svbeachhouse

Category: Voyages

  • 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….

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2012/10/02 01:56 LATITUDE: 08-10.98S LONGITUDE: 078-44.46E COURSE: 293T SPEED: 7.8 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 21 WIND_DIR: ENE WAVE_HT: 0.2M WAVE_PER: 6 SWELL_DIR: E SWELL_HT: 2.0M SWELL_PER: 10 CLOUDS: 70% VISIBILITY: 10 BARO: 1015.2 AIR_TEMP: 28.3C COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago. 161 nm last 24 hours

    I\’ll post a blog soon. 422 nm to go. Should arrive early morning our Friday. Actually SEVEN ships yesterday, we crossed a major shipping lane from SE Asia/China to the tip of Africa. KIT, Scott and Nikki

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2012/10/02 01:56 LATITUDE: 08-10.98S LONGITUDE: 078-44.46E COURSE: 293T SPEED: 7.8 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 21 WIND_DIR: ENE WAVE_HT: 0.2M WAVE_PER: 6 SWELL_DIR: E SWELL_HT: 2.0M SWELL_PER: 10 CLOUDS: 70% VISIBILITY: 10 BARO: 1015.2 AIR_TEMP: 28.3C COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago. 161 nm last 24 hours

    I\’ll post a blog soon. 422 nm to go. Should arrive early morning our Friday. Actually SEVEN ships yesterday, we crossed a major shipping lane from SE Asia/China to the tip of Africa. KIT, Scott and Nikki

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2012/10/01 03:08 LATITUDE: 09-09.98S LONGITUDE: 081-06.57E COURSE: 291T SPEED: 6.6 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 18 WIND_DIR: NE WAVE_HT: 0.1M WAVE_PER: 6 SWELL_DIR: E SWELL_HT: 2.0M SWELL_PER: 10 CLOUDS: 100% VISIBILITY: 3 BARO: 1015.8 AIR_TEMP: 26.7C COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago. Day 6, 155 nm We have FOUR large ships in our proximity on AIS. Amazing out here in the middle of NOWHERE! We\’ve radioed \”Jin Wang Ling\”, a Chinese cargo ship that will pass within 2 miles of us. We\’re in a big rain squall right now, all is well. 574 nm to go. New blog posted at: www.svbeachhouse.com

  • 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\”…:-)))

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES

    TIME: 2012/09/30 02:31

    LATITUDE: 10-10.17S

    LONGITUDE: 083-31.95E

    COURSE: 295T

    SPEED: 6.6

    MARINE: YES

    WIND_SPEED: 14

    WIND_DIR: NNE

    WAVE_HT: 0.1M

    WAVE_PER: 6

    SWELL_DIR: ESE

    SWELL_HT: 1.7M

    SWELL_PER: 10

    CLOUDS: 90%

    VISIBILITY: 10

    BARO: 1015.4

    AIR_TEMP: 27.8C

    COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago. Day 5, 153 nm We may be in the NORTH EAST Trade winds OR? Possibly still in \”ITCZ\” conditions. Wind is from the NNE!, we motored for 4 hours through a no wind zone and are now reaching on starboard tack with the full main and reacher, going 6-8 knots. If this condition holds, it will be sweet! We shall see!…New blog up shortly. www.svbeachhouse.com Scott and \”ON WATCH\” Nikki!…:-)

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2012/09/29 02:13 LATITUDE: 10-49.21S LONGITUDE: 086-04.63E COURSE: 289T SPEED: 7.0 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 19 WIND_DIR: ESE WAVE_HT: 0.3M WAVE_PER: 7 SWELL_DIR: SSE SWELL_HT: 3.0M SWELL_PER: 10 CLOUDS: 90% VISIBILITY: 10 BARO: 1016.3 AIR_TEMP: 25.6C COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago 167 nm last 24 hours Estimate passage total of 10 days, we\’ll be half way tomorrow morning. Rain squalls, nothing serious Repaired main sail roller furling system. See blogs: www.svbeachhouse.com KIT, Scott with now wide awake and alert Nikki!

  • 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

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2012/09/28 02:08 LATITUDE: 11-44.89S LONGITUDE: 088-42.02E COURSE: 301T SPEED: 8.7 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 19 WIND_DIR: ESE WAVE_HT: 0.3M WAVE_PER: 7 SWELL_DIR: SSE SWELL_HT: 2.7M SWELL_PER: 10 CLOUDS: 75% VISIBILITY: 15 BARO: 1016.5 AIR_TEMP: 27.2C COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago Wind up and down, now UP! about 1050 miles to go, 1/3rd of the way. Squalls on occasion. Some lighten the wind, some strengthen it. 154 nm last 24 hours, day 3. KIT, Scott and now fully awake and alert Nikki!