Many of you have followed our journey over the last 6 months. Some of you followed us last year as well. This blog is not about our trip, it is about how the whole thing works with YIT and Gulf Harbour Radio, as many of you will not know this.
Patricia and David get up early every morning (well, 6 days per week) and analyse the weather situation over the south pacific. They spend an hour on the SSB radio, talking to all of us yachties and finding out where we are and what help we might need to weather advice. David gives a detailed weather bulletin, helps to educate us on how to read the weather and lets us know if our plans for passages are good or if we should wait for better weather. Then, during the day, they answer numerous email enquiries from yachties, seeking weather advice. All of this is done in their own time, for free. What they do actually costs them money. They need specialised equipment to tramsit their radio signal to Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia etc from NZ. They are currently investing in more gear, that will be able to clearly transmit their service to more places, so they can cover us better. They need all sorts of software to interpret the weather data they get and this costs more money. Much of the weather data they get every day is by paid subscription - meaning they pay large sums each month just to get the right info that will help us yachties. But they do not charge anything for their services.
When yachts call in by radio, or email Gulf Harbour radio, Patricia and David plug in all the relevant info onto the YIT website, so that friends and family have the reassurance of knowing where their loved ones are.
The YIT (Yachts In Transit) website, is run by a very knowledgeable and kind computer man, Mike. This clever guy has built the YIT website, specifically for us yachties, again, at no charge. Mike is constantly building new and useful features into the site which allows us yachties to plug in our position and send updates and blogs even while we are at sea. Mike is also very patient with us all, teaching us how to use this new technology! For you at home, this means you can see exactly where we are on the satellite maps, follow our progress and know we are OK. The website is a great tool for Patrica and David too, as it helps them keep track of all the yachts whereabouts and therefore cover the weather for each area the yachts are in.
If a yacht gets in to any trouble, or has not been heard from for a while, Patricia and David use the information on YIT to help Rescue Coordination in NZ to find the yacht and they put the word out to yachts they know are nearby, to help with the search.
Again, all of this is done, just because they love to help.
So this is a tribute to David, Patrica and Mike. Wonderful people who give freely of their time to help others. Thank you so much! If you at home are grateful to have these people providing this service and would like to support their efforts, please go to the website www.yit.co.nz and click on the Donate Now button. These people are truly wonderful.