At 7:05 pm Australian central time we received a SPOT messenger OK message with Freya’s position. About the same time she sent a text message:
12.00 137.35. 7th night out. 90km left. Will arrive Saturday.
Report from Chris Cunningham:
At 9:40 am (Central Australia time) I got a sat phone call from Freya. The signal was not good so I couldn’t hear much of what she was saying, but she’s doing well. There are some strong currents in the area. She set her sea anchor and checked her GPS and noticed a strong drift, not in a favorable direction so she pulled the sea anchor back in. At some point it was calm and foggy. She was able to take a 30-minute nap in the daytime, I’m not sure when. She sounded well rested and in good spirits. There are 143 km left to go. She plans on taking it slow and aims to arrive around noon on Saturday. She is getting some chafing on her hands from sleeves and pockets, but she reported no other problems.
Text message from Freya via satellite phone:
11.56 138.15. 160km left. I will paddle a bit more but will arrive Saturday rather than land Friday at midnight or so. Body is OK with quantity rest, if you don’t get quality…
It’s getting ugly…
Report from Chris Cunningham:
I got a satellite phone call from Freya at about 9:00 am Australia time. She had a bit of rough water last night, but as always, she said “it wasn’t that bad.” She mentioned some skin trouble with the backs of her hands and took care of that with Vaseline. She sounded energetic and in good spirits.
Text message from Freya via satellite phone:
11.53 138.43. 5th night out. Much more quiet than yesterday thank goodness…215km left. Arrival Friday night.
Report from Chris Cunningham:
Freya sent an OK from her Spot messenger at 03:01:09 (GMT) from Latitude:-11.82, Longitude:138.99. Judging from the difference between email time of the SPOT message and GMT time mark, she has passed from the Queensland time zone (GMT +10) into Northern Territories time zone (GMT + 9:30). Local time of the message would be 12:30 p.m. (Australian readers, please correct me if I’m wrong about the time change.) Weather advisor Karel Vissel estimates Freya has 220 km to go.
Got you! This turtle in the middle of the gulf has probably never seen any boat or people.
Report from Chris Cunningham:
At 5:30 am Freya sent an OK signal from her SPOT messenger. As she starts the fifth day of her 575 km (360 statute miles) crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria she is more than halfway. By my Google Earth measurements she has 305 km behind her and 270 km to go. She had a bit of rough water Monday, but the weather forecast, according to our weather guru, Karel Vissel, is for “winds mostly east starting Thursday and continuing Friday should bring her home with ease.”
Message from Freya via satellite phone Monday morning (Australia time): 11.47 140.01. 3rd night out 355km left. I slept like a baby last night!
Other problems for a good night’s rest were the frequent encounters with sea snakes – this one above has just swallowed some prey, probably fish. It was really swollen fat on one end!
