Date: July 4, 2014
17° 44' S 157° 24' W
24 hour run: 94nm
Previous 24 hour run: 115nm
Water Temp: 80.6
Log: 14584
Distance to go: 608nm
This is a slow, meandering, relaxing passage. The wind has stayed light but hasn't gone away completely. For the last three days, as darkness falls, the wind picks up to the range 13-15 and the boat moves well all night. During the days, the wind has been falling below 10.
I'll be picking up today's weather forecast in a few minutes, as this email goes out. Yesterdays forecast didn't turn out to be very accurate - the wind strength was in range, but the direction was forecast to be from the north and that didn't happen, it stayed NE. The forecast has been showing winds growing in strength over the weekend into the 20's, which would be nice.
All continues to be well onboard.
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Friday, July 4, 2014
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Passage to Beveridge, day 2
Date: July 2, 2014
16° 58' S 153° 48' W
Previous 24 hour run: 104nm
Water Temp: 82.4
Log: 14403
Distance to go: 815nm
I left Bora Bora yesterday, July 1st, in the afternoon. My visa had expired on June 30th and I had to move along. Goodbye French Polynesia! There are informal rules about being able to stay a little longer if the weather looks bad, the boat is not in order, etc, but for me none of that applied. The weather looked like it was going to be on the light side, but sailable, and Luckness is in fine shape.
The seas out here are comfortable and the winds are light - something like 7-12 knots from the E to ESE and I'm making slow progress. The winds are forecast to improve soon, then fade away again, and then pick up. I'm now sailing in an area where the normal trade winds no longer dominate. There is actual weather down here - with low pressure systems crossing a few hundred miles to the south, west to east, on a regular basis. As the lows pass by, the weather where I am is affected and the trades go away.
I'm heading to Beveridge reef, which is something like 140nm SE of Niue. I believe Niue is the worlds smallest country - a smallish outcropping of coral that sounds absolutely charming. Niue is associated with New Zealand and there appears to be many hiking trails on the island, along with decent beer and other things you would expect from NZ. Beveridge reef is a reef out in the middle of nowhere without any land. At high tide the reef is completely submerged and at low tide the reef is exposed slightly. I understand its an atoll in the very early stages of being formed. It is reputed to have water clarity which is outstanding, along with great snorkeling. As I approach, if the weather is unfavorable I will skip Beveridge and head straight to Niue.
All is well onboard.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
16° 58' S 153° 48' W
Previous 24 hour run: 104nm
Water Temp: 82.4
Log: 14403
Distance to go: 815nm
I left Bora Bora yesterday, July 1st, in the afternoon. My visa had expired on June 30th and I had to move along. Goodbye French Polynesia! There are informal rules about being able to stay a little longer if the weather looks bad, the boat is not in order, etc, but for me none of that applied. The weather looked like it was going to be on the light side, but sailable, and Luckness is in fine shape.
The seas out here are comfortable and the winds are light - something like 7-12 knots from the E to ESE and I'm making slow progress. The winds are forecast to improve soon, then fade away again, and then pick up. I'm now sailing in an area where the normal trade winds no longer dominate. There is actual weather down here - with low pressure systems crossing a few hundred miles to the south, west to east, on a regular basis. As the lows pass by, the weather where I am is affected and the trades go away.
I'm heading to Beveridge reef, which is something like 140nm SE of Niue. I believe Niue is the worlds smallest country - a smallish outcropping of coral that sounds absolutely charming. Niue is associated with New Zealand and there appears to be many hiking trails on the island, along with decent beer and other things you would expect from NZ. Beveridge reef is a reef out in the middle of nowhere without any land. At high tide the reef is completely submerged and at low tide the reef is exposed slightly. I understand its an atoll in the very early stages of being formed. It is reputed to have water clarity which is outstanding, along with great snorkeling. As I approach, if the weather is unfavorable I will skip Beveridge and head straight to Niue.
All is well onboard.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Friday, June 27, 2014
Collecting vs. Making water on Luckness
For people who follow my blog closely, you'll remember that my water maker stopped working while I was in the Marquesas, several months ago. At the time, I converted the water maker to manual operation and was spending roughly an hour a day, manually pumping the water maker to create just over a gallon of water. It started to get tedious pretty quickly. But I'm not afraid of doing tedious things and I was making water ever day this way.
On the passage from Nuka Hiva to Fatu Hiva, an upwind bash, I tried to make water. I quickly realized how difficult that would be. You need to put quite a lot of force into the pump to operate it and doing so in a boat which is pitching and rolling in a seaway was difficult. Its hard to push down with any force when the whole boat is flying upward as it does when climbing the face of a wave, before crashing down on the other side. Downwind passages are more peaceful, although again making water manually would be very tedious.
Around this time, a friend of mine, Dave Mancini, who is cruising s/v Swan around Mexico at the moment, forwarded some information about how he and his wife Rhonda dealt with water as they cruised through the South Pacific on their earlier passage. Swan is a Pacific Seacraft 34, so very similar to Luckness. Swan doesn't have a water maker and relied on collecting rainwater on their entire journey. They went through French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji and then up to the Marshall Islands and back to Washington state. Dave seems to pass along all sorts of good info every time I see him or exchange email with him.
In the past whenever I thought about collecting water on a sailboat I would think about it in terms of some sort of canvas collection system I would sew together, incorporating a hose of some sort which would lead to a jerry jug. Or perhaps some sort of canvas I could add to the mainsail to collect the water the sail captures. These techniques seemed complicated.
Dave's technique is simply to plug the scuppers on both side decks on his boat. Once you do this, the entire boat becomes your water collection surface and as the water drips off everything it finds its way to the side decks where it collects. He then puts a rag over a funnel, places it into a jerry jug, and uses a tupperware bin to scoop water from the side deck into the funnel. Finally he adds 1/2 teaspoon of bleach to the jug before adding it to his water tank.
I've tried this technique now, several times. Its super easy and can capture a lot of water. Since hearing about this from Dave I've started to hear other cruisers talk about it as well - when it rains I've heard others talk about going to plug their scuppers to collect water. However I've also mentioned this technique now to several people who have boats where this would work, and they didn't know about it and liked the idea.
So. If you have a sailboat, and your sailboat has high bulwarks, and the scuppers in your side decks are easily plugged, this technique can work for you.
Dave uses four rags to plug the scuppers, as their are two holes on each side. First let the rain fall for a little while to clean any salt off the surfaces. I go around when this is happening and use a rag to wash away any dirt I can. Let it rain long enough so that the water pouring down the scuppers is clean. Then plug the scuppers and let some water collect. Put a rag over a funnel, put it into a jerry jug, and pour water into the funnel. The rag is a good idea as I constantly find little bits of dirt and hairs in the rag after pouring clean water through it.
I didn't have any real rain while I was in the Marquesas. When I first got to the Tuamotus it rained heavily the first day I was there. I thought I would try plugging the scuppers just for fun, to see what would happen. Both of the side decks were full of water within 1/2 an hour. I wasn't prepared yet to filter it and use it for drinking water - but I was able to have a fresh water bath after my passage, soap on one side rinse on the other. I then drained both side decks, plugged them again and started rinsing salt out of towels and clothes. I was sold on this technique.
My water maker, when it was working, only made 1 1/2 gallons of water an hour. It used between 6 and 8 amps to do this, so power was a concern on cloudy days (I prefer not to run my engine to charge my batteries.) With so little water available I would never consider having showers or washing my clothes onboard. This all changes when water becomes plentiful, as it does with this technique - at least in areas with rain.
Back to the Tuamotus and my first experiences. A few days after my first experiment some more squalls started to roll through. I started hoping that the passing squalls would hit me directly rather than wishing that they would miss as I did in the past. I wanted to collect the squall water! I had two close misses that day and was able to collect 5 gallons of water which I treated with bleach (1/2 a teaspoon) and poured into my tank.
Since then I have had several occasions when I have had heavy rain. One day while I was in Papeete I collected 15 gallons for my water tank and it continued to rain. I then started washing clothes. I would collect 5 gallons, use it in my double sinks to first wash clothes and then start rinsing. Rinsing takes a lot of water so I went out to pour 5 more gallons into the jug, using 10 gallons to wash my clothes. On days when its raining hard, or lightly but constantly, you'll have more water than you'll be able to use. I filled my water tank, washed clothes, washed myself and then unplugged the scuppers to let both side decks drain as they were completely full, with water overflowing over the top of the cap rails.
Collecting rainwater is awesome! I haven't made water with my water maker in the last two months. Between collecting water and getting water from shore when its available, my tanks are always full. Thanks to Dave for passing along his advice on how he did it on Swan. Any other owners of PSC 34/37 or other boats with high bulwarks - take note, this may apply to you as well.
On the passage from Nuka Hiva to Fatu Hiva, an upwind bash, I tried to make water. I quickly realized how difficult that would be. You need to put quite a lot of force into the pump to operate it and doing so in a boat which is pitching and rolling in a seaway was difficult. Its hard to push down with any force when the whole boat is flying upward as it does when climbing the face of a wave, before crashing down on the other side. Downwind passages are more peaceful, although again making water manually would be very tedious.
Around this time, a friend of mine, Dave Mancini, who is cruising s/v Swan around Mexico at the moment, forwarded some information about how he and his wife Rhonda dealt with water as they cruised through the South Pacific on their earlier passage. Swan is a Pacific Seacraft 34, so very similar to Luckness. Swan doesn't have a water maker and relied on collecting rainwater on their entire journey. They went through French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji and then up to the Marshall Islands and back to Washington state. Dave seems to pass along all sorts of good info every time I see him or exchange email with him.
In the past whenever I thought about collecting water on a sailboat I would think about it in terms of some sort of canvas collection system I would sew together, incorporating a hose of some sort which would lead to a jerry jug. Or perhaps some sort of canvas I could add to the mainsail to collect the water the sail captures. These techniques seemed complicated.
Dave's technique is simply to plug the scuppers on both side decks on his boat. Once you do this, the entire boat becomes your water collection surface and as the water drips off everything it finds its way to the side decks where it collects. He then puts a rag over a funnel, places it into a jerry jug, and uses a tupperware bin to scoop water from the side deck into the funnel. Finally he adds 1/2 teaspoon of bleach to the jug before adding it to his water tank.
I've tried this technique now, several times. Its super easy and can capture a lot of water. Since hearing about this from Dave I've started to hear other cruisers talk about it as well - when it rains I've heard others talk about going to plug their scuppers to collect water. However I've also mentioned this technique now to several people who have boats where this would work, and they didn't know about it and liked the idea.
So. If you have a sailboat, and your sailboat has high bulwarks, and the scuppers in your side decks are easily plugged, this technique can work for you.
Dave uses four rags to plug the scuppers, as their are two holes on each side. First let the rain fall for a little while to clean any salt off the surfaces. I go around when this is happening and use a rag to wash away any dirt I can. Let it rain long enough so that the water pouring down the scuppers is clean. Then plug the scuppers and let some water collect. Put a rag over a funnel, put it into a jerry jug, and pour water into the funnel. The rag is a good idea as I constantly find little bits of dirt and hairs in the rag after pouring clean water through it.
 |
| Plug the scuppers with rags, once the water is clean |
 |
| Let the water collect... |
 |
| Prepare the funnel, rag filter and jug |
 |
| Scoop water, pour into jug, repeat |
My water maker, when it was working, only made 1 1/2 gallons of water an hour. It used between 6 and 8 amps to do this, so power was a concern on cloudy days (I prefer not to run my engine to charge my batteries.) With so little water available I would never consider having showers or washing my clothes onboard. This all changes when water becomes plentiful, as it does with this technique - at least in areas with rain.
Back to the Tuamotus and my first experiences. A few days after my first experiment some more squalls started to roll through. I started hoping that the passing squalls would hit me directly rather than wishing that they would miss as I did in the past. I wanted to collect the squall water! I had two close misses that day and was able to collect 5 gallons of water which I treated with bleach (1/2 a teaspoon) and poured into my tank.
Since then I have had several occasions when I have had heavy rain. One day while I was in Papeete I collected 15 gallons for my water tank and it continued to rain. I then started washing clothes. I would collect 5 gallons, use it in my double sinks to first wash clothes and then start rinsing. Rinsing takes a lot of water so I went out to pour 5 more gallons into the jug, using 10 gallons to wash my clothes. On days when its raining hard, or lightly but constantly, you'll have more water than you'll be able to use. I filled my water tank, washed clothes, washed myself and then unplugged the scuppers to let both side decks drain as they were completely full, with water overflowing over the top of the cap rails.
Collecting rainwater is awesome! I haven't made water with my water maker in the last two months. Between collecting water and getting water from shore when its available, my tanks are always full. Thanks to Dave for passing along his advice on how he did it on Swan. Any other owners of PSC 34/37 or other boats with high bulwarks - take note, this may apply to you as well.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Swimming with Sharks and Sting Rays
While I was in Moorea, I spent many hours swimming around with sharks and sting rays. It was completely amazing.
There is an area on the north coast of Moorea, inside the coral reef, across from the Intercontential Hotel, a mile and a half west of Opunohu Bay where I was anchored. There is a sand shelf there with water between 3 and 5 feet deep - shallower as you walk toward the reef and deeper as you walk off the shelf. Tour boats arrive here every day, and I expect, have been arriving for many years. The boats carry something like 20 people each and when I arrived there were two boats there as well as a few smaller private boats. The tour boats bring along some fish and feed the sharks and sting rays. When the boats arrive, so do the sharks and rays.
I had heard that the tour boats arrive at 10am, so I got to the area around 10:30, anchored my dinghy out of the way and then strolled through the shallow water over to the crowd. As I strolled over, I started seeing reef sharks swim by, as well as sting rays. Seeing all the tourists in the water taking photos of the sharks and rays, as well as the tour guides being in the water as well, was encouraging for me. If they could do this, so could I.
I made a short video of what I saw while I was there. In hindsight the footage I captured doesn't really capture the moment very well - I was busy having fun and not thinking too much about getting video to edit later.
The link is: http://youtu.be/Qb11Znck6SM
Before arriving in French Polynesia I was a little freaked out by being in the water with sharks. I had read from other people's blogs that over time you get used to it, and that by the end of your time in FP swimming with sharks was a good thing, not something to be feared. Its true. Swimming with sharks is really cool.
The sharks in this area are all reef sharks, not dangerous. I have heard of the rare accident between a person and a reef shark, but these aren't typical. One story had a person in shallow murky water and a reef shark bumped into them. When the person then pushed the shark away, the shark bit their hand. The sharks in the water that I've seen have been somewhere between 'totally disinterested' in me, to 'very mildly curious.' They look at you as they pass by, but there is no interaction. If you reach out to try to touch one, they move away. You need to respect that you are swimming with a wild animal - but a well fed animal, totally in its element, unthreatened by us.
Sting Ray's are actually pretty cute. Its hard not to watch a ray swim by without appreciating the elegance of its motion. The slow flapping of its wings (are they called wings?) and their motion has always had my interest. It turns out that they are also very fast. At the end of the video the guy, whose name I didn't get, throws his fish into the water and a ray gets it. What the video doesn't show is that then that ray was chased by several sharks and other rays around the area hoping it would give the fish up. The chase was very fast and I don't know which animal ate the fish in the end - but their lazy movement around us is misleading about what these animals are really capable of. Sharks seem faster in a straight line but the ray's are pretty fast and can turn on a dime.
I was given a bit of fish by one of the cruisers who arrived and the rays started climbing up my chest to try to get it. Their skin is really soft - they don't mind your stroking them as they swim around you and they feel soft and kind of rubbery.
I was glad that I first arrived when there were a lot of tourists in the area, as that served to give me courage to get and stay in the water. Jumping into shark infested waters is not an intuitive act. The tour boats left within a half an hour or so and then some other cruisers and tourists arrived in kayaks, dinghies, SUPs, etc. Many of these people were intimidated about getting in the water - I think having a big crowd do it before you without incident helps build your courage. I didn't feel at all threatened by the sharks or rays in my several hours there. As they say, it was all good.
This was a simply awesome experience, a highlight of my time in French Polynesia. If any of you get the chance to do this - I highly recommend it.
I think my favorite marine animal is still the dolphin. But I didn't really have a second favorite. Ray's are now my second favorite. Sharks are the third I guess - although this will be restricted to reef sharks for now. I don't plan to swim with the Great White, Hammerhead, Lemon or those other sharks that can and do consider people part of their food chain. Reef sharks are cute, those others? Not so much.
There is an area on the north coast of Moorea, inside the coral reef, across from the Intercontential Hotel, a mile and a half west of Opunohu Bay where I was anchored. There is a sand shelf there with water between 3 and 5 feet deep - shallower as you walk toward the reef and deeper as you walk off the shelf. Tour boats arrive here every day, and I expect, have been arriving for many years. The boats carry something like 20 people each and when I arrived there were two boats there as well as a few smaller private boats. The tour boats bring along some fish and feed the sharks and sting rays. When the boats arrive, so do the sharks and rays.
I had heard that the tour boats arrive at 10am, so I got to the area around 10:30, anchored my dinghy out of the way and then strolled through the shallow water over to the crowd. As I strolled over, I started seeing reef sharks swim by, as well as sting rays. Seeing all the tourists in the water taking photos of the sharks and rays, as well as the tour guides being in the water as well, was encouraging for me. If they could do this, so could I.
I made a short video of what I saw while I was there. In hindsight the footage I captured doesn't really capture the moment very well - I was busy having fun and not thinking too much about getting video to edit later.
The link is: http://youtu.be/Qb11Znck6SM
Before arriving in French Polynesia I was a little freaked out by being in the water with sharks. I had read from other people's blogs that over time you get used to it, and that by the end of your time in FP swimming with sharks was a good thing, not something to be feared. Its true. Swimming with sharks is really cool.
The sharks in this area are all reef sharks, not dangerous. I have heard of the rare accident between a person and a reef shark, but these aren't typical. One story had a person in shallow murky water and a reef shark bumped into them. When the person then pushed the shark away, the shark bit their hand. The sharks in the water that I've seen have been somewhere between 'totally disinterested' in me, to 'very mildly curious.' They look at you as they pass by, but there is no interaction. If you reach out to try to touch one, they move away. You need to respect that you are swimming with a wild animal - but a well fed animal, totally in its element, unthreatened by us.
Sting Ray's are actually pretty cute. Its hard not to watch a ray swim by without appreciating the elegance of its motion. The slow flapping of its wings (are they called wings?) and their motion has always had my interest. It turns out that they are also very fast. At the end of the video the guy, whose name I didn't get, throws his fish into the water and a ray gets it. What the video doesn't show is that then that ray was chased by several sharks and other rays around the area hoping it would give the fish up. The chase was very fast and I don't know which animal ate the fish in the end - but their lazy movement around us is misleading about what these animals are really capable of. Sharks seem faster in a straight line but the ray's are pretty fast and can turn on a dime.
I was given a bit of fish by one of the cruisers who arrived and the rays started climbing up my chest to try to get it. Their skin is really soft - they don't mind your stroking them as they swim around you and they feel soft and kind of rubbery.
I was glad that I first arrived when there were a lot of tourists in the area, as that served to give me courage to get and stay in the water. Jumping into shark infested waters is not an intuitive act. The tour boats left within a half an hour or so and then some other cruisers and tourists arrived in kayaks, dinghies, SUPs, etc. Many of these people were intimidated about getting in the water - I think having a big crowd do it before you without incident helps build your courage. I didn't feel at all threatened by the sharks or rays in my several hours there. As they say, it was all good.
This was a simply awesome experience, a highlight of my time in French Polynesia. If any of you get the chance to do this - I highly recommend it.
I think my favorite marine animal is still the dolphin. But I didn't really have a second favorite. Ray's are now my second favorite. Sharks are the third I guess - although this will be restricted to reef sharks for now. I don't plan to swim with the Great White, Hammerhead, Lemon or those other sharks that can and do consider people part of their food chain. Reef sharks are cute, those others? Not so much.
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