Monday 30 April 2012 Lat 38 07 S Long 159 26 W -Course 40deg Wind N 10 kts Boatspeed 6.8kts
The breeze came back up and since yesterday afternoon, we've been steadily sailing on port upwind on moderate seas under full main & jib.
There's high overcast and we're sailing into a low between to highs. We don't expect winds over 30kts, but it'll be another bumpy ride probably. Ugh.
At least the boat keeps moving along well and the steering seems to work OK.
We passed the halfway point, but are considering landfall at Rapa instead of Raiavavae. Rapa farther east and south, but may be easier to attain.
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Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Noises Off
Sunday 30 April 2012 Lat 39 45 S Long 161 52 W -Course 20deg -Motoring -Wind N 10 kts
After finishing our Sunday brunch we're motoring in light wind, sunshine and a few showers .
Maybe we can dry out all the wet gear and rags. There's condensation to dry out as well.
We had a good run overnight sailing north with mostly full main and jib.
Noises underway: If you're motoring, the engine just drowns everything else out.
Under sail, above decks there's the soft roar and rush of the wave and the hiss of the foam. Below decks it's banging and slamming, whooshing and shooshing, gurgling and sluicing along the hull, the rig is humming, the wind rushes over the sails and deck hardware might be clacking. All that's fine and lulls us to sleep. However, the accompanying clinking and clanking of pans, crockery and cutlery, and rattling of loose doors and other stuff is maddening. So after a while, all the lockers are stuffed full of towels and other padding just to "shut them up". Poor Mark, so tormented by pans and lids clanking in the dish rack, just resorted to stuffing them in his bed. I guess he finally was perturbable.
News and Entertainment:
A couple days ago, Bill and Mark saw a pilot whale leap clear of the water right behind the boat. Twice.
We have our real and audiobooks, of course. Mark is diligently practicing his French.
We have an SSB/Ham radio that has BBC, VofA and NPR channels. We have never received any of those broadcasts, which is quite disappointing. So we have no idea what's been going on in the world beyond the est 154 miles of visible ocean surface around us. (est 7 mi visibility => pi x r sqd = 3.14 x 7 x 7= 154 mi sq ). We have no clue about what is going on the mile or so below us....I guess we can see the sky OK. We only started getting moonlight the past 2 nights.
Nor has the ham radio allowed Bill to communicate with his many ham family members.
We asked Bud Cuffel for some good news and he reports no drought on the Long Beach peninsula. Hurray.
Any other good news reports are welcome. Sorry we cannot accept puppy & kitten pictures via sailmail.
Hold the bad news til later, please..
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After finishing our Sunday brunch we're motoring in light wind, sunshine and a few showers .
Maybe we can dry out all the wet gear and rags. There's condensation to dry out as well.
We had a good run overnight sailing north with mostly full main and jib.
Noises underway: If you're motoring, the engine just drowns everything else out.
Under sail, above decks there's the soft roar and rush of the wave and the hiss of the foam. Below decks it's banging and slamming, whooshing and shooshing, gurgling and sluicing along the hull, the rig is humming, the wind rushes over the sails and deck hardware might be clacking. All that's fine and lulls us to sleep. However, the accompanying clinking and clanking of pans, crockery and cutlery, and rattling of loose doors and other stuff is maddening. So after a while, all the lockers are stuffed full of towels and other padding just to "shut them up". Poor Mark, so tormented by pans and lids clanking in the dish rack, just resorted to stuffing them in his bed. I guess he finally was perturbable.
News and Entertainment:
A couple days ago, Bill and Mark saw a pilot whale leap clear of the water right behind the boat. Twice.
We have our real and audiobooks, of course. Mark is diligently practicing his French.
We have an SSB/Ham radio that has BBC, VofA and NPR channels. We have never received any of those broadcasts, which is quite disappointing. So we have no idea what's been going on in the world beyond the est 154 miles of visible ocean surface around us. (est 7 mi visibility => pi x r sqd = 3.14 x 7 x 7= 154 mi sq ). We have no clue about what is going on the mile or so below us....I guess we can see the sky OK. We only started getting moonlight the past 2 nights.
Nor has the ham radio allowed Bill to communicate with his many ham family members.
We asked Bud Cuffel for some good news and he reports no drought on the Long Beach peninsula. Hurray.
Any other good news reports are welcome. Sorry we cannot accept puppy & kitten pictures via sailmail.
Hold the bad news til later, please..
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Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wash Rinse Repeat
29 April 2012 41 34S 162 48 W Course 355 Boatspeed 7.6 Wind N 20 kts
Well, we did tack onto port, and the wind did come up. Bill's weather prediction was spot on to the hour! We thought we could dodge a low, but no. Long story short: bare poles overnight, blew downwind 36 miles south. avg speed 6 kts, max speed 8.5 surfing down invisible waves in the dark, a gliding sensation. Although the winds never seemed to exceed 35kts, Later, when the wind changed 90deg, and put us sidewways to the slop, it got a little bouncy: the sewing kit crashed, sending spools of thread and notions all over. Our course on the plotter was an backwards "4" with a curving tail at the bottom. Then we got up in the morning turned the boat around, and here we are again.
Bill says we'll have another one in 3 days. Oh joy.
It doesn't ever rain very much, but waves are constantly drenching us, so we never get the salt off our gear. We're quite envious of our friends with complete cockpit covers. though. It's a lesson ex-racers have to learn the hard way.
Mark made a terrific chicken rice dish, kind to wobbly stomachs. We're so glad to have him aboard. He's imperturbable, though we try.
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Well, we did tack onto port, and the wind did come up. Bill's weather prediction was spot on to the hour! We thought we could dodge a low, but no. Long story short: bare poles overnight, blew downwind 36 miles south. avg speed 6 kts, max speed 8.5 surfing down invisible waves in the dark, a gliding sensation. Although the winds never seemed to exceed 35kts, Later, when the wind changed 90deg, and put us sidewways to the slop, it got a little bouncy: the sewing kit crashed, sending spools of thread and notions all over. Our course on the plotter was an backwards "4" with a curving tail at the bottom. Then we got up in the morning turned the boat around, and here we are again.
Bill says we'll have another one in 3 days. Oh joy.
It doesn't ever rain very much, but waves are constantly drenching us, so we never get the salt off our gear. We're quite envious of our friends with complete cockpit covers. though. It's a lesson ex-racers have to learn the hard way.
Mark made a terrific chicken rice dish, kind to wobbly stomachs. We're so glad to have him aboard. He's imperturbable, though we try.
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Not quite same ol' same ol'
Friday 27 April 2012 Lat 41 35 S Long 154 27 W Course 55 Speed 7.5 kts, 2 reefs
The weather is still a comfortable 65deg F, with showers .
We're still on port tack, but now we're sailing close hauled, heeling over,seas are rougher and taking waves over the boat, although the wind isn't any stronger. Bill has lashed in the first reef and put in the second reef. We'll use the 1st reeflines to rig a 3rd reef if the wind really picks up. This will be the first time we will have used a 3rd reef, so we don't really know how it will work out.
We've been eating pretty well: quiche with leeks, chicken caprera, lasagna, and moussaka. Tonight will be smoked salmon linguine or gnocchi with mushroom cream sauce. The fruit has been keeping well in the moderate temps. That will change in the tropics.
Bill says we may tack onto starboard later today. That will be a welcome change, we've all got cricks in our necks from being on port tack for 6 days. Also maybe the leak over Mark's bunk will stop.
Books we're reading or listening to:
Bill: Reviewing French weather jargon and listening to _The History of Almost Everything_, by Bill Bryson,
Kathi: _Playing for Pizza_, by John Grisham
Mark: _The Illiad_,by Homer and many others. Mark reads a book a day.
If you've been following us on Spot, that coverage is ending. Find the YOTREPS link via the Position section of the blog.
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The weather is still a comfortable 65deg F, with showers .
We're still on port tack, but now we're sailing close hauled, heeling over,seas are rougher and taking waves over the boat, although the wind isn't any stronger. Bill has lashed in the first reef and put in the second reef. We'll use the 1st reeflines to rig a 3rd reef if the wind really picks up. This will be the first time we will have used a 3rd reef, so we don't really know how it will work out.
We've been eating pretty well: quiche with leeks, chicken caprera, lasagna, and moussaka. Tonight will be smoked salmon linguine or gnocchi with mushroom cream sauce. The fruit has been keeping well in the moderate temps. That will change in the tropics.
Bill says we may tack onto starboard later today. That will be a welcome change, we've all got cricks in our necks from being on port tack for 6 days. Also maybe the leak over Mark's bunk will stop.
Books we're reading or listening to:
Bill: Reviewing French weather jargon and listening to _The History of Almost Everything_, by Bill Bryson,
Kathi: _Playing for Pizza_, by John Grisham
Mark: _The Illiad_,by Homer and many others. Mark reads a book a day.
If you've been following us on Spot, that coverage is ending. Find the YOTREPS link via the Position section of the blog.
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Thursday, April 26, 2012
Same ol' same ol'
Thursday 26 April 2012 Lat 41 56 S Long 167 60 W Course 60 magnetic 7.2 kts
Still reaching or close reaching in N 12-22kts of breeze, sometimes reefed. in the company of albatroses and some other unknown birds.
We've been chasing behind a high all the way from New Zealand and we're trying to keep the speed up to outrun 2 converging lows. With every forecast, a low from the tropics seems be be arriving a little later and it now looks like we will outrun the center, but not the cold front or the squash zone on the leading edge. The tropical low will pass behind us and merge with a low that came off of South Island. Unfortunately the winds in front of the low will be 30 knot northerlies, so we won't be able to turn up toward the tropics for a few more days and in fact we may need to bear further south a little.
Every day is pretty much the same, especially Tues 24 April, which was "relived" after crossing the dateline from west to east. You don't get many do-overs in life: it's too bad we didn't make any improvements the second time around.
Oh well, we can't really complain. It's not too cold, not too hot, steady moderate wind and seas, hardly any rain and only a couple leaks. The refer seems to be staying cold enough. That will be confirmed later when we see if all the meat at the bottom remains unspoiled.
Bill and Mark are brushing up on their French and we're all reviewing the Tahitian phrases:
Hello = Ia orana, thank you = maururu, and good = maitai (that should be easy to remember)
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Still reaching or close reaching in N 12-22kts of breeze, sometimes reefed. in the company of albatroses and some other unknown birds.
We've been chasing behind a high all the way from New Zealand and we're trying to keep the speed up to outrun 2 converging lows. With every forecast, a low from the tropics seems be be arriving a little later and it now looks like we will outrun the center, but not the cold front or the squash zone on the leading edge. The tropical low will pass behind us and merge with a low that came off of South Island. Unfortunately the winds in front of the low will be 30 knot northerlies, so we won't be able to turn up toward the tropics for a few more days and in fact we may need to bear further south a little.
Every day is pretty much the same, especially Tues 24 April, which was "relived" after crossing the dateline from west to east. You don't get many do-overs in life: it's too bad we didn't make any improvements the second time around.
Oh well, we can't really complain. It's not too cold, not too hot, steady moderate wind and seas, hardly any rain and only a couple leaks. The refer seems to be staying cold enough. That will be confirmed later when we see if all the meat at the bottom remains unspoiled.
Bill and Mark are brushing up on their French and we're all reviewing the Tahitian phrases:
Hello = Ia orana, thank you = maururu, and good = maitai (that should be easy to remember)
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Tasman Island to Tatoosh Island - Leg 2 - Wellington NZ to Raivavae French Polynesia
Tuesday, 24 April 2012 (for the 2nd time. We crossed the dateline last night)
Lat 42 44 S Long 174 00 W
On Sunday we checked out of Wellington NZ with the friendly customs officer who came to the boat. As the boat pulled out of the berth, he took a photo so Search and Rescue can identify the boat if we were to made a distress call later. Nice touch....
Lat 42 44 S Long 174 00 W
On Sunday we checked out of Wellington NZ with the friendly customs officer who came to the boat. As the boat pulled out of the berth, he took a photo so Search and Rescue can identify the boat if we were to made a distress call later. Nice touch....
As we motored into Cook Strait, a frisky pod of dolphins swam along with us. As they frolicked in our bow wave, some were mating. They don't even slow down swimming and really quite shameless about it. Shocking.
Light northerly breezes were predicted as a wide high pressure system spread across the region. The wind actually picked up nicely and we have been reaching under a double reef on a balmy northerly for 3 days. A low pressure system (gale) looks like it will cross our path, so we've slowed down for a day, although there seems to be some current pushing us along. We considered diverting the Chatham Islands (NZ) to the south, which would have been nice. But we'd rather save the time for French Polynesia. So we're plodding ahead. As the winds calm, we can see and feel the long low SW swells from the southern storm track that have almost always been present since we left Hobart. And here we also have long low N swells from winds up north.
To see our weather and wave conditions,in living color you can go to passageweather.com, click on South Pacific, and select Oceania.
There are almost always 2-3 albatrosses, a gannet and smaller birds wheeling around. When the water is rough, small squid are washed aboard for us to find each morning, leaving little black inkspots on the deck.
Mark Lincoln is with us and is a great help and crewmate. We are well provisioned and with the calm weather we can prepare nice meals and have the appetite to eat them. The cool weather allows the unrefrigerated fruits and vegs to ripen slowly and puts less demand on the refrigerator to keep cold.
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Auckland by Air
April 3, 2012. We flew to Auckland. It was pleasantly warm and balmy when our kind friend Marian Harkness picked us up at the airport and took us to her lovely home for a few days. Two days later, Brian kindly picked up Mark Lincoln at the airport early in the morning and dropped us off at RAYC.
Mike Webster picked us up on Northerner for a 4 day Easter weekend race/cruise. Mark was brighteyed and bushy tailed on the start line a few hours after getting off the plane. We had a fabulous 4 days aboard Northerner racing and cruising with Mike. He's a terrific host and catered to our every need (almost).
We were able to rendezvous with Gloria and Michael on Paikea Mist, for a goodbye visit. They are headed north for another season before returning to Vancouver. We hope to see them there again in a year or so.
A couple days later we flew back to Wellington to prepare for Leg 3 - Wellington to Raivave. It was sad to say goodbye to our special Kiwi friends. We hope they'll visit us in Seattle. Wellington is a lot colder than Auckland. But Mark had brought a heater part so Bill was able to fix our heater and get the boat warm in Wellie's cold weather. Of course,he also had to fix the refrigerator, so we could have cold too.
Unfortunately, while we were away, another boat had hit and damaged Jarana. So there was a bent stanchion to repair. There is a big supermarket just across the street from the marina, so we made daily trips for provisioning.
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Mike Webster picked us up on Northerner for a 4 day Easter weekend race/cruise. Mark was brighteyed and bushy tailed on the start line a few hours after getting off the plane. We had a fabulous 4 days aboard Northerner racing and cruising with Mike. He's a terrific host and catered to our every need (almost).
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| Mike Webster rowing to victory in the singlehanded, singleoard race. Northerner in the background |
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| Graeme Colle |
A couple days later we flew back to Wellington to prepare for Leg 3 - Wellington to Raivave. It was sad to say goodbye to our special Kiwi friends. We hope they'll visit us in Seattle. Wellington is a lot colder than Auckland. But Mark had brought a heater part so Bill was able to fix our heater and get the boat warm in Wellie's cold weather. Of course,he also had to fix the refrigerator, so we could have cold too.
Unfortunately, while we were away, another boat had hit and damaged Jarana. So there was a bent stanchion to repair. There is a big supermarket just across the street from the marina, so we made daily trips for provisioning.
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