LTY UPDATE: Day#3 –Thursday, August 16, 2012
Lautoka Fiji to Anelghowhat Bay, Aneityum island Vanuatu LTY time: 18:41:00 (Fiji time = UTC +12)
Location: About 135nm ENE of Aneityum Island, Vanuatu
Position: 19 54.343 S, 171 42.762 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 7.2 knots
COG: (Course Over Ground) 254 degrees
Wind: 14-22 knots SE Apparent (wind as felt on deck)
Seas/Swell: 10ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 68 F 20C (too cold for me!)
Sea temp: 82.4 F 28.0 C
Barometer: 1020mm
Distance to Aneityum Bay: 140nm
Distance last 24 hours: 138nm DAY #3:
Overcast skies continue and it is way too cold for my tropical blood right now! I’m sitting here now in sweat pants and sweatshirt and socks to keep warm as night falls. Ruby is finding it cold too so she wants to snuggle every chance she can but makes for a nice lap warmer so we both win. Works well as I get back into the rhythm of a passage and the very different state you get into. It is more of a continuum of time in that you don’t have it divided up into day and night so much needing to be up most of the time keeping watch. So I nap off and on all the time for short spells, read and rest and look after various bits and adjustments that come along and after the first few days it all starts to flow together into this lovely steady stream of existence. I’ve become very good at “living in the moment” and when I’m on a passage this takes on a whole new state as the moments seem to extend themselves into this continuum such that you are pretty much always “in the moment”. Quite a luxury and one I enjoy and appreciate a bit more with each passage I take. The sun came through a small clearing in the clouds around noon today and so I took advantage of the warmth to have my daily shower out on the aft deck. While drying off though there was a sudden loud BANG! Overhead. You get to know every single noise and sound a boat makes as these are perhaps the most telling input you get as to what is going on and this was a new sound and not a good one. As I looked up I saw that over half of the bottom of the main sail had come away from the boom and the clew (bottom aft end) of the main sail was now sitting in the middle and the sail was flapping wildly in the 20+ knot winds. Not good! The aft end of the boom sits about 10 feet above the deck and overtop of the cockpit roof so I can climb up there but it is a rather precarious spot to try to get to when the winds are up over 20 knots and the seas are over ten feet as there is a lot of rocking and rolling going on. But I didn’t have too much choice as I had to deal with the main sail and at the very least get it secured and hopefully find a way to be able to use it for the almost 200 nm remaining to go to Aneityum. I fired up the engine so I could head into the wind and reduce some of the forces on the sail and brought the boom back in so it was more centered over the boat, put on my safety harness and was able to pull myself up and peer into the boom to see what had happened. Turns out the large D ring bolted to the mandrel that the main sail furls/rolls up onto had sheared off both bolts and come free. This D ring is what the clew (aft bottom end of a triangular sail) is lashed to and without it the bottom of the main sail had come away from the boom and the clew ring was now sitting half way, about 10 feet, forward. Hmmmm, what to do? A proper repair would require that I remove the remainder of the bolts with a drill, center punch and hammer but trying to do this in these conditions was not a very good option. However the D ring was still fine being an extra large stainless steel one I had installed a few years ago when the original one broke and so I figured that I could try to pull the clew and the sail back into place and lash it to the mandrel well enough that I could then furl the bottom of the sail onto the mandrel a few turns and the friction would hold it in place well enough to let me continue to sail. Sounded like a plan but as usual the devil is in the details of execution. I started up the engine so that could point us into the wind and take some of the huge forces off the main sail and then winched the boom over to center it more on the boat so I could climb up on it a bit more easily. Strapping my safety harness on I was able to climb up on top of the boom an straddle it and feeling a bit like a bull rider who needed to stay on a lot longer than what they do at the county fairs, I was able to hang on and figure out a way to pull the sail back into place. Eventually I came up with a system of ropes and pulleys that I lashed between the clew ring on the sail and the aft end of the boom and pull it back where it belonged. Fortunately the D ring was still like new and even better I was able to reuse one of the original threaded holes and get a new bolt in there to temporarily hold it in place. Sounds simple but took quite a few trips up and down to the boom and getting it all in place but I managed to do so without being bucked off once! For extra measure I took some Amsteel line which is rope that is stronger than steel wire and ran several loops of that between the D ring and the aft end of the shaft the boom mandrel rotates on and this would help to hold the D ring in place while I rotated it and also be a backup safety if the D ring let go again. With the sail back in place I was able to climb down and carefully lower the main sail a bit as I turned the mandrel and furled/wrapped the main around a few turns. Worked like a charm and I now had the entire bottom of the main sail tightly wrapped around the mandrel with enough friction to hold it all in place and keep using the main sail for the remainder of this passage to Vanuatu. As a bonus, this meant that I got to experience one of the greatest joys I’ve discovered while sailing and that is the magical moment when you turn off the main engine and are instantly transported into the nirvana like state of the silence of sailing. It is an experience I never tire of and not something I suspect you can understand fully, just one of those things you have to learn experientially. What’s more this was all happening in the day time! Usually these kinds of things seem to happen right around 2am and so this was all a tasty piece of cake to have it happen in the full light of day! With that done I was able to return to heading 254, the sails filled in and we were soon slicing silently through the water at over 7 knots and back to making our way to landfall in Vanuatu which was now less than 200nm away and get back to enjoying the passage. It is also difficult to describe what time is like on these single handed passages. After the first day or so you slide into a rhythm where there isn’t a sense of division between day and night and where each moment seems to slide seamlessly into the next like the sea beneath me. I’ve become very good at “living in the moment” and there is a special version of it when I’m on a passage where the moments seem so long and fluid and I am totally present in the present all the time. A VERY special gift I’ve discovered and never cease to enjoy. I’ll leave it at that for tonight so I can get back to being in those moments, get some dinner ready and enjoy another night out on the seas. I’ve got my socks and woollies on for another cold night and will soon be snuggling with Ruby in the Captain’s chair as we slither through the seas and make our way to the next exciting adventure exploring the islands, people and sea of Vanuatu. Hope you are able to make your evening equally enjoyable in your own special way and I’ll be back with an update tomorrow on the latest news from the good ship Learnativity Night all! Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Lautoka Fiji to Anelghowhat Bay, Aneityum island Vanuatu LTY time: 18:41:00 (Fiji time = UTC +12)
Location: About 135nm ENE of Aneityum Island, Vanuatu
Position: 19 54.343 S, 171 42.762 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 7.2 knots
COG: (Course Over Ground) 254 degrees
Wind: 14-22 knots SE Apparent (wind as felt on deck)
Seas/Swell: 10ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 68 F 20C (too cold for me!)
Sea temp: 82.4 F 28.0 C
Barometer: 1020mm
Distance to Aneityum Bay: 140nm
Distance last 24 hours: 138nm DAY #3:
Overcast skies continue and it is way too cold for my tropical blood right now! I’m sitting here now in sweat pants and sweatshirt and socks to keep warm as night falls. Ruby is finding it cold too so she wants to snuggle every chance she can but makes for a nice lap warmer so we both win. Works well as I get back into the rhythm of a passage and the very different state you get into. It is more of a continuum of time in that you don’t have it divided up into day and night so much needing to be up most of the time keeping watch. So I nap off and on all the time for short spells, read and rest and look after various bits and adjustments that come along and after the first few days it all starts to flow together into this lovely steady stream of existence. I’ve become very good at “living in the moment” and when I’m on a passage this takes on a whole new state as the moments seem to extend themselves into this continuum such that you are pretty much always “in the moment”. Quite a luxury and one I enjoy and appreciate a bit more with each passage I take. The sun came through a small clearing in the clouds around noon today and so I took advantage of the warmth to have my daily shower out on the aft deck. While drying off though there was a sudden loud BANG! Overhead. You get to know every single noise and sound a boat makes as these are perhaps the most telling input you get as to what is going on and this was a new sound and not a good one. As I looked up I saw that over half of the bottom of the main sail had come away from the boom and the clew (bottom aft end) of the main sail was now sitting in the middle and the sail was flapping wildly in the 20+ knot winds. Not good! The aft end of the boom sits about 10 feet above the deck and overtop of the cockpit roof so I can climb up there but it is a rather precarious spot to try to get to when the winds are up over 20 knots and the seas are over ten feet as there is a lot of rocking and rolling going on. But I didn’t have too much choice as I had to deal with the main sail and at the very least get it secured and hopefully find a way to be able to use it for the almost 200 nm remaining to go to Aneityum. I fired up the engine so I could head into the wind and reduce some of the forces on the sail and brought the boom back in so it was more centered over the boat, put on my safety harness and was able to pull myself up and peer into the boom to see what had happened. Turns out the large D ring bolted to the mandrel that the main sail furls/rolls up onto had sheared off both bolts and come free. This D ring is what the clew (aft bottom end of a triangular sail) is lashed to and without it the bottom of the main sail had come away from the boom and the clew ring was now sitting half way, about 10 feet, forward. Hmmmm, what to do? A proper repair would require that I remove the remainder of the bolts with a drill, center punch and hammer but trying to do this in these conditions was not a very good option. However the D ring was still fine being an extra large stainless steel one I had installed a few years ago when the original one broke and so I figured that I could try to pull the clew and the sail back into place and lash it to the mandrel well enough that I could then furl the bottom of the sail onto the mandrel a few turns and the friction would hold it in place well enough to let me continue to sail. Sounded like a plan but as usual the devil is in the details of execution. I started up the engine so that could point us into the wind and take some of the huge forces off the main sail and then winched the boom over to center it more on the boat so I could climb up on it a bit more easily. Strapping my safety harness on I was able to climb up on top of the boom an straddle it and feeling a bit like a bull rider who needed to stay on a lot longer than what they do at the county fairs, I was able to hang on and figure out a way to pull the sail back into place. Eventually I came up with a system of ropes and pulleys that I lashed between the clew ring on the sail and the aft end of the boom and pull it back where it belonged. Fortunately the D ring was still like new and even better I was able to reuse one of the original threaded holes and get a new bolt in there to temporarily hold it in place. Sounds simple but took quite a few trips up and down to the boom and getting it all in place but I managed to do so without being bucked off once! For extra measure I took some Amsteel line which is rope that is stronger than steel wire and ran several loops of that between the D ring and the aft end of the shaft the boom mandrel rotates on and this would help to hold the D ring in place while I rotated it and also be a backup safety if the D ring let go again. With the sail back in place I was able to climb down and carefully lower the main sail a bit as I turned the mandrel and furled/wrapped the main around a few turns. Worked like a charm and I now had the entire bottom of the main sail tightly wrapped around the mandrel with enough friction to hold it all in place and keep using the main sail for the remainder of this passage to Vanuatu. As a bonus, this meant that I got to experience one of the greatest joys I’ve discovered while sailing and that is the magical moment when you turn off the main engine and are instantly transported into the nirvana like state of the silence of sailing. It is an experience I never tire of and not something I suspect you can understand fully, just one of those things you have to learn experientially. What’s more this was all happening in the day time! Usually these kinds of things seem to happen right around 2am and so this was all a tasty piece of cake to have it happen in the full light of day! With that done I was able to return to heading 254, the sails filled in and we were soon slicing silently through the water at over 7 knots and back to making our way to landfall in Vanuatu which was now less than 200nm away and get back to enjoying the passage. It is also difficult to describe what time is like on these single handed passages. After the first day or so you slide into a rhythm where there isn’t a sense of division between day and night and where each moment seems to slide seamlessly into the next like the sea beneath me. I’ve become very good at “living in the moment” and there is a special version of it when I’m on a passage where the moments seem so long and fluid and I am totally present in the present all the time. A VERY special gift I’ve discovered and never cease to enjoy. I’ll leave it at that for tonight so I can get back to being in those moments, get some dinner ready and enjoy another night out on the seas. I’ve got my socks and woollies on for another cold night and will soon be snuggling with Ruby in the Captain’s chair as we slither through the seas and make our way to the next exciting adventure exploring the islands, people and sea of Vanuatu. Hope you are able to make your evening equally enjoyable in your own special way and I’ll be back with an update tomorrow on the latest news from the good ship Learnativity Night all! Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Great story Wayne! What an adventure!
Posted by: Elton Hammond | August 16, 2012 at 07:15 AM