You can now Play the 5 minute video of Snoopy's Aborted Atlantic Attempt of 23rd November 2014.
If you need "the bigger picture", see Snoopy's front page:
GPS Guided Trans-Atlantic Robot Boat.
We are adding more pictures to this "November 2014" page, and a video soon.
Snoopy made another attempt to cross the Atlantic at 0830 on Sunday 23rd November 2014, from a new launch position, west of Boscombe Pier, instead of Barton-on-Sea. It was an early start, leaving home at 0615, taking care not to disturb the neighbours. Snoopy's boat JUST manages to squeeze into the back of his new taxi, which is smaller, even if less rusty than the old car seen in earlier pictures.
It took us a lot less than the 1.5 hours expected, from Sunninghill, to Boscombe Pier, and those interested were able to watch our progress on the SPOT map, which worked, despite the boat being in the car. We had no problem parking near our chosen spot, near the zig-zag path, west of the Pier. As expected from Magic Seaweed, it rained all the time, but visibility far out to sea was good, the surf was almost FLAT, and wind further out was offshore. You will see how suprisingly good the conditions were, from the pictures below.
Despite the light wind, towards the shore - probably due to turbulance from the high ground - Snoopy did sail
at a moderate speed. Unfortunately, his direction of travel was almost due west, parallel to the beach.
He should have been sailing at right-angles to this, towards his "Channel" waypoint, 15 miles to the East-South-East !
Snoopy sailed from groyne to groyne, luckily making recovering him easier. Robin then did the "beach walk" test, walking first one way, then the other, along the beach, to see which way Snoopy turned the rudder. This confirmed our worst fears: he was deliberately steering the boat west ! We realised this was probably due to that "minor software change", needed to allow Snoopy to be launched from here, and not steer too soon towards the "Prawle" waypoint.
Robin had a red face, because it seems he had not thoroughly tested this modified software with his GPS Simulator. The good news is that this small software change has now been done, and it only remains to test it thoroughly with the GPS simulator, with the autopilot software sailing near Bournemouth and Swanage.
So, in brief: Snoopy should be ready to try again, within a few days, when the conditions are right. Other good news is that this looks like a good spot to launch: maybe we can use the groyne, and avoid the need for wading into the sea ! There is also an excellent cafe near the Pier :-)
Maybe it's a good job we did not know we could have launched Snoopy from a few yards east: he may have made it - or we might not have got him back ! :-)
For those interested in more detail of the "repair", then testing, of Snoopy's autopilot software, see near the end of the current Blog.
Snoopy's "Launch Team": from left to right: Robin, Peter, new friend Mark, Dick, and - of course - Snoopy ...
Visability out to sea was surprisingly good, despite the almost continuous light rain - we call it "drizzle" ...
Dick adopts his position, a few yards out, acting as a cameraman, and "minder" for Snoopy. Dick counts the waves, and tells Robin when to launch ...
It was an easy walk for Robin, carrying Snoopy the few yards down the beach, and into the water ...
Snoopy immediately turns towards Dick .... Daddy ! :-)
Dick turns Snoopy back onto the correct direction, out to sea ...
But Snoopy refused to obey, turning to sail west again, quite quickly, parallel to the shore, and towards the first groyne ...
That long, telescopic pole, does mean Robin does not need to wade so far out :-)
We re-launched him from there, but he simply sailed on to the next groyn !
We do the "Beach Walk Test", walking each way along the beach, watching which way the rudder moves... It confirms Snoopy insists on steering to the west ! Time for Breakfast !
Maybe it's a good job we did not know we could have launched Snoopy from a few yards east: he may have made it - or we might not have got him back ! :-)
For more detail of testing of Snoopy's autopilot software, see near the end of the current Blog. e.g. below are results of GPS Simulator tests.
You can now Play the 5 minute video of Snoopy's Aborted Atlantic Attempt of 23rd November 2014.
Snoopy is ready to try again - maybe within the next few days !
© 1991-2014 Robin Lovelock. Please credit www.gpss.co.uk if you use material from any of these pages. Thankyou.