Greetings from Savusavu!
We just did what we don't love doing, which is anchoring in the dark. Last year when we arrived in Savusavu (first time, no local knowledge, no tracks) we spent several hours going back and forth near the mouth of the pass waiting for daylight. The conditions were wretched (windy/rainy/misty) and we had our foulie jackets on right until we docked. This year, under a clear and somewhat-moonlit sky, with absolutely wind, we glided slowly in along the channel and picked a spot on the edge of the anchorage, wearing only light fleeces. We are flying our "Q" flag, and we will go onto the Quarantine Dock when it opens in the morning.
Today was a lot like yesterday, except with scenery. We sailed slowly up the Koro sea with the wind and slight swell behind us and islands all around us. It was rolly at times because we were wing-on-wing, but otherwise, it was absolutely benign. Benjamin even spent some time in his bathtub in the cockpit, it was so calm. My last watch was 2300-0245 (at which time I woke Max and we had "all hands on deck" for the entrance) and it was lovely. We were moving at about 5 kts with only the mainsail, (so as to extend the journey and maximize sleep for the off-watch) and part-way through my watch a smiling 1/4 moon rose on the horizon to light the rest of our way. Victoria had asked to be woken for our arrival, and she and Miriam were eagle-eyed spotters of buoys, etc in the water as we were approaching the anchorage.
The highlight of the day was the yummy "experiment" Victoria produced in the galley. It was our anniversary, and much to her chagrin, she was on a boat with no eggs, a small amount of mayo (often used to replace eggs in our baking) and hardly any sugar. She was even less happy when she asked me what she should do and I told her to wait until I went to the grocery store, and that we could celebrate on the Canadian version of our day! Despite these hardships, she managed to make us some tiny cakes that she individually coated with melted chocolate and decorated with microscopic pieces of jelly candies that she carefully cut up. She added to the fun by using food colouring to make several different colours of batter that she mixed into each cake. Can you tell that she spent lots of her time at Pier 21 watching videos of how to make fancy cakes?? It is lovely to have children who remind us to take time to celebrate special days; what a delicious celebration it was!
We didn't catch any fish on this journey, but when we pulled in our lines, it seems that we had had some strikes - one of our hooks was missing, and the other had a piece of something hanging on it. The kids will start daily "fishing gear inspections" on our next passage!
We should be back to regular (Internet) communications today or tomorrow, so I won't likely be writing many notes until we are on passage again. Thanks for your emails to us while we were underway - it is nice to know that we are not alone, even when we travel so far off the beaten path.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2016-05-23 5:25 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 16°46.62'S 179°19.68'E
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At 2016-05-23 8:57 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 16°46.62'S 179°19.67'E
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Monday, 30 May 2016
Minerva to Fiji Day 3: Slow and steady ... light air sailing
Bula!
We have entered Fijian waters, and now have the Koro Sea to cross. Our temperatures have climbed almost overnight to the high 20's/low 30's, and we are drinking lots of fluids to try to acclimatize our temperate selves back to the tropics!
Our wind has been pretty steady for the last 24 hours - sometimes ahead of and sometimes behind the beam, which means that we have gotten some more practice manipulating our genoa with our spinnaker pole. When the wind is ahead (forward) of the beam, we sail the genoa on the same side as the mainsail. When it moves aft of the beam, we furl the sail, lead a new sheet through the end of the pole, and then unfurl it on the upwind side. Many cruisers use this setup for days on end; we have finally joined that club. We had a bit of a chuckle looking at the tracks on our chartplotter from last year, when manipulating the pole was just "one thing too many" and we had to jibe the boat back and forth where now we are just running before the wind. Nice to see a visual demonstration of our progress in skills and confidence!
Our younger generation of crew have been instrumental in these evolutions. This afternoon, Benjamin was taking up my lap, so Johnathan and Miriam did the cockpit jobs, while Max was on the foredeck with the genoa sheet when we poled it out. Johnathan furled the (downwind) genoa with the winch while Miriam eased the sheet. Max led the new active sheet aft from its storage point on the bow (it's not long enough to reach from one side all the way around to the other - we will eventually replace it with a longer line, and this foredeck step will be unnecessary). Finally, Johnathan eased out the line he had just winched in, and Max hauled on the new sheet to bring the genoa out on the upwind side.
Our wind has been in the vicinity of 8-14 kts, which is just right for slow and steady downwind sailing. The sea-state is almost (but not quite) non-existent, and we have been seeing boat speeds anywhere from 3 kts to 7 kts. Other than the usual "running downwind" rolliness, the boat has been pretty comfortable.
Victoria and Johnathan are continuing with their "keep Benjamin from using the iPad" blitz. We have seen more play with stuffies and puzzles in the last two days than we have seen in months. They actually got mad at me at dinner time when I didn't "make" Benjamin come to the cockpit (in a noisy state) and I "caved in" and let him watch a video on the iPod instead so we could have a peaceful dinner. Funny to be already getting parenting advice from my children (maddeningly, they are usually right!) When they are not engaging Benjamin, they can be found reading books, baking (today it was Victoria making bread) and (of course) melting their own brain cells with the iPad!
We are hoping to arrive in Savusavu in another day or so (Tuesday morning).
Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2016-05-23 9:30 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 18°02.23'S 179°58.97'W
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At 2016-05-23 4:54 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 16°46.62'S 179°19.69'E
----------
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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
We have entered Fijian waters, and now have the Koro Sea to cross. Our temperatures have climbed almost overnight to the high 20's/low 30's, and we are drinking lots of fluids to try to acclimatize our temperate selves back to the tropics!
Our wind has been pretty steady for the last 24 hours - sometimes ahead of and sometimes behind the beam, which means that we have gotten some more practice manipulating our genoa with our spinnaker pole. When the wind is ahead (forward) of the beam, we sail the genoa on the same side as the mainsail. When it moves aft of the beam, we furl the sail, lead a new sheet through the end of the pole, and then unfurl it on the upwind side. Many cruisers use this setup for days on end; we have finally joined that club. We had a bit of a chuckle looking at the tracks on our chartplotter from last year, when manipulating the pole was just "one thing too many" and we had to jibe the boat back and forth where now we are just running before the wind. Nice to see a visual demonstration of our progress in skills and confidence!
Our younger generation of crew have been instrumental in these evolutions. This afternoon, Benjamin was taking up my lap, so Johnathan and Miriam did the cockpit jobs, while Max was on the foredeck with the genoa sheet when we poled it out. Johnathan furled the (downwind) genoa with the winch while Miriam eased the sheet. Max led the new active sheet aft from its storage point on the bow (it's not long enough to reach from one side all the way around to the other - we will eventually replace it with a longer line, and this foredeck step will be unnecessary). Finally, Johnathan eased out the line he had just winched in, and Max hauled on the new sheet to bring the genoa out on the upwind side.
Our wind has been in the vicinity of 8-14 kts, which is just right for slow and steady downwind sailing. The sea-state is almost (but not quite) non-existent, and we have been seeing boat speeds anywhere from 3 kts to 7 kts. Other than the usual "running downwind" rolliness, the boat has been pretty comfortable.
Victoria and Johnathan are continuing with their "keep Benjamin from using the iPad" blitz. We have seen more play with stuffies and puzzles in the last two days than we have seen in months. They actually got mad at me at dinner time when I didn't "make" Benjamin come to the cockpit (in a noisy state) and I "caved in" and let him watch a video on the iPod instead so we could have a peaceful dinner. Funny to be already getting parenting advice from my children (maddeningly, they are usually right!) When they are not engaging Benjamin, they can be found reading books, baking (today it was Victoria making bread) and (of course) melting their own brain cells with the iPad!
We are hoping to arrive in Savusavu in another day or so (Tuesday morning).
Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2016-05-23 9:30 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 18°02.23'S 179°58.97'W
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At 2016-05-23 4:54 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 16°46.62'S 179°19.69'E
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Saturday, 28 May 2016
Minerva to Fiji Day 2: Spinnaker Day
Greetings!
I woke this morning to the sight of Max getting the spinnaker set up. The wind was down to about 6 kts, but our new spinnaker (bought from our new friends on Nirvana during our last visit to Minerva Reef) loves light air. It was a divide and conquer day: Max sailed the spinnaker, and I did the downstairs chores, and kept Benjamin out of the cockpit (and the UV). We flew it in perfect conditions until late afternoon, then just before sunset, we doused the it and mounted the spinnaker pole on the upwind side to pole out the genoa. As we had hoped, this job is getting easier and more automatic; we are getting the hang of where all the extra snatch blocks need to be placed so that all the lines (of which there are four extras) get a fair run without chafing the many other lines running up and down the deck.
It was a beautiful, tropical, hot day, the first one during which we really felt the need for cold drinks and electrolytes since we left Auckland. We are at 20 deg S, and finally feeling like we are in the Tropics again. We even left the sides of the rain enclosure rolled up tonight (I am still wearing a fleece, but I suspect the others will be in the cockpit in shirt-sleeves when they come on watch).
Victoria and Johnathan's keep-Benjamin-away-from-the-iPad-by-distracting-him experiment continued today, with good results. They played with puzzles, read books, and even built him a "tent" by stretching the lee cloth from one of the benches over to the saloon table. We had a bit of a meltdown around dinner time when he wanted a "turn" and they wouldn't let him, but it gave us a good opportunity (as a family) to discuss the arbitrary nature of some of their choices. There is a difference in Benjamin's eyes between not giving him a turn while someone else is using it and not giving him a turn when it is just sitting on the counter asking to play Octonauts and Max & Ruby! Peace reigned briefly in the evening when we let him use it in a low battery state until it went dark. He may only be two, but he understands about the need for charging, and happily gave it up to the 12V socket.
Our boobie stayed with us through most of the morning, flying away for some fish and then coming back, but then he left again in the afternoon, and we haven't seen him since. Perhaps he forgot to submit his Fiji Immigration paperwork, and has had second thoughts!
As I mentioned, we hoisted our spinnaker pole at sunset and have been sailing wing-on-wing all night. These are my kind of conditions - the maximum wind I have seen is about 12 kts, with an average around 10, the boat speed is hovering around 5 kts, the seas are calm, with only a slight roll, and I haven't had to adjust either the sails or the course since I came on watch!! Here's hoping that the rest of the night brings similarly calm conditions. Considering that some of the weather models didn't even predict any wind for this part of the passage, we are counting ourselves very lucky today with 10 hrs of spinnaker flying followed by a night of calm sailing :)
Love to you all,
Elizabeth
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At 2016-05-23 7:21 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°38.53'S 178°55.98'W
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At 2016-05-23 1:45 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 20°19.14'S 179°20.86'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
I woke this morning to the sight of Max getting the spinnaker set up. The wind was down to about 6 kts, but our new spinnaker (bought from our new friends on Nirvana during our last visit to Minerva Reef) loves light air. It was a divide and conquer day: Max sailed the spinnaker, and I did the downstairs chores, and kept Benjamin out of the cockpit (and the UV). We flew it in perfect conditions until late afternoon, then just before sunset, we doused the it and mounted the spinnaker pole on the upwind side to pole out the genoa. As we had hoped, this job is getting easier and more automatic; we are getting the hang of where all the extra snatch blocks need to be placed so that all the lines (of which there are four extras) get a fair run without chafing the many other lines running up and down the deck.
It was a beautiful, tropical, hot day, the first one during which we really felt the need for cold drinks and electrolytes since we left Auckland. We are at 20 deg S, and finally feeling like we are in the Tropics again. We even left the sides of the rain enclosure rolled up tonight (I am still wearing a fleece, but I suspect the others will be in the cockpit in shirt-sleeves when they come on watch).
Victoria and Johnathan's keep-Benjamin-away-from-the-iPad-by-distracting-him experiment continued today, with good results. They played with puzzles, read books, and even built him a "tent" by stretching the lee cloth from one of the benches over to the saloon table. We had a bit of a meltdown around dinner time when he wanted a "turn" and they wouldn't let him, but it gave us a good opportunity (as a family) to discuss the arbitrary nature of some of their choices. There is a difference in Benjamin's eyes between not giving him a turn while someone else is using it and not giving him a turn when it is just sitting on the counter asking to play Octonauts and Max & Ruby! Peace reigned briefly in the evening when we let him use it in a low battery state until it went dark. He may only be two, but he understands about the need for charging, and happily gave it up to the 12V socket.
Our boobie stayed with us through most of the morning, flying away for some fish and then coming back, but then he left again in the afternoon, and we haven't seen him since. Perhaps he forgot to submit his Fiji Immigration paperwork, and has had second thoughts!
As I mentioned, we hoisted our spinnaker pole at sunset and have been sailing wing-on-wing all night. These are my kind of conditions - the maximum wind I have seen is about 12 kts, with an average around 10, the boat speed is hovering around 5 kts, the seas are calm, with only a slight roll, and I haven't had to adjust either the sails or the course since I came on watch!! Here's hoping that the rest of the night brings similarly calm conditions. Considering that some of the weather models didn't even predict any wind for this part of the passage, we are counting ourselves very lucky today with 10 hrs of spinnaker flying followed by a night of calm sailing :)
Love to you all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-23 7:21 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°38.53'S 178°55.98'W
-----
At 2016-05-23 1:45 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 20°19.14'S 179°20.86'W
----------
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Minerva to Fiji - Day 1 - Boobie on board
Bula!
It's the morning of the second day of our leg from Minerva to Fiji, and at 8am the sun is already hot and the sky blue: it is 28 deg in the cabin and rising. Max is flying the spinnaker in about 6 kts of wind, giving us a boat speed of 4 kts. It is starting to feel like we are in the tropics!
This is very different from yesterday, when we left Minerva, bundled up in fleece layers and grateful for our rain enclosure, under heavy, grey skies and enough wind ahead of the beam that we were soon reefing. We left through the pass just after 1030 hrs, having done our final chores and a recalibration for our electronic compass, which had been reading about 10 deg off for the last while. It wasn't exactly flat in the lagoon, but it was flatter than we will likely see for the next while!
We had 2 kts of current with us as we transitted the pass, which is the opposite to our preference of current against us, but it was relatively wide and straight, so we were ok. Waiting for the slack or incoming current would have delayed our departure by several hours, and we judged that the conditions were acceptable so we proceeded. I was standing on the bow pulpit, clipped in and hugging the forestay, and Max had a steady hand on the helm. The waves caused things to feel a bit squirrelly, but Fluenta handled well.
We had long period swell from one direction meeting wind waves from another, so it was a bit lumpy - just enough to make us remember we were crossing an ocean, but not enough to be really uncomfortable. As usual, Max sailed the boat for the first few hours, and I took my off-watch while Benjamin slept in the afternoon.
We had an extra crew member all day - "Bobby" the Boobie decided that he had had enough of Minerva Reef, and he hitched a ride towards Fiji. We are going to see if we can learn a bit more about Boobies when we get to Fiji; as far as we know they are not typically migratory seabirds, so we think our friend may be a bit lost. He began by sitting on our solar panel, then he moved inboard to the deckbox. Finally, he settled down for the night on our conveniently-placed spinnaker. {Aside - We learned the hard way in Mexico not to shoo boobies away from their low perches, where their droppings are messy, but contained and easily cleaned, when the one that joined us on our Sea of Cortez crossing simply moved from the bow to the mast head, where his poop-range covered most of the sails and the deck!} This friend has, so far, not left too much of a mess. "Bobby" is an over-all grey bird, with a long, narrow beak that looks out of proportion to the size of his head. He is quite unperturbed by our movements around him on deck, and Benjamin is quite fascinated by him. Photos to follow when we get to Fiji.
I had a funny conversation with Victoria and Johnathan in the evening. They were trying to come up with strategies to reduce Benjamin's use of the iPod and iPad. Even though I asked, I couldn't get a straight answer as to whether this was for the protection of his young brain, or simply because he keeps taking it when it would otherwise be their turn! It was funny to hear kids who also (in my opinion) use these devices too much trying to find ways to reduce Benjamin's use. Screen time is a bit of a funny concept here: we do lots of playing outside, reading books, etc, but sometimes it is also really handy in a confined space to let any and all of the kids use the "devices" to keep the peace. I think Victoria and Johnathan were picking up on my inner conflict between ideals and reality (or simply wanting a bigger piece of a decadent pie for themselves!) I suggested that he asks to use it when he has no one to play with, so we will see if they pick up on this by initiating play with him more.
We spent most of the afternoon following the edge of a trough, which was giving us much more wind than the GRIBs had called for (as mathematical wind forecasts, they have trouble with local disturbances). It was quite neat to watch the defined edge of the dark clouds track along our path, and it led to the most amazing sunset, that produced beautiful colours in the sky for well over 45 min. We knew that the wind would likely drop, so we took advantage of everything we could squeeze out of the trough, with our boat speeds reaching up around 8 kts even with the sails reefed.
Our sunset deserves special mention. We didn't see a Green Flash (haven't yet), but just after the sun actually sank, the entire sky glowed with a golden light, which even reflected off our faces in the cockpit, bathing everyone in a radiant, golden glow. It felt rather magical.
That's probably a good point at which to leave our update - the night was a little less special: the wind dropped and in rolly seas, we motored from about 8pm until almost morning, with a short stint of sailing on Max's midnight watch, and now we are flying our spinnaker in light winds.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2016-05-23 7:20 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 21°42.74'S 179°14.39'W
-----
At 2016-05-23 12:33 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 20°24.27'S 179°19.83'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
It's the morning of the second day of our leg from Minerva to Fiji, and at 8am the sun is already hot and the sky blue: it is 28 deg in the cabin and rising. Max is flying the spinnaker in about 6 kts of wind, giving us a boat speed of 4 kts. It is starting to feel like we are in the tropics!
This is very different from yesterday, when we left Minerva, bundled up in fleece layers and grateful for our rain enclosure, under heavy, grey skies and enough wind ahead of the beam that we were soon reefing. We left through the pass just after 1030 hrs, having done our final chores and a recalibration for our electronic compass, which had been reading about 10 deg off for the last while. It wasn't exactly flat in the lagoon, but it was flatter than we will likely see for the next while!
We had 2 kts of current with us as we transitted the pass, which is the opposite to our preference of current against us, but it was relatively wide and straight, so we were ok. Waiting for the slack or incoming current would have delayed our departure by several hours, and we judged that the conditions were acceptable so we proceeded. I was standing on the bow pulpit, clipped in and hugging the forestay, and Max had a steady hand on the helm. The waves caused things to feel a bit squirrelly, but Fluenta handled well.
We had long period swell from one direction meeting wind waves from another, so it was a bit lumpy - just enough to make us remember we were crossing an ocean, but not enough to be really uncomfortable. As usual, Max sailed the boat for the first few hours, and I took my off-watch while Benjamin slept in the afternoon.
We had an extra crew member all day - "Bobby" the Boobie decided that he had had enough of Minerva Reef, and he hitched a ride towards Fiji. We are going to see if we can learn a bit more about Boobies when we get to Fiji; as far as we know they are not typically migratory seabirds, so we think our friend may be a bit lost. He began by sitting on our solar panel, then he moved inboard to the deckbox. Finally, he settled down for the night on our conveniently-placed spinnaker. {Aside - We learned the hard way in Mexico not to shoo boobies away from their low perches, where their droppings are messy, but contained and easily cleaned, when the one that joined us on our Sea of Cortez crossing simply moved from the bow to the mast head, where his poop-range covered most of the sails and the deck!} This friend has, so far, not left too much of a mess. "Bobby" is an over-all grey bird, with a long, narrow beak that looks out of proportion to the size of his head. He is quite unperturbed by our movements around him on deck, and Benjamin is quite fascinated by him. Photos to follow when we get to Fiji.
I had a funny conversation with Victoria and Johnathan in the evening. They were trying to come up with strategies to reduce Benjamin's use of the iPod and iPad. Even though I asked, I couldn't get a straight answer as to whether this was for the protection of his young brain, or simply because he keeps taking it when it would otherwise be their turn! It was funny to hear kids who also (in my opinion) use these devices too much trying to find ways to reduce Benjamin's use. Screen time is a bit of a funny concept here: we do lots of playing outside, reading books, etc, but sometimes it is also really handy in a confined space to let any and all of the kids use the "devices" to keep the peace. I think Victoria and Johnathan were picking up on my inner conflict between ideals and reality (or simply wanting a bigger piece of a decadent pie for themselves!) I suggested that he asks to use it when he has no one to play with, so we will see if they pick up on this by initiating play with him more.
We spent most of the afternoon following the edge of a trough, which was giving us much more wind than the GRIBs had called for (as mathematical wind forecasts, they have trouble with local disturbances). It was quite neat to watch the defined edge of the dark clouds track along our path, and it led to the most amazing sunset, that produced beautiful colours in the sky for well over 45 min. We knew that the wind would likely drop, so we took advantage of everything we could squeeze out of the trough, with our boat speeds reaching up around 8 kts even with the sails reefed.
Our sunset deserves special mention. We didn't see a Green Flash (haven't yet), but just after the sun actually sank, the entire sky glowed with a golden light, which even reflected off our faces in the cockpit, bathing everyone in a radiant, golden glow. It felt rather magical.
That's probably a good point at which to leave our update - the night was a little less special: the wind dropped and in rolly seas, we motored from about 8pm until almost morning, with a short stint of sailing on Max's midnight watch, and now we are flying our spinnaker in light winds.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2016-05-23 7:20 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 21°42.74'S 179°14.39'W
-----
At 2016-05-23 12:33 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 20°24.27'S 179°19.83'W
----------
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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Thursday, 26 May 2016
A week at Minerva Reef
Greetings,
I am writing to you under an absolutely clear and star-filled sky, so much so that Miriam just came running down the companionway stairs exclaiming that we all had to go up and look! During the first part of our passage last week, the moon was up by sunset, so we didn't have many stars in the early evening, but now it is absolutely pitch dark all around us. The only artificial lights are from one lighthouse and two other anchor lights. Even in the islands, we don't get this no-lights-from-the-village experience very often, and I find it awe-inspiring to consider the vastness.
After almost a week here at anchor, we are making preparations to leave tomorrow morning to continue our journey to Savusavu, Fiji. We have seen a little bit of everything from totally calm and clear to stormy with 5m seas outside the reef.
We knew when we arrived that the weather was going to change soon, so we headed outside the pass to snorkel as soon as we could. It was lovely to be back in the areas that we remembered from our visit here in Nov 14. For Miriam, it was her first time snorkelling - it seems like we have helped her develop some high standards! Without the influence of Hans (SV Nautilus) and the rest of the kid-boat fraternity, Max elected not to dive on the 100 ft blue hole by himself, and I was grateful for his prudence! Both Victoria and Johnathan are very (and increasingly) comfortable in the water, while Benjamin stays in the dinghy and takes delight in pushing the rest of the family overboard.
We certainly weren't lonely that first night: the Island Cruising Association (ICA) as well as a group of Sea Mercy boats were all here to welcome us (I counted about 30 anchor lights!) We were glad to reconnect with fellow Canadians on Amelie IV, whom we hadn't seen since March; given that they were leaving the next day, Victoria didn't waste any time inviting their daughter over for a movie night.
The wind picked up that night, and we woke up to a different lagoon on Sunday morning. Flat calm had been replaced by choppy seas, and the sky was grey and heavy. Despite a forecast for big and building swell (it was expected to peak at just over 5m overnight on Sunday night), the ICA fleet departed for Fiji, and most of the first wave of Sea Mercy boats left as well. Max demonstrated his true love and devotion (!) by going out in the dinghy to meet the Sea Mercy lead boat as they were leaving so I could have the Sea Mercy flag that I was wishing for (and that we would have gotten in Opua if we hadn't left from Auckland).
Given the chilly temperatures (and the empty bread box) I was grateful to Victoria who took it upon herself to make our first batch of "Grampy Bread" of the season. She understudied carefully while my Dad was visiting with us, so she produced "quite an acceptable loaf" as he would say :) While Victoria was at work in the kitchen, Miriam and I got talking about breads in Germany; as a result, Miriam and Victoria worked together the following day to make some yummy, salty, German pretzels. It wasn't all practical in the galley, though - she and Johnathan also decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. Most of the recent batches have gone off the boat for fundraising, so it was nice to have a batch keep onboard! We invited the only remaining boat in the anchorage (Code Blue) to come over for sundowners, and they seemed quite appreciative of home-made cookies as well :) We have known Judy and Steve since our first season, but we have rarely had an evening to spend together, so it was really enjoyable to get to know them a bit better.
The real event of the week was the huge surf that pounded in over the reef. The boat would stay pretty steady during the low tide, but at high tide, we were rolling and pitching as if we were at sea (or in the Auckland Harbour when the high-speed ferries went by!) It was good to know that we had a strong anchor and tackle, because even in the lagoon, the swell was at times burying the bow. Max found it especially challenging when he went out on his paddleboard. Even though he went upwind first, I was always glad when he finished his jaunts and was safely back at Fluenta
For the first few days, it was too rough to consider snorkelling outside the pass, but Max was able to take Miriam and the kids to snorkel in the lee of the reef every day (in fact, the kids preferred it to the deep waters outside because of the colours). By Tuesday, we were ready to try again outside the lagoon. It turned out to be too rough for snorkelling, but we did drag our fishing lure up and down the pass a few times, getting a couple of bites but no fish. We used the same gear as we use on Fluenta: Johnathan reeled out the line and the lure behind the dinghy, and then held the line in his hand as we drove along. Benjamin didn't last long when we went out the pass - the combination of the bouncing dinghy and the sound of the motor literally put him to sleep standing up! He fell asleep with his head braced on my leg to keep from falling, and then slept in my lap for well over an hour. The others enjoyed another snorkel near the boat, but I decided to give it a miss: by the time Benjamin woke up, it was getting late and cold, the sun was going behind a big bank of clouds, and even at the suggestion that I should jump in, Benjamin was crying, "No Mummy swim. No Mummy swim." I vowed, instead, to swim the next day, which was scheduled to be our last.
On Wednesday morning, we set up our spinnaker pole so the kids (and the grownups!) could swing from it and jump into the water. Everyone gave it a go, and yet again, Benjamin's favourite part of the excitement was to push his family overboard. By the afternoon, the kids had had their fill of swimming (and Victoria wanted to make biscuits for the passage), so Max and I got to go alone over to the nearby reef during Benjamin's nap. It was like a rare date! Once we were finished our swim, he went hunting with his speargun and came back with a nice-size sweetlips for dinner. This got us talking about our weather window. According to our guru (Bob McDavitt), there wasn't much coming up this week. We were planning on leaving on Thurs (his 3rd best choice) vs Friday (his 2nd best), and didn't want to wait until Tuesday (his first pick). While snorkelling in a reef within a reef in the middle of the ocean, it occurred to us that there was really no rush to get to Savusavu, especially if it meant arriving on Sunday when all the officials charge fees and overtime; just like that, we had decided to stay here another day! Victoria gave Miriam a filleting lesson when we got back to the boat, and then we did our usual "carcass dangle" to see if there were any sharks in the water. It took a while longer than usual, but eventually someone with big teeth came to eat the rest of the fish.
Since we were nearly ready to go anyway, Thursday was an out-of-character for us play day - we had time to swing from the boat, go snorkeling in an amazing ring of reefs where we saw a turtle, loads of big fish, a sting ray, and enormous clams, and enjoy another sweetlips for dinner, thanks to Max and his speargun. When we got back to Fluenta, there was more baking, swinging, swimming, studying (Life of Fred Math and Brave Writer copywork) and stowing. We have only a few last minute chores to do in the morning (like swinging from the spin pole one more time, I mean dishes, generator, and stowing the pole), and feel more prepared for the passage than we would have done last night. It looks like we will have light winds from every direction, so it may take us a bit of extra time, but the swell has come down, so we are hoping for a decent passage.
Next stop Savusavu,
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-23 6:52 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°38.55'S 178°56.02'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
I am writing to you under an absolutely clear and star-filled sky, so much so that Miriam just came running down the companionway stairs exclaiming that we all had to go up and look! During the first part of our passage last week, the moon was up by sunset, so we didn't have many stars in the early evening, but now it is absolutely pitch dark all around us. The only artificial lights are from one lighthouse and two other anchor lights. Even in the islands, we don't get this no-lights-from-the-village experience very often, and I find it awe-inspiring to consider the vastness.
After almost a week here at anchor, we are making preparations to leave tomorrow morning to continue our journey to Savusavu, Fiji. We have seen a little bit of everything from totally calm and clear to stormy with 5m seas outside the reef.
We knew when we arrived that the weather was going to change soon, so we headed outside the pass to snorkel as soon as we could. It was lovely to be back in the areas that we remembered from our visit here in Nov 14. For Miriam, it was her first time snorkelling - it seems like we have helped her develop some high standards! Without the influence of Hans (SV Nautilus) and the rest of the kid-boat fraternity, Max elected not to dive on the 100 ft blue hole by himself, and I was grateful for his prudence! Both Victoria and Johnathan are very (and increasingly) comfortable in the water, while Benjamin stays in the dinghy and takes delight in pushing the rest of the family overboard.
We certainly weren't lonely that first night: the Island Cruising Association (ICA) as well as a group of Sea Mercy boats were all here to welcome us (I counted about 30 anchor lights!) We were glad to reconnect with fellow Canadians on Amelie IV, whom we hadn't seen since March; given that they were leaving the next day, Victoria didn't waste any time inviting their daughter over for a movie night.
The wind picked up that night, and we woke up to a different lagoon on Sunday morning. Flat calm had been replaced by choppy seas, and the sky was grey and heavy. Despite a forecast for big and building swell (it was expected to peak at just over 5m overnight on Sunday night), the ICA fleet departed for Fiji, and most of the first wave of Sea Mercy boats left as well. Max demonstrated his true love and devotion (!) by going out in the dinghy to meet the Sea Mercy lead boat as they were leaving so I could have the Sea Mercy flag that I was wishing for (and that we would have gotten in Opua if we hadn't left from Auckland).
Given the chilly temperatures (and the empty bread box) I was grateful to Victoria who took it upon herself to make our first batch of "Grampy Bread" of the season. She understudied carefully while my Dad was visiting with us, so she produced "quite an acceptable loaf" as he would say :) While Victoria was at work in the kitchen, Miriam and I got talking about breads in Germany; as a result, Miriam and Victoria worked together the following day to make some yummy, salty, German pretzels. It wasn't all practical in the galley, though - she and Johnathan also decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. Most of the recent batches have gone off the boat for fundraising, so it was nice to have a batch keep onboard! We invited the only remaining boat in the anchorage (Code Blue) to come over for sundowners, and they seemed quite appreciative of home-made cookies as well :) We have known Judy and Steve since our first season, but we have rarely had an evening to spend together, so it was really enjoyable to get to know them a bit better.
The real event of the week was the huge surf that pounded in over the reef. The boat would stay pretty steady during the low tide, but at high tide, we were rolling and pitching as if we were at sea (or in the Auckland Harbour when the high-speed ferries went by!) It was good to know that we had a strong anchor and tackle, because even in the lagoon, the swell was at times burying the bow. Max found it especially challenging when he went out on his paddleboard. Even though he went upwind first, I was always glad when he finished his jaunts and was safely back at Fluenta
For the first few days, it was too rough to consider snorkelling outside the pass, but Max was able to take Miriam and the kids to snorkel in the lee of the reef every day (in fact, the kids preferred it to the deep waters outside because of the colours). By Tuesday, we were ready to try again outside the lagoon. It turned out to be too rough for snorkelling, but we did drag our fishing lure up and down the pass a few times, getting a couple of bites but no fish. We used the same gear as we use on Fluenta: Johnathan reeled out the line and the lure behind the dinghy, and then held the line in his hand as we drove along. Benjamin didn't last long when we went out the pass - the combination of the bouncing dinghy and the sound of the motor literally put him to sleep standing up! He fell asleep with his head braced on my leg to keep from falling, and then slept in my lap for well over an hour. The others enjoyed another snorkel near the boat, but I decided to give it a miss: by the time Benjamin woke up, it was getting late and cold, the sun was going behind a big bank of clouds, and even at the suggestion that I should jump in, Benjamin was crying, "No Mummy swim. No Mummy swim." I vowed, instead, to swim the next day, which was scheduled to be our last.
On Wednesday morning, we set up our spinnaker pole so the kids (and the grownups!) could swing from it and jump into the water. Everyone gave it a go, and yet again, Benjamin's favourite part of the excitement was to push his family overboard. By the afternoon, the kids had had their fill of swimming (and Victoria wanted to make biscuits for the passage), so Max and I got to go alone over to the nearby reef during Benjamin's nap. It was like a rare date! Once we were finished our swim, he went hunting with his speargun and came back with a nice-size sweetlips for dinner. This got us talking about our weather window. According to our guru (Bob McDavitt), there wasn't much coming up this week. We were planning on leaving on Thurs (his 3rd best choice) vs Friday (his 2nd best), and didn't want to wait until Tuesday (his first pick). While snorkelling in a reef within a reef in the middle of the ocean, it occurred to us that there was really no rush to get to Savusavu, especially if it meant arriving on Sunday when all the officials charge fees and overtime; just like that, we had decided to stay here another day! Victoria gave Miriam a filleting lesson when we got back to the boat, and then we did our usual "carcass dangle" to see if there were any sharks in the water. It took a while longer than usual, but eventually someone with big teeth came to eat the rest of the fish.
Since we were nearly ready to go anyway, Thursday was an out-of-character for us play day - we had time to swing from the boat, go snorkeling in an amazing ring of reefs where we saw a turtle, loads of big fish, a sting ray, and enormous clams, and enjoy another sweetlips for dinner, thanks to Max and his speargun. When we got back to Fluenta, there was more baking, swinging, swimming, studying (Life of Fred Math and Brave Writer copywork) and stowing. We have only a few last minute chores to do in the morning (like swinging from the spin pole one more time, I mean dishes, generator, and stowing the pole), and feel more prepared for the passage than we would have done last night. It looks like we will have light winds from every direction, so it may take us a bit of extra time, but the swell has come down, so we are hoping for a decent passage.
Next stop Savusavu,
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-23 6:52 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°38.55'S 178°56.02'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Friday, 20 May 2016
NZ-Fiji Day 7 - Watermaker woes - fixed!
Hello!
It's the wee hours of the morning again - and for the first time in days, we are sailing! We have just "rounded the corner" SE of South Minerva, and have started heading NNW towards the western side of North Minerva. We had reduced our motoring speed from 6 kts to 3 kts for the last few hours, and I was able to shut down the engine as we turned. We actually want to go slowly, as we need daylight to enter the lagoon, so the gentle wind of about 5-6 kts that has filled in is perfect to ghost us along at 3-4 kts. For once, I am grateful for the current against us! It is funny to think of reefing in such light winds, but I may need to do so if it picks up at all. This is one of those moonlit evenings under sail that we dream of when we are ashore. The temperature is comfortable, the sea is flat, and the only sounds are the lapping of the waves against the hull and the hum of the "gnomes" in the lazarette (who gently coax Fluenta to sail in the right direction).
As an aside - I forgot to mention that we had nearly two knots of current helping us yesterday - I only remembered when we had more than a knot against us earlier today. We win some and we lose some.
Today was another motorboat day. Max had hopes of sitting and reading in the cockpit [or doing a celestial class], but some funny bubbles that wouldn't clear in the watermaker had him wearing his sleuthing hat all day, investigating his favourite subject: plumbing! It turned out that the problem *wasn't* caused by the filter bowl where he had just changed a filter, or by the leaky fitting into the filter that he took apart to add some teflon tape (that was part of it, but not the fix). He followed the bubbles back through the system, and found that the input valve that we use for pickling the system had a warped fitting. Bypassing the valve and wrapping the resulting (somewhat ill fitting) joiner with Rescue Tape and two hose clamps did the trick, and we were back in business making water in the afternoon [this is kind of ironic as I commented a few months ago that our watermaker is almost new: I have replaced both feed pumps and the membrane and overhauled the clark pump (twice if you remember the saga from last year) and all that was left was hoses and valves ... Max] This was lovely, since the combination of lots of power and lots of water meant pre-arrival showers (for everyone but Johnathan, who refused on the basis that he had already had one this week; given that he is a ten-year-old boy who will likely be swimming (and therefore showering anyway) by tomorrow, I let him off).
We are hoping to anchor in North Minerva tomorrow morning, and we will spend a few days there (hopefully snorkelling, etc) waiting for favourable winds before heading to Fiji.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 1:45 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°54.40'S 179°00.50'W
-----
At 2016-05-14 6:36 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°39.82'S 179°03.32'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
It's the wee hours of the morning again - and for the first time in days, we are sailing! We have just "rounded the corner" SE of South Minerva, and have started heading NNW towards the western side of North Minerva. We had reduced our motoring speed from 6 kts to 3 kts for the last few hours, and I was able to shut down the engine as we turned. We actually want to go slowly, as we need daylight to enter the lagoon, so the gentle wind of about 5-6 kts that has filled in is perfect to ghost us along at 3-4 kts. For once, I am grateful for the current against us! It is funny to think of reefing in such light winds, but I may need to do so if it picks up at all. This is one of those moonlit evenings under sail that we dream of when we are ashore. The temperature is comfortable, the sea is flat, and the only sounds are the lapping of the waves against the hull and the hum of the "gnomes" in the lazarette (who gently coax Fluenta to sail in the right direction).
As an aside - I forgot to mention that we had nearly two knots of current helping us yesterday - I only remembered when we had more than a knot against us earlier today. We win some and we lose some.
Today was another motorboat day. Max had hopes of sitting and reading in the cockpit [or doing a celestial class], but some funny bubbles that wouldn't clear in the watermaker had him wearing his sleuthing hat all day, investigating his favourite subject: plumbing! It turned out that the problem *wasn't* caused by the filter bowl where he had just changed a filter, or by the leaky fitting into the filter that he took apart to add some teflon tape (that was part of it, but not the fix). He followed the bubbles back through the system, and found that the input valve that we use for pickling the system had a warped fitting. Bypassing the valve and wrapping the resulting (somewhat ill fitting) joiner with Rescue Tape and two hose clamps did the trick, and we were back in business making water in the afternoon [this is kind of ironic as I commented a few months ago that our watermaker is almost new: I have replaced both feed pumps and the membrane and overhauled the clark pump (twice if you remember the saga from last year) and all that was left was hoses and valves ... Max] This was lovely, since the combination of lots of power and lots of water meant pre-arrival showers (for everyone but Johnathan, who refused on the basis that he had already had one this week; given that he is a ten-year-old boy who will likely be swimming (and therefore showering anyway) by tomorrow, I let him off).
We are hoping to anchor in North Minerva tomorrow morning, and we will spend a few days there (hopefully snorkelling, etc) waiting for favourable winds before heading to Fiji.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 1:45 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°54.40'S 179°00.50'W
-----
At 2016-05-14 6:36 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 23°39.82'S 179°03.32'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Thursday, 19 May 2016
NZ to Fiji Day 6 - Albatross!
2230L 19 May 2016
Hello,
Victoria has gone to bed, and it is Johnathan's turn to be on-watch with me. Earlier in the evening, Victoria and I spent some time "singing-through" one of our songbooks while the rest of the family was below. The sound of the engine made sure that we didn't keep anyone awake who was sleeping (and it let the bashful non-performers in us feel that we were singing for fun and not putting on a show!)
For the last few days, we have fallen into a routine where Max gets his big sleep in the evening and the morning, and I get my big sleep during the day. This certainly makes my days go by quickly, and means that I don't have as much of Benjamin's help when I am alone on watch in the night. It is kind of funny to miss a good portion of the family time during the day, but I really enjoy the individual time in the quiet dark with Victoria and/or Johnathan when the rest of the boat is asleep :)
I woke from my off-watch this afternoon to great excitement: an Albatross had been spotted flying near our boat. Even Benjamin was excitedly saying, "abatross! abatross!!" We didn't get much in the way of photos, but I guess it did a couple of passes of the boat, and then went on his or her way. We visited the Royal Albatross Center near Dunedin (South Islsand) on our New Zealand camping trip, so V & J were pretty familiar with the context of this bird's journey. The other huge bird who overflew us today was an RNZAF P-3 Orion, checking in with each boat in the area. Even though we have hardly seen another boat since we left (maybe 2-3), there seemed to be plenty of vessels in VHF range of the Orion, so we will have to watch ever more carefully for traffic as we all (likely) converge on Minerva.
Max (and Miriam) also talked to a German boat this afternoon. According to our AIS receiver, they were going unusually slowly. It turns out that they were experiencing engine problems [failed injector pump - not something you can fix at sea and I have never heard of anyone carrying such an expensive spare], so they were very matter-of-factly waiting for wind. They have plenty of food and lots of time, so they will fix their engine when they arrive in Tonga, and no, thank you, they didn't need any help [but they appreciated us checking in to see if they needed anything].
We are slowly feeling the transition to the tropics. The days have been warm all along, but the nights are starting to catch up. That being said, we (especially I) still need fleece layers in the cockpit tonight, but I have not enclosed it with as many clear panels as on previous nights, and we have left a hatch open into the saloon. It seems hard to believe that in a couple of days we will be snorkelling at Minerva Reef, and a short while after that we will be sweltering in Fiji!
You may be wondering how we pass the days on board. I made a trip to a marvelous second-hand bookshop in Whangarei when we were there a few weeks ago, and replenished our kids' book cupboard. Victoria and Johnathan have a book on the go all the time. When they are not reading, they are busy building in their various Minecraft worlds. Since it has been so flat, we have been doing a bit of school (Brave Writer copywork, and Life of Fred math ... these are new resources that our SelfDesign learning consultant recommended, and we are loving. If I had Internet, I would include links, but the sites are easy to find ... suffice to say that our home schooling is going much better now that we have found a system that is a better fit for our family!!!!) Tomorrow, we have some celestial nav on our proposed "to do" list. Last but not least, I almost forgot to mention Benjamin ... he keeps everyone busy [Benjamin and I spent time building in a fort out of cushions in the cockpit]!
We continue to drag two fishing lures, but we are not seeing many fish. Since we finished the two that we caught almost simultaneously off NZ, we have been eating chicken that we canned in Auckland. We are hopeful for something tasty when we approach the Minerva Reefs.
On the sailing front, this is our most unusual passage ever. Recently we have had days of motoring interspersed with minimal sailing. Today was another in this vein. We motored for most of the night, sailed for part of the morning, and we have been motoring ever since about midday. We currently have 2.0 kts of wind; in general, it is 1 kt gusting to 5 kts and the sea is again absolutely glassy. For the moms who worry: we have more than sufficient diesel to motor to Minerva. We expect the wind to fill in while we pause at Minerva, giving us a mostly-sailing passage to Savusavu, although we will still have some diesel for that passage as well. Max and Johnathan transferred the last of our jerry cans into the internal tanks this afternoon. Max is constantly vigilant regarding our fuel consumption, as we have one tank that the others feed into, so it is a juggling act to use the various tanks on a rotating basis. Diesels do not like the introduction of air into the fuel lines [air is compressible unlike diesel so the injector pump and injectors, which rely on precise prssures do not work with any air in the system], and running out of fuel by emptying a tank means bleeding the engine in seven places. Over-filling the aft tank by not switching back to it soon enough means a diesel leak into the bedroom (we know this from the stain that was on one of our cupboards from the previous owners when we bought the boat!) Suffice to say that we are always counting down the hours until we next need to switch fuel tanks! [as part of the spreadsheet I use to manage the boat I have a fuel page where I track fuel usage, consumption rates, and fills plus other thing like amounts of biocide to add when filling. Max]
That's about all the news of the day ... we hope this note finds you in good spirits,
Love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 2:36 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 35°43.41'S 175°24.64'E
-----
At 2016-05-14 7:23 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 25°12.60'S 179°38.92'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Hello,
Victoria has gone to bed, and it is Johnathan's turn to be on-watch with me. Earlier in the evening, Victoria and I spent some time "singing-through" one of our songbooks while the rest of the family was below. The sound of the engine made sure that we didn't keep anyone awake who was sleeping (and it let the bashful non-performers in us feel that we were singing for fun and not putting on a show!)
For the last few days, we have fallen into a routine where Max gets his big sleep in the evening and the morning, and I get my big sleep during the day. This certainly makes my days go by quickly, and means that I don't have as much of Benjamin's help when I am alone on watch in the night. It is kind of funny to miss a good portion of the family time during the day, but I really enjoy the individual time in the quiet dark with Victoria and/or Johnathan when the rest of the boat is asleep :)
I woke from my off-watch this afternoon to great excitement: an Albatross had been spotted flying near our boat. Even Benjamin was excitedly saying, "abatross! abatross!!" We didn't get much in the way of photos, but I guess it did a couple of passes of the boat, and then went on his or her way. We visited the Royal Albatross Center near Dunedin (South Islsand) on our New Zealand camping trip, so V & J were pretty familiar with the context of this bird's journey. The other huge bird who overflew us today was an RNZAF P-3 Orion, checking in with each boat in the area. Even though we have hardly seen another boat since we left (maybe 2-3), there seemed to be plenty of vessels in VHF range of the Orion, so we will have to watch ever more carefully for traffic as we all (likely) converge on Minerva.
Max (and Miriam) also talked to a German boat this afternoon. According to our AIS receiver, they were going unusually slowly. It turns out that they were experiencing engine problems [failed injector pump - not something you can fix at sea and I have never heard of anyone carrying such an expensive spare], so they were very matter-of-factly waiting for wind. They have plenty of food and lots of time, so they will fix their engine when they arrive in Tonga, and no, thank you, they didn't need any help [but they appreciated us checking in to see if they needed anything].
We are slowly feeling the transition to the tropics. The days have been warm all along, but the nights are starting to catch up. That being said, we (especially I) still need fleece layers in the cockpit tonight, but I have not enclosed it with as many clear panels as on previous nights, and we have left a hatch open into the saloon. It seems hard to believe that in a couple of days we will be snorkelling at Minerva Reef, and a short while after that we will be sweltering in Fiji!
You may be wondering how we pass the days on board. I made a trip to a marvelous second-hand bookshop in Whangarei when we were there a few weeks ago, and replenished our kids' book cupboard. Victoria and Johnathan have a book on the go all the time. When they are not reading, they are busy building in their various Minecraft worlds. Since it has been so flat, we have been doing a bit of school (Brave Writer copywork, and Life of Fred math ... these are new resources that our SelfDesign learning consultant recommended, and we are loving. If I had Internet, I would include links, but the sites are easy to find ... suffice to say that our home schooling is going much better now that we have found a system that is a better fit for our family!!!!) Tomorrow, we have some celestial nav on our proposed "to do" list. Last but not least, I almost forgot to mention Benjamin ... he keeps everyone busy [Benjamin and I spent time building in a fort out of cushions in the cockpit]!
We continue to drag two fishing lures, but we are not seeing many fish. Since we finished the two that we caught almost simultaneously off NZ, we have been eating chicken that we canned in Auckland. We are hopeful for something tasty when we approach the Minerva Reefs.
On the sailing front, this is our most unusual passage ever. Recently we have had days of motoring interspersed with minimal sailing. Today was another in this vein. We motored for most of the night, sailed for part of the morning, and we have been motoring ever since about midday. We currently have 2.0 kts of wind; in general, it is 1 kt gusting to 5 kts and the sea is again absolutely glassy. For the moms who worry: we have more than sufficient diesel to motor to Minerva. We expect the wind to fill in while we pause at Minerva, giving us a mostly-sailing passage to Savusavu, although we will still have some diesel for that passage as well. Max and Johnathan transferred the last of our jerry cans into the internal tanks this afternoon. Max is constantly vigilant regarding our fuel consumption, as we have one tank that the others feed into, so it is a juggling act to use the various tanks on a rotating basis. Diesels do not like the introduction of air into the fuel lines [air is compressible unlike diesel so the injector pump and injectors, which rely on precise prssures do not work with any air in the system], and running out of fuel by emptying a tank means bleeding the engine in seven places. Over-filling the aft tank by not switching back to it soon enough means a diesel leak into the bedroom (we know this from the stain that was on one of our cupboards from the previous owners when we bought the boat!) Suffice to say that we are always counting down the hours until we next need to switch fuel tanks! [as part of the spreadsheet I use to manage the boat I have a fuel page where I track fuel usage, consumption rates, and fills plus other thing like amounts of biocide to add when filling. Max]
That's about all the news of the day ... we hope this note finds you in good spirits,
Love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 2:36 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 35°43.41'S 175°24.64'E
-----
At 2016-05-14 7:23 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 25°12.60'S 179°38.92'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Wednesday, 18 May 2016
NZ to Fiji - Day 5 - Shifty winds
Hello,
0500L 19 May 2016
I will keep this short, as Victoria is on watch with/for me. We woke her at 0400 to stand watch with me so that I have an extra set of hands if/when Benjamin wakes up. Yesterday, he woke as I went on watch at this time and stayed awake! It is nice that Victoria and Johnathan have different rhythms: depending on when we need the extra help, we can call on the one who likes to be awake in the late evening or the one who likes early mornings :) Victoria is keeping a close eye on the wind, as we are motoring, and if it comes back up with any strength we will sail again.
It has been that kind of day - the wind was forecast to drop off around noon, but we still had 6-16 kts until well after midnight. Each time it dipped, we wondered if *this* was the end and we would have to start the engine, then a few minutes later, it would build back up to well over 10 kts. We have generally had the wind behind us (and in fact, we used the poled-out genoa for much of the day) but it came forward in the evening (causing us to stow the pole before dark), then fell back behind us again overnight (causing us to wish that we still had it out). If we have any wind in the morning, I suspect we will raise it again, but we decided to "make do" without it overnight, as it is heavy and awkward to maneuver... Miriam stayed up for both of our overnight watches: she came on with me in the late evening, then stayed up through Max's midnight-4am watch. It was good to have an extra pair of eyes/hands, as we were "hand steering with the autopilot". In other words, we were keeping the autopilot on wind-hold, but then we were tweaking the direction in order to keep ourselves on course as the wind shifted. Why didn't we use "auto" to keep it on one course? The winds were so shifty that we couldn't always hold our desired course, so the boat sailed better when we kept it on wind-hold. It kept us on our toes to continually calculate between the true wind direction, the apparent wind direction and the course over ground to keep ourselves on the fastest course towards our way-point. Although the seas got a bit lumpy and confused by midnight (in time for Max to come on watch), we had pretty settled conditions, and at times were charging/surfing down our rhumb line with 15 kts of wind, and the swell, behind us. Hand steering would also have been an option, but in the fluky winds, it seemed more prudent to let "Sammy" drive.
Why all this effort to steer a fast course? We are hoping to get to Minerva Reef ahead of some heavy (or at least heavier) weather and big swells. This means that we need to get to the reef entrance when the light is high (ie approx mid-day) as we are back into waters with lagoon entrances, bombies, and sketchy charts. We will have a person standing at the bow as we enter the reef and cross to the anchorage. If we miss our window, it is likely that we would have to keep heading straight for Fiji. We are all pretty motivated to make the window!!
That's about all the news for tonight. Everyone is in good spirits, but we will be glad to get there!
Good timing, as Benjamin is calling me ... it's 5:30 and he is ready to go on-watch for the day!
Love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 4:23 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 27°45.98'S 179°09.43'E
-----
At 2016-05-14 10:26 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 27°14.24'S 179°22.85'E
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
0500L 19 May 2016
I will keep this short, as Victoria is on watch with/for me. We woke her at 0400 to stand watch with me so that I have an extra set of hands if/when Benjamin wakes up. Yesterday, he woke as I went on watch at this time and stayed awake! It is nice that Victoria and Johnathan have different rhythms: depending on when we need the extra help, we can call on the one who likes to be awake in the late evening or the one who likes early mornings :) Victoria is keeping a close eye on the wind, as we are motoring, and if it comes back up with any strength we will sail again.
It has been that kind of day - the wind was forecast to drop off around noon, but we still had 6-16 kts until well after midnight. Each time it dipped, we wondered if *this* was the end and we would have to start the engine, then a few minutes later, it would build back up to well over 10 kts. We have generally had the wind behind us (and in fact, we used the poled-out genoa for much of the day) but it came forward in the evening (causing us to stow the pole before dark), then fell back behind us again overnight (causing us to wish that we still had it out). If we have any wind in the morning, I suspect we will raise it again, but we decided to "make do" without it overnight, as it is heavy and awkward to maneuver... Miriam stayed up for both of our overnight watches: she came on with me in the late evening, then stayed up through Max's midnight-4am watch. It was good to have an extra pair of eyes/hands, as we were "hand steering with the autopilot". In other words, we were keeping the autopilot on wind-hold, but then we were tweaking the direction in order to keep ourselves on course as the wind shifted. Why didn't we use "auto" to keep it on one course? The winds were so shifty that we couldn't always hold our desired course, so the boat sailed better when we kept it on wind-hold. It kept us on our toes to continually calculate between the true wind direction, the apparent wind direction and the course over ground to keep ourselves on the fastest course towards our way-point. Although the seas got a bit lumpy and confused by midnight (in time for Max to come on watch), we had pretty settled conditions, and at times were charging/surfing down our rhumb line with 15 kts of wind, and the swell, behind us. Hand steering would also have been an option, but in the fluky winds, it seemed more prudent to let "Sammy" drive.
Why all this effort to steer a fast course? We are hoping to get to Minerva Reef ahead of some heavy (or at least heavier) weather and big swells. This means that we need to get to the reef entrance when the light is high (ie approx mid-day) as we are back into waters with lagoon entrances, bombies, and sketchy charts. We will have a person standing at the bow as we enter the reef and cross to the anchorage. If we miss our window, it is likely that we would have to keep heading straight for Fiji. We are all pretty motivated to make the window!!
That's about all the news for tonight. Everyone is in good spirits, but we will be glad to get there!
Good timing, as Benjamin is calling me ... it's 5:30 and he is ready to go on-watch for the day!
Love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 4:23 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 27°45.98'S 179°09.43'E
-----
At 2016-05-14 10:26 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 27°14.24'S 179°22.85'E
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Tuesday, 17 May 2016
NZ to Fiji Day 3-4: A little bit of everything
16-17 May 2016
Greetings :)
We have seen a little of everything in the last couple of days, from winds too light for our spinnaker and a 12-hour motorboat trip to 20 kts with agitated seas that had us hanging on and enduring. Our current state is that we are running downwind with our genoa poled out, and the seas have settled considerably. This point of sail is known for being rolly; it is certainly living up to its reputation, but it is not a terribly uncomfortable motion.
Yesterday morning, I ended my night watch with dropping wind, and woke Max to hoist the spinnaker in the daylight. It is always a tough call for me between waking the off-watch and keeping the boat moving, but when the wind reduced from 8 kts to 6 kts, I decided that it was time. Ironically, we went through the exercise of hoisting the spinnaker, only to douse it again a few minutes later when we went down to 2 kts of wind. Soon we had under a knot, and the surface of the ocean was glassy. This was the beginning of a motorboating day.
The upside of motoring in a millpond is that it generates hot water, so we had early-in-the-passage showers to take advantage of the calm conditions. While I was enjoying a long off-watch sleep, Max and the kids repaired some tiny holes in the spinnaker (in Victoria's words, "we just acetoned it and stuck sail-repair tape on it" - I am sure that this is a typical area of expertise for a 12-year-old!), Max optimized our new alternator-regulator setup, and he transferred the diesel from our jerry cans into the internal fuel tanks. This is much easier without the boat pitching and rolling!! We had also planned to make water with all the engine power we were generating, but this will be a job for another day: the filter was pretty nasty after we filled our tank in Auckland harbour, and somehow the usual introduction of air caused by changing it took longer to clear than usual. Once we got it sorted, it was evening, the wind had come back up, and there was no longer an excess of power to use. Oh well.
We concluded our motoryacht day with "Mexican Night" in the cockpit: we used the last of our Kawahai to make ceviche and we used some of the chicken that Victoria and Miriam had canned to make burritos. I didn't manage to get it served by sunset (5:30) but even in the dark it was tasty!
As I came on watch last night after dinner, the wind was building in one of my favourite configurations - we were on a fast close-reach in a minimal sea. It feels like Fluenta is a horse galloping towards a favourite stable. Throughout my watch, the winds backed and built, so that by the time Max and Miriam came on in the middle of the night, we were broad reaching, and the seas were growing. They saw winds into the low 20's. The motion was safe but not comfortable: we had had our holiday, and now we were back at sea!!
This afternoon, we did one of those jobs that shouldn't be a challenge, but it still feels like it will be: we hoisted our spinnaker pole so we could pole out our genoa (ie the sail was flapping and flogging because it was in the wind shadow of the main sail, and we used the pole to hold it out straight on the windward side of the boat so it could fly in clean air; this is sometimes called sailing wing-on-wing). The reason I find this daunting is that the pole is big and heavy, it takes four lines being rigged to get it into position, and I have a fear (based on inexperience, not necessarily on reality) that it is going to fall on someone's head or knock someone (Max) over at any moment). With Miriam as an extra pair of hands at the mast, myself at the helm, Max at the bow, Victoria on lines in the cockpit, and Johnathan below with Benjamin, it went incredibly smoothly. One of my goals for this season is for this to become an easy, second-nature type of job that we just do when it is the right thing to do, without having to convince ourselves that it is worth the bother. Hoisting and launching our outboard engine used to be similarly daunting, and now we just get on with it when we need to :) Like any new habit, it will just take time and practice. Hoisting the spinnaker pole was certainly worth the effort: it only took us a few minutes, and soon both sails were filled and driving the boat. Despite the lumpy seas, we were sailing comfortably in about 12-17 kts, and basically pointing towards Minerva Reef.
The last couple of nights (with or without ideal sailing conditions) have been beautiful for the chance to sail under the moonlight again. The moon is waxing, the sky is clear, and there is so much light that it just seems like a bright, gray day (each one longer than the last). We are seeing bioluminescence again, too, so all in all, it is nice to be back out on passage. Of course, I suspect that part of my enjoyment of these windy, clear evenings comes from the fact that we can lower our new "clears" to block the wind, rain, and spray, leaving us in cozy comfort in the cockpit. Believe it or not, I haven't even been cold!!! We still marvel each day at how glad we are to have had them done on Opua this season. (On a funny note - we have had to incorporate jibing our clears into the routine for jibing the mainsail: we have been enclose the upwind side, and leaving the down wind side open so we can access the deck and adjust lines, so now we have to roll up the panels before we jibe.
Evening watches have also provided the opportunity for some neat conversations with Victoria and Johnathan. Max & Miriam have gone off-watch after supper, leaving the kids and me on watch. Benjamin has been falling asleep in my lap much earlier than usual, so the big kids and I have just been chatting for a few hours. I never know what to expect; last night the topic was university, and what it would be like to go, what programmes are offered, etc. (Of course, they were asking about the relative merits of the two schools that Max and I went to so I have to put my biases aside and try to answer fairly!) We have friends with kids who are already at the school-choosing stage, but it seems surreal that we are already having these conversations as well.
As for Benjamin, university is a long way off, but he is talking up a storm now, and even Miriam, who translates from baby-talk to English to German can generally understand what he wants. It is especially funny to hear him throw some of the more coloquial phrases into his speech (eg "whatever!", "no problem", "I'm fine"). He likes to look for "gnomes in the tunnel" (ie the mysterious drivers of Fluenta who hide in the aft lazarette aka the autopilot), and he is very possessive of my lap: "do 'way 'Toria" or "do 'way Johnny" (go away Victoria/Johnny) when one of them is encroaching on his space! He is always repeating what we say to one another, but with a hard "a" in "says": Johnny says it; Daddy says it. One of his favourite games on passage is to pretend to spray water. When he is 'sprayed' we have to watch behind him, as he will collapse as if he has been knocked over, regardless of what he is going to fall on! Needless to say, it is a lot of work keeping him entertained, but he also entertains us!
On that note, it is (Wednesday morning and) time to raise the spinnaker again, so I will sign off for now.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 10:38 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 29°08.14'S 178°47.79'E
-----
At 2016-05-14 10:49 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 29°07.68'S 178°48.11'E
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Greetings :)
We have seen a little of everything in the last couple of days, from winds too light for our spinnaker and a 12-hour motorboat trip to 20 kts with agitated seas that had us hanging on and enduring. Our current state is that we are running downwind with our genoa poled out, and the seas have settled considerably. This point of sail is known for being rolly; it is certainly living up to its reputation, but it is not a terribly uncomfortable motion.
Yesterday morning, I ended my night watch with dropping wind, and woke Max to hoist the spinnaker in the daylight. It is always a tough call for me between waking the off-watch and keeping the boat moving, but when the wind reduced from 8 kts to 6 kts, I decided that it was time. Ironically, we went through the exercise of hoisting the spinnaker, only to douse it again a few minutes later when we went down to 2 kts of wind. Soon we had under a knot, and the surface of the ocean was glassy. This was the beginning of a motorboating day.
The upside of motoring in a millpond is that it generates hot water, so we had early-in-the-passage showers to take advantage of the calm conditions. While I was enjoying a long off-watch sleep, Max and the kids repaired some tiny holes in the spinnaker (in Victoria's words, "we just acetoned it and stuck sail-repair tape on it" - I am sure that this is a typical area of expertise for a 12-year-old!), Max optimized our new alternator-regulator setup, and he transferred the diesel from our jerry cans into the internal fuel tanks. This is much easier without the boat pitching and rolling!! We had also planned to make water with all the engine power we were generating, but this will be a job for another day: the filter was pretty nasty after we filled our tank in Auckland harbour, and somehow the usual introduction of air caused by changing it took longer to clear than usual. Once we got it sorted, it was evening, the wind had come back up, and there was no longer an excess of power to use. Oh well.
We concluded our motoryacht day with "Mexican Night" in the cockpit: we used the last of our Kawahai to make ceviche and we used some of the chicken that Victoria and Miriam had canned to make burritos. I didn't manage to get it served by sunset (5:30) but even in the dark it was tasty!
As I came on watch last night after dinner, the wind was building in one of my favourite configurations - we were on a fast close-reach in a minimal sea. It feels like Fluenta is a horse galloping towards a favourite stable. Throughout my watch, the winds backed and built, so that by the time Max and Miriam came on in the middle of the night, we were broad reaching, and the seas were growing. They saw winds into the low 20's. The motion was safe but not comfortable: we had had our holiday, and now we were back at sea!!
This afternoon, we did one of those jobs that shouldn't be a challenge, but it still feels like it will be: we hoisted our spinnaker pole so we could pole out our genoa (ie the sail was flapping and flogging because it was in the wind shadow of the main sail, and we used the pole to hold it out straight on the windward side of the boat so it could fly in clean air; this is sometimes called sailing wing-on-wing). The reason I find this daunting is that the pole is big and heavy, it takes four lines being rigged to get it into position, and I have a fear (based on inexperience, not necessarily on reality) that it is going to fall on someone's head or knock someone (Max) over at any moment). With Miriam as an extra pair of hands at the mast, myself at the helm, Max at the bow, Victoria on lines in the cockpit, and Johnathan below with Benjamin, it went incredibly smoothly. One of my goals for this season is for this to become an easy, second-nature type of job that we just do when it is the right thing to do, without having to convince ourselves that it is worth the bother. Hoisting and launching our outboard engine used to be similarly daunting, and now we just get on with it when we need to :) Like any new habit, it will just take time and practice. Hoisting the spinnaker pole was certainly worth the effort: it only took us a few minutes, and soon both sails were filled and driving the boat. Despite the lumpy seas, we were sailing comfortably in about 12-17 kts, and basically pointing towards Minerva Reef.
The last couple of nights (with or without ideal sailing conditions) have been beautiful for the chance to sail under the moonlight again. The moon is waxing, the sky is clear, and there is so much light that it just seems like a bright, gray day (each one longer than the last). We are seeing bioluminescence again, too, so all in all, it is nice to be back out on passage. Of course, I suspect that part of my enjoyment of these windy, clear evenings comes from the fact that we can lower our new "clears" to block the wind, rain, and spray, leaving us in cozy comfort in the cockpit. Believe it or not, I haven't even been cold!!! We still marvel each day at how glad we are to have had them done on Opua this season. (On a funny note - we have had to incorporate jibing our clears into the routine for jibing the mainsail: we have been enclose the upwind side, and leaving the down wind side open so we can access the deck and adjust lines, so now we have to roll up the panels before we jibe.
Evening watches have also provided the opportunity for some neat conversations with Victoria and Johnathan. Max & Miriam have gone off-watch after supper, leaving the kids and me on watch. Benjamin has been falling asleep in my lap much earlier than usual, so the big kids and I have just been chatting for a few hours. I never know what to expect; last night the topic was university, and what it would be like to go, what programmes are offered, etc. (Of course, they were asking about the relative merits of the two schools that Max and I went to so I have to put my biases aside and try to answer fairly!) We have friends with kids who are already at the school-choosing stage, but it seems surreal that we are already having these conversations as well.
As for Benjamin, university is a long way off, but he is talking up a storm now, and even Miriam, who translates from baby-talk to English to German can generally understand what he wants. It is especially funny to hear him throw some of the more coloquial phrases into his speech (eg "whatever!", "no problem", "I'm fine"). He likes to look for "gnomes in the tunnel" (ie the mysterious drivers of Fluenta who hide in the aft lazarette aka the autopilot), and he is very possessive of my lap: "do 'way 'Toria" or "do 'way Johnny" (go away Victoria/Johnny) when one of them is encroaching on his space! He is always repeating what we say to one another, but with a hard "a" in "says": Johnny says it; Daddy says it. One of his favourite games on passage is to pretend to spray water. When he is 'sprayed' we have to watch behind him, as he will collapse as if he has been knocked over, regardless of what he is going to fall on! Needless to say, it is a lot of work keeping him entertained, but he also entertains us!
On that note, it is (Wednesday morning and) time to raise the spinnaker again, so I will sign off for now.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 10:38 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 29°08.14'S 178°47.79'E
-----
At 2016-05-14 10:49 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 29°07.68'S 178°48.11'E
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Sunday, 15 May 2016
NZ to Fiji Days 1-2: Farewell NZ and fish for dinner!
Greetings,
It seems like a *very* long time since I have sat at the laptop and sent out a note. I hope you have enjoyed all the photos Max has been posting in the meantime!
We left NZ early on Saturday afternoon, 14 May, with beautiful sunny weather. There were loads of boats out sailing in Auckland harbour, and it seemed a fitting way to depart the "City of Sails" after almost two months in the area. We even found ourselves passing through the fleet of a Saturday afternoon race! Our passage up through the Hauraki Gulf was smooth and fast, with our boat speed getting up above 7.5 kts. Although this passage will be slightly longer than if we had left from Opua (as originally planned), it was nice to have the sheltered waters of the Hauraki Gulf for Miriam's first day at sea with us. We even received a departure gift of a pair of Kawahai fish as we passed out of the Gulf. Our departure last year from Marsden Cove (Whangarei) straight into the open ocean was a bit less enjoyable...
The calm of the afternoon of sailing was in stark contrast to the intensity of the previous week. In addition to the hours of provisioning, stowing, equipment checking and passage nav planning that typically precede a voyage, we were also travelling back and forth across town for kite boarding lessons (which kept being cancelled due to lack of wind - it seems that "el Nino" was having some fun with NZ weather and it was unseasonably calm). In general, I don't mind spending hours at the beach watching for white caps, but it was hard to be in two places at once, and while I was out not-kiting, no one was buying and stowing the groceries! The funny thing is that all month long, I had a sense that the lessons would occur, that we didn't need to worry, but my optimism was tested, since after the first few lessons in mid-April, the next good windy day was the *very* last day before we left. On the bright side, it was a day that was well worth waiting for, and we both finished on a high note, with a fantastic day on the water. At one time, I counted a dozen kites in the air, and almost that many more in various stages of preparation in front of me on the grass. I found it particularly inspirational to be out in the same area where people were zipping by doing jumps and tricks while I was learning the basic skills; I have a long way to go, but I was holding my own and controlling the kite in gusty conditions (this was in stark contrast to my previous lesson where in similar conditions, I was totally rattled, and wondering if I might never try it again!) I was mostly practicing the beginner "body dragging" techniques, but Max had graduated to riding on the board and zooming across the bay :)
The sale of our van was another "last minute" detail that tested our both our optimism and our persistence. It turns out that the only taker for a 23-year-old minivan with almost 300K km on it (not to mention balding tires and duct tape holding some of the trim in place) is a scrap yard. I found one that would not only come to the marina and pick it up from us, but would pay us slightly more than the one to which I had driven to find out that our van had reached "end of life"; I arranged for the van to be collected at 5pm on Friday afternoon (ie the last appointment on the last day before we left). Somehow, there was a mixup, and at the appointed hour, the flatbed driver was across town and heading home to dinner; there was no possible way he would come back to get the van. With NZ Customs booked for 0730 the next day, his offer of coming on Saturday morning at 1000 didn't help! When I pleaded my case with their office, speaking with the rep who had made the original booking, I asked that, at the very least, he send someone to take my keys; he personally agreed to come on his own time later in the evening, as he would be in the area anyway. This seemed like a win-win situation - I would have the van for the last grocery run, saving a 10-minute walk with bags of fruit & veg, and it would be off my hands before bedtime. There was another wrinkle waiting, however: once again, the appointed hour came and went, with no sign of my new friend. I was starting to wonder how this would play out, but since he had given me his mobile number, I just started calling. It looked less than promising, as he had changed his plans, and not come to our area after all. I didn't much like the suggestion of leaving our keys and banking info so they could collect the car and send us the money after we had left! Fortunately, a few minutes later, I got a text that my friend would make a special trip across town, right then, despite the late hour, and sort it out. True to his word, he came straight over, cash and receipt book in hand, and by the time we went to bed, we no longer owned the van that had taken us to Bluff and back! Mistakes had been made, but this young man stepped to the plate and made things right.
Given all this excitement on our last day, we actually called Customs and left them a message that we would like a couple more hours in the morning; when we called back at 0605 to confirm that they had received our message (and would not be coming to the boat at 0700), the fellow was surprised that I was awake again: "Didn't you just call us at midnight??". It was nice to see a human face on a government institution. Every minute of the morning was spent stowing and lashing items into place. While we were kiting, Miriam, Victoria, and Johnathan had spent the day doing the pre-passage cooking that I usually do, so we had rice, pasta, muffins, and pancakes to take with us on the journey; these things all needed to be arranged for easy access in the fridge in case no one felt like being in the galley for the first few days. By the time the Customs folks came by in the late morning, pretty much everything was ready for our departure. For the first time, we had made a "passage planning" white board, and it was fun to see all the tasks checked off :) We even remembered to take a crew photo on the dock before our neighbours helped us to cast off our lines.
Everyone is adjusting well to being back on passage. Victoria and Johnathan have spent lots of time explaining various aspects of sailing to Miriam (we remind them regularly that she has taken a course and done many day-trips so it is not all new to her). Benjamin is totally at ease. He was less than enthusiastic the first time we put his harness back on him, but he has gotten used to it now, and doesn't complain when we make him wear it (which is good, as he wears it all the time, including when he sleeps below).
As usual, sleep is a key aspect of off-shore passage making. Apparently, we had a beautiful sail up through the Hauraki Gulf yesterday, but I didn't see much of it, as I went off-watch with Benjamin when he napped shortly after our departure from Pier 21. Max and I were both really tired going into the passage, so our night watches were a bare 4-hours each last night; these will get longer over the next few days as we get more rested, and accustomed to being awake at all hours.
By this morning, when I woke Max to go on-watch, the wind was really light (6-8 kts) so it turned out to be a perfect spinnaker day. We woke Miriam to tell her that we needed to take her sleeping companion (ie the sail) from the V-Berth, and by 0900 we were flying it. Again, I describe the glorious day of spinnaker sailing from a second-hand perspective, as I went to sleep once the sail was flying, and didn't emerge from my bunk until 1630. With the exception of a couple of no-wind motoring periods, Max, Miriam, and the kids had flown the spinnaker all day. As for me, I felt rested for the first time in ages!
By dinnertime, the wind had dropped, the spinnaker was stowed, and we were motoring. The sea is like glass, the sky is clear, and we are trying to remind ourselves that it is not always like this at sea!!
When we raced with Nirvana back in January, one of their other friends brought Kawahai sashimi, so we tried some with our fish tonight. We felt pretty spoiled with a first course of sashimi, and a second course of Kawahai cooked in butter served with brown rice and broccoli, all enjoyed in the moments after the sun sank peacefully into a flat sea. It was a tasty way to start the passage :)
The kids, Miriam, and I played "Who am I" for at least two hours this evening while Max was off-watch; she is a really good sport for playing their games with them :)
It seems that it will be a light-wind passage to Minerva Reef, then a trough will go over us, and we should have wind from Minerva to Fiji. Time will tell ...
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 2016-05-14 12:07 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 34°01.70'S 176°03.88'E
-----
At 2016-05-14 1:12 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 33°56.26'S 176°06.81'E
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
It seems like a *very* long time since I have sat at the laptop and sent out a note. I hope you have enjoyed all the photos Max has been posting in the meantime!
We left NZ early on Saturday afternoon, 14 May, with beautiful sunny weather. There were loads of boats out sailing in Auckland harbour, and it seemed a fitting way to depart the "City of Sails" after almost two months in the area. We even found ourselves passing through the fleet of a Saturday afternoon race! Our passage up through the Hauraki Gulf was smooth and fast, with our boat speed getting up above 7.5 kts. Although this passage will be slightly longer than if we had left from Opua (as originally planned), it was nice to have the sheltered waters of the Hauraki Gulf for Miriam's first day at sea with us. We even received a departure gift of a pair of Kawahai fish as we passed out of the Gulf. Our departure last year from Marsden Cove (Whangarei) straight into the open ocean was a bit less enjoyable...
The calm of the afternoon of sailing was in stark contrast to the intensity of the previous week. In addition to the hours of provisioning, stowing, equipment checking and passage nav planning that typically precede a voyage, we were also travelling back and forth across town for kite boarding lessons (which kept being cancelled due to lack of wind - it seems that "el Nino" was having some fun with NZ weather and it was unseasonably calm). In general, I don't mind spending hours at the beach watching for white caps, but it was hard to be in two places at once, and while I was out not-kiting, no one was buying and stowing the groceries! The funny thing is that all month long, I had a sense that the lessons would occur, that we didn't need to worry, but my optimism was tested, since after the first few lessons in mid-April, the next good windy day was the *very* last day before we left. On the bright side, it was a day that was well worth waiting for, and we both finished on a high note, with a fantastic day on the water. At one time, I counted a dozen kites in the air, and almost that many more in various stages of preparation in front of me on the grass. I found it particularly inspirational to be out in the same area where people were zipping by doing jumps and tricks while I was learning the basic skills; I have a long way to go, but I was holding my own and controlling the kite in gusty conditions (this was in stark contrast to my previous lesson where in similar conditions, I was totally rattled, and wondering if I might never try it again!) I was mostly practicing the beginner "body dragging" techniques, but Max had graduated to riding on the board and zooming across the bay :)
The sale of our van was another "last minute" detail that tested our both our optimism and our persistence. It turns out that the only taker for a 23-year-old minivan with almost 300K km on it (not to mention balding tires and duct tape holding some of the trim in place) is a scrap yard. I found one that would not only come to the marina and pick it up from us, but would pay us slightly more than the one to which I had driven to find out that our van had reached "end of life"; I arranged for the van to be collected at 5pm on Friday afternoon (ie the last appointment on the last day before we left). Somehow, there was a mixup, and at the appointed hour, the flatbed driver was across town and heading home to dinner; there was no possible way he would come back to get the van. With NZ Customs booked for 0730 the next day, his offer of coming on Saturday morning at 1000 didn't help! When I pleaded my case with their office, speaking with the rep who had made the original booking, I asked that, at the very least, he send someone to take my keys; he personally agreed to come on his own time later in the evening, as he would be in the area anyway. This seemed like a win-win situation - I would have the van for the last grocery run, saving a 10-minute walk with bags of fruit & veg, and it would be off my hands before bedtime. There was another wrinkle waiting, however: once again, the appointed hour came and went, with no sign of my new friend. I was starting to wonder how this would play out, but since he had given me his mobile number, I just started calling. It looked less than promising, as he had changed his plans, and not come to our area after all. I didn't much like the suggestion of leaving our keys and banking info so they could collect the car and send us the money after we had left! Fortunately, a few minutes later, I got a text that my friend would make a special trip across town, right then, despite the late hour, and sort it out. True to his word, he came straight over, cash and receipt book in hand, and by the time we went to bed, we no longer owned the van that had taken us to Bluff and back! Mistakes had been made, but this young man stepped to the plate and made things right.
Given all this excitement on our last day, we actually called Customs and left them a message that we would like a couple more hours in the morning; when we called back at 0605 to confirm that they had received our message (and would not be coming to the boat at 0700), the fellow was surprised that I was awake again: "Didn't you just call us at midnight??". It was nice to see a human face on a government institution. Every minute of the morning was spent stowing and lashing items into place. While we were kiting, Miriam, Victoria, and Johnathan had spent the day doing the pre-passage cooking that I usually do, so we had rice, pasta, muffins, and pancakes to take with us on the journey; these things all needed to be arranged for easy access in the fridge in case no one felt like being in the galley for the first few days. By the time the Customs folks came by in the late morning, pretty much everything was ready for our departure. For the first time, we had made a "passage planning" white board, and it was fun to see all the tasks checked off :) We even remembered to take a crew photo on the dock before our neighbours helped us to cast off our lines.
Everyone is adjusting well to being back on passage. Victoria and Johnathan have spent lots of time explaining various aspects of sailing to Miriam (we remind them regularly that she has taken a course and done many day-trips so it is not all new to her). Benjamin is totally at ease. He was less than enthusiastic the first time we put his harness back on him, but he has gotten used to it now, and doesn't complain when we make him wear it (which is good, as he wears it all the time, including when he sleeps below).
As usual, sleep is a key aspect of off-shore passage making. Apparently, we had a beautiful sail up through the Hauraki Gulf yesterday, but I didn't see much of it, as I went off-watch with Benjamin when he napped shortly after our departure from Pier 21. Max and I were both really tired going into the passage, so our night watches were a bare 4-hours each last night; these will get longer over the next few days as we get more rested, and accustomed to being awake at all hours.
By this morning, when I woke Max to go on-watch, the wind was really light (6-8 kts) so it turned out to be a perfect spinnaker day. We woke Miriam to tell her that we needed to take her sleeping companion (ie the sail) from the V-Berth, and by 0900 we were flying it. Again, I describe the glorious day of spinnaker sailing from a second-hand perspective, as I went to sleep once the sail was flying, and didn't emerge from my bunk until 1630. With the exception of a couple of no-wind motoring periods, Max, Miriam, and the kids had flown the spinnaker all day. As for me, I felt rested for the first time in ages!
By dinnertime, the wind had dropped, the spinnaker was stowed, and we were motoring. The sea is like glass, the sky is clear, and we are trying to remind ourselves that it is not always like this at sea!!
When we raced with Nirvana back in January, one of their other friends brought Kawahai sashimi, so we tried some with our fish tonight. We felt pretty spoiled with a first course of sashimi, and a second course of Kawahai cooked in butter served with brown rice and broccoli, all enjoyed in the moments after the sun sank peacefully into a flat sea. It was a tasty way to start the passage :)
The kids, Miriam, and I played "Who am I" for at least two hours this evening while Max was off-watch; she is a really good sport for playing their games with them :)
It seems that it will be a light-wind passage to Minerva Reef, then a trough will go over us, and we should have wind from Minerva to Fiji. Time will tell ...
Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2016-05-14 12:07 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 34°01.70'S 176°03.88'E
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At 2016-05-14 1:12 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 33°56.26'S 176°06.81'E
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Thursday, 12 May 2016
More Auckland - Passage preps, Monkeys, Lancasters and Yet More Cake
Yes ... still in Auckland. A really nice city in a really nice country but we are ready to get back to Fiji.
Provisioning has been a major task as we may be 18 months before coming back to a first world country. That being said we have had some time to be tourists too with trips to the zoo and the Transportation Museum.
Another highlight has been Nirvana's visit on their way back to the US and visiting NZ friends (Sud-Ouest) we met in the Marquesas who know have all the grown up stuff like a jobs and a house.
We have moved out of the marina and are now anchored out in front of downtown. Very scenic and convenient but not too comfortable with the ferry wake and the weekend powerboaters.
And of course, more birthdays ... this time mine and Victoria made an amazing cake.
Photos ...
Provisioning has been a major task as we may be 18 months before coming back to a first world country. That being said we have had some time to be tourists too with trips to the zoo and the Transportation Museum.
Another highlight has been Nirvana's visit on their way back to the US and visiting NZ friends (Sud-Ouest) we met in the Marquesas who know have all the grown up stuff like a jobs and a house.
We have moved out of the marina and are now anchored out in front of downtown. Very scenic and convenient but not too comfortable with the ferry wake and the weekend powerboaters.
And of course, more birthdays ... this time mine and Victoria made an amazing cake.
Photos ...
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| The view from the anchorage |
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| The view from the anchorage |
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| Nirvana stops by on their way to the airport! So sad to see them go. |
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| Nirvana stops by on their way to the airport! |
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| Now those are serious hamsters. |
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| The super cool NZ Tuatara.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatara Had to go to the zoo to finally see one. |
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| Dangerous zoo animals. |
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| Bad hair day |
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| The side of the my birthday cake by Victoria |
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| The top of the birthday cake. |
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| Some of the provisioning in the background |
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| and a bit of kiting. |
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| a rare Lancaster bomber |
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| This is blurry because Benjamin snuck into this cockpit and I couldn't get him out other than by dragging him by his ankles before security showed up. There was plexiglass on both side except a six inch gap. |
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| There are some many boats in New Zealand that they need to stack them. |
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| Our berth at Pier 21 |
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| Lot of racing to watch especially as one of the marks was near the boat. |
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| Lot of canning for the passage. |
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| Waffles prepared by Victoria and Johnathan for Mother's Day. |
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| Benjamin studying up for Fiji. |
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Six Month Maintenance Summary - New Zealand Edition - The Sequel
As promised in the last maintenance summary, here is summary of the maintenance conducted since we arrived in New Zealand.
Of interest, we have been cautioned not to publish such lists as, in the very distant future, when we may want to sell Fluenta the potential buyers may be scared off because they will discover cruising is actually a fair amount of work. Perhaps, but the reality is that any complex machine used in the harsh marine environment will need lots of maintenance. Further, it is not only old boats but even likely more frustratingly, new really expensive boats that need constant maintenance (was listening to stories of an almost new multi-million catamaran that spent most of the season in the yard ...).
What is nice about this list is that there some capital improvements to Fluenta that will make her more pleasurable to live on and sail:
Here is the output from the spreadsheet. It is cleaned up a little bit and colour coded as follows (there are a few errors in the colour coding but coloured tables and Blogger do not play well together so I am not going to tempt fate and correct them):
Of interest, we have been cautioned not to publish such lists as, in the very distant future, when we may want to sell Fluenta the potential buyers may be scared off because they will discover cruising is actually a fair amount of work. Perhaps, but the reality is that any complex machine used in the harsh marine environment will need lots of maintenance. Further, it is not only old boats but even likely more frustratingly, new really expensive boats that need constant maintenance (was listening to stories of an almost new multi-million catamaran that spent most of the season in the yard ...).
What is nice about this list is that there some capital improvements to Fluenta that will make her more pleasurable to live on and sail:
- Rain enclosures: Peter from South Pacific Marine Canvas did an excellent job designing and building us a rain enclosure around our cockpit. It is designed so that the boat can be sailed with it partially up and works together with our UV panels. Peter has logged many miles sailing and was great to work with. We had been planning this project for several years but waited until we found someone we could trust to do the job. Liz had bought all the material last year when a canvas shop closed.
- Battery Charging: Another project that has been on the books for several years. At anchor we are pretty much energy neutral with our big solar array and wind generator. Any battery charging shortfall or the occasional battery equalisation is done with our great little Honda 2000 petrol powered generator at anchor. On windward passages the wind generator steps up to the plate and again makes us close to battery neutral even with our big autopilot (for example, from the ITCZ to the Marquesas we did not need to run the Honda or the engine to charge). Downwind is another story altogether though. We have used the Honda at sea but it varies between being merely inconvenient to just plain impractical. Our old alternator set up on the diesel propulsion engine was okay but not optimized for battery charging at low RPM's. As we cruise at about 1400 to 1500 RPM on the Perkin 4.236 so we are not spinning the alternators very fast. Our new system has two 120 amp alternators working together controlled by a Balmar 612-Dual regulator. Using the Balmar belt regulator function I have derated the alternators to reduce the load on them and still get about 155 amps at a high idle. Perfect for charging our big house bank (940 amp hours at 12V) on passage while still sailing. As well, we get the maximum charge during the short periods we run the engine to enter and leave anchorages and tight passes. There is still the stock alternator that charges the separate engine start battery. This project of course led me look closer at the rest of the system and clean up or replace many of the power busses in the rest of the electrics as well as add new alternator brackets.
- Sink Drain Pump. Okay, this doesn't sound too exciting but it is ... twice, yes twice we have had departures delayed as the sink drains have failed. The lovely sink drains that I had sourced in back streets of Mexico and Fiji did not like the fact that they would be exposed to sea water depending on the heel and load of the boat. Also, as the old system relied on gravity to drain the grey water to the sea a quite amazing ecosystems would grow in the pipes requiring much effort to clean. In the new system there is a big gulper diaphragm pump that pulls the grey water out of the sink, sends it up and over a vented loop and then down to a thru-hull. Now no sea water comes back to the sink, nothing appears to be growing in our lines and a failure of the sink drain would not cause the boat to sink. Of course, now that the sink drains are not exposed to salt water they should also last a lot longer.
- Shower drains. Really, I do not like plumbing but ... our old shower drain system was crazy. There was a barely downwards slope to a big grey water tank. This results in constant plugged lines and a smelly grey water tank that takes up too much prime storage space. Now we have another diagram pump that pulls the water out of the shower and sends it through a vented loop and overboard. Now we have more storage for wine and rum and hopefully now I can spend less time unplugging the shower pipes. We also did away with a float switch so there is one less part to fail.
- Rigging: Rigging is a lot more fun but the only addition here was to reduce the friction in the system by putting some better blocks in systems that seemed to have more friction that they should. Not really a capital improvement but we changed how our the vang is rigged to reduce the twisting load on it and replaced some of the tired component.
- Non-Skid: Most of the deck is teak which is great non-skid but I added a bit of non-skid tape in a few areas where I regularly would step on gelcoat.
- Heater: Kind of a funny project since we spend most of the time in the tropics but I recommissioned the diesel heater. This time last year in New Zealand we were wishing it was working but a combination of better weather and the rain enclosure means we have not used it yet.
- High Water Alarm: It is funny how little projects can make a difference. Set above our two electric bilge pumps is a independent high water alarm connected to a really loud alarm and bright warning light. The bigger electric bilge pump also has an audible alarm so we should never need the dedicated high water alarm. At sea however, after we do a big roll to port, the old mercury filled float switch would set itself off for a short second. This short second of ear piercing, blood pressure spiking sound is not good for ones health even if you know it does not mean you are necessarily sinking (if we are sinking we should have the big electrical pump alarm first and then the high water alarm). Our new alarm is solid state and has a few second delay so there will hopefully not be anymore false alarms. Sleep on passage is precious.
- Iridium Go: Addressed in a previous post. This is to complement our high frequency radio and Pactor modem.
- Staysail Recut: We also had the staysail recut to work better in strong winds. Could be argued that is is corrective maintenance but anyway it will be nice to have this sail working properly.
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| Even in New Zealand where we have been able to usually buy just the right bolt we have needed improvise a bit. Wendall and I filed down this set screw (grub screw in NZ) to fit the furler |
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| Checking out the view ... and the rig plus changing out some blocks |
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| Victoria has been splicing up some soft shackles which she has for sale. |
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| Johnathan adding grommets to our RHIB seat bag with help of the kids from Nirvana. |
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| Maintenance to the halyard blocks. Should be less friction now. |
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| We have replaced a lot of the old wiring this year. Victoria fits better into the spaces than I do. |
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| Even Benjamin has got into the maintenance game. Here he is fixing one of his cars. I am in the background replacing yet more wiring. |
Here is the output from the spreadsheet. It is cleaned up a little bit and colour coded as follows (there are a few errors in the colour coding but coloured tables and Blogger do not play well together so I am not going to tempt fate and correct them):
- Green: Improvements
- Yellow: Preventative Maintenance
- Red: Corrective Maintenance
| Date | Maintenance | Periodicity | Category |
| 23-Nov-15 | a/p rudder response failure - reset brushes | ||
| 26-Nov-15 | check alternator belt tension | 25 | engine |
| 26-Nov-15 | Oil (100 hrs) - 7.95L of oil | 125 | engine |
| 26-Nov-15 | WM Flush filter - broken bowl and leaking intake | WM | |
| 26-Nov-15 | burnt wire bundle under alternator - cut out and replaced approx 16 wires. Added conduit plus hose chafe protection | ||
| 26-Nov-15 | panel around SSB | ||
| 26-Nov-15 | propane solenoid | ||
| 26-Nov-15 | pump out engine pan | ||
| 27-Nov-15 | Oil Filter Change | 250 | engine |
| 27-Nov-15 | nmea 2000 power - new cable | ||
| 27-Nov-15 | shower drain wiring - replace bilge pump - rule 800 | ||
| 27-Nov-15 | tidy up nmea 2000 connections | ||
| 30-Nov-15 | renew mast boot | rebed | |
| 30-Nov-15 | Rigging check - NSR | rigging | |
| 01-Dec-15 | rebed and add insulation - staysail halyard block | rebed | |
| 01-Dec-15 | rebed mast collar | rebed | |
| 01-Dec-15 | rebedding - emergency tiller access | rebed | |
| 01-Dec-15 | rebedding - hyd hose | rebed | |
| 01-Dec-15 | renew caulking - mast collar | rebed | |
| 01-Dec-15 | deck wash hose adapter | ||
| 02-Dec-15 | ball bearing block for main halyard | rigging | |
| 02-Dec-15 | non-skid - dorade trunk | ||
| 03-Dec-15 | check engine hoses | 12 month | engine |
| 03-Dec-15 | Outboard 15 hpanode | 6 mon | outboard |
| 03-Dec-15 | outboard 15HP zinc anode replacement | outboard | |
| 03-Dec-15 | outboard handle and foot | outboard | |
| 04-Dec-15 | oil leak - oil cooler hoses | engine | |
| 04-Dec-15 | NZ flag repair | ||
| 07-Dec-15 | RHIB - Tube patches | rhib | |
| 07-Dec-15 | flag halyard | ||
| 08-Dec-15 | RHIB - remove/replace shackle | rhib | |
| 08-Dec-15 | check fuel filter bowls | Monthly | |
| 08-Dec-15 | hull/Prop clean - checked - okay | Monthly | |
| 08-Dec-15 | Prop/shaft zincs - checked - okay | 2 mon | |
| 08-Dec-15 | vent cap for gas jerry can | ||
| 09-Dec-15 | RHIB - New lines - chaps | rhib | |
| 10-Dec-15 | watermaker strainer clean | WM | |
| 10-Dec-15 | check charts for next season plus ipad charts, paper charts, navionics big chip, Coastal Explorer charts | ||
| 11-Dec-15 | engine water strainer | 30 days | Engine |
| 11-Dec-15 | Engine zinc - replaced | 30 days | Engine |
| 11-Dec-15 | Oil cooler zinc - change next month | 30 days | Engine |
| 11-Dec-15 | mainfurl - Grease the grease nipple on the aft end of the spar. | 2 Mon | Grease |
| 11-Dec-15 | Windlass - bimonthly | 2 Mon | Grease |
| 11-Dec-15 | Outboard 15 hp grease | 6 mon | |
| 13-Dec-15 | replace reefer strainer - used old spare | ||
| 17-Dec-15 | charts for chartplotter - refund on Cmap and new Navionics XG50 | ||
| 17-Dec-15 | Nautical Almanac download - 2016 | ||
| 18-Dec-15 | stanchion repair | NSR | |
| 18-Dec-15 | rebed stanchion port above computer cupboard | rebed | |
| 18-Dec-15 | rebed stanchion port above fwd galley cupboard | rebed | |
| 18-Dec-15 | staysail repair/recut | sail | |
| 19-Dec-15 | remove bad grounding wire to aft lights | electrical | |
| 19-Dec-15 | replace dodgy splices to port aft ceiling lights | electrical | |
| 19-Dec-15 | resplice ground wire to port aft reading light | electrical | |
| 20-Dec-15 | replace port aft reading light | electrical | |
| 20-Dec-15 | terminal block behind galley - corrosion and burnt connector | electrical | |
| 20-Dec-15 | ball bearing block for furling line | rigging | |
| 20-Dec-15 | replace sheave - pole uphaul | rigging | |
| 20-Dec-15 | 15hp outboard throttle cable replace | ||
| 20-Dec-15 | grease outboard throttle cable | ||
| 21-Dec-15 | chafe protection - oil cooler hoses | engine | |
| 21-Dec-15 | chafe protection - transmission sensor wire chafe protection | engine | |
| 21-Dec-15 | pressure water pump - replace power wires. | ||
| 21-Dec-15 | Stbd Genasun MPPT - replace | ||
| 22-Dec-15 | Beauchat speargun - new shaft lines | ||
| 22-Dec-15 | cmap marshall is charts for CE - big laptop | ||
| 23-Dec-15 | clean nav laptop fan | ||
| 27-Dec-15 | rebed - window fwd head | rebed | |
| 27-Dec-15 | check fuel filter bowls | Monthly | |
| 27-Dec-15 | hull/Prop clean | Monthly | |
| 27-Dec-15 | Prop/shaft zincs - good - uncovered gunk | 2 mon | |
| 28-Dec-15 | rebed fittings above SSB | rebed | |
| 28-Dec-15 | rebed toerail outboard of sailing cupboard | ||
| 28-Dec-15 | slice wire outboard of sailing cupboard | ||
| 29-Dec-15 | deck leak - stbd side above tin can cubby | rebed | |
| 29-Dec-15 | rebed midship cleat stbd side | ||
| 29-Dec-15 | rebed stanchion outboard of stbd book cupboard | ||
| 29-Dec-15 | rebed toerail outboard of stbd book cupboard | ||
| 30-Dec-15 | mock up rain catcher | ||
| 01-Jan-16 | shower drain - not draining | ||
| 02-Jan-16 | WM - plugged intake ? | WM | |
| 02-Jan-16 | fix battery connection - IR thermometer | ||
| 02-Jan-16 | WM - change prefilter | ||
| 02-Jan-16 | WM - repair intake bracket | ||
| 03-Jan-16 | Battery water - fwd - 60 days | 60 days | |
| 03-Jan-16 | Update PC predict wind | ||
| 04-Jan-16 | MOB light - new bulb | MOB | |
| 04-Jan-16 | MOB light - new D cell x 5 | 12 mon | MOB |
| 04-Jan-16 | Battery water - aft - 60 days | 60 days | |
| 05-Jan-16 | RHIB - seat bag grommets | rhib | |
| 05-Jan-16 | genoa furler furling line - replace - 91' at 2.61/m | rigging | |
| 05-Jan-16 | Bimini - bend frames | ||
| 05-Jan-16 | reglue chafe guards on RHIB | ||
| 06-Jan-16 | engine raw water to pump hose clamps - replace - wire insert rusted | engine | |
| 07-Jan-16 | anchor shackle - check and replace seizing | ||
| 07-Jan-16 | tighten engine mount bolts - port aft and check others. | ||
| 10-Jan-16 | outboard - clean carb bowl | ||
| 10-Jan-16 | outboard fuel line- replace fuel hose - o ring not sealing | ||
| 10-Jan-16 | propane tank - leak at valve fitting. New fitting ? | ||
| 11-Jan-16 | oil pressure buzzer | ||
| 11-Jan-16 | Sink drain | ||
| 11-Jan-16 | sink drain pump. New Jasbco diaphragm pump | ||
| 12-Jan-16 | van - 12 V socket x 2 | van | |
| 13-Jan-16 | replace aft head light with LED | electrical | |
| 13-Jan-16 | rebed deck hardware - kids cabin - padeyes | rebed | |
| 13-Jan-16 | rebed pole up haul block | rebed | |
| 13-Jan-16 | rebed fittings in fwd passageway - liferaft cradle and three padeyes | ||
| 15-Jan-16 | check forestay extrusion for tight setscrews - tightened top one. | ||
| 17-Jan-16 | Engine zinc - looks good | 30 days | Engine |
| 17-Jan-16 | Oil cooler zinc | 30 days | Engine |
| 17-Jan-16 | clean grey water tank and bilge | ||
| 18-Jan-16 | pickle WM | WM | |
| 01-Mar-16 | predictwind app for ipad | ||
| 06-Mar-16 | reglue inside veneer fridge lid | ||
| 07-Mar-16 | Engine zinc | 30 days | Engine |
| 07-Mar-16 | Oil cooler zinc | 30 days | Engine |
| 07-Mar-16 | Force 10 oven knobs | ||
| 07-Mar-16 | Prop/shaft zincs | 2 mon | |
| 08-Mar-16 | rope clutch - mast | ap | |
| 08-Mar-16 | vang - replace lower fitting | nsr | |
| 08-Mar-16 | Vang - twist ? | rigging | |
| 08-Mar-16 | vang clevis pin - new cotter pin | rigging | |
| 08-Mar-16 | Battery water - aft - 60 days | 60 days | |
| 08-Mar-16 | Battery water - start battery - 60 days | 120 days | |
| 08-Mar-16 | Outboard 15 hp gear oil | 6 mon | |
| 08-Mar-16 | teak deck clean | ||
| 09-Mar-16 | alternator spike suppressors - Balmar | engine | |
| 09-Mar-16 | bilge clean | ||
| 09-Mar-16 | repaint and mark anchor chain | ||
| 10-Mar-16 | anchor roller - replace port side roller with cylinder or cone ? | NSR | |
| 10-Mar-16 | bimini - water proofing | 6 mon | |
| 10-Mar-16 | clean water tanks | 12 mon | |
| 10-Mar-16 | Pressure water filter | 4 mon | |
| 11-Mar-16 | BCD pressure valve - take apart button and service | dive | |
| 11-Mar-16 | Diving regulator service | dive | |
| 11-Mar-16 | aft cabin stbd reading light - new bulb | electrical | |
| 11-Mar-16 | clean corrosion from #1 house bank alternator positive to fuse box | electrical | |
| 11-Mar-16 | Alternator regulator MC612-Dual | engine | |
| 11-Mar-16 | clean reefer strainer and bowl | 2 Mon | reefer |
| 11-Mar-16 | rain enclosure for cockpit | sewing | |
| 11-Mar-16 | replace reefer strainer | ||
| 11-Mar-16 | windlass cover - add front snap | ||
| 12-Mar-16 | clean ground leads for house bank alternators | electrical | |
| 12-Mar-16 | new alternator - Bosch 120A - alternator #1 - no output, burning smell, glows ! | electrical | |
| 12-Mar-16 | new alternator - Bosch 120A -- alternator#2 - replace - low output | electrical | |
| 12-Mar-16 | alternator x 3 and starter - check wiring | 125 | engine |
| 12-Mar-16 | check alternator belt tension | 25 | engine |
| 12-Mar-16 | mainfurl - Grease the grease nipple on the aft end of the spar. | 2 Mon | Grease |
| 12-Mar-16 | Windlass - bimonthly | 2 Mon | Grease |
| 12-Mar-16 | Windlass Service - preseason service - every 6 mon | 6 mon | Grease |
| 12-Mar-16 | Outboard 15 hp grease plus corrosion spray on throttle cables | 6 mon | outboard |
| 12-Mar-16 | Navionics app | ||
| 12-Mar-16 | Wind gen - increase V max to 14.4 | ||
| 13-Mar-16 | RHIB Tubes - patches | rhib | |
| 13-Mar-16 | replace MOB light | safety | |
| 13-Mar-16 | hull/Prop clean | Monthly | |
| 13-Mar-16 | Mildew clean - cabin and cockpit | ||
| 14-Mar-16 | anchor shackle - check and replace seizing | 3 mon | |
| 14-Mar-16 | clean DST sensor | ||
| 18-Mar-16 | 15hp throttle adjustment ? | ||
| 18-Mar-16 | Inspect lifelines | 12 month | |
| 18-Mar-16 | lifeline chafe guards adjust | ||
| 18-Mar-16 | speargun - new lines | ||
| 20-Mar-16 | check fuel filter bowls | Monthly | Engine |
| 20-Mar-16 | Fuel Filter - Primary | 250 | engine |
| 20-Mar-16 | Fuel Filter - Secondary | 250 | engine |
| 20-Mar-16 | Transmission oil change (every 400 hrs or annually) | 400 | engine |
| 22-Mar-16 | corroded wire - energy monitor | electrical | |
| 22-Mar-16 | check alternator belt tension | 25 | engine |
| 22-Mar-16 | alternator belt - engine bank | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | alternator regulator - change absorption time and FFL | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | alternator regulator - change to Deep Cycle | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | alternator regulator - check by removing sensors | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | alternator regulator - check oil pressure signal | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | Battery water - fwd - 60 days | 60 days | |
| 22-Mar-16 | chartplotter - clean NMEA0183 connection | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | chartplotter - more slack in cable | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | clean engine pan | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | oil drain pump impellor replacement | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | shower drain system improvement - jabsco gulper pump | ||
| 22-Mar-16 | WM overflow - add a bracket | ||
| 23-Mar-16 | alternator adjustment brackets - Balmar | engine | |
| 24-Mar-16 | alternator x 3 and starter - check wiring | 125 | engine |
| 24-Mar-16 | heater - test (Half Moon Bay) | heater | |
| 24-Mar-16 | Autopilot - check bolt torque | 3 mon | Lazerrete |
| 24-Mar-16 | autopilot brush and hyd fluid check | 6 mon | Lazerrete |
| 24-Mar-16 | Lubricate steering cable | 6 mon | Lazerrete |
| 24-Mar-16 | Steering cable tightness - check quarterly | 3 mon | Lazerrete |
| 24-Mar-16 | heater wiring - repair | ||
| 24-Mar-16 | replace a/p brushes - new ones 18mm, old 6.5 mm | ||
| 25-Mar-16 | alternator - move ground wires x2 to battery negative | ||
| 25-Mar-16 | Binnacle bolts and duralac on binnacle | ||
| 25-Mar-16 | compass leak | ||
| 25-Mar-16 | compass light wiring | ||
| 25-Mar-16 | vang attachment - new bolt at boom | ||
| 26-Mar-16 | clean or replace ground terminal post in battery compartment | electrical | |
| 26-Mar-16 | clean positive post | electrical | |
| 26-Mar-16 | high water alarm with time delay like water witch | electrical | |
| 26-Mar-16 | remount heater fuel pump | heater | |
| 26-Mar-16 | Lubricate steering chain | 6 mon | |
| 26-Mar-16 | voltage drop in ground | ||
| 28-Mar-16 | battery connections clean - aft | ||
| 29-Mar-16 | start bank alternator shunt - replace | electrical | |
| 29-Mar-16 | alternator common ground - clean | ||
| 29-Mar-16 | alternator shunts -clean and replace with power post | ||
| 29-Mar-16 | Honda generator - dynmea start cord plus "marinized" with stainless steel bolts etc | ||
| 30-Mar-16 | diode isolator - move and new wires | ||
| 01-Apr-16 | a/p top hyd fluid | ap | |
| 01-Apr-16 | Autopilot - check bolt torque | 3 mon | Lazerrete |
| 01-Apr-16 | Lubricate steering cable | 6 mon | Lazerrete |
| 03-Apr-16 | covers on positive lugs x2 in engine compartment | ||
| 03-Apr-16 | dent in paint port fwd - from mooring | ||
| 03-Apr-16 | honda generator - overspeed ? | ||
| 03-Apr-16 | mom8 attachment' | ||
| 03-Apr-16 | Outboard 15 hpfuel filter - clean | 6 mon | |
| 03-Apr-16 | Outboard 15hpsparkplugs - new | 6 mon | |
| 05-Apr-16 | Genoa furler - replace liner on bottom bearing, drill and tap new fastening to 8 mm. Make teat screws x2, add 10 mm grubscrew to hold drum down | rigging | |
| 06-Apr-16 | saloon table strut bolts - short with thumb area | ||
| 07-Apr-16 | dent in fibreglass - companionway | ||
| 07-Apr-16 | HF ant wire - renew - SSB GTO15 connection - battery lug to bulldog clamp. Fill lug with solder and cover with heat shrink | 12 mon | |
| 07-Apr-16 | redo crimp on aft port battery ground - 90mm2 to 8 mm terminal | ||
| 07-Apr-16 | sup pump - new handle | ||
| 08-Apr-16 | heater ducting repair | heater | |
| 09-Apr-16 | battery connections clean - fwd | electrical | |
| 09-Apr-16 | new positive bus instead of power post | electrical | |
| 10-Apr-16 | calibrate barometers | ||
| 10-Apr-16 | patch old SUP | ||
| 12-Apr-16 | Iridium Go | Iridium | |
| 12-Apr-16 | update Iridium Go Firmware | Iridium | |
| 13-Apr-16 | fix sea boots - heat gun | ||
| 14-Apr-16 | check fuel filter bowls | Monthly | Engine |
| 14-Apr-16 | engine water strainer | 30 days | Engine |
| 14-Apr-16 | Engine zinc | 30 days | Engine |
| 14-Apr-16 | Oil cooler zinc | 30 days | Engine |
| 14-Apr-16 | Honda Generator - Fuel Filter | 6 mon | Generator |
| 14-Apr-16 | Engine coolant change 13L | 12 mon | |
| 14-Apr-16 | port aft scupper blocked | ||
| 15-Apr-16 | Honda generator - Clean air filter | 6 mon | Generator |
| 15-Apr-16 | Honda generator - oil change | 6 mon | Generator |
| 15-Apr-16 | rain defector on dodger | ||
| 18-Apr-16 | furler - check top bearing | rigging | |
| 18-Apr-16 | port spin block replacement | rigging | |
| 18-Apr-16 | rig check - upmast | ||
| 19-Apr-16 | Honda Generator - spark plug CR5HSB NGK | 12 mon | Generator |
| 19-Apr-16 | Essence of Salts for heads | ||
| 19-Apr-16 | stove - aft burner thermocouple grounding - cleaned contacts and added 3xwashers to protect surfce | ||
| 23-Apr-16 | add longer floater line to anchor rode | anchor locker | |
| 23-Apr-16 | extend anchor rode rope to bitter end | anchor locker | |
| 23-Apr-16 | new nav laptop | ||
| 23-Apr-16 | RHIB – new dingy tank. Install new fittings | ||
| 23-Apr-16 | Vesper - AIS USB isolation | ||
| 24-Apr-16 | portable watermaker – annual maintenance | 12 mon | Safety |
| 24-Apr-16 | Review Ditch Bag contents | 12 mon | Safety |
| 24-Apr-16 | panel under stbd electric winch | ||
| 24-Apr-16 | SUP mount install | ||
| 24-Apr-16 | table temp repair | ||
| 26-Apr-16 | Iridium Go - copy emergency contacts to contacts from Sat Phone | Iridium | |
| 26-Apr-16 | confirm emergency numbers in Satphone | 12 mon | Safety |
| 27-Apr-16 | new sea strainer for engine raw water | Engine | |
| 27-Apr-16 | Overhaul winch - Anderson | 12 mon | winch |
| 28-Apr-16 | check engine mount nuts | 50 | engine |
| 28-Apr-16 | engine air filter check | 125 | engine |
| 28-Apr-16 | engine water strainer | 30 days | Engine |
| 28-Apr-16 | v berth hanging locker - won't latch | ||
| 03-May-16 | Iridium satphone activation | satphone | |
| 03-May-16 | reregister satphone with GEOS SOS | satphone | |
| 04-May-16 | dodger clean | ||
| 05-May-16 | check fuel filter bowls | Monthly | Engine |
| 05-May-16 | check fuel filter bowls | Monthly | Engine |
| 05-May-16 | Battery water - aft - 60 days | 60 days | |
| 05-May-16 | clean speed sensor | ||
| 05-May-16 | hull/Prop clean | Monthly | |
| 05-May-16 | Prop/shaft zincs | 2 mon | |
| 06-May-16 | rain enclosure - fixes | ||
| 07-May-16 | Alternator regulator - buzzer goes off | alternator | |
| 07-May-16 | alternator regulator - set deep cycle flooded, max batt temp 43, max alt temp 100, absorption 3 hrs, min volt low | alternator | |
| 07-May-16 | alternator x 3 and starter - check wiring | 125 | engine |
| 07-May-16 | check alternator belt tension | 25 | engine |
| 07-May-16 | top up oil at 4803.6 topped up from just over half way to full on dip stick | Engine | |
| 07-May-16 | Replace Iridium Go antenna adaptor | Iridium | |
| 09-May-16 | mainfurl - Grease the grease nipple on the aft end of the spar. | 2 Mon | Grease |
| 09-May-16 | Windlass - bimonthly | 2 Mon | Grease |
| 09-May-16 | Watermaker carbon filter | 6 mon | WM |