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
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
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