Position update, May 18th 2014, 6:22am

Bart at 3:00am: "...slept a little, started paddling, feel good, let's finish this..."

Bart at 5:42am: "...all good on board..."

His position at 6:22am: Lat -16.631230, Lon - 151.305835

Right now he has Tahaa Island right in front of him. His board speed went down. He is probably eating and drinking something. This will be an intense day of paddling if he wants to make it before the sun sets.
But I know he is determined to finish today and not to spend another night out in the open ocean.

The reef entrance into Bora Bora lagoon is on the far west side of the island. Due to the wind conditions he needs to approach from the north.
Our friend Tom Hammerton is his weatherman. I will contact him to see if the wind conditions are still calling for that.
Last night I slept 5hrs in a row and not only 1 or 2, that's why there was no post at 3am.
Soleil and I will be so relieved when he is back on land. Yeahhh... Go Bart Go!

Aloha from maui, Dagmar

Position update, May 17th 2014, 8:30pm

Bart : "...wind is better, I feel better, planned arrival for tomorrow around 5:30pm, lost pump for air mattress yesterday night when I capsized, blew it up now anyway, not as good, but I could lay down..."

Bart made great progress in the past hours and feels very confident when the wind and current stays like this, to make it by tomorrow late afternoon, yeahhh. That would be awesome.

His position at that time: Lat -16.656175, Lon -151.078491

I could even talk to him on the phone when he came closer to Huahine, around 4pm. He sounded good, tired, but in good spirit.

Position update, May 17th 2014, 2pm

Bart : "...very tough, but staying strong, a lot of similarities to my 5 day solo, non-stop, unsupported crossing of the Hawaiian Island chain..."

Lat -16.731823,  Lon -150.814240, Huahine island very close by.

Bart paddled almost 2/3 of the way. The conditions are very tough, very rough. But I know he can set his mind right to mind over matter and tries his hardest to bite through it. It's a lot of weight with all his gear, all his supplies and water on board. His ground speed is effected by that. It is 2pm now, 5 more hours before the sun sets.
I will post another update around 9:30pm when his resting period has started already. Then I will have another update how he feels.

Aloha from Maui, Dagmar

How was Bart's night on sea, May 17th 2014, 6:27am

Bart : "...rough night, rolled over once, all good now, finally see land again, paddle hard today..."

I can imagine after this rough night he sets his goal to reach Bora Bora to Sunday before sunset, to have only one more night out in the open ocean. We will see how it goes today.
He can finally see Huahine in the distance. That's great motivation for an intense paddle day.

Aloha from Maui, Dagmar

Position Lat -16.943525, Lon -150.510785, board speed right now 6km/3.7mi

Night message from Bart, May 17th 2014, 12:26am

Bart : "...tough but doing good, hardest is to get into my suit at night dry..."
Lat -16.943525, Lon -150.510785

Txt message from Bart, May 16th 2014, 7:44pm

Bart : "...seasickness is mostly gone, thought I had a good day, but still didn't get really far. We will see, I should arrive either Sunday or Monday morning, wind turned, better, miss u..."

I liked the last two words a lot. :) I can here he is disappointed not being over 1/2 way already. The wind looks very steady from the back for the following days.

Good night from Maui, Dagmar

Bart is ready for the night, May 16th 2014, 7:06pm

When I follow the tracker I can see that he slowed down. His board speed is now 0.6mi/1km. He is drifting with the current and the wind. Probably eating and setting up his bed.
His current position is Lat -16.914020, Lon -150.440490. Just some more miles to go and he will be half way.
I hope he will send a txt soon, so we know how he is doing, if he is not seasick anymore, still in good spirit and strong for the following night and day to come. I will keep you posted,

Aloha from Maui, Dagmar