svbeachhouse

Author: kerri

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES
    TIME: 2013/06/24 08:05
    LATITUDE: 07-35.64S
    LONGITUDE: 019-32.23W
    COURSE: 281T
    SPEED: 7.3
    MARINE: YES
    WIND_SPEED: 18
    WIND_DIR: E
    WAVE_HT: 0.1M
    WAVE_PER: 11
    SWELL_DIR: ESE
    SWELL_HT: 2.2M
    SWELL_PER: 11
    CLOUDS: 80%
    VISIBILITY: 12
    BARO: 1016.1
    AIR_TEMP: 25.6C
    SEA_TEMP: 26.1C
    COMMENT: Beach House -En ROUTE -Fernando de Noronha Island – Brazil. Day 2 – 170 nm

    We jibed last night at sunset and took down the spinnaker. Nice days run, genoa on the port pole, full main.
    Easy sailing, saw one big ship out here who seemed to be stopped and all lit up last night; just 2 miles away.
    Blog should be up soon…

    Scott & Sleeping Nikki

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES
    TIME: 2013/06/23 08:06
    LATITUDE: 08-13.89S
    LONGITUDE: 016-57.41W
    COURSE: 263T
    SPEED: 6.4
    MARINE: YES
    WIND_SPEED: 18
    WIND_DIR: ESE
    WAVE_HT: 0.1M
    WAVE_PER: 11
    SWELL_DIR: SE
    SWELL_HT: 2.5M
    SWELL_PER: 11
    CLOUDS: 50%
    VISIBILITY: 12
    BARO: 1017.1
    TREND: 1
    AIR_TEMP: 29.4C
    SEA_TEMP: 25.6C
    COMMENT: Beach House – En ROUTE – Fernando de Noronha Island – Brazil – First 21.5 hrs – 153nm

    PLEASE READ: Nikki\’s shore side email is NOT forwarding to the boat. GMAIL thinks she\’s been hacked even though she hasn\’t.
    IF YOU WANT TO EMAIL HER, PLEASE DO SO AT:
    WDB5638@sailmail.com (THIS EMAIL WILL NOT TAKE PHOTOS OR ATTACHMENTS, PLEASE NO FORWARDS/GROUPS/POSTS).

    Not a bad first 21.5 hours. I\’m doing the reports at 8 am local every day and we left at 10:30 a.m. yesterday.
    The blog should be posted by the time you get this….
    Cheers,
    Scott and Nikki

  • 2013-06 Ascension Island – UK (Mid Atlantic) Photos

    To see the Ship\’s Blogs associated with this photo gallery – Click the links below

    Blog: Arrival and First Day at Ascension Island

    Blog: Ascension Island – Departing June 22nd

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES
    TIME: 2013/06/22 09:22
    LATITUDE: 07-55.21S
    LONGITUDE: 014-24.60W
    MARINE: NO
    WIND_SPEED: 12
    WIND_DIR: ESE
    CLOUDS: 85%
    VISIBILITY: 10
    BARO: 1016.5
    TREND: 1
    AIR_TEMP: 27.8C
    COMMENT: Beach House -DEPARTING – Fernando de Noronha Island – Brazil

    \”Jongilanga\” just departed ahead of us and we\’ll pass him in a few hours. He\’s single handing and running very short sail.
    We\’ve enjoyed our stay here at Ascension Island….Next stop, \”The America\’s\”…wow….

    The swell is down (so is the wind) but we\’ll just be comfortable. This passage should be slow and we\’re using the 160 nm average for daily runs in
    our planning. That may be optimistic! Near the end, there will be squalls and small low pressure systems forming off the \”beak\” of South America.

    USE OUR SAILMAIL ADDRESS TO WRITE THE BOAT DIRECTLY, NOT THIS ONE AS I ONLY CHECK IT ONCE/DAY.
    CHEERS,
    Scott and Nikki

  • Arrival and First Day at Ascension Island……

    Arrival and First Day at Ascension Island……

    To see the Photo Gallery associated with this post, click:   06-2013  Ascension Island – UK (Mid Atlantic) Photo Gallery

    June 14th-15th, 2013 (Western Hemisphere) Time: GMT

    We arrived at 4:30 pm on Friday the 14th. I really wanted to be here before dark (which we were) because of the published hazard of a floating pipe line to transfer jet fuel from cargo ships to on land storage tanks. GOOD THING too! We were advised by Ascension Island radio that fuel off loading operations were in progress and we did not see the pipeline (which is only 6 inches above the water), till we were 100 feet from it. There was a spotter boat, but he was slow on the warning and I\’m not sure if he\’s there during night time operations. It off loads 7 million liters of jet fuel per ship! We would not want to breach that pipeline.

    There is a major US Air Force base here as well as a large British base. NASA used to be here, but has pulled out as the shuttle program is over and due to budget constraints.

    We were able to check in on Saturday (which was really good), but had to do so before noon which we did. A MAJOR bonus for Nikki was finding Walker\’s Smoky Bacon Crisps! We also found some Easy-Yo yoghurt mix and stocked up on some long life milk. The main cargo ship comes on Monday and we hope to get eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables when it arrives.

    We will do the island tour, hire a car for a trip to Green Mountain National Park and do a tour of \”Long Beach\” which is right in front of the boat. This is the largest Green Sea Turtle nursery in the world and the conservation group here does tours every night at 9 p.m.
    We turned on the underwater lights tonight while running the generator and lots of baby green sea turtles showed up. We\’re glad that lots are making it to sea.
    We hope to have the experience of the tour on Monday or Tuesday night. I\’ll try and post a photo of the baby turtles Nikki kept scooping out of the water. There are lots!

    We did figure out the photo posting issue and should have the St. Helena photos up on the blog (of the day we left) tomorrow when we get back on the internet.

    There are two other boats here. One a delivery of a Moorings Power Cat to Ft. Lauderdale and the other our friend John (single handing) off \”Jongilanga\”. Jongilana (for Dave and Kathie) ironically means \”Sunflower\” in Xhosa. Xhosa is the second most common language in South Africa and is the native tongue of Nelson (Mandiba) Mandella.

    So, that\’s our tale from arrival to Ascension. Hopefully some photos from here and details of our touring.
    P.S. Nikki got all excited as we\’re now seeing the \”Big Dipper\” constellation. This is the first time I\’ve seen it (while sailing) in almost three years.
    KIT,
    Scott and Nikki the turtle catch-tress….

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES
    TIME: 2013/06/14 08:04
    LATITUDE: 08-18.91S
    LONGITUDE: 013-40.33W
    COURSE: 274T
    SPEED: 6.7
    MARINE: YES
    WIND_SPEED: 22
    WIND_DIR: SSE
    WAVE_HT: 0.3M
    WAVE_PER: 11
    SWELL_DIR: SE
    SWELL_HT: 2.8M
    SWELL_PER: 11
    CLOUDS: 70%
    VISIBILITY: 12
    BARO: 1017.5
    AIR_TEMP: 26.7C
    SEA_TEMP: 25.6C
    COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE – St. Helena, Island to Ascension Island -Day 04 – 190 nm

    Congratulations to Dave and Kathie on \”Sunflower\” for making landfall in Grenada today! 3070 miles in 22 days. It was a touch trip north of the equator for them and we
    hope to avoid some of their ITCZ/Doldrum grief by staying closer to the South American coast. We shall see how those plans work out in the near future.

    We had a brilliant spinnaker run last night from 5 pm to 4 am and covered 105 miles! Speeds were rarely below 8.5 knots and I saw several in the mid teens, one at 16.5 knots! Go Miss Piggy. We weren\’t making enough speed before the spinnaker run to have made in daylight today, now ….no worries. We should be in well before dark.
    It\’s 8 am local time and we\’ve only 48 miles to the end of the island. We\’re still sailing smartly at 6.5-8.5 knots with the single reefed main and genoa poled to port. We\’ll have one more jibe in about 30 miles from our current location.

    Next report will be from the anchorage when in safe harbor. Expecting about a 4 day, 8 hour trip. Today\’s run, our best at 190 nm.
    KIT,
    Scott and Nikki

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES
    TIME: 2013/06/13 08:33
    LATITUDE: 09-46.50S
    LONGITUDE: 011-18.81W
    COURSE: 288T
    SPEED: 6.8
    MARINE: YES
    WIND_SPEED: 16
    WIND_DIR: SE
    WAVE_HT: 0.2M
    WAVE_PER: 11
    SWELL_DIR: SE
    SWELL_HT: 2.5M
    SWELL_PER: 11
    CLOUDS: 20%
    VISIBILITY: 12
    BARO: 1020.5
    TREND: 1
    AIR_TEMP: 28.3C
    SEA_TEMP: 25.0C
    COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE- St. Helena, Island to Ascension Island -Day 03 – 167 nm

    We\’ve 210 miles to go to the SE corner of Ascension Island. Wind is a bit light, but conditions are extremely comfortable.
    We HOPE to be at anchor by tomorrow dark. It\’ll be a bit of a push, but I think we\’ll make it. Lots of commercial mooring field stuff to avoid
    and I want to get into the shallower area to anchor closer to the beach; but NOT in the dark. We\’ve a waypoint outside the commercial field in 18 meters (60 feet)
    of water if we need to anchor outside for the night. Friends Dave and Kathie on \”Sunflower\” are only about 12 hours out of Grenada and had a record (for them) 199 mile day yesterday. \”Sunflower\” must be smelling the barn!…. Or at least the Admiral is….:-)))

    KIT,
    Scott and Nikki

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES
    TIME: 2013/06/12 08:33
    LATITUDE: 11-15.52S
    LONGITUDE: 009-06.87W
    COURSE: 321T
    SPEED: 8.1
    MARINE: YES
    WIND_SPEED: 22
    WIND_DIR: SE
    WAVE_HT: 0.5M
    WAVE_PER: 11
    SWELL_DIR: SE
    SWELL_HT: 2.7M
    SWELL_PER: 11
    CLOUDS: 80%
    VISIBILITY: 10
    BARO: 1021.2
    TREND: 1
    AIR_TEMP: 23.9C
    SEA_TEMP: 23.9C
    COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE – St. Helena, Island to Ascension Island – Day 02 – 175 nm

    Got a bit breezy last night so we\’re under full main and genoa poled out to windward. It is predicted to back off a bit and if so we\’ll stay with
    this sail plan. If not, we\’ll take in a reef. Yesterday we saw a \”Sei Whale\” about 100 feet from the boat. It just seemed as curious about us as we about it.
    Also, several very large white dolphins were tagging along with the whale! Our best run yet today at 175 miles, much more Miss Piggy like…
    KIT, Hope to be in on Friday during the day to Ascension Island.
    Scott and Nikki – Blog will be up shortly

  • St. Helena to Ascension lsland……Day 1

    St. Helena to Ascension lsland……Day 1

    June 10th, written the morning of the 11th, 2013 (Western Hemisphere) Time: GMT

    It\’s always nice to have a few regrets leaving a place. That means, you enjoyed it and would consider coming back or at least recommending it to others.
    St. Helena fit nicely into both categories. We took our last photos and memories and about 30 miles out finally lost sight of St. Helena.

    We said our goodbye\’s and waved to fellow sailor\’s aboard s/v \”This Side Up\” (out of Texas) and departed the anchorage at 0900 local/GMT time.
    The weather looked excellent for the expected 4.5-5 day passage of 700 nautical miles and the was as advertised.

    We set the full main, genoa to windward on the pole and our big reacher to leeward and were off. I\’ve gotten in the habit of making our passage plans for 160 mile days down from the usual 180 miles as the conditions are very benign compared to many other passages we\’ve done around the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Believe me, I\’m not complaining. If it was this nice out here all the time, you\’d all be doing this….:-)

    Indeed, the 15-20 knot, very steady winds and 2.0 meter (6 foot) swell is easy stuff. Mile after mile of just \”onward\”.

    We did see lots of flying fish today which is a first for us, but none errantly \”flew\” aboard so none on deck to report.
    It was an exercise day yesterday. We shook up the routine a bit and are on our day off today.

    Yesterday, we\’d put up a brief blog about St. Helena and were able to upload the photos to the website system, but alas a small glitch has prevented them from being posted. Hopefully web guru Jeremiah will be able to resolve this soon.

    525 miles to go. We HOPE? to be there on Friday before dark as we will have to anchor in close to shore. No moorings here. The dinghy landing is supposed to be quite tricky too. Hopefully Customs/Immigration will be working a half day Saturday as well as we are not likely to get ashore on Friday at our current speed.

    More tomorrow, position report is up as well.
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKYE!
    KIT,
    Scott and Nikki

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES
    TIME: 2013/06/10 09:42
    LATITUDE: 15-51.40S
    LONGITUDE: 005-46.52W
    COURSE: 317T
    SPEED: 6.8
    MARINE: YES
    WIND_SPEED: 17
    WIND_DIR: ESE
    WAVE_HT: 0.5M
    WAVE_PER: 6
    SWELL_DIR: SE
    SWELL_HT: 1.7M
    SWELL_PER: 11
    CLOUDS: 40%
    VISIBILITY: 12
    BARO: 1022.4
    AIR_TEMP: 24.4C
    SEA_TEMP: 22.8C
    COMMENT: Beach House -EN ROUTE – St. Helena, Island to Ascension Island

    The blog is updated and as soon as web guru Jeremiah figures out why the photos won\’t post, they too will be up.
    We had a great time at St. Helena Island. The tour of the Napoleon sites, the hospitality of the warm people were all great.
    We have lovely conditions and expect this to be the case all the way to Ascension Island. The journey is 700 miles, it will be our shortest of three jumps
    across the Atlantic to the South American side. We expect the trip to take 4-5 days, the winds 12-20 knots and pretty much right behind us. The seas and swell shouldn\’t be uncomfortable…we\’re off this morning at 0900 (both local and GMT!).

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKYE!!! (She\’s catching up to us!…:-))

    KIT,
    Scott and Nikki