LTY UPDATE: Day#2 –Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Lautoka Fiji to Anelghowhat Bay, Aneityum island Vanuatu LTY (Fiji) time: 15:20:00 (= UTC +12)
Location: About 170nm WSW of Lautoka Fiji
Position: 18 44.116 S, 174 33.562 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 6.8 knots
COG: (Course Over Ground) 251 degrees
Wind: 12-18 knots South Apparent (wind as felt on deck)
Seas/Swell: 6ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 86.8 F 30.4C
Sea temp: 86.4 F 30.2 C
Barometer: 1018mm
Distance to Aneityum Bay: 313nm
Distance last 24 hours: 144nm NOTE: For those of you getting this for the first time via the Email list I've used in years past, please let me know via whodgins@ocens.net if you would like to be taken off this list. You can also get these updates via FaceBook, Twitter and the Learnativity blog and all these links are at the bottom of this posting. DAY #2:
I now have my first full 24 hour day of sailing this year behind me and it’s feeling better by the minute! Mother Nature cooperated and gave me the full gamut of weather to experience with a brilliant sunny day yesterday with no wind at all and then about 2am this morning the wind quickly filled in and built to over 22 knots within an hour. I had the main sail up to help reduce the rolling while motoring so all I needed to do was unfurl the jib (head sail) and we were soon off doing 6+ knots and heeled well over to starboard (right side). The headsail I am flying now is new to me being the original headsail that came with the boat which I’ve since had cut down (to 125%) and rebuilt when I was in Port Townsend Washington, but I only got around to getting on board by bringing it with me on the airplane last time I was in the US. (thanks John!) This one is much bigger than the 98% headsail which I had made new in San Francisco and have been sailing with the past 5 years and it makes quite a difference and gives me lots of new things to learn. These sizes refer to 100% being if the foot of the sail filled the whole distance from the bow to the mast. I carry both on board, six sails all together, for different conditions and hope this one will be my most used headsail for the sailing I’ll be doing the next year or more. So far it has been working well yielding considerably higher SOG (Speed Over Ground) that the previous sail and right now we are getting up to almost 7.5 knots in 12-16 knots of winds so not bad for this big beautiful steel tank of my rookie “experiential” sailing skills. It will provide lots of fun and new experiences as I figure out how to trim and furl it in different conditions. OK, enough with the sailing talk! Suffice it to say that it feels GREAT to be back out on the water and sailing again! Last night’s sail went well as I get back into the rhythm of these 24 hour days on passage. My captain’s chair is as comfy as ever, I’ve got some new electronics installed for navigation and boat monitoring and it has been an interesting experience to remember all the little habits and techniques I need for sailing. It is one of those experiences where it feels like that strange combination of being something you are very familiar with but the memory is vague and you are feeling your way around with very blurry vision. But it is all coming back to me with each step feeling more natural as I go. All those hours, weeks and months of work to rebuild almost every component onboard are now paying those great dividends of satisfaction as I put them all to work. I do continue to be amazed at how well this life out sailing the world fits me as I didn’t grow up around boats or the sea or sailing and I don’t have any prior experience owning or sailing a boat. For me this is just the latest best way I have fond to pursue my life long passions for learning, being self-reliant and self sufficient. I’m willing to bet that almost everyone reading this has a similar “Do It Yourself” type of spirit and so you can perhaps appreciate and relate to the feelings I’m having now as I get to use and literally depend upon all the work of the past year to rebuild Learnativity into an even stronger and better blue water sailboat than she already was. How long will I continue to sail many ask? For as long as it makes me feel like this and until I serendipitously stumble upon the next best way to pursue my curiosity and love for learning. Well, I need to go adjust that headsail a bit as the leach (trailing edge) is fluttering a bit too much with a recent wind shift and it will take me a while to set up the sat phone to send this update out to you so I’ll leave it at that for today. I do want to thank each of you sincerely for joining me on this grand adventure as it adds to my delight to know that you are there and that I might provide some entertainment and comic relief for you. Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Lautoka Fiji to Anelghowhat Bay, Aneityum island Vanuatu LTY (Fiji) time: 15:20:00 (= UTC +12)
Location: About 170nm WSW of Lautoka Fiji
Position: 18 44.116 S, 174 33.562 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 6.8 knots
COG: (Course Over Ground) 251 degrees
Wind: 12-18 knots South Apparent (wind as felt on deck)
Seas/Swell: 6ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 86.8 F 30.4C
Sea temp: 86.4 F 30.2 C
Barometer: 1018mm
Distance to Aneityum Bay: 313nm
Distance last 24 hours: 144nm NOTE: For those of you getting this for the first time via the Email list I've used in years past, please let me know via whodgins@ocens.net if you would like to be taken off this list. You can also get these updates via FaceBook, Twitter and the Learnativity blog and all these links are at the bottom of this posting. DAY #2:
I now have my first full 24 hour day of sailing this year behind me and it’s feeling better by the minute! Mother Nature cooperated and gave me the full gamut of weather to experience with a brilliant sunny day yesterday with no wind at all and then about 2am this morning the wind quickly filled in and built to over 22 knots within an hour. I had the main sail up to help reduce the rolling while motoring so all I needed to do was unfurl the jib (head sail) and we were soon off doing 6+ knots and heeled well over to starboard (right side). The headsail I am flying now is new to me being the original headsail that came with the boat which I’ve since had cut down (to 125%) and rebuilt when I was in Port Townsend Washington, but I only got around to getting on board by bringing it with me on the airplane last time I was in the US. (thanks John!) This one is much bigger than the 98% headsail which I had made new in San Francisco and have been sailing with the past 5 years and it makes quite a difference and gives me lots of new things to learn. These sizes refer to 100% being if the foot of the sail filled the whole distance from the bow to the mast. I carry both on board, six sails all together, for different conditions and hope this one will be my most used headsail for the sailing I’ll be doing the next year or more. So far it has been working well yielding considerably higher SOG (Speed Over Ground) that the previous sail and right now we are getting up to almost 7.5 knots in 12-16 knots of winds so not bad for this big beautiful steel tank of my rookie “experiential” sailing skills. It will provide lots of fun and new experiences as I figure out how to trim and furl it in different conditions. OK, enough with the sailing talk! Suffice it to say that it feels GREAT to be back out on the water and sailing again! Last night’s sail went well as I get back into the rhythm of these 24 hour days on passage. My captain’s chair is as comfy as ever, I’ve got some new electronics installed for navigation and boat monitoring and it has been an interesting experience to remember all the little habits and techniques I need for sailing. It is one of those experiences where it feels like that strange combination of being something you are very familiar with but the memory is vague and you are feeling your way around with very blurry vision. But it is all coming back to me with each step feeling more natural as I go. All those hours, weeks and months of work to rebuild almost every component onboard are now paying those great dividends of satisfaction as I put them all to work. I do continue to be amazed at how well this life out sailing the world fits me as I didn’t grow up around boats or the sea or sailing and I don’t have any prior experience owning or sailing a boat. For me this is just the latest best way I have fond to pursue my life long passions for learning, being self-reliant and self sufficient. I’m willing to bet that almost everyone reading this has a similar “Do It Yourself” type of spirit and so you can perhaps appreciate and relate to the feelings I’m having now as I get to use and literally depend upon all the work of the past year to rebuild Learnativity into an even stronger and better blue water sailboat than she already was. How long will I continue to sail many ask? For as long as it makes me feel like this and until I serendipitously stumble upon the next best way to pursue my curiosity and love for learning. Well, I need to go adjust that headsail a bit as the leach (trailing edge) is fluttering a bit too much with a recent wind shift and it will take me a while to set up the sat phone to send this update out to you so I’ll leave it at that for today. I do want to thank each of you sincerely for joining me on this grand adventure as it adds to my delight to know that you are there and that I might provide some entertainment and comic relief for you. Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
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