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To summarise the days activities:
We were up and ready to
go by 8:30 this morning: The kids were dressed, the dog was fed and even Bob
had managed to wake himself up with three coffee's! Team Tate were ready to
roll and were looking forward to the big chase. Lunch was placed into the cool
box, drinks were made ready and some sweets for the journey were placed out
of Bob's reach. Everything was planned for the perfect day out.
However...
Problem 1) Team Tate #4
(George) was poorly last night, and we needed to get a prescription for him
before we set off. However, the only Sunday morning pharmacy had an hour wait
for prescriptions and opened at 10:00am. We had planned to start the hunt in
Petersfield, to draw you all across the game board on the main roads, while
we sneaked back behind you using the backroads. However the prescription incident
had us charging along the M27/A3 to get within the Game Board boundary, which
we managed to do at four minutes to twelve!
Problem 2) The GPS would
NOT lock on. It was four minutes before the position was found. This was fielded
by three calls from the chasers.
Problem 3) We were stuck
behind this for five minutes...
Problem 4) All seemed to
be going well and good for the first half hour. Then a quick stop showed that
we had lost GSM coverage. We moved as soon as we could after realsing this -
but too late, the damage was done. Although we came back into coverage quite
quickly, the unit failed to respond from this point onwards. Any positions that
DID respond were up to three minutes late. Those of you who were tracking us
at the time will know the rest of the story. The contingency plan worked however,
and a number of phone calls led most of the chasers up to the service area next
to the Hogs Back near Farnham.
What went wrong? I really
don't know. I suspect it was the sheer number of calls that backed up when the
unit went out of coverage. Up to fifty text messages were delivered when the
SIM card was placed into a mobile phone to clear them. They must have been backing
up all morning, and the telematics unit became overwhelmed. Just a theory, but
the only one I have at present.
But it DID work last year!
In the meantime, everyone
we didn't meet out on the road DID meet us at the pub (the REAL reason for running
this event in the first place!), and I would like to say on behalf of the whole
family that we really enjoyed meeting up with you all. In our opinion, the meet
was a total success albeit with a slight flaw at the beginning. Another Fox
Hunt will be held next year (and don't forget Cat's Children in Need event next
month).
We HAVE
the technology, we CAN rebuild it!
Here are the
piccies from the pub...
ON a personal note, we would
like to thank the following:
Cat, for the loan of the
box
Dick and Doris, for the loan of the SIM card and for fielding the remaining
text messages as they arrived
DJH, for updating the webpage letting people know of the problems
Everyone who took
part!
Bob, Sarah, Beckie, George
and Maggie
Team Tate