Wings of love to people in need

21 September 2013

Kodiak Ferry Flight - Day 4

Canary Islands to Accra, Ghana.

1850 miles (3000 km), 10h32

 
Hi everybody,
A lot has happened since the last personal update from me (John), mostly fatigue right now. I write this as we pass by Bamako shortly after a sunrise spoiled by cloud and building weather.

I last wrote an update on the eve of our initial Atlantic leg from St. John's to Santa Maria. As it turned out, the weather did cooperate and the developing system had layers of cloud and a few isolated storms, which were not significant. The weather radar was great to have in that situation as we could weave our way through the weather. This only lasted about an hour and a half, otherwise we had great weather. The endless miles of ocean was a first for me and Neil was kept busy with the HF radio, which only seemed to work on the higher frequencies, but we managed to have enough contact to make air traffic control happy.

Winds have worked in our favor mostly and our fuel endurance has been better than expected and after numerous calculations as well as using the very fancy computers and TV screens on board, the numbers all check out and we have about 12.5 hrs total endurance. One thing I have learned is that winds play a huge role in long range flying, making it essential to get accurate wind forecasts.

Santa Maria is a very quaint and remote island and one gets the feeling that the people have a real advantage over the huge populations of the world encumbered by the rat race. A short flight into Las Palmas was enjoyable after good rest, where we refueled, hired beds and a meal at a hotel for a few hours before setting sail again around midnight. I did not manage to get any sleep, but I did manage to rest. Sleep deprivation and 13000 feet for hours on end are the reasons I am fatigued right now, but we have only 3 hrs left to run to Accra, where I hope to sleep after sending this email of course!

We have picked up some tail winds and the winds are exactly as forecast.

I am looking forward to getting home and 3 days of sleep!

Blessings,

John

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