Charlie doesn’t have email on the boat boat but dictated this over his sat phone to Laurie:
“Greetings from Riff Rider,
If my calculations are accurate I passed the halfway point this morning. In the first half of the trip I lost my radar rig, I shredded my #3 jib, my auto pilot popped a fuse, the jib sheet stripped off a top side housing vent, my mainsheet swivel got bent and the boom vang is trying to peel its face plate off the mast. (I secured it with banding, several wraps of duct tape and several loops of well cinched spectra). Other than that, things have been rather uneventful. 🙂 I have seen a couple of albatross, a small fishing rig came alongside for a picture, saying he had never seen a sail boat so far out. An oil tanker radioed in that he was altering his course to pass me on my stern, so I guess the AIS transponder is working and apparently very much worth it. Last night I passed within 300 yards of a standing object with a red light and a white strobe. Probably a weather buoy I’m guessing.
I don’t have a SSB or email set up so I’m not in contact with other sailors but I do hope they are having the experience they were hoping they would and I wish them smooth and safe sailing. Riff Rider out.”