To see use of the translation flags, and translated subtitles on Youtube videos, Play Video Here . Videos only play from English pages.
You probably reached this "Blog9" page from the
Snoopy page,
or the
Design of Snoopy Sloop page
.
If not, click on a link to know more.
Each "blog" page describes detailed work preparing for the next Atlantic Attempt.
i.e. covering a period in the region of a year: less if more than one attempt is made.
The Blog pages were started after the first 2012 Attempt, where Snoopy's boat was lost. All later attempts were
with the same boat, sometimes after major repairs. The blogs provide online "Engineering Notebooks",
providing a day-by-day account of repairs, changes, and testing: mostly testing.
These blog pages are mostly about numerous repairs to the boat, results from "BRAY LAKE TESTS", or 24/7 reliability testing on Bray Lake.
i.e. Snoopy sailing back and forth over a 24/7 waypoint in "Snoopy Corner". This is typically for several weeks,
in all weather, including gale force winds.
Sometimes, a few things happened which resulted in amusing pictures or stories,
such as countering human-intervention, or testing the wheels for Snoopy's trolly.
Click on the pictures either side for larger versions, or visit earlier blogs above.
BlogX, the "blog of experiments", shows ideas and products, some of which may appear
in future boats.
A major "tidy-up" is in progress, so that this "Blog9" page can offload information cluttering the
Snoopy
page - but it may take me some time :-)
Play the video on the right, made after we returned home, on Thursday 1st September, from Snoopy's launch from Boscombe, on Tuesday 30th August. It includes those nice days in the West Country. This video includes our discovery that Snoopy's last position report was on that morning that we made our journey home. He had gone "Missing in Action".
This "Blog9" page lists events in the order they happened, so the latest will be near the end, including our search for Snoopy.
It follows on from
Blog8
that details repairs and testing after Snoopy's 2019 Attempt - that "Trip to France and Back" :-)
June and Robin took 10 days holiday in that August 2022 Heatwave, and took Snoopy on his Robot Boat :-)
Tap or Click on the pictures to expand or play videos, to see what we did. The Attempt was expected on Tuesday 30th August 2022 on or before 1200 BST UK time.
* Winds were NOT expected suitable until much later in week, so the day and launch spot might have been different. e.g. further west such as Dorset, Devon, or Cornwall.
Tap or Click to expand pictures below. Problem: Campers not allowed near beach on Undercliff Drive; Solution: Park above Zig-Zag steps on Overcliff Drive and use a sack truck to wheel Snoopy down to the beach and his launch spot. Overcliff Drive seems a better observation point after Snoopy's launch ! ;-)
High Tide at Boscombe is at about 1300 BST UK time ( midday GMT/UT/GPS Time ). These TotalTide predictions of tidal current are for Monday 8th August: Tap or Click on pictures to expand and read details. These help us predict any boats's behaviour - certainly Snoopy's ! :-) On left is maximum at about 0900 GMT ( 1000 BST local UK time ), centre is 1230 GMT ( 1330 BST ), right is at 1600 GMT ( 1700 BST UK ).
Tap or Click on pictures below to expand.
We planned to travel further west, so those south-western facing bits of coast might be suitable alternative launch sites ;-)
Sunday 7th August 2022: Robin's "Cunning Plan": from Sunninghill to Boscombe for a recce', then on the West Bay for first night.
Launch of Snoopy maybe Friday 12th ??? :-)
As each day went by, the predicted winds changed, and were not suitable for an Atlantic Attempt.
It would not have been convenient for other Team-Joker guys anyway.
Monday 29th August: Play that video on right, to see the revised plan made yesterday, on Sunday 28th August 2022. Today it's about preperation for tomorrow ! :-)
Tap or Click on the Total Tide pictures below, to expand and see detail. Note that these are in GMT/UT so add 1 hour for local BST UK time.
Play the video on the right, made after we returned home, on Thursday 1st September, from Snoopy's launch from Boscombe, on Tuesday 30th August. It includes those nice days in the West Country. This video includes our discovery that Snoopy's last position report was on that morning that we made our journey home. He had gone "Missing in Action".
You need only play the first part of the video :-)
I'll use this opportunity to add three pictures from the Microtransat web site, managed by Colin Sauze. They show brilliantly the complete track of Snoopy's boat, from just after launch, until the last report received. For some reason, the Spot website has been removing the earlier positions.
Tap or Click on the pictures below to expand and read detail. Remember that times are in z/GMT/UT/GPS Time, and that one hour must be added for local UK British Summer Time (BST).
It was only after June & Robin Lovelock got home, in Sunninghill, from their Camper Trip to launch Snoopy,
that they saw that Snoopy was no longer reporting his position on the Spot Satcomms tracker.
He had gone "Missing in Action" !
Snoopy had made his Atlantic Attempt on Tuesday 30th August, from his usual launch spot, west of Boscombe Pier, at 1200 BST Midday ( 1100z /GMT/UT/GPS Time ).
These links had been used ... See Winds Expected. e.g. offshore / westward wind needed. Track Snoopy's boat on the SpotT map. e.g. in Sunninghill ? See spare SpotT2 tracker. e.g. within Robin's car or Camper .
BUT there were no more position reports from Snoopy's Spot tracker above after that on Thursday morning at 0846 GMT = 0946 UK time. Many things could have happened.
Robin's best guess
is that Snoopy will hit the southern England coast,
in next few days, somewhere between Weymouth and Lands End.
Tap or Click on that map on right to expand, if you need.
If it is only the SPOT Satcomms tracker system that has failed, and Snoopy's Autopilot, including GPS, Computer, and Rudder, is still working, Snoopy might be between the Weymouth and Prawle Waypoints, at midday on Saturday 3rd September. See track coloured pink.
If Snoopy's Autopilot is not working, such as if all power lost, then the wind
and (averaged) tidal current might have carried him not far east of Torquay.
The shift of wind after Friday, towards the north, would then make Snoopy hit land somewhere between Selsey Bill, Weymouth, and Torquay. e.g. Chesil Beach.
Tap or Click on these expected winds for near Torquay, to expand and read. You can see the updated forcast on Winds Expected near Torquay .
Of course, Snoopy might have been taken by someone at sea - it has happened before. Tap or Click below for details of 2012, 2015, and 2019 Attempts. Thanks Guys :-)
For those considering a "recce" for Snoopy, on foot, by boat, by car, or in the air, this map below may help. The weather may be more suitable soon, for beach-combing, fishing, sailing, and flying. One "Tool for the job" is a drone - but there are legal restrictions. See Robin's Drone page . Remember - Robin did NOT encourage you :-)
Thankfully Colin's Snoopy track is still there, despite the SPOT system deciding to "Forget" it. Tap or Click on the pictures below to expand.
Especially the middle one !
The middle map shows Snoopy sailing in a perfect straight line, compensating for the tidal current, until 1239 GMT on Tuesday 30th August. BUT see below !
For those using translation flags, the words say ...
QUOTE:
Snoopy leaves straight course 1240.
then swept by tidal current, increasing.
Probably "normal". i.e. above boat speed.
OR - perhaps after collision with boat ?
Damage might make autopilot fail immediately, but water ingress might take time to make the SPOT Satcomms tracker fail ? (days later).
THEREFORE check historical AIS picture for vessels near this position at that time ?
Tidal current on Tuesday 30 August at 1240 GMT = 1340 BST.
UNQUOTE.
from Robin: I must admit that I was surprised that Snoopy seemed to start drifting when the tidal current had only reached 0.5 knots or less.
His sailing speed would normally be faster than this.
Also, what a coincidence that this happened on that path taken by some ships between Poole Harbour and Portsmouth.
e.g. Royal Marine Landing Craft Utilities :-)
Here on the left is the Youtube video that Dick sent to Peter and Robin some days ago.
It shows the AIS tracks of shipping near where Snoopy's SPOT tracker failed on Thursday 1st September 2022. This seems to rule out this SPOT failure being directly due to a colission or close approach at that time.
HOWEVER, it remains to be seen if there was any close approach in the days earlier - particularly Tuesday 30th August, near 1240 GMT. The "Jury is still out" on that one ! :-)
For those interested, there is
Snoopy's Marine Traffic page
, set up in 2015.
Or just Tap or Click on that image to the right.
Many thanks Amanda for these smartphone photos of Snoopy's arrival at 1030 BST Saturday morning, and then Robin, Snoopy, Patrick. Tap or Click to expand :-)
It may take days, weeks, or months to know what happened - and learn
from Snoopy's Mission, to prepare for the 2023 Atlantic Attempt :-)
BUT Robin is now sure that Snoopy failed because he forgot to file a flat on the steel rod fixed to the rudder. Stupid boy Robin ! :-)
This is needed so that the grub screw, in the rudder lever, can prevent it working loose. The result, in rough seas,
would have been the rudder working loose, sliding out of the boat, allowing some sea water to come into the waterproof
box at the back. The result of even a small amount of salt water, is electrical leakage and loss of battery power. Hence
the SPOT Trace Satcoms failing - and probably everything else !
Of course - it's still amazing how far east Snoopy "sailed", and what a great time and place to sail into !
These pages need to be updated, but for now, there is a lot of more recent and detailed information in the
most Robin's Youtube channel above.
See "BlogX", describing background experimental work from 2008 until now.
See the
Recce,
Compass
,
Software
, and many
Blog
pages, for details of the vast ammount of experiments and testing, done over the years.
Yes, there is a lot there, and you need a wide screen to scroll through it.
I wish I'd written the blogs tidier, but they are better than nothing, and my time is precious.
Now WHERE are the details of the autoplots in Boat6 and Boat10 used for that race in July 2014 ?
Play the video to see how well
Snoopy's 2014 boat 10 did against the smaller experimental boat 6 on 11th July 2014.
The speech from the autopilot of Boat6 implies it was using experimental compass-based steering.
i.e. "ahead, ahead, left, ahead", etc. Boat 10 used our old, trusted, GPS-Only steering.
Why did Boat6 win ? Much less weight: see the Blog for Boats 11 and 12 having a race
with identical autopilots on Thursday 6th July 2017, three years later.
We can learn a lot from what we did in earlier years, if we write it down -
or better still, film it :-)
Not all visits are seen, and some browsers hide location, but you may find
Revolvermaps livestats for this "Blog9" page
of interest.
The video on the right shows several guys visiting my
Covid19
page
, shortly after I posted the link to the
Microtransat
forum, linked from the
Snoopy Robot Boat
page.
That's right - Hobby activity and Charitable Causes, rather than earning money.
Us
Grumpy
old men sometimes find that, "there are just not enough hours in the day"
;-)
© 1947-2022 Robin Lovelock.
There have been
Photos from Amanda of Snoopy sailing in onto Rottingdean Beach ...
Later extract from "Snoopy" page on 29th October - to be updated in due course ...
Snoopy went "Missing in Action" on 1st September near Weymouth, but, 6 weeks later, on Saturday 22nd October 2022,
sailed into Rottingdean Beach, east of Brighton !
Thanks Dick for the photo on the right, showing another conventional means
of securing the rudder. Before seeing Robin's photos tucked away on very recent videos,
on
www.youtube.com/user/RobinLovelock/videos
Other stuff ...
Snoopy's Bray Lake Test ... sail 530 metres automatically, through 5 waypoints ...
Who has visited this page ?
From Robin: It's very convenient for me, that there are so few visitors to this page: just those given the link.
See map and words near end of my
Home
page ;-)
The visit counters may give a rough indication on who else is visiting, or has visited, this page.
I don't hide or disguise my visits, but they may appear as "Ascot", or miles away, like "Lightwater" or even "Southend-on-Sea, England" (on my Lounge PC),
or "High Wycombe" or "West-Drayton, England" ( on the Study PC).
Positions may not be accurate, but times are.
These may change at any time, without control by me.
e.g. if we have a power cut, or I reboot a router.
So, you may see if I'm "working" in the Study, or "relaxing" in Lounge :-)
visits seen by
since Friday 5th August 2022.