Later this week Dr Karen Weekes will set off on her Solo Atlantic crossing on board "Millie", her Ronnach 25 Ocean Rowing Boat. Departing from Puerto da Megan in Gran Canaria, will see Karen undertake this 3,000 nM voyage to finish in Barbados an estimated 70 days later, making her the first Irish woman to complete this 3,000 nautical mile solo rowing transit.
#SHECANDO campaign aims to provide a platform for encouraging women, and girls, to push themselves outside their current comfort zone and to believe in their abilities to succeed both in their work and everyday lives. SHECANDO2021 represents that anything is possible when you have self-belief, determination, strategic planning and the setting of progressive goals.
"Testing AIS (shipping) routines, water maker testing, para anchor and drogue systems, rescue ladders etc.
All in hot sunshine… lucky us! Great to have buddies here to help me…and they are genuinely working so hard to help me get everything ready.
Might depart at the weekend. Will see what weather is doing and how we are doing.
SHECANDO is definitely a case of WECANDO these days."
And we were delighted to play our part in Karen's preparation of Millie for this voyage. We got on board with Michael Wall from Somex Automation to configure and set up the Garmin Navigation and Communication systems. Programmed Millie's MMSI number and Call Sign into her VHF and AIS, and also integrated the autopilot system with the Garmin chart plotter that will now share navigation information such as, bearing and distance to waypoint, heading, and track to waypoint. We then added in the Actisense W2K-1. This not only gives the ability to share all navigation data over wi-fi on a tablet, but it also has an internal data logger. This means that Karen will have a complete log of the entire voyage upon completion.
We then did some firmware updates to make sure that everything runs smoothly and then we helped Karen set up the two iPads that she will be taking with her. This included pairing with the Garmin system so the tablet acts as a repeater screen with full control. AIS target overlay in the Navionics Boating App, and even sharing routes, tracks and waypoints between her Boating App and her on board Garmin GPSMap chart plotter.
Because it can be tricky rowing and holding a tablet for navigation, all while going backwards, we also supplied a ROKK Mini Adjustable Tablet Mount with a suction cup base, allowing Karen to mount her navigation screen anywhere around the boat that is in reach and in view. As all smart devices need smart charging, we also added a waterproof fast charging USB socket, that should have no problem charging her tablet out in the elements of an open cockpit ocean rowing boat.
We would like to wish Karen the very best of luck and a safe crossing!
More on her website at SHECANDO2021.org and you can track live updates of her progress here.
Bon Voyage "Millie"
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