to work again, probably there was something in the propelor.
Mario & Niko are checking oil of gearbox and oil of engine.
The fuelfilter is dirty we need to go and try to find one in Santander but if needed we can still go with it.
We are missing some tools to maintain the engine.
We managed to get our GPS chartplotter working on the ocean diva.
Some "bricolage" was needed but finally the Raymarine C80 is working properly with the right cards.
The toilets on OD still give issues, still looking into it.
A design mistake on OD, it is using fresh water for the toilets, which is ok for the daycharter business but bad for the long trips we are doing now.
We have to find a way to get in the marina to tank water.
We managed to fuel the Dragonfly, we have enough fuel now for about 35h under engine.
A team is out to get food.
Plan is to leave in about 2-3h and go for another long trip, probably over night again.
Our German friends left and are heading home with Ryan Air.
Good luck guys was nice having you on board.
Kristof
Engine seems to work again, probably there was something in the propelor.
Mario & Niko are checking oil of gearbox and oil of engine.
The fuelfilter is dirty we need to go and try to find one in Santander but if needed we can still go with it.
We are missing some tools to maintain the engine.
We managed to get our GPS chartplotter working on the ocean diva.
Some "bricolage" was needed but finally the Raymarine C80 is working properly with the right cards.
The toilets on OD still give issues, still looking into it.
A design mistake on OD, it is using fresh water for the toilets, which is ok for the daycharter business but bad for the long trips we are doing now.
We have to find a way to get in the marina to tank water.
We managed to fuel the Dragonfly, we have enough fuel now for about 35h under engine.
A team is out to get food.
Plan is to leave in about 2-3h and go for another long trip, probably over night again.
Our German friends left and are heading home with Ryan Air.
Good luck guys was nice having you on board.
Kristof
Engine trouble & toilet trouble
Boats, boats, boats, ... always something broken ...
On OC II we have a blocked toilet.
More serious is the engine on Dragonly is doing very weard, we lost quite some RPM and it is vibrating a lot. This started about 1h before we got into Santander.
On Dragonfly we only have 1 engine so better make sure it is working properly.
Today there will be no wind, will be a long trip under engine, if we get it to work.
Everyone awake now, weather is not good, very cloudy, very humid.
We ankered in front of the Marina in Santander, OD II is too big, couldn't enter the Marina.
We have eten most of our supplies on OD II & Dragonfly, we need to bunker.
I'll keep you up to date later but have to help now with the engine and see what we can do.
On OC II we have a blocked toilet.
More serious is the engine on Dragonly is doing very weard, we lost quite some RPM and it is vibrating a lot. This started about 1h before we got into Santander.
On Dragonfly we only have 1 engine so better make sure it is working properly.
Today there will be no wind, will be a long trip under engine, if we get it to work.
Everyone awake now, weather is not good, very cloudy, very humid.
We ankered in front of the Marina in Santander, OD II is too big, couldn't enter the Marina.
We have eten most of our supplies on OD II & Dragonfly, we need to bunker.
I'll keep you up to date later but have to help now with the engine and see what we can do.
Trip Day Wedn Sept 15
We sailed (motored) for over 30 hours nonstop.
We had nice wind during the night, but it was playing tricks on us, constantly changing direction. We haven't slept a lot.
During the day we had no wind, drove us crazy.
We arrived at Santander around 22.30h and meet 2 new members of the team, Joris & Saskia are joining us to Malaga.
We had nice wind during the night, but it was playing tricks on us, constantly changing direction. We haven't slept a lot.
During the day we had no wind, drove us crazy.
We arrived at Santander around 22.30h and meet 2 new members of the team, Joris & Saskia are joining us to Malaga.
Afternoon trip tuesday Sept 14
Some fotos of the afternoon trip direction Santander.
Some wind, calm see, nice weather.
Some wind, calm see, nice weather.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Trip To Nautitech
In Rochefort you can find the HQ of Nautitech & CIM.
CIM are the makers of the Ocean Diva's.
Nautitech creates charter and soon high performance catamarans (cats).
You can see some photos made in their main assembly hall.
Together with Nautitech we have some nice ideas for the future, we would like to design a new breed of boats. Bruno (the CEO of Nautitech) is creating a new line of faster & larger catamarans. It will be the Nautitech 54 (you can find more info on their site).
This new boat is going to be announced on the boat show in La Rochelle today.
Boatomatic (one of our startups) would like to help in the creation of this boat and add a lot of usefull good looking electronic features to it. The goal is to make it very userfriendly, reliable but still high tech & good looking.
Through onw control pannel & over the internet the full boat can be controlled.
We are even thinking about implementing an automatic selftest system for the boat which will tell you if all systems are working ok.
More about these ideas later on.
Thanks a lot to Bruno & his team which have proven to us they can create very reliable but still goodlooking and good performing catamarans.
CIM are the makers of the Ocean Diva's.
Nautitech creates charter and soon high performance catamarans (cats).
You can see some photos made in their main assembly hall.
Together with Nautitech we have some nice ideas for the future, we would like to design a new breed of boats. Bruno (the CEO of Nautitech) is creating a new line of faster & larger catamarans. It will be the Nautitech 54 (you can find more info on their site).
This new boat is going to be announced on the boat show in La Rochelle today.
Boatomatic (one of our startups) would like to help in the creation of this boat and add a lot of usefull good looking electronic features to it. The goal is to make it very userfriendly, reliable but still high tech & good looking.
Through onw control pannel & over the internet the full boat can be controlled.
We are even thinking about implementing an automatic selftest system for the boat which will tell you if all systems are working ok.
More about these ideas later on.
Thanks a lot to Bruno & his team which have proven to us they can create very reliable but still goodlooking and good performing catamarans.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Morning Trip To La Rochelle
Beautifull colors in the morning.
Ocean Diva II took of around 6am to go on 1 engine to La Rochelle.
The Trimaran stays on the anker spot.
Around 9.00am we decided to follow Ocean Diva II to La Rochelle.
It took us about 2 hours to get in La Rochelle. Unfortunately no wind we had to go on engine.
Ocean Diva II took of around 6am to go on 1 engine to La Rochelle.
The Trimaran stays on the anker spot.
Around 9.00am we decided to follow Ocean Diva II to La Rochelle.
It took us about 2 hours to get in La Rochelle. Unfortunately no wind we had to go on engine.
Quick Update
we left about 3 hours ago from La Rochelle.
Ocean Diva II is about 10 miles behind us.
We decided to go first, we are still going with the engine.
No wind.
OC II should be able to do 2 knots faster then us under engine so somewhere today we will meet again.
We will keep on going for at least another 90 Miles or maybe even till Santander and go over the night.
There are very few marina's in this part of the world. Marina's in which OC II fits are even much harder to find. Probably OD II will have to stay outsite for anker and we will enter the marina with tender and the Dragonfly.
We are staying close to the shore, it is 50 Miles longer but safer, the see we are crossing here is one of the most dangerous seas in the world.
The depth goes from x000 m to x00 m in very short distance which can create seriously bad waves.
We just got some marvelous lunch from Niko (-:, chicken with curry and rice which ... we had to enrich with Ketchup ... I have the feeling will need the bottle of ketchup more often the next couple of days.
Its very quite on the boat now, only the enoying engine is running.
Close enough to shore we don't have to use the internet satelite system and can use GPRS. Lots of time to work and catch up...
Ocean Diva II is about 10 miles behind us.
We decided to go first, we are still going with the engine.
No wind.
OC II should be able to do 2 knots faster then us under engine so somewhere today we will meet again.
We will keep on going for at least another 90 Miles or maybe even till Santander and go over the night.
There are very few marina's in this part of the world. Marina's in which OC II fits are even much harder to find. Probably OD II will have to stay outsite for anker and we will enter the marina with tender and the Dragonfly.
We are staying close to the shore, it is 50 Miles longer but safer, the see we are crossing here is one of the most dangerous seas in the world.
The depth goes from x000 m to x00 m in very short distance which can create seriously bad waves.
We just got some marvelous lunch from Niko (-:, chicken with curry and rice which ... we had to enrich with Ketchup ... I have the feeling will need the bottle of ketchup more often the next couple of days.
Its very quite on the boat now, only the enoying engine is running.
Close enough to shore we don't have to use the internet satelite system and can use GPRS. Lots of time to work and catch up...
the 2 boats in la rochelle
the ocean diva II was very quickly repaired.
You can find some nice fotos about the team & the boats.
would be nice to get some comments, I'll pass them on to the relevant people.
You can find some nice fotos about the team & the boats.
would be nice to get some comments, I'll pass them on to the relevant people.
Night trip out of rochefort.
Because of the tides in Rochefort we can only go out at 2 intervals per day.
We needed the first full day to finish the boat.
Everyone is there.
We are with 9 on OD II and 4 on the Dragonfly (which is a trimaran joining the trip).
Our first trip is towards santander in Spain where we will pick up 2 extra people.
The night trip was beautifull.
OD II had very little few we decided to anker and wait till the morning to go to la rochelle to take fuel there.
Just before ankering we hear a very hard noise coming from the engine.
First breakage is already there.
We will see tomorrow what todo.
Around 12.00h we were safely ankered and everyone went to bed for a very short night of rest.
We needed the first full day to finish the boat.
Everyone is there.
We are with 9 on OD II and 4 on the Dragonfly (which is a trimaran joining the trip).
Our first trip is towards santander in Spain where we will pick up 2 extra people.
The night trip was beautifull.
OD II had very little few we decided to anker and wait till the morning to go to la rochelle to take fuel there.
Just before ankering we hear a very hard noise coming from the engine.
First breakage is already there.
We will see tomorrow what todo.
Around 12.00h we were safely ankered and everyone went to bed for a very short night of rest.
Fotos Ocean Diva II In Rochefort
The boat is so big it didn't fit in the marina.
They had to put it in a part of the commercial marina which was a complete mess as you can see on next fotos.
The boat is really nice and very well made, much much bigger as the ocea diva I
They had to put it in a part of the commercial marina which was a complete mess as you can see on next fotos.
The boat is really nice and very well made, much much bigger as the ocea diva I
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Visiting the OceanDiva II
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Arriving with the DragonFly 35 “Archimedes” in Rochefort. People of the CIM company welcomed me. There was a warm welcome. Francois showed me Rochefort sur mer (full name).By car but we could not resist the pull off the oceandivaII I wanted to visit her. We came into the commercial port.
I had tour around the OceanDiva II when on board you immediately feel safe its solid rugged all the way through. All winched are Harken. This catamaran is not only fun for the passengers but also for the crew. The CIM company explained to me why they think the crew has to be satisfied to. When the crew has fun it automatically will reflect to the passengers as well. We as crew will not argue with their decisions
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Some mechanics where working the electricians were connecting and checking the bar and the steering console which contains all necessary equipment for a safe voyage. Volvo Penta engineer just finished the last checkups of both the 110 hp engines. He gave his okay on the installation. Next thing was fixing the wind vane, wind speed conductor, and a second vhf antenna on top of the mast. Which is 27 meters high above the water. I went up half way with a trapeze just to see how it will be like if we need to do this at sea. In a marina with a platform of 23 X 11 meter and my weight she did not move. Next person up was the mechanic with tools and the gear.
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Second day
Again it was very hot in Rochefort 35 degrees, after a walk from the trimaran to the OceanDiva II i could use some shade. Luckily when coming closer to the OceanDiva II I saw engineers where installing the red bimini top. The purpose of making shade has been achieved we also will need this in Egypt.
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