svbeachhouse

Category: Ship’s Log

  • Salomon Atoll, Chagos……

    Salomon Atoll, Chagos…..

    08 October 2012

    Dear F&F,

    We\’ll we\’re now on our fourth day here at Salomon. Two days ago, we went for a walk an what a wild \”put together\” scene exists on the beach. There is an old stone jetty (very small) that was here when people lived here 50 years ago. The British moved them all to Mauritius back then.

    Some stone building structures, the ubiquitous plastic junk, dozens of \”flip flops\” collected by the cruisers over the years in an art work display. A volleyball net, rats, mosquitos, coconuts and their crabs. Doesn\’t paradise sound incredible?…:-)

    Actually, this atoll is much like the world of thousands of years ago. Many more fish and healthy coral than lots of places.

    The \”BIOT\” agent (British Indian Ocean Territory) came by two days ago to check up on us. His main job is to watch for illegal fishing. He takes this pristine environment very seriously. All the small islets here (except one!) have rats. This is the norm, by the way. The old sailing ships and future cargo ships introduced them. No predators, lots of food (coconuts and bird eggs) and they\’re everywhere. In Cocos, they are getting rid of them, here, not yet. The one island without them has much bigger bird populations as the eggs are unmolested.

    The weather has been rainy/squally, but not too bad. Overcast is the norm right now.

    Yesterday, I dove the boat, checked the mooring and did a bit of maintenance on it. I changed the zinc anodes underwater on the props, sail drives and the refrigeration/freezer system. Then re-greased our high tech propellers, cleaned them, did some bottom cleaning, etc. The \”bump\” on the reef in Benoa, Bali left some scrapes, but nothing that epoxy, time and paint won\’t fix. We had a no wind time yesterday and quickly pulled the main up and I repaired it. The big water maker is being a bit of a problem. The spare is working fine! We got our \”winch buddy\” back in action (thank heavens, it is a girl\’s best friend!…:-)). The Winch Buddy is a right angle drill that has a special attachment which \”electrifies\” all our manual winches. This makes pulling up the dagger boards, trimming the sails and pulling up the dinghy a piece of cake. Without the \”buddy\”, I get quite a workout.

    Still some more maintenance to do, but it\’s coming along. We hope to get some snorkeling in as soon as the weather gets a bit sunny which may? be today?

    Dave and Kathy were intrigued by the celestial navigation stuff, so \”Professor Scott\” held class yesterday for a few hours. Perhaps more today? Dave wants me to help him with some sat phone connection to email stuff as well.

    For now, all is well and I\’m looking at the 13th as the next jump off date where the weather seems to be shaping up for the next leg to Madagascar. This of course, will literally change by the day as we watch the weather develop.

    KIT, Scott and Domestic Diva Nikki

  • Arrival at Chagos, 10 days at sea……

    Arrival at Chagos, 10 days at sea…..

    05 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Our last day at sea was in lovely light downwind conditions except for the odd swell coming from both the northwest and the east southeast. It felt like we were zooming up and down hills, shortly spaced together. We had an actually sunny day and no squalls.

    We slowed last night to arrive here just after dawn. Around midnight last night (why, why, why is it always midnight?!) one last bombing squall came by and caught Nikki by surprise. We had full sail up and had to get it down in one of the heaviest rains I\’ve ever seen. The whole show was over in 15 minutes.

    Last night around 2 a.m. local time, I got an email from Angela in South Carolina. When she finds out where we\’re going, she\’ll often \”google it\” and get me some nice information. She found a blog from another boat s/v \”Taglich\” that was here 4 months ago and had a nice GPS set of way points to enter here over the shallow pass. \”Taglish\” said they never saw less than 22 feet (7 meters). I used them and we never saw less than 22 feet either. Thanks Angela!

    Debrief of stuff along the way: A small rip in the main developed yesterday. It actually doesn\’t require immediate repair, but I will do so if possible while here. The new furler line works, but is too thin and jams in the winch. I\’ll try and swap it out while we\’re here as well. Some generator/engine maintenance, hopefully I can unfreeze the chuck on our winch buddy (which electrifies any winch on the boat!). We lost the adapter for the winch that fits in the drill motor, but we\’re still good if I can fix the chuck as I have a spare adapter! The stove\’s problem was that a 24 volt to 12 volt converter went bad. Again, I had a spare, we\’re back to hot food. Only missed one meal that way. The washing machine repair seems to have worked, the machine is working as well as ever. We\’ve a leak in our large water maker. It works, but puts 30 liters of sea water in bilge which is a pain. The spare small water maker kept us in plenty of fresh water the whole way here.

    It\’s raining cats and dogs right now, but not too windy. We may have to move over to the Ille Foquet when the southeast trades come back in a day or two for better protection than Ille Bodham gives. We are at Ille Bodham next to \”Sunflower\” now.

    Dave and Kathie from Sunflower have been here for 18 days and may go the same route we will to Madagascar. They\’ll leave as soon as the weather cooperates. Thank you Dave and Kathie for helping us get set on the mooring. Dave even checked it underwater. IT IS NOW POURING! We\’ll go for \”pupu\’s and cocktails\” at 5:30.

    Nikki is nuts and is running out in the rain in her swim suit!…:-) After all, \”I\’m English you know\”, said she!…:-) She wants to swim to shore. She just jumped in and forgot to put the ladder down. Now I\’m soaking wet from putting the ladder down. She just asked me (while she\’s already in the water) if there are any sharks here? I said, \”Yes, lots of black tips like all these reefs\”. She\’s now standing on the beach!…:-) It is POURING!

    Okay, we\’ve put out the position report and updated our arrival. Nikki cooked a lovely breakfast and we\’ll be napping shortly…

    About 1600 nautical miles, 10 days exactly. Welcome to possibly one of the most remote and unspoiled atolls left on planet earth… Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago

    KIT, Scott and Swimming Nikki…:-)

  • Day 9, squalls, wind shifts and ships……

    Day 9, squalls, wind shifs and ships…..

    04 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Well yesterday turned out to be a nice day, lots of \”breeze\” (18-25 knots) and we were able to make some northing. The swells became more tolerable and today feels like we\’re almost at the dock relatively speaking!..:-)

    We saw two small junkie fishing boats yesterday. They were apparently just outside the \”Chagos Exclusive Economic Zone\” which means the fishing is good there. Last night, we passed our 12th ship, \”Friendship Freedom\”. A tanker full of oil out of the Persian Gulf. In his AIS \”destination\” column that we get as a read out on our electronic chart system, it said: \”ARMED GUARDS ONBD\”. A sign of the times…. This also of course assumes that \”bad guys\” can read English!

    The ships are swinging away from the NW Indian Ocean. So will we btw! We were actually on a collision course with last nights tanker and I had to ask him to alter course on the radio which he happily did.

    Last night it was rain, rain and of course, more rain. The night started off with an hour of 27-33 knot winds, then gusts to 35. It has backed off ever since. We\’ve actually seen short periods where there was no wind. Currently, 17-20 knots from the NNE and much calmer seas. We\’re now in no hurry to cover the last 125 miles as we will not enter the reef system till after good light tomorrow morning. I\’m sure we\’ll have to slow down late tonight.

    We covered 145 miles the last 24 hours, which was fine as we were not going to make in today in any event. We\’ve been in email contact with \”Sunflower\” who is at Salomon Atoll and gotten some good local knowledge from them. We got an email today from s/v \”Saviah\”, the young Yanks who went direct from Cocos to Mauritius and they report several good whacking fronts and heavy trade winds 25 ++. This is why I didn\’t want to take their route AND, it can get much rougher in their last 1500 miles to South Africa with some huge seas. No thanks!

    Watching the squall lines, sailing along. Weather should be gusty, a bit rainy/squally but not too much wind or sea the rest of the way. We\’ll be getting to Chagos just ahead of a low that will pass over us the next day or two. Glad we get to miss that one!

    My report may or may not be a little late tomorrow depending on arrival time. I will put out the position report then as well.

    KIT, Scott with Sleeping Nikki

  • Day 8….Uh!…

    Day 8, Uh!…..

    03 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Well, the last 24 hours has not been lots of fun. Squalls, rain and most importantly, wind from a less favorable direction. We passed a few more ships on AIS yesterday and had a bit of a start this morning (1/2 hour ago) as we came upon a dilapidated looking 150 foot fishing vessel only a mile away. It was all lit up and motoring the opposite direction toward Indonesia. It still gives me a bit of a wake up call and reminds me of how I do not want to see such vessels. Given where we are, it\’s a needle in haystack meeting, so I\’ll hope it\’s the last one.

    Our issue at the moment is that we\’re in the low pressure squall zone and the winds are trying to keep us south. We have to get north and around the lee shore of the Great Chagos Bank which is sitll about 200 miles west of us. It\’s 80 miles (at least), north to south and Salomon is 40 miles to it\’s north. So, we\’ve got to keep speed and work north of it in a NNEasterly wind. Not so much fun. We\’ve a 3.5 meter swell (10-11 feet) from both behind us (east) and in front of us (north) as we work to the northwest. No big breaking seas which is the bonus or you could say, I\’m looking at the glass half full…:-) I just looked and we\’ve done 157 miles. Two more days like this and we\’re home free.

    I must fix the stove. The propane safety switch has apparently died off. I have a spare. Just no fun working on it in the lumpy seas.

    KIT, more tomorrow, Scott and Nikki

  • Day 7, weather and ships……

    Day 7, weather and ships…..

    02 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Yesterday was a nice sailing day, the evening got a bit cranky. The winds are definitely \”northern hemisphere\”. There is a small low pressure system now between us and Chagos which is moving toward Chagos. This should allow us to follow it in with the more or less current conditions.

    The wind, being from the NE is a bit \”beamy\” and we\’re not as comfortable as when it\’s behind us. If it goes aft at all, I\’ll sneak a bit more northerly track in to avoid just coming down on the lee shore of the Great Chagos Bank. The bank is about 80 miles wide and very shallow. Once upon a time, an atoll that must have been magnificent.

    We\’ve been in touch with \”Sunflower\” who is at Salomon now, but we may miss them as they may leave before we arrive?

    Each day is a bit unique out here (of course), but we get a feel for the day depending on the \”squall scene\”. Last night, it was delightful not to have too many, today is setting up to be a squally one so far.

    Yesterday, we crossed a major SE Asia/China to South Africa shipping lane and actually ended up seeing 7 ships on our AIS system. We spoke with two. One coming from China, the other going to Singapore. The one bound for Singapore, \”Eleni\” at 967 feet full of oil, actually had to turn slightly to avoid us. Pretty wild when you think about where we are. We spoke on the radio, his English was very good.

    We did 161 nm yesterday, we\’re currently beam reaching in 17-21 knots with a reefed main and staysail. Fortunately, the seas are relatively calm. Relative being the operative expression…:-) 417 miles to go, we should be there on our Friday.

    Stand by, feel free to write! Well enjoy hearing from you all..

    Scott and Cooking Nikki….

  • Day 5, Transition? A message from afar…..

    Day 5, Transition? A message from afar…..

    30 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    The last 24 hours has been interesting. Yesterday, we were in more frequent squalls which came from the south, crossed over us, rained on us and moved on. The winds shifted a bit, but mostly the intensity ranged; 12-28 knots. With one reef and the staysail poled out to windward, all was easy. The seas a bit confused and lumpy, but overall pretty comfortable. We\’ve done exciting things like the morning routine of cleaning all the dead flying fish off the decks, topping off the diesel and of course, the expert Ms. Nicola Woodrow, \”celestially\” guiding across across the sea, sextant in hand…:-)

    At 4 a.m. this morning local time, we switched watches and Nikki told me that the wind had just quit. We motored on one engine and soon the wind started to shift to the Northeast! This may be the transition from the Southern Indian Ocean weather to the Northern Indian Ocean weather. This transition zone is known as the \”ITCZ\” (inter tropical convergence zone). Sailors in the Pacific are quite familiar with it when sailing from the US to French Polynesia.

    For a detailed explanation, \”google it\”…:-)

    The winds have turned north east now, wind speed around 12-16 knots. So with full main and reacher, we\’re on the starboard tack (now there\’s a change) and reaching directly toward Salomon Atoll. The seas have really flattened out, the swell around 2 meters and we\’re very comfortably zipping along around 6.5 – 8.5 knots.

    We just received an email from Mike and Linda on s/v \”Integrity\”. They\’re out of San Diego, California and are currently in Spain. They noticed our position on Winlink and told us that friends of their\’s from Alaska are in Salomon Atoll now aboard s/v \”Sunflower\”. We\’re looking forward to meeting them. Hopefully we\’ll get an email from them soon?

    We made a very slow 153 nm today. \”Beach House\’s\” average is 175 nm and \”Ms. Piggy\” is feeling her weight…:-) The trip is in jeopardy of taking 10 days instead of 9, but we shall see what the winds have in store for us. We\’re just over half way, 724 nm to go!…Currently, drying air (less humidity), calm and pleasant sailing conditions. Watch out for Nik, she\’s going on deck to \”shoot the sun\”…

    KIT, Scott and \”ON WATCH WOODROW\”…:-)))

  • Day Four to Chagos – breakage and a fix!…..

    Day Four to Chagos – breakage and a fix!…..

    29 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    The miles are clicking away, but overall this passage has been fairly slow. We\’ll most likely do around 155 miles today. I always do my planning on around 170 miles/day. The reason is squalls. We get 20-22 knots for several hours, then a line of squalls come by and the wind is 9-15 OR 27-28. So we must sail accordingly. Overall, we\’ve kept the amount of sail we carry down in case a big squall line blows hard and would then otherwise stress the sails and rig.

    Speaking of which. We went to reef the main (make is smaller) in expectation of the above conditions. Fortunately we decided to do this well before dark. When we were taking in the first reef, the down reef control line just snapped in two! This would be a potential disaster as without this line we cannot adjust the size of the main sail and as you know, we\’re along way from the marine chandlery. Also fortunately, I could reach the roller drum and knew how to replace the line. Good fortune has us having at least two line up for the job of the correct diameter and length.

    I used a spectra line we used to use for a former main preventer system and we began the minor surgery. First, we removed the 10\” diameter cover off the roller drum mounted about 7 feet up the mast where the boom connects. It\’s this high as the deck in front of the mast is where we have to access the plate. Carefully removing the four screws and cover, we exposed the line wrapped around the furling drum. I then counted 29 wraps of the line around the drum as I removed it. Nikki and I fed the new line in place, threaded it back through the leads and rope clutch and we were back in business. The furling system has a lock on the drum which I normally do not use. I will use it from now on to remove the stress on the furling line. It also held the boom mandrel in place which enabled me to swap out the lines. All done within an hour and before dark. We then finished taking in the reef we\’d started to test it; all worked well.

    Currently, it\’s 6:45 a.m. local time and we\’ve about 890 nm to go. A squall is coming by and the wind is shifted to the east (temporarily) and has dropped to 12 knots. Rain\’s a commin\’!

    As I send this blog to be posted, I\’ll be picking up our GRIB weather file from saildocs. This file is a a computer generated map of the expected wind and sea conditions for up to 5 days ahead. It\’s usually quite accurate in the open ocean. It often under estimates the wind speeds by 2-5 knots.

    Position report will be posted in about an hour. We\’ll be half way this time tomorrow, now expecting an approximately 10 day passage.

    KIT, Scott and of course, sleeping Nikki

  • Settling In….

    Settling In….. 28 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Last night was night three for us and it takes about till the third day to settle in on a long passage. Since we\’d made a few three day passages in the last month, it felt like we were more or less still in our routine. We saw a thousand foot super tanker on our AIS last night. I haven\’t a clue where he came from, but he said his destination was \”Pacific Basin\”. That\’s about like saying, \”somewhere on planet earth\”…:-)

    A frequent writer, Ken from Norwich, England asked about water depths? Several people have asked so… 16,000 – 17,000 feet or about 4,800 – 5,100 meters. If you can\’t stand up in it, does it matter?….:-)

    Conditions have been generally mild with winds in the 12-20 knot range. We\’ve been flying the genoa to port on the pole and a full main for almost 36 hours. When the squalls come by, the rain lasts a few minutes and then the wind dies off and shifts for a half hour or so. Then back to normal. We\’ve motored only to get away from the wind holes; a total of about 30 minutes in the last three days. Each day so far has been progressively slower. Today we\’ll do about 150 nm (nautical miles). We\’re still staying south as the weather predicts steadier winds below the rhumb line. The rhumb line is the straight distance from point A (Cocos in our case), to point b (Chagos in our case). We\’re currently about 90 nm left (or south) of the original rhumb line.

    Just sailing along, Nikki diligently working on her sun shots.

    KIT, Scott with Sleeping Nikki (really, she\’s only sleeping because she\’s off watch when I write the blog…:-)

  • Entering the Back of Beyond……

    Entering the Back of Beyond….. 27 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,
    Last night we anticipated another bit of breeze so we took two reefs in the main and kept up the full genoa. The wind never came. By midnight, we\’d shaken both reefs out and the wind has steadily dropped into this morning at about 10-14 knots. The seas are calm and we\’ve had a few rain squalls; to be expected with these \”ITCZ\” type equatorial low cells. (Google ITCZ – Inter Tropical Convergence Zone).

    Nikki\’s been very diligent and working hard on her Sun shots and working them up to keep a running fix. Celestial navigation of course has more or less gone out with the dial up telephone, but Nikki\’s always wanted to know how to do it and … she\’s learning.

    As we now get about 320 miles west of Cocos with 1200 miles to go to Chagos, you can certainly feel how we\’re entering the \”Back of Beyond\” as they say down under. From the perspective of the central USA, we\’re pretty much on the opposite side of world. As Jimmy Buffet wrote, \”The Far Side of the World\”.

    We actually saw a Japanese fishing trawler on our AIS system yesterday, only 9 miles away. A bit gray, cooler and pleasant conditions. Just wish we had another 5-7 knots of wind. Drifting along…. KIT,

    Scott and sleeping Nikki (NO, she doesn\’t sleep too much, she\’s just off watch when I write!)….:-)

  • Day One to Chagos…..

    Day One to Chagos….. 26 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    The first few days are all about getting your sea legs and tummy back. I\’m doing very well for only 24 hours out of Cocos, we\’ll see how Nikki is when she wakes up. She was working on her celestial navigation last night which is a good sign.

    It was a nice 20 knot day yesterday, but to be prudent, we took a second reef in at dark and it paid off. We had several hours of 23-29 knots during the evening and with the staysail poled out, we were fast and comfy. No speed records today, but a decent passage of about 175 miles. We\’re also staying a bit south due to what is effectively an ITCZ low pressure system. The ITCZ or \”inter tropical convergence zone\” is where weather from the northern hemisphere meets the weather from the southern hemisphere. It is often, rainy, squally and gusty. As the trade winds on our latest weather file show strengthening at this latitude, we may gybe a bit north and just follow the low\’s without catching up to them. I do so prefer to stay away from the high 20 knot wind field. Currently, we have two reefs and the staysail poled out. We\’ll see about a gybe shortly?

    Nothing to exciting to report, all is going well. New position report out in a few minutes. (see links below)

    KIT, Scott and Nikki