LTY UPDATE: Saturday, September 29th, 2012
Day #1 of passage from Vanuatu to Marshall Islands LTY time: 18:10 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: 52nm NNE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu
Position: 14 52.987 S, 167 35.422 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 22-28kts ESE
Seas/Swell: 2.5m ESE
Weather: Overcast, clear to the East
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 91 F 32.9 C
Barometer: 1017mm MARSHALL ISLANDS HERE WE COME!
After a truly wonderful week in the company of my dear friend Philip it was time to start the passage up to the Marshall Islands and the northern hemisphere. Learnativity and Blue Bie enjoyed a very calm anchorage in Luganville Bay and downtown Luganville was just over a kilometer away so we could easily take our dinghy’s ashore and walk into town for groceries, supplies and lunch which we did several times. The weather was pretty much overcast with some rain the whole time I was there but with a good internet connection and some great company it all worked out just fine. Philip and I took Learnativity over to the main wharf on Thursday as I needed to fill up my diesel fuel tanks and the tanker truck could get to the main wharf. It’s been over a year since I refuelled so I was pretty low and took on 1800 liters and because I was checking out of the country at the same time I was able to get it duty free which helps with the budget. Turned out to be one of the few sunny days we had and so we enjoyed the outing and by late afternoon LTY was anchored back in Luganville Bay with full tanks and all the official clearance papers in hand so I could leave as soon as the weather looked best. Well almost anyway. The compressor for the fridge/freezer decided to act up again and so I spent the rest of the afternoon overhauling that. Unfortunately I was down to my last can of R134a refrigerant so I had to make a quick trip into town to see if I could find any. None of the small cans I’m used to getting but I met the very helpful manager of the commercial refrigeration company and he agreed to bring his big cylinder of R134a down to the beach in about two hours so we could bring it out to LTY and recharge the compressor. I hurried back to hook up the vacuum pump and ran that for almost two hours before he showed up with the cylinder and then picked him and two helpers up in my dinghy and brought them all out to Learnativity. Didn’t take long to recharge the system with refrigerant and I soon had the compressor back up and running and the evaporators in the freezer frosting up nicely. Whew! All my carefully built up meat and frozen goods were safe. Philip and I have been playing with some new weather routing software that he has been using for a while and that proved to be very enlightening for me. It is introducing me to another whole level of sailing by being aware of so many more details to do with the way the boat sails in specific wind speeds, angles and sail settings. With the help of these programs and the daily updates of the weather forecasts between Vanuatu and the Marshalls it looked like the best time to go would be this morning (Saturday here) and so Philip and I had one last dinner together on Learnativity and I got her all ship shape and ready for the voyage. No need to rush or try for any exact departure timing for these longer passages so I enjoyed my last breakfast in Vanuatu and ran through all my pre-passage checks and was soon hauling up the anchor and waving goodbye to Philip on Blue Bie. I’d been waiting for the wind to build up to start the passage as we have had very little for the past few weeks and I also have to cross the equator and therefore the “doldrums” which is a band about 5 degrees on either side of the equator where all the winds and currents change. As most would know the doldrums are known for having very little wind and what there is often comes from every which direction so getting a good start with enough wind to sail at a reasonably speed helps to reduce the overall duration of the passage. It is about 1500 nautical miles to Majuro (capital of Marshall Islands) so should take 12-14 days depending on how much or little wind I encounter. Last night the wind picked up and continued through the night so it all looked very promising and as forecast as I left. In fact there was considerably more wind and waves once I got out of the protection of Espiritu Santo island and into the open ocean where the wind was blowing 1 to 20 knots out of the SE and the seas were about one meter out of the east to ESE. The wind and seas continued to increase for the next few hours and it was a busy time on board doing lots of reefing and sail adjustments to keep the boat well balanced steering wise. It is now almost 7pm so the sun has set and I’m about to settle in for the first night of this passage. It is a pretty boisterous ride right now as the winds have built up to 25 to 30 knots and the seas are well over 2 ½ meters now, both of them coming pretty much on my beam (perpendicular) out of the ESE so I’ve got two big reefs in both the main and the jib and we are doing six to seven knots and some pretty big rolls as we ride up and over the big rollers coming in from the east. Ruby is hunkered down in her little cubby in amongst all the ropes behind the cockpit seats which is her favorite spot to be whenever things are rough and so we are all set for a good romp of a night sail. I’m hoping to get at least another full day and maybe two of this good wind before it is forecast to die off but all remains to be seen. I’m heading more east than the straight line would be so I can pick up as much easting as possible early in the passage and before the winds start to move more to the east and then NE as I near and cross the equator. All a very dynamic process and I’ll adjust as the conditions change and as I get weather updates to show what is up ahead with a bit more accuracy closer to the dates. And with that I think I’ll stop typing for tonight and go adjust the sails before heading to the galley to make some dinner. I’ll probably post an update each evening about this time to summarize each day’s sail. Very glad to have you along for the ride and will be back with more tomorrow. Wayne
Day #1 of passage from Vanuatu to Marshall Islands LTY time: 18:10 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: 52nm NNE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu
Position: 14 52.987 S, 167 35.422 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 22-28kts ESE
Seas/Swell: 2.5m ESE
Weather: Overcast, clear to the East
Air temp: 82 F 28C
Sea temp: 91 F 32.9 C
Barometer: 1017mm MARSHALL ISLANDS HERE WE COME!
After a truly wonderful week in the company of my dear friend Philip it was time to start the passage up to the Marshall Islands and the northern hemisphere. Learnativity and Blue Bie enjoyed a very calm anchorage in Luganville Bay and downtown Luganville was just over a kilometer away so we could easily take our dinghy’s ashore and walk into town for groceries, supplies and lunch which we did several times. The weather was pretty much overcast with some rain the whole time I was there but with a good internet connection and some great company it all worked out just fine. Philip and I took Learnativity over to the main wharf on Thursday as I needed to fill up my diesel fuel tanks and the tanker truck could get to the main wharf. It’s been over a year since I refuelled so I was pretty low and took on 1800 liters and because I was checking out of the country at the same time I was able to get it duty free which helps with the budget. Turned out to be one of the few sunny days we had and so we enjoyed the outing and by late afternoon LTY was anchored back in Luganville Bay with full tanks and all the official clearance papers in hand so I could leave as soon as the weather looked best. Well almost anyway. The compressor for the fridge/freezer decided to act up again and so I spent the rest of the afternoon overhauling that. Unfortunately I was down to my last can of R134a refrigerant so I had to make a quick trip into town to see if I could find any. None of the small cans I’m used to getting but I met the very helpful manager of the commercial refrigeration company and he agreed to bring his big cylinder of R134a down to the beach in about two hours so we could bring it out to LTY and recharge the compressor. I hurried back to hook up the vacuum pump and ran that for almost two hours before he showed up with the cylinder and then picked him and two helpers up in my dinghy and brought them all out to Learnativity. Didn’t take long to recharge the system with refrigerant and I soon had the compressor back up and running and the evaporators in the freezer frosting up nicely. Whew! All my carefully built up meat and frozen goods were safe. Philip and I have been playing with some new weather routing software that he has been using for a while and that proved to be very enlightening for me. It is introducing me to another whole level of sailing by being aware of so many more details to do with the way the boat sails in specific wind speeds, angles and sail settings. With the help of these programs and the daily updates of the weather forecasts between Vanuatu and the Marshalls it looked like the best time to go would be this morning (Saturday here) and so Philip and I had one last dinner together on Learnativity and I got her all ship shape and ready for the voyage. No need to rush or try for any exact departure timing for these longer passages so I enjoyed my last breakfast in Vanuatu and ran through all my pre-passage checks and was soon hauling up the anchor and waving goodbye to Philip on Blue Bie. I’d been waiting for the wind to build up to start the passage as we have had very little for the past few weeks and I also have to cross the equator and therefore the “doldrums” which is a band about 5 degrees on either side of the equator where all the winds and currents change. As most would know the doldrums are known for having very little wind and what there is often comes from every which direction so getting a good start with enough wind to sail at a reasonably speed helps to reduce the overall duration of the passage. It is about 1500 nautical miles to Majuro (capital of Marshall Islands) so should take 12-14 days depending on how much or little wind I encounter. Last night the wind picked up and continued through the night so it all looked very promising and as forecast as I left. In fact there was considerably more wind and waves once I got out of the protection of Espiritu Santo island and into the open ocean where the wind was blowing 1 to 20 knots out of the SE and the seas were about one meter out of the east to ESE. The wind and seas continued to increase for the next few hours and it was a busy time on board doing lots of reefing and sail adjustments to keep the boat well balanced steering wise. It is now almost 7pm so the sun has set and I’m about to settle in for the first night of this passage. It is a pretty boisterous ride right now as the winds have built up to 25 to 30 knots and the seas are well over 2 ½ meters now, both of them coming pretty much on my beam (perpendicular) out of the ESE so I’ve got two big reefs in both the main and the jib and we are doing six to seven knots and some pretty big rolls as we ride up and over the big rollers coming in from the east. Ruby is hunkered down in her little cubby in amongst all the ropes behind the cockpit seats which is her favorite spot to be whenever things are rough and so we are all set for a good romp of a night sail. I’m hoping to get at least another full day and maybe two of this good wind before it is forecast to die off but all remains to be seen. I’m heading more east than the straight line would be so I can pick up as much easting as possible early in the passage and before the winds start to move more to the east and then NE as I near and cross the equator. All a very dynamic process and I’ll adjust as the conditions change and as I get weather updates to show what is up ahead with a bit more accuracy closer to the dates. And with that I think I’ll stop typing for tonight and go adjust the sails before heading to the galley to make some dinner. I’ll probably post an update each evening about this time to summarize each day’s sail. Very glad to have you along for the ride and will be back with more tomorrow. Wayne
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