svbeachhouse

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  • 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!

  • 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…:-)

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2012/09/27 01:45 LATITUDE: 12-05.99S LONGITUDE: 091-18.10E COURSE: 277T SPEED: 5.7 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 14 WIND_DIR: ESE WAVE_HT: 0.2M WAVE_PER: 7 SWELL_DIR: SSE SWELL_HT: 2.5M SWELL_PER: 10 CLOUDS: 95% VISIBILITY: 10 BARO: 1018.1 AIR_TEMP: 25.6C COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago. 161 nm day 2 run. We\’ve a bit of squall and rain, not much wind. Still sailing west to stay south of these little low pressure cells which take most of the wind away. KIT, Scott and sleeping Nikki

  • 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!)….:-)

  • POSITION REPORT

    YOTREPS: YES TIME: 2012/09/26 01:44 LATITUDE: 12-12.52S LONGITUDE: 094-01.07E COURSE: 274T SPEED: 7.0 MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 21 WIND_DIR: ESE WAVE_HT: 0.4M WAVE_PER: 7 SWELL_DIR: S SWELL_HT: 3.0M SWELL_PER: 10 CLOUDS: 50% VISIBILITY: 15 BARO: 1018.1 AIR_TEMP: 28.3C COMMENT: Beach House – EN ROUTE – Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago.

    New blogs posted at: www.svbeachhouse.com Position Report graphic \”bread crumb trail\” is at the bottom right on the home page (Use the link for Winlink) for the latest. Expect 9 day passage, 175 nm today. A bit lumpy and cross sea, but overall just fine. KIT, DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL, USE ANY OTHER ADDRESS YOU HAVE FOR US.

  • 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

  • Half Way Round…..Departure – Cocos to Chagos Archipelago

    Half Way Round…..

    25 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    The weather ahead was my concern yesterday. There was a system of weak low pressure cells along our route. For the most part, these were knocking the wind speed down so much, we might not be able to sail very effectively. I have more diesel fuel aboard that at any time in the history of \”Beach House\” sailing, but don\’t want to see how much of it I can use. Topping off at Cocos Island was $2.42/liter or $9.15/gallon!

    The World ARC Rally (which Cindy and I last saw in Bora Bora two years ago) has caught up to us again. About 7 of the boats arrived yesterday and that with the improving weather told me it was time to move on. \”Fidelis\” (a Morgan 45 like my Dad had), pulled out as well to head to Rodriguez Island off the SE of Madagascar.

    The seas are a bit big at 3-3.5 meters, but not too much \”sea\” so it\’s okay. We\’re still getting our sea legs, but with the reefed main and full genoa on the pole to port, we\’re zipping along in 18-22 knots of wind.

    An old Riddle: \”How far can you run into the Forest?\”….. Answer: \”Half way, because the other half is out\”…..

    And that indeed is where I find myself today. Since Cindy and I left Bahia Herradura, Costa Rica, \”Beach House\” has now sailed just about exactly half way round the world.

    This is a big ocean and we\’re trying to do it in bites. The two big bites are from Cocos to Chagos and Chagos to Madagascar. I expect the sail to take about 9 days and our permit will allow us to stay up to a month. I doubt we\’ll stay that long, but it\’s nice nonetheless. Chagos is supposed to be like the world was thousands of years ago. Pristine white sand beaches on almost untouched atolls, lagoons teaming with fish. Hope it\’s true.

    For those of you who have asked about Pirate territory you\’ll be happy to know! First, I contacted NATO\’s marine force for Piracy in the Indian Ocean. They told me that our journey would be \”out of high risk areas\” with all the usual disclaimers of course. Second, we learned from someone in the Piracy Watch/Prevention industry, that there has been know incidents south of Chagos as well as several hundred miles to the West. When we leave for Madagascar, we will be heading Southwest, skirting away from even the remote areas. The naval forces are apparently quite active throughout the entire Western Indian Ocean and it\’s paying off. They are even flying unmanned drones out of the Seychelles to keep an eye on things. It seems the marine version of this awful business is getting more and more shut down. Apparently, it\’s now easier to kidnap westerners in resorts in Kenya and Tanzania. Still not good, but better for us. So have no fears, all is well and thought out.

    1467 miles to go! KIT, position reports and blogs daily. (First position report tomorrow) Scott and Sleeping Nikki