Living & Learning Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day#9 - Tuesday May 31st, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

LTY UPDATE: Day#9 - Tuesday May 31st, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji
Tuesday May 31st, 2011

LTY time: 18:18 (UTC +12) = 06:18 UTC
Location: Just south of the equator and about 468nm NNW of Funafuti, Tuvalu
Position: 01 25.690 N, 175 41.617 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 6.2knots (sailing with Main & Jib sails))
COG: (Course Over Ground) 154 degrees True
Wind: 14-22 knots NE Apparent (wind as felt by sails)
Seas/Swell: 2.5m @ 5seconds out of NE
Air temp: 84.9F 29.4C
Sea temp: 84.6 F 29.2 C
Humidity: 73%
Barometer: 1012mm
Distance to Funafuti: 468nm
Distance last 24 hours: 148nm

DAY #9: SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE HERE WE COME!
Today was a big day for Linda as she shed her status as “Pollywog” and officially became a “Shellback” at about 02:20am this morning as we crossed the equator. Marine tradition requires that all who cross the equator by ship for the first time must present themselves to the court of King Neptune/Poseidon and go through a “line-crossing ceremony” in order to join the Kingdom of Neptune and as such become a shellback. And so in the wee hours this morning as we watched our GPS meter wind down our latitude to 00 degrees 00.00minutes at longitude 175 06.822 E I pointed Learnativity’s bow into the wind to slow down right as all those zero’s came up. With the assistance of Captain Morgan (rum) we gave a hearty toast and several shots over the side to King Neptune. Admiral Linda presented herself before King Neptune’s court and was officially christened as a Shellback. With a few more words of thanks and requests for further kindness and generosity as he has endowed me with these past four years and we fell off the wind back onto our heading of 154 degrees, the sails filled and we were soon back up to over six knots sliding through the waves like a locomotive on rails of water in the continuing strong winds of about 20 knots.

In spite of all that excitement the new shellback and Commodore Ruby soon retired to the aft master cabin and were fast asleep in no time as we continued to speed steadily south as the GPS gradually started increasing as it counts off the latitudes we were adding on our way into the southern hemisphere. We had planned to stop and swim across the equator but as it worked out we were in the middle of the night and the seas were running almost 3 meters so we decided to wait for the next time we cross the equator to try swimming across the line.

The weather continues to be perfect, with sunny blue sky all day, star studded skies at night and winds steady at about 20 knots out of the ENE. I haven’t had to touch the sails for the past few days now and we have definitely settled into the new rhythm of life at sea on a passage. Without consciously being aware of it we watch the first light of the sun each morning bring in a new day as if someone has their very steady hand on a dimmer switch and turns it up ever so slowly until the sun first blinks above the horizon and fills in all the colours of the sky and seas around us. Morning slides unnoticed into afternoon until the setting of the sun turns that dimmer switch equally gradually the other way and darkness gradually engulfs us as now the stars take their turn in gradually increasing their brightness and fade into full brilliance against the increasingly inky blackness s that completely engulfs us from all directions. There is no sense of beginning or ending, just a constant, gentle cycle of change.

It also becomes quite normal that your world is always moving and sits at an angle of about 20 degrees. We always had to climb up a very steep hill from the galley table to the sink didn’t we? Of course you stand with one foot far below and a long way from the other as you brace your hip against the counter when you are cooking and using the gimbaled stove surface to keep things from spilling as you work. Hard to imagine before you’ve experienced it and yet when you are immersed in this new world reality it quickly becomes the norm and you feel very much at home and at peace. I can appreciate that it isn’t for all, and I’m sure delighted that it is just perfect for Linda, Ruby and I.

From just south of the equator, all of us aboard the good ship Learnativity wish you happy sailing through life. Whatever latitude and longitude or hemisphere you are in, and whatever angle your world sits at, we hope you are enjoying life as much as we are. Seems simple really; just do all you can with all you have in the time you have, wherever you are. And remember, the happiest people are not the ones who have the best of everything; they are the ones who make the best of everything they have.

Night all!

Linda, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Exploring the world one nautical smile at a time.

Posted via email from Learnativity

SMS from 881632510270@msg.iridium.com

LTY UPDATE Just X'd equator! Beauty stary nt Rum toast2 King Neptune Linda now a shellback! GR8 sail wnd 15-22 =SOG 6+kts 560nm 2Funafuti

Posted via email from Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day#8 - Monday May 30th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

LTY UPDATE: Day#8 - Monday May 30th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji
Monday May 30th, 2011

LTY time: 19:40 (UTC +12) = 05:30 UTC
Location: Approaching the equator, about 595nm NNW of Funafuti, Tuvalu
Position: 00 28.164 N, 174 53.788 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 5.5 knots (sailing with Main, Jib & Stay sails))
COG: (Course Over Ground) 156 degrees True
Wind: 14-22 knots NE Apparent (wind as felt by sails)
Seas/Swell: 3m @ 6 seconds out of NE
Air temp: 86.1F 30.1C
Sea temp: 83.7 F 28.7 C
Humidity: 72%
Barometer: 1014mm
Distance to Funafuti: 595nm
Distance last 24 hours: 133nm

DAY #8:
About as perfect a day as you can dream to have out sailing or under any conditions. Linda and Ruby slept the whole night through without stirring and woke to a perfect morning of blue sky and sun feeling back to her usual happy and healthy self. After enjoying some time up in the cockpit and the great morning we were having, she then proceeded below to whip up a batch of “Muffets” a delicious combination of English muffins and crumpets fried up with some nummy New Zealand butter.

Last night was another great night sail for me as we sliced silently through the water at 4 to 5 knots in 10-15 knots of wind out of the ENE and very calm seas. The moon came up and put in several appearances throughout the night as it danced in and around the scattered clouds up in the night sky. We did have one very small bit of rain about 3am so I closed up the hatches for about 15 minutes and then we were back to full flow mode of fresh sea breezes throughout the boat. It was calm enough and there is so little chance of any other boats being out here that I was able to put on the Radar perimeter alarm and grab several rounds of sleep for an hour or so as the night air wafted over me lying on the cockpit seats.

The rest of the day was spent simply enjoying the ride, reading, listening to music, showering up on deck, eating, talking, and typing up some Emails. Another beautiful day at sea.

It is now dark, the wind has been up a notch topping 20 knots at time and we are heeled over a bit more, about 20-25 degrees, as we “race” through the night at up to six knots at times. By sailing and Learnativity standards that is quite fast indeed. The only down side is that we are also approaching the equator, about 40nm away as I write this, and so we will unfortunately be crossing it in the dark of night in the wee hours this morning and I’m not sure if we will do our planned swim across the equator this time or not. However we most certainly WILL celebrate Linda’s graduation from a “Pollywog” to a “Shellback”, the former being the term given to those sailors who have not crossed the equator under sail. We will also be making the obligatory and grateful toast by tossing a few shots of some high quality rum overboard to Poseidon and King Neptune to give our thanks to them and ask for their blessings and watchful guidance as we continue to explore their oceans and seas. We’ll take some pictures of the whole equator crossing ceremony and post them for you once we get our next good internet connection. Stay tuned, the journey has just begun!!

Linda, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Exploring the world one nautical smile at a time.

Posted via email from Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day#6&7 Saturday & Sunday May 28th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

LTY UPDATE: Day#6&7 Saturday & Sunday May 28th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

Sunday May 28th, 2011
LTY time: 17:30 (UTC +12) = 05:30 UTC
Location: About 720nm NNW of Funafuti, Tuvalu
Position: 02 19.607 N, 174 16.117 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 4-4.5 knots (sailing with Main, Jib & Stay sails))
COG: (Course Over Ground) 157 degrees True
Wind: 12-15 knots NE Apparent (wind as felt by sails)
Seas/Swell: 3m @ 6 seconds out of NE
Air temp: 96F 35.6C
Sea temp: 89.1 F 31.7 C
Humidity: 59%
Barometer: 1013mm
Distance to Funafuti: 712nm
Distance last 24 hours: 132nm

DAY #6:
My oh my, what a difference a day makes! Yesterday was rather gray day aboard Learnativity both literally in terms of the skies continuing to be completely overcast, gray and stormy and Linda was suffering badly from a cold. Weather was more of the same we’ve been having since Mili with lots of small squalls and some larger storms that we’ve passed through and pretty much grey skies throughout. Yesterday afternoon the wind moved a bit more NE and gave us a great ride with speeds over 6 knots in winds that were only 12-16. Later that night though we rode out a large storm with winds over 30 knots and lots of changes of wind direction and torrential rains as we passed through it. Then once out of it in the wee hours of the morning the wind all but disappeared and so I motored through the night. Linda probably didn’t experience much of it at all as she spent most of the day laying down and sleeping off the nasty cold, headache and sinus that seemed to follow on from the tooth infection she had the last few days we were in Majuro. She was able to get in to see the dentist there and get some antibiotics and pain meds which worked well but seemed to lead to it going into her sinuses and then a full blown cold. Fortunately Ruby was VERY happy to spend the entire day and night snuggling with her and I didn’t see much of them until this morning.

About 5am this morning (Sunday here now) I was jolted out of my calm evening watch by the VERY large and loud fire alarm bell that I have on board for all my emergency alarms such as loss of oil pressure, engine overheating, fire, etc. It would wake the dead but I like to have it so that no matter how loud it gets on board I’ll be sure to hear it and boy does it ever do that job well!! Turns out it was the fire alarm sensor going off because the temperature in the engine room had gone too high because I had closed down all the usual venting it gets from the aft cabin where Linda and Ruby were sleeping. It all worked out well as we were now also completely becalmed with not a breath of wind so I was able to shut things down, open up all the hatches and take down all the sails while the engine room cooled off. Normally I might have just sat there drifting and got some sleep myself but the swell was still quite large, running about 2-3 meters so the boat really rolls over a lot as we ride up each one so it isn’t very comfortable to sit in it for long. By now the engine room was cooled enough and the alarm sensors reset so I motored off into the first light of day and headed us SSE again towards Funafuti.

As the light was coming up so did Linda, with her smile returning as she had successfully fought off the cold, headaches and sinus and had her smile back. And what a day it turned out to be! More and more blue started poking through the sky to the south and as the morning progressed the sun started to burn off more and more of the overhead clouds and gave us a gorgeous day that is still with us (6pm now) with all blue overhead and smaller white fluffy clouds on all points of the 360 degree horizon surrounding us. For some this is apparently quite disconcerting to be completely out of sight of land but for me, and fortunately Linda too, it is exhilarating. You are simultaneously humbled by just how small a speck you are on this vast sea scape and it becomes very obvious that we are perched on the surface of a huge sphere as you see the curve of the earth in 3D all around you. About 2pm the wind finally came up enough to sail and so I hoisted all three sails, shut down our trusty motor and we were soon sailing into more blue sky at over four knots, gently rising up and over each of the huge swells that were now over four meters at times but spaced over 8 seconds apart and with us travelling parallel to their crests and troughs the motion is absolutely soothing as the lift Learnativity gently up and over each curved crest and down into the next trough. This is about as good as it gets for open ocean sailing and we’ve spent the whole day like this, relishing in the serenity and peacefulness of it all.

Linda has been busy down in the galley putting together yet another amazing meal for us, though I’m not quite sure just what it is yet as I’ve been catching up on some sleep from doing all the watches the past two nights but we’ll soon be enjoying it as we watch the sun set off to our starboard aft quarter.

Position wise we are now sailing past the many islands that make up the country of Kiribati. If you are checking out our location on the maps we are now sailing about 60nm to the east of Marakei Island. It is too far away for us to see visually but the clouds off to the west of us give away the existence of land below them. Everything is going very well with us onboard and so we are not going to stop in Kiribati and will continue towards Funafuti in Tuvalu, the next large archipelago SSE of here and see if we want to stop there or continue to sail on.

Today is day seven since we left Majuro and we likely have about another week till we get to Funafuti. I know it isn’t for everyone, very few really I guess, but both Linda and really enjoy these longer passages and time out at sea. After the first few days you settle into the new rhythm of each day as they flow seamlessly together with the slow natural progressions as each day dawns and makes the progression and transition into night with its own progression as the moon and stars come and go and first light starts the cycle all over again. Weather changes, sail changes, meals, showering and just life on board continue throughout all this and you experience this wonderfully weird new way of living where time takes on a whole new dimension. One of those things you can only learn and understand by experiencing it so I won’t go on any further, just wanted to share a bit of it all with you and try to help explain why we are in no hurry to make landfall just yet. If this weather continues we could end up in Antarctica!

And with that I’ll end for today so I can go see what Linda has in store for us for dinner tonight and we can enjoy the sun which is about to set off in the west and just behind us. Hope your day and evening goes equally well and will be back to you with more updates and details tomorrow.

Linda, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

Posted via email from Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day#5+6, Friday/Sat May 27+28th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

LTY UPDATE: Day#5+6, Friday/Sat May 27+28th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

Friday May 27th, 2011
02:00 (Saturday) LTY time (UTC +12) = 14:00 UTC
Location: About 95nm SSE of Mili atoll
Position: 05 19.175 N, 172 45.762 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 6.5knots (motoring)
COG: (Course Over Ground) 156 degrees True
Wind: 0-5 knots S
Seas: 1.5m @ 6 seconds out of NE
Air temp: 87.2.8F 30.7C
Sea temp: 89.1 F 31.7 C
Humidity: 82%
Barometer: 1013mm

DAY #5: FINALLY OFF to FUNAFUTI & FIJI - OUT to SEA WE GO!
More squalls through the night but less rain and the wind were keeping us more perpendicular to the sea swell so not as rolly overnight. It was more gray skies when we awoke though it looked quite thin and the sun seemed to be doing its best to burn through. We get very spoiled and accustomed to clear blue skies and sun all the time! With the boat all good to go and nothing compelling us to spend more time in Mili we decided to head out to sea and start the longer passages down to Fiji.

For those of you interested in more details on our route and getting a better sense of what it’s like to see the world one nautical smile at a time, here is a bit more detail on distances, times and routes. The distance where we are now (Mili atoll) to Fiji will of course vary depending on the route we end up taking due to wind and seas but will likely total about 1700-1900 nm (nautical miles). A nautical mile is about 1.15 miles and about 1.85km so that would work out to about 1900-2100 miles or 3150-3520km. Our speed also varies greatly depending on weather conditions but on average we typically do about 4.5-5.55nm/hour or a more useful metric is that we cover about 120-150nm per 24 hour day. So our trip to Fiji will likely take us about two weeks of sailing time, not counting any days we decide to stop at other islands along the way. If you check out this area on a map or Google Earth you’ll see that we are heading SSE to get to Fiji and will be first passing by the island archipelago countries of Kiribati(pronounced “Keer-E-bass”) which formerly known as the Gilbert Islands and then Tuvalu. Right now we are heading for Funafuti in Tuvalu which puts us on a course or compass heading of about 155 degrees and are about 1000 nm from Mili so about an 8 day sail. We think we will stay to the East of Kiribati and not likely stop as Tarawa where we would need to go first to check in and out is located over to the west and we are trying to gain as much easting as we can as early as we can because the wind is predominantly out of the East this time of year here and we need to get some easting in to get over to Fiji. However if the weather turns bad or we feel we’d like to get some rest from sailing it will be easy enough for us to head over to Tarawa for a night or two there and then proceed down to Tuvalu and Fiji.

From Funafuti, where we do our check in/out of Tuvalu we think we might head south for another 300nm to Rotuma which is a very tiny little island that is considered part of Fiji and sits about 320nm straight north of all the rest of the Fijian islands (Fiji consists of over 360 islands). I stopped there last year on my way from Fiji to the Marshall Islands and enjoyed it immensely as it is a very small isolated island that had just been granted permission to do Fiji check in/out processing and I was boat #7 to have done so! It was also an idyllic little chain of islands with some very unique landscapes, very friendly people, great fruit and vegetables, snorkelling, beaches, …. well you get the idea!

However if the wind and seas will allow it we are also considering heading further east, perhaps as far over as the two small French owned islands of Wallis and Futuna and then head west into Fiji from there. Most of our routing decisions will be based on what Mother Nature allows and then just how we are feeling and which places are calling our names the loudest. Stay tuned and you’ll know almost as soon as we do!

Meanwhile, back to the present and our anchorage off the island of Ennalik on Mili atoll, with the weather being overcast and feeling some sense of excitement about getting going we pulled up the anchor just before 11am and headed east winding our way through some last bits of coral outcroppings and over to the NE Passage out of Mili. Our charts said there was just enough depth (about 20 feet) for this pass to be safe for us to go through and we had talked to the captain of a large local boat who said this pass would be fine. This would put us a bit further east which was good and then we’d turn south and be off towards Funafuti.

As we approached the NE Passage we could see that there was lots of distance, about 500m, between the two islands that marked this pass but our charts showed that there was significant coral outcroppings from each side and it was a bit daunting, for Linda especially, to see the large rollers breaking as the west moving swell from the open ocean outside suddenly rose up from several thousand feet to only 20 feet above the coral in the pass. However we had the wind and the current opposing us so if anything did happen or we decided we didn’t like the looks of this pass we could easily turn back with the help of the wind and current and go to the main pass on the NW corner of Mili where we had entered the other day. So we kept a close eye on the waves, watched for any colour change in the water that would indicate sudden depth changes and watched the depth meter as we steadily headed into the pass. Fortunately Learnativity has a large powerful engine which helps us stay in good control and push us through such passages and with all things seeming to match our charts and other information we made the decision to go for it, gave it some more throttle and headed into the waves which were now rising up to about 5 meters/15 feet. Learnativity’s length and weight helps us as well to cut through and ride such waves, and ones much larger and while it was an exciting ride for a few minutes, the depth meter never dipped much below 20 feet and was soon reading hundreds as we cleared the pass and headed out for open ocean. We stayed heading east to gain good clearance from the island and to get out into slightly calmer water though the storms we had been seeing the past two days had clearly built up some significant swells and wind waves and the seas were running about 3m/10ft out of the east. Once well clear of Mili and the pass we put up our sails, pointed the bow SSE and we were on our way to Funafuti.

The wind was great for our heading blowing at 18-25 knots/hr out of the ENE and so we had our main sail and head sail up, the motor off and we were doing a respectable 6 knots or more as we settled into a week or more of non-stop sailing. Once the boat was all setup Linda suggested we get a lure in the water to see what we might be able to catch to augment our well provisioned boat so I mounted our fishing rod on the aft rail and put out a lure that had caught several nice fish on my way up here last year. Just a few minutes later the tell tale ziiiinnnggggg of the line being reeled out sounded to indicate that we had a fish on already! Alas, as I stepped out of the cockpit and over to the rail to take the rod, a quick look aft showed that we instead had a large bird on the line! This has happened to me once before and so as Linda grabbed some heavy gloves and pliers, I reeled the poor bird in as quickly as I could. It was the same type, a large dark dirty brown booby/gull like bird I had hooked last year and it took some good strain on the rod to haul him in as I tried to do so as quickly as possible so as not to drown the poor thing. Must have been a hell of a ride for him as he bounced over top and underneath the waves! But I soon had him alongside the boat and he was even able to fly a bit and help me get him up close enough to grab him. Of course he wasn’t too pleased with the whole state of affairs either and was anxious to let me know this very clearly by trying his best to peck and bite me with his long sharp beak, hence the gloves! However he only scored a few hits before I was able to grab his beak and get his wings tucked in. Fortunately he had missed having the triple fish hooks on the lure stick into him and it was just that the fish line was wrapped around his wing. So Linda was able to now join me at the rail and help me untangle the line from around his wing and cut off the end of the fishing rod loop which had broken off while I was reeling him in and was not entangled in the line on his wing. And oh, did I mention that we are heeled over at 20-25 degrees, in 25 knots of wind, with the boat doing over 6 knots in 3-4 meter seas while all this is happening?

Great entertainment for us, not so much for him I’m sure and we soon had the line unwrapped from around his wing and I straightened out his feathers as best I could, checked for any further damage and seeing none, threw him upward into the air hoping he would be able to fly away. He made it about 15 feet in the strong winds and then landed in the water, giving us some concern he was hurt but he soon gathered himself together and flew off. He would sure have a great tale to tell all his buddies back at the nest tonight!

As we sailed onward we could see that there was a large storm with brooding dark grey clouds spread out ahead of us to the south and stretching pretty much from east to west, though north was much clearer. The winds and sea continued to build but Learnativity handles these conditions very well and we were making good time. A few hours later in the afternoon the wind dropped off to less than 15 knots and so we decided to put up our stay sail which is a relatively small sail that flies hanked onto the inner forestay, a stainless steel cable that runs from about 10 feet aft of the bow to about 2/3 of the way up the mast. This adds more sail area and helps the flow of air through the slot between the main sail and the head sail so gives us good advantage when we are sailing close hauled like this, which means sailing close to or into, the wind. It took a while to get this sail up on deck, hanked onto the inner forestay and connected to all the lines and we worked out our signals for Linda to run the lines and sheets in the cockpit while I was up on the foredeck ensuring it all went up OK this first time, which it did and we were soon sailing along with all three sails flying.

No sooner did I get back into the cockpit though, than I realized that we were now sailing almost due north! As we were getting this stay sail up the wind had quickly shifted around from the ENE where it had been since we left his morning, to now being from the SSW! Very strange and what had happened was that we were entering a large storm and were experiencing the clockwise spiralling winds that it was generating. We could have taken down the sails and just motored but we decided to take advantage of this situation to gain some more easting and so we headed pretty much due east which the wind from the south now allowed/required and were soon making good time east. It turned out to be quite a storm and we had winds up over 35 knots at time and lots of rain along with it that cut visibility down to nothing, though there isn’t much to see out here anyway. With our plastic windows/curtains all zipped and fastened to close in the sides of our cockpit we were dry and nice and comfy in the cockpit and able to enjoy the storm as it raged on outside. This lasted for quite a few hours and then the wind gradually dropped off and got too low to sail so we motor sailed for most of the rest of the night, keeping on the edge of the wind angle as we could expect it to gradually work its way around back to the east.

Linda and I decided to start trying out our four hour watches during the night and she took the first watch from 9pm to 1am when I took over. We’ll see how this works out for both of us in terms of finding the right amount of time for each watch that will give us enough time to get a good sleep and yet not be too long when you are on watch. We’ll let you know how it all works out. For me it is all such a treat and a very different experience to not be doing all this single handed and be the only one on watch so whatever we come up with will be great for me!

And that’s the latest update for you from the good ship Learnativity today. We’ll be back to you with more tomorrow. Thanks for joining us!

Linda, Ruby the Wonderdog, and Wayne

Posted via email from Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Days # 1 & 2 Mon/Tues May 23rd & 24th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

LTY UPDATE: Days # 1 & 2 Mon/Tues May 23rd & 24th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

Tuesday May 24th, 2011
18:50 LTY time (UTC +12) = 06:50 UTC
Location: anchored off Port Rino on NW corner of Mili atoll
Position: 06 13.181 N, 171 48.003 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to
see on map)
Wind: 12-18 knots ENE
Seas: 0.5m @ 3 seconds out of SE
Air temp: 90.5F 32.5 C
Sea temp: 91.8 F 33.2 C
Humidity: 74%
Barometer: 1012mm

MAJURO to MARVELLOUS MILI

We are making a nice transition into being out sailing and are still
working our way up to the routine of daily postings so I’ve been a bit delinquent in getting to these updates and you're getting several days
rolled into one with this one. Once we get into the longer passages we
will get into the rhythm of posting updates each evening or so as we go. Our first two days three days have been great and all is very well on the
Good Ship Learnativity. Here is the quick overview of the past few days for you.

DAY #1: FIRST NIGHT SAIL - MONDAY May 23rd, 2011
As per the first LTY Update we left Majuro on Monday afternoon and had a very nice easy sail around the Western end of the atoll as we made the U turn around it and headed SE towards the small atoll of Mili. This is a sail of about 120nm so about 18 hours for us to complete and would give us
a good start with a bit of everything sailing wise; some day sailing, some
night sailing, all points of sail, anchoring, etc. as this woudl be
Linda's first experience with many of those as well as the first time
Learnativity has been back out to sea since the middle of October. We
left mid-afternoon so as to time our arrival in Mili to be about 10am when
there is good light for the visual navigation we need to do going through
passes and inside atolls due to all the uncharted smaller coral heads and
other obstructions. Our departure from Majuro couldn't have been better as it was mostly blue skies, sunny and about 15 knots of wind. As we
cleared the NW pass out of Majuro and got into open ocean a pod of over 30
bottlenose dolphins came to wish us well and guided us out to the far NW corner of the atoll. They are always such a treat to see and you can
almost hear them laughing and giggling as they play the game of who can
come closest to the bow of the boat without hitting it. Linda must have stayed up at the bow leaning over the pulpit (bow railing) for half an
hour just mesmerized as she had a ring side seat to the dolphins swimming
just inches below the surface of our bow wave often in groups of 3 to 5
swimming fin to fin beside each other.

We continued down the west coast of the atoll as the sun set and we
started our first night sail together with the lights in the few houses
ashore coming on and the stars all popping out above us as we ate a
delicious meal up in the cockpit of spicy Chinese salad that Linda had
made up before leaving along with some left over oven roasted potatoes and
pork chops. All very idyllic as we sailed along under the starry starry night. Once clear of the SW corner of Majuro atoll we were out of the
lee of Majuro and into open sea and more wind and set a course SE for Mili
and had a great night sail all the way there.

DAY #2: INTO MILI ATOLL - May 24, 2011
The wind kept creeping southward and so we had it mostly on the nose for the majority of the sail and had to keep bearing off a bit to the south as
we were sailing right on the edge of what we can sail upwind which is
about 35-40 degrees off the wind. As we got closer to Mili we were too
far west to make it under sail and so for the last few hours we had to use
the motor to help get us the last bit East into the pass on the NW corner
of Mili. The pass is small but plenty big enough and we made it through about 10am just as planned to give us some good light for the visual
navigation you need to do inside the atolls as you watch for coral heads (bommies).

Once inside the atoll we sailed down to the NW corner to the small village
of Mili where the Mayor lives to show him our inter Marshall Island
sailing papers and to ask permission to stay. However just as we were
about to set the anchor I smelled something not right coming out of the
engine room and had to shut down the engine. Fortunately we had just
arrived at a good anchoring depth and were able to get the anchor down and
set so we were secure in the growing wind and waves. As we were setting the anchor however the electric windlass that pulls our very large (75kg)
anchor and chain up suddenly stopped working. Not a problem for setting the anchor but this meant we weren't going anywhere until we fixed the
windlass as taking it up by hand is rather difficult. All part of the
sailing life and owning a boat and so I headed down into the engine room to find out what the odd smell was and get our engine running again as
this is one of our most important safety assets should real troubles
emerge with bad weather and such. Fortunately it didn’t take long to find
that as I suspected the problem was that the rubber impellor pump on the sea water pump for our wet exhaust system on the main engine had
disintegrated and needed to be replaced. This is something I've done many
times in the past and can almost do in my sleep now and it only took about
an hour to have the engine back up and running and I only lost a few
pounds down in the sauna of an engine room in the process! Turning to
the windlass problem it was blowing the high amperage circuit breaker each
time we turned it on and after some testing it turned out to be a rather nasty problem as the main ground cable on the windlass motor was shorting
out and arcing so much it was melting some of the outer motor case. Not good! The windlass is mounted up at the very front of the bow of course where it can pull in the anchor chain right off the bow roller and so the
electric motor is located right in the very upper peak of the bow inside the chain locker and is a bit of a chore to get myself into to remove the
motor, but once wedged into position I was able to get the motor out in
about 20 minutes and get it out in the open to figure out the problem and
a solution. Initially it appeared to be a simple problem in that the nut
which tightens the ground cable lug to motor had corroded away and so the
cable had come lose and was arcing to adjacent spots as the high amperage
tried to flow through to run the windlass. However after disassembling
some of the motor it turned out that the ground whole terminal post that comes up through the steel outer motor casing had broken away all the
insulation around it. A bit trickier to repair but in the end I was able
to cut some new threads on the lower part of the terminal post and then
use some 5 minute epoxy and some fibre washers as I held the terminal in the centre and let the epoxy harden and then thread on a new nut against the fibre washers to hold it all in place. That along with some silicone
to make the steel end cap that had been worn away by the arcing all
waterproof again and it was ready to be replaced and tested. All worked out as planned and we had a fully working motor and windlass again!

However in the several hours this all took the weather had deteriorated
with winds up over 35 knots and the wind waves and swell were now
approaching 2 meters. We were in the SW corner of the atoll and the swell
and wind was coming from the NE so we were in the worst spot for the
build-up of both and it wasn’t too safe to be launching the dingy and
going ashore so we tried to raise the mayor on the VHF radio and let them
know were not going to be able to look after our clearance here and were going to head up to the north side to find a better anchorage. It was
about 4pm by the time we got the anchor up and were underway and we
initially tried to sail diagonally across to the NE corner but with the
opposing wind and waves our speed, even motoring was such that it would
have been after sundown that we got there so we headed for a more
protected spot just inside the NW pass where we entered and were able to find a perfect spot to anchor that had a good size coral reef that we
could put between us and the swell and made for a very comfortable
anchorage. Some of the local men rowed out to welcome us and we were able
to show them our papers and get their permission to stay. The wind and
waves were still too much for us to go ashore in the dingy to trade with them but were able to give them some of the goods we have been collecting
to distribute to the people in these outer islands such as clothes,
blankets and reading materials and we had a short but good visit with
them.
After a few quick squalls passed over the sun was back out in perfect time
for us to enjoy an evening meal in the cockpit as the sun went down and we
dined on fresh Wahoo (tuna) that Linda caught while out fishing with some
cruising friends on the outer reefs of Majuro last week. After a quick
sear on our BBQ we were soon enjoying this delicious fish with tasty spicy
risotto and more of Linda’s great salads as the stars came out and we
rocked gently in the waves.

For those who are wondering and as you might gather by now Linda is taking
to this new sailing life style and life at sea quite literally like a fish
to water. Like myself she is one of the rare people who don’t seem to be
affected by the motion on board and while we have not experienced any
truly bad weather yet, we have had pretty much all the types of motion and
seas in the past few days on all points of sail and Linda has yet to feel
the need for any sea sick medicines. We have lots on board should they be
needed but for now some fresh ginger is at hand for a quick nibble if
feeling a bit queasy and so far that’s only been used once or twice. I
still marvel at finding not only my soul mate but one who has such a great
attitude about life overall and who has taken to this entire life style
and life onboard and at sea so completely and so quickly. We both feel
that we have won the lottery of life, love and learning and look forward to sharing it all with you as we go. Thanks for joining us!

Linda, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

Posted via email from Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day#4 Thursday May 26th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

LTY UPDATE: Day#4 Thursday May 26th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

Thursday May 26th, 2011
18:50 LTY time (UTC +12) = 06:50 UTC
Location: anchored off Ennanlik Island and pass in NE corner of Mili atoll
Position: 06 12.217 N, 172 00.004 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 20-45 knots ENE
Seas: 1-2.52m @ 2 seconds out of NE
Air temp: 87.6F 30.4 C
Sea temp: 86.4 F 30.2 C
Humidity: 74%
Barometer: 1013mm

DAY #4: ENJOYING STORMY DAY at ANCHOR
As we expected last night was a series of frequent and more powerful squalls with winds up to 50 knots at times. Learnativity handles it well and just gets a bit noisy and rolly. The wind shifted to the north and that puts us more in line with the swell so we roll much more and makes moving around a bit of a challenge but is fine when you are sitting and reading.

I used the time to try to get our sat phone talking to the laptops properly and be able to get Emails and blog postings up on the net and after way too much time as of this morning (Friday now) I’ve finally been able to get one of the laptops working and so you should be now receiving either Emails or seeing the blog postings appear up on the Learnativity blog at http://learnativity.typepad.com and there should also be updates on Twitter and FaceBook with links to the blog postings. The rest of the time I used to look after some boat work while we are anchored and have us in even better shape for the longer passage down to Fiji.

Linda has been busy with her mini onboard herb garden and we now have parsley, cilantro and basil plants sprouting nicely and are looking forward to have this renewable supply of herbs to augment our meals.

Weather wise it was gray skies with squalls passing through every few hours so it was a quiet rainy day aboard Learnativity with not too much exciting to report. I’ve got a new download of weather files and all looks good between here and Fiji so we will probably take off tomorrow (Friday here) morning, head out the NE pass out of Mili and turn SSE on our way to Fiji. We will let wind, weather and whim determine our route and whether we stop in at places like Kiribati (used to be Gilbert Islands) and Tuvalu and whether we will make first Fiji landfall in the tiny isolated Fijian island of Rotuma which is about 320nm north of all the other Fijian islands, or head into Savusavu over to the east if we can get that far east or else Lautoka on the far west side of Fiji. We will keep you posted as we go and thanks for joining us.

Linda, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

Posted via email from Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day#3 Wed 25th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

LTY UPDATE: Day#3 Wed 25th, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji

Wednesday May 25th, 2011

18:50 LTY time (UTC +12) = 06:50 UTC
Location: anchored off Ennanlik Island and pass in NE corner of Mili
atoll Position: 06 12.217 N, 172 00.004 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to
see on map)
Wind: 15-30 ENE
Seas: 0.5 – 2m @ 2 seconds out of NE
Air temp: 87.6F 30.4 C
Sea temp: 86.4 F 30.2 C
Humidity: 74%
Barometer: 1013mm

DAY #3: TACKING ACROSS MILI – May 25, 2011
After a very restful sleep we awoke to a beautiful sunny day and spent a leisurely morning enjoying this idyllic spot while we made the big
decision of the day; head off to sea or stay another day in Mili? It was
perfect sailing weather so we decided to sail straight East across the
lagoon inside the atoll and headed toward the NE corner where we could
either anchor for the night in what looked like a lovely little spot
amidst lots of coral and small islands or keep going out the small NE
Passage and out to sea. The winds are predominantly from the East this
time of year and Fiji lies mostly south but a bit to the east of us so
gaining the approximately 15nm of easting while inside the protection of the atoll helps us so be exiting out the east side we are in a better
position when we leave here and head for Fiji.

The wind was pretty much due East, so directly opposing us or “on the
nose” as it is called and so we used the opportunity to practice some
tacking as we zig zagged our way across the lagoon. Tacking of course
takes much longer to get where you are going and we enjoyed the leisurely
pace and sunny weather punctuated by a few brief squalls during the
afternoon. Mid-afternoon we decided to anchor for the night and so we
slowly motored our way through some coral reefs and found a great little spot to anchor just off two postcard perfect little palm islands with a
long sandy beach connecting them and lots of coral reefs to break up some
of the swell. It took two tries to find a nice sandy bottom in about 30 feet (9m) of water to drop the anchor into and avoid damaging any coral
and by the time we let out about 200 feet (61m) of anchor chain we were
already in 120 feet (37m) of water as the coral drops off quickly. We
soon lost most of our sun as the squalls became more frequent and strong and were now getting winds up over 30 knots when they came through. Each
squall only lasts for 3 to 10 minutes but they were not getting more
frequent and lasting longer without the usual clearing to clear skies
between so looks like we will be in for a windy night and a bit more boat
motion but one of the benefits of a big heavy boat like Learnativity is
that she evens these out nicely and the overall motion is quite soothing,
especially for sleeping. Linda made up some BBQ pork chops with “dirty
rice” that we enjoyed while rocking in the wind and waves and enjoying a
good movie.

We’ll see what the weather looks like in the morning and make the decision
then as to whether we will head out to sea and start the longer passage to
Fiji or to stay here for another day. Aren’t we the fortunate ones to have such decisions to make!! We sure enjoy having you join us as we set
out on this next grand adventure in life and will be back with more for
you tomorrow.

Linda, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

Posted via email from Learnativity

SMS from 881632510270@msg.iridium.com

LTY inside Mili atoll on way 2get chief's OK 2stay then off 2anchor+explore

Posted via email from Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day#1 Monday May 23, 2011

LTY UPDATE: Day#1 Monday May 23, 2011
Majuro to Mili atoll
13:40 LTY time (UTC +12) = 01:40 UTC
Location: about 125m SSE of Majuro, Marshalls
Position: 07 08.890 N, 171 16.869 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see where we are on map)
Wind: 10-15 kts E
Seas: flat (still on mooring inside Majuro atoll)
Air temp: 90.5F 32.5 C
Sea temp: 86.4 F 30.2 C
Humidity: 57%
Barometer: 10153mm

The Next Leg of Life, Love & Learning begins!

Greetings one and all friends of the Good Ship Learnativity. We are about to set sail from Majuro where LTY has been moored since mid October and where Linda, Ruby and I have been enjoying this area, the people and getting LTY all ship shape for another year of sailing. After several weeks of LOTS of hard work we have all the boat jobs done, have all tanks and batteries filled up and all provisions bought and stored for the next few months.

We've been over at the small islet of Eneko since yesterday afternoon for one last test sail and to finish the Finlay preparations. Almost done now and we will be casting off in the next hour or so after one last swim over to the pristine postcard beach ashore to give Ruby one last romp ashore.

You should see daily updates like this from now on as we make our way generally south to Fiji with some number of stops along the way. We'll sail overnight tonight and arrive at the atoll of Mili about 100nm south of here tomorrow morning for one last chance to say goodbye to the Marshall Islands (for now) and will stay there for a night or two before heading out on the longer sails south to Fiji. We'll take each day as it comes (as usual) to decide the route and what stops (if any) we'll make on our way to Fiji, all dictated by weather and whim as we go. You'll know almost as soon as we do via postings like this and/or the updates to FaceBook and the Learnativity blog. (http://learnativity.typepad.com) We don't have Linda's FaceBook and blog set up for these automatic postings just yet but will add these when we get to Fiji or next get a good internet connection.

We are SO excited about this new journey we are starting in our life together and look forward to keeping you updated and sharing it all with you as it happens. Hope you enjoy the ride, we love having you with us!

Linda, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Aboard s/v Learnativity

Eneko islet on atoll of Majuro
07 08.890 N, 171 16.869 E

Email @ sea: whodgins@ocens.net
FaceBook page: www.facebook.com/linda.smithwoodhouse
www.facebook.com/wayne.hodgins
Learnativity blog: www.learnativity.typepad.com
Skype: whodgins
Twitter: WWWayne
Sat phone texting: send short 140 character Text msgs via Email to: 881632510270@msg.iridium.com

Posted via email from Learnativity