Thursday 22 July 2021
As if to make up for yesterday’s grey, overcast performance, today, the Good Lord blessed us with a glorious sunrise off the stern and almost constant sunshine all day. It was accompanied by a wind shift to the south west, causing us to dip our course to the south for a time. Now that we’re back on course and have resumed our west-ish ways, our track resembles something Mr Squiggle might consider … “a shark’s fin … Miss Pat…” “Hurry up, hurry up” … that was Blackboard … sorry, you had to be there.
Back to the sunshine … there was also a reasonable amount of settled sea today. Although this did vary through the day, strangely, from well-timed and predictable swells we rode up and down, to a smaller lumpier seas that we could easily cut through. As the day got underway, Harm emerged from a refreshing 3 hour sleep, around 9:00, and I had another bowl of last night’s “4-Can Bean Ensemble”.
Matt, who seems to have a remarkable ability to stay awake through the night restored his batteries with a seriously good sleep – for a few hours in the cockpit bench-bunk, then in his cabin proper.
Making good use of the sunshine off the starboard side Sam even indulged in a (cold) shower on deck. It was initially going to be on the port side, using the short curly hose. But the difference in temperatures from the sunny side, to the shady side was significant, so I dug out the longer hose that would reach from the port freshwater outlet across.
The clothesline, up near the mast, got a workout with a combination of the breeze and sunbeams clearing away the accumulated wetness from the previous day or so. Harm got stuck into some cooking and declared around lunchtime … “I’ve made a tuna, chickpea, capsicum and corn YumYum meal for lunch and have now pre-made tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch – and probably tomorrow’s dinner. Now, I’m going to start baking some bread” … what a guy!!
I’ve just been handed a bowl of “Veggie Bake”, topped with a delicious creamy sauce and enlivened with a few sprinkles of Tabasco Sauce. It’s just been reheated in the galley oven by Harm and is delicious. Have I mentioned I do a very good vegemite on toast?!
Sam is in the cockpit on watch currently. It’s about 8:00pm as I peck away at the computer, wedged into the Nav-station. The motion of the boat is a bit on the lumpy side, and the wind has got up. Time to turn off the engine, which has been ticking away at 1200 RPM, in the background, just to give us a bit of extra push-through. In fact, this is another squall. Wind is up to 25-30 knots.
Can’t see them coming in the dark. Time to ease the main sheet to spill some wind – fortunately, it already has two reefs in – still over-powered, next step … reduce the size of the jib – make it smaller – Matt lets off the sheet, while I winch on the furling line. Pretty soon the speed comes off – down from 8knots to 6-7 knots, our heel is reduced and the steady, loping motion – controlled motion – is restored. Back to the nav table to resume pecking away …
Harm is braced into the galley, using the hip-high galley seatbelt restrainer, getting his bread into the oven. Never a dull moment here as we prepare for our fourth night at sea.
It’s close to a full moon now and it’s as bright as … bro. You can clearly see the deck, the sails, and the glistening sea as it glides by.
The weather forecast from yesterday said the wind would move to the south, which it has done. You really notice the drop in temperature, even from the previous south wester. There was also a predicted lull, or trough, which we motored through in the late afternoon. Whilst it was calm aboard, all around us on the horizon, rising clouds lit white and a dozen shades of grey, then golden and pink, by the lowering sun encircled us.
Columns of rain and the occasional rainbow could be seen descending from some systems, creating a show that had us all on foredeck for over an hour – till after the sun had well disappeared – just gawking at this magical and unique display. The cold finally had us retreating to the warmth of the cockpit and saloon below.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday – after the big squall from the night before – is that the wind arrow at the top of the mast, often referred to as a “hawk”, or “windex” blew away. The static side-bits, indicating 30 degrees port and starboard of our centreline, are still in place, but the incredibly useful indicator-arrow, that points to where the wind is coming from, is simply NOT there.
Despite having electronic wind speed and direction instruments, (which are still working fine) instinctively I still find myself looking to the top of the mast as an indicator when setting the sails, or simply checking on wind direction … now, it’s like that broken clock, or the missing clock, that you still glance at, only to realise once more … “well that was pointless” … a replacement will have to wait for another day.
While typing, the wind has once more died off to 10 knots or so, with our trusty Perkins called on to fill the breech … giving us back 6 knots of speed, at low revs, with minimal use of fuel.
Earlier today I received a message from Linda to say that the Tracker wasn’t working … that no position had been received since yesterday. “That’s strange??” I thought, as I dipped into my rather limited understanding of how these things operate. Checking the IridiumGO! unit I could see that it was still transmitting our position every 5 minutes … but somehow it wasn’t appearing on the tracker website. Time to call on a higher power in such matters …
“Matt … do you know why our tracker isn’t working?” I innocently inquired. To cut a long story short, and to minimise embarrassment … in downloading weather forecasts on his iPad, the “Destination Address” for the tracker had been inadvertently, and unintentionally I should add, deleted. A few Satphone texts later and harmony aboard had been restored.
Fast forward to half an hour ago … and in closing off tonight’s blog I was checking our Iridium GO! Connection prior to sending a Sat-email. “That’s funny … no connection???” Maybe I could send a manual SMS of our location … “No GPS Location Found” … came the message … “That’s weird??”
Plus, to make things worse, I couldn’t log onto the Iridium App on my iPhone … that means no text messages, no phone calls, no email, no weather forecasts and no GPS Tracker … bummer …
“Matttt??” … I innocently inquired … “I seem to be having problems with the Iridium … are you connected?”
“No, I can’t connect at the moment, there seems to be a problem” came the reply.
I’ll save you the diagnostic discussion and the process of eliminating all conceivable possibilities … but then the call went up … NOT by me I dare say … “Maybe the Raymarine Chartplotter has connected to the Iridium unit via wifi?”
“Say what???” says I … “who told it to do that??”
Five minutes later, after Matt had searched through the chart plotter’s many Menus and Sub-Menus he announced … “Yep, the Raymarine has connected to the Iridium, which is blocking everything else”
“How did you know it was the chart plotter???” I asked Matt and Harm
Harm replied … “Decades of troubleshooting these sorts of things gives you a sixth sense”
Suffice to say, Matt “Disabled” HAL’s, sorry, the chart plotter’s ability to connect with the Iridium
It’s now rather late, but we are still loping along with a good forecast predicted for the next day or so, with the wind moving to the north east … not bad when you are heading south west
Smooth seas, fair breeze and sunshine and sea views
Rob Latimer
NZ2020 