Thoughts on communications…

First, a Happy Easter wish to everyone back home.

My family has a running chat on Viber and it was fun getting the updates – a planned trip out to Cambridge ON to visit a niece on Friday, and a planned Easter dinner Saturday with another nephew (Marty), son of Nancy’s brother Calvin. We joked about the Easter Bunny finding a ship at sea.

Then a couple of hours later my phone rings with a Facetime call. I was POCKET DIALED BY NANCY from the car on the drive to Cambridge! If a few weeks ago you had told me I would be pocket dialed while 300+nm offshore I would have said you were dreaming. Times and communications have changed, I was wrong.

Bill’s blog outlined other activities in the day including the great fun trying to run the hydrophone. We had done a simple test in the harbour a few weeks ago, but this was the first “at sea” test. We won’t win a Grammy, but here is a small audio clip. Maybe this was not communication at all, but we think it is a proper signal.

I sent the file to Devan and heard back “there could be some echolocation in there ..thought I heard a few clicks…was there dolphins around?”. We hadn’t seen any at that time but as you can tell – they were about!

We continued on our journey and as always, a nice lunch was shared by all. No turkey and stuffing, but a healthy snack and chance for the 3 of us to chat about our efforts with the hydrophone.

The balance of the day was quiet – reading books, a nap, Bill working on some lines/ropes. I finished a book, “The Loop” by Jacob Ward, all about how AI algorithms are “suggesting” everything – what we listen to, buy, read, watch, say, do – and in many ways reduce our choice. A good but disturbing read.

And of course the highlight – I was on an intentional Facetime call with Nancy (it was 9:30pm in Toronto) and debriefing on their day – especially the antics of the dogs. Then Bill saw a splash in the water behind us. Over the next few minutes a school of dolphins came alongside the boat then playfully swam in front of us while the sun set. Amazing.

The night shift is over, the sun is rising, Bill and Sharon will be up soon. Yesterday we crossed the path of the journey Bill, Greg and I took in 2021 bringing Turtlebones up from Costa Rica. We are officially further west than ever before.

I thought I would call my mom (Facetime) in Kemptville ON before signing off. She answered but I learned that Ottawa/Montreal had been hit with a major ice storm with hundreds of thousands without power. Her retirement residence has a big generator, and although no wifi her cellphone picked up a cell tower and we had our call. Communications magic on both ends.

A fun, engaging day. Feeling isolated out in the Pacific Ocean? HA!