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Nambia to St. Helena….Day 5

May 29th, written morning of May 30th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere, but not for long!) +1GMT

Just as I sent yesterdays blog, the wind shifted back to the south and came up at 12 knots. We set the full main and reacher and had a lovely day sail.
Just before dark, the winds picked up into the teens and we\’ve been off to the races ever since. There is maybe a bit of a lull this afternoon predicted, but after that, it\’s building winds to the barn (St. Helena).

The swell is up at 3.0 meters (10-11 feet) with the renewed winds. It\’s mostly a SWesterly swell so it\’s a bit beamy. Still, being a wide fat boat (Aka: Miss Piggy), it\’s lots easier on us than a \”monomaran\” which goes rolly polly in this stuff. Dave and Kathie of \”Sunflower\” have frequently posted in their daily position reports about the lack of enjoying the \”roll\” on their boat.

Last night was a sort of a milestone. \”Beach House\” (the boat, not crew) actually finished a circumnavigation of the earth! For those of you who don\’t know or need refreshing, the boat was built in Sette, France and launched on April 15th, 2004. Sette is at longitude 003 degree 42 minutes East. At midnight last night, we sailed through that longitude and hence by one metric, \”Beach House\” (the boat, not crew) has been around the world. The first third was on the deck of a Dockwise ship, but that\’s nit picking!..:-)

Cindy, my Dad, Paul Spicer and Dave Robertson were to sail with us across the Atlantic. We were weathered out and from Gibraltar had to sail back to Mallorca and ship the boat from there to Ensenada, Mexico. It was actually a great time; my Dad taking all of us on the \”Wine/Fish and Cheese Tour\” of Southern Spain. Every night, we stopped in a little marina and my Dad went straight to the nearest fresh fish restaurant, treating everyone in tow.

We also passed our half way mark yesterday around noon and currently have 560 miles to go. Our speed of course picked up dramatically last night, seeing many readings above 8 knots. Looks like a 165 nm for the day as the early part of yesterday was still pretty slow.

We\’ll position report within the hour. Tomorrow\’s lesson class…\”The Prime Meridian\”!…stay tuned.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Namibia to St. Helena….Day 4

May 28th, written the morning of the 29th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere – but not for long!) +1GMT

Yesterday morning found us having had a slow night\’s passage and the winds were fading and shifting to the east southeast.
This meant gybing and sailing slow or just sailing slow toward Antarctica..!

Hence, we threw in the towel around noon and have been motoring for the last 18 hours. We\’re directly on course and just under half way in still very calm conditions.
The sea has become a bit choppy, but the swell is down. The winds have shifted to the NW! but are not blowing more than 10 knots. We expect the wind to shift to the Southeast and start to pick up steadily for the rest of the trip starting late this afternoon or at latest, by midnight tonight.

It\’s very pretty out here, we\’ve still a lovely large wanning moon, the skies are clearer and were getting good night stars. It\’s warming up – 20 deg C (70 deg F) and only 8:15 a.m. A big bonus is that it\’s dry and no longer damp outside at night. The exercise program is going well and Nikki is getting stronger. (Hey Jak, when Mum gets back to OZ…keep kickin\’ her butt!….:-).

Everything is working well. The mysterious rubber smell has gone away in the port engine room. We think it was the remnants of an old alternator belt.

There are three boats behind us on this trip. One trying to get out of Cape Town with no success, one awaiting a window in Walvis Bay and one about 400 miles behind us. That would be s/v \”This Side Up\” (cute uh?). We met Mike in Bali last year. He will most likely have a blustery passage as the new winds arrive from astern.

Yesterday, I took a photo with Nikki holding the LARGEST flying fish I\’ve ever seen. Yes I\’ll post it if there is internet in St. Helena….
Cheers all…
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Namibia to St. Helena….Day 3
May 27th, morning of the 28th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere) +1 GMT

Yesterday, we planned on gybing north, but the heading was taking to Angola!..NOT where we want to go.
So we experimented with the big geneker (reacher) on the pole and tacked downwind a bit to play the shifts.

We\’ve had mostly winds in the 10-12 knot range and as such…this is the slowest sailing day ever for Miss Piggy.
I think we\’ll do around 140 miles for the day. However, it IS the most comfortable trip I\’ve ever been on at sea.
The winds are calm…and so is the sea.

This is all likely to change in the next 24-36 hours as the high pressure system that is just to the south of us will move further east and intensify.
This will bring the winds. Near the end of the trip, most likely a bit more than we\’d like.

We are just north of our original rhumb line (direct route from where we started) and when Nikki gets up, we may yet again roll up the sails and motor for several hours to the NW to see if we can find the wind or gybe if it shifts and keep sailing?

The sun is rising, it\’s exercise day (around noon) and just the pure enjoyment of this boat ride – Slow, but lovely is a pleasure.

About 880 miles to go. I suspect by day 5 we\’ll find the breeze….and maybe a bit too much after that.
Of note – we did indeed cross the Tropic of Capricorn yesterday afternoon…whooo
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Namibia to St. Helena…Day 2

May 26th, written the morning of the 27th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere) +1 GMT

Yesterday morning, the winds went light; too light to sail. We tried in vain to use the spinnaker for a few hours, but we just weren\’t getting anywhere. If we go less than 5 knots for very long, on come the engines. The issue is a forming high pressure center to our south which is a bit too close. When you get near the center of the \”highs\”, you get no wind. So, we bagged the chute (spinnaker) and set course with the engines toward the NW. This would take us away from the shortest distance to St. Helena (toward the north), but get us away from the high pressure center.

After four hours of motoring, it worked and we were able to fly the full main and genoa poled out to port all night. It\’s 7:15 a.m. local time as I write this and we\’ve a return of fog and drizzle. The surface visibility is still a few miles and frankly, we don\’t expect to see another vessel from here to at least very near St. Helena. We of course keep watch and are not complacent.

We\’re on schedule to do about another 160 nautical mile day. This is actually what my planning was based on, but a bit slow for normal \”Miss Piggy\” style. (Miss Piggy is Beach House\’s nickname for those of you who don\’t know!).

We did our weight workout/exercise routine yesterday afternoon. It takes about an hour plus and gives us a good workout. Might as well stay in ship shape out here. We do this every other day. Doing the wash, charging the batteries, making water; the usual boat chores.

Today, of note, will be one of our three geographic milestones on this voyage across the Atlantic. They are: crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, crossing the Prime Meridian and crossing the equator back into the northern hemisphere. We\’ll just take the first one\’s explanation for this blog today.

Tropic of Capricorn:
Many people don\’t know what the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer represent or where they are?
So I\’m glad you asked, here goes.

First, these are two imaginary lines, located about 23 1/2 degrees south (Capricorn) and north (Cancer) from the equator.
What they represent astronomically is as follows. During the course of a full year, if you were to drop a \”plumb bob\” (straight down hanging line) (What do the British call a plumb bob?) from the sun to the earth, the course of travel of the sun would touch the equator twice/year and the two tropic lines once each.

So follow the bouncing ball. On roughly March 21st each year, the sun is directly over the equator and in it\’s course of travel is headed north. The course of travel (of course), isn\’t really the Sun\’s movement, but rather the earth\’s movement with our \”tilt\” as we travel around the 365 day revolution. This tilt, is the exact number of degrees (about 23 1/2) which defines the two Tropic lines.

This is why we have summer in the middle of the year in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern. On roughly June 21st (The Summer Solstice), the sun\’s plumb bob, touches the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere indicating the \”first day of summer\” in the northern hemisphere or the first day of winter in the southern hemisphere. Hence, in the Southern Hemisphere, it would be their \”Winter Solstice\”.

On roughly September 21st, the sun re-crosses the equator. This is the first day of spring in the southern hemisphere and the first day of fall in the northern hemisphere. To complete the fourth point, when the sun\’s plumb bob touches the Tropic of Capricorn here in the Southern Hemisphere, it\’s the first day of Summer in the south and the first day of winter in the north. This happens on roughly December 21st each year. In short, the \”Tropics\” are between these two imaginary lines and at some point every year, the sun\’s plumb bob is directly over all latitudes in between. It\’ also why Santa Claus wears shorts in Australia and South Africa!….:-)

Lastly, The names of the two Tropic lines comes from the two constellations they are \”in\” when the sun\’s plumb bob \”touches\” them on the 21st of June and 21st of December. The constellation of Capricorn is behind the Sun (as viewed from the earth) on roughly December 21st. and the Tropic of Cancer is behind the sun (as viewed from the earth) on roughly the 21st of June. I always remember which is which by my following make believe saying.
\”I live in the northern hemisphere and I don\’t want to get \”Cancer\” from the Sun\”. So now you have a little trick to remember which is which too.

As you\’re now an expert, there will be a test in the morning and you also now know why I\’m not going to explain the other two geographic milestones in this blog! It would take too long and I don\’t want to bore you…..YET!…:-)

The notable feature for us as a practical matter is that it should start to warm up soon after we get north of the Tropic of Capricorn. It\’s not a magic line, but where we expect a warming trend to last the rest of this crossing. We understand it\’s fairly warm at St. Helena Island…we sure hope so. Fog, drizzle and 13 deg C (59 deg F) isn\’t our idea of warm tropical cruising.

KIT,
Position report will be up in an hour. I expect yet another sleepy day of about 160 nautical miles….We\’ve about 1000 miles to go!
Scott and Sailor Nikki

Day one to St. Helena and bye bye Luderitz…..
May 24th-25th, 2013 (Eastern Hemisphere) +1 on GMT

We wanted to get checked out of Namibia early in the day as it takes lots of time to organize and do last minute \”boatie\” chores before departure. We also had plans to have dinner out at Barrels Restaurant, a local pub style place with a good reputation with Steve and Pat of s/v \”OZ\”. (Clearly, we\’re not in Kansas anymore Dorothy!).

Of course, yet again, Immigration was the only mini hassle in the ointment. It\’s funny how it\’s never customs, but always immigration that seems to be the bigger deal. The young lady assumed that if you were on a \”boat\”, it\’s just like a \”ship\” but smaller. You know, we have 20 crew back onboard doing all those last minute chores and when we get back, we can just turn on the motor and leave…..NOT!

She wanted us to come back just before we wanted to leave. I explained to her, that there is several hours worth of work, Nikki soothed both her and me when she blurted out that we would leave in three hours. This assuaged our \”jobsworth\” (as our English friends say) and she stamped us out.

We then did indeed start the last minute departure chores of food shopping, etc. When we got back to the boat, Steve said he\’d pick us up for our dinner ashore and hence I could put the dinghy away which actually takes quite awhile; to get it ready to go to sea. We always carry the dinghy on the stern davits with the motor attached. MOST boats have to take the motor off, lift and store their dinghy\’s on deck. This is a great savings of time for us, but still, the dinghy has 4 ways it\’s held to the boat to prevent chafe, etc. so it takes….time.

We went in for our last supper in Luderitz and did indeed have a lovely time at Barrels where we met Heiku and Diane. They own the local charter cat business and had previously sailed around the world on there schooner which is still moored at Luderitz. Heiku sounds Japanese, but it the masculine form in German of Heike! We learn something new every day!

We had socked in fog at 8 a.m. when we wanted to leave, but everyday here is like that and we waited till 9 a.m. and had about 7-10 miles of visibility…Good enough to go. Today there is a fishing tournament in Luderitz and literally it\’s the biggest event of the year and the town is closed. Glad we checked out yesterday! We also discovered why we did not have internet the last 18 hours we were here…. The power has been shut down since last night. Remember….we ARE in Namibia!

The weather was cooperative, the winds a bit light, the seas calm. We started with a full main and geneker and by dark, had enough wind for the genoa poled out to windward on port tack. This is how we\’ve been the last 24 hours, varying winds of 12-20 knots, boat speed 5-9 knots depending. Mostly in the 6 knot boat speed range.

Last nights highlights were passing two sets of what we believed to be dredging vessels. That would be dredging for diamonds!

The first set was the 50-60 foot variety, but the second set was no less than eight \”factory ships\” at around 250++ feet. They were lit in a pattern I\’ve never seen. A green light over a white light over a red light. It\’s not in the navigation rules. Nice we had a full moon and good visibility as we sailed through them like a fence.

It\’s nice to start a passage off like this; calmly. The wind predictions are that by tomorrow, it will start to get \”breezy\”; the good news is it will be from pretty much right behind us.

We did a pedestrian 160 nautical miles – for Beach House, just a leg stretch…
KIT,
Scott and Sleeping (off watch) Nikki