LTY UPDATE: Thursday, October 4th, 2012
Day #6 of passage from Vanuatu to Marshall Islands LTY time: 16:35 (Marshall Islands time = UTC +12)
Location: 722nm NNE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu
Distance to go Majuro: about 740nm
Position: 05 07.631 S, 170 30.299 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 6.5 kts (motor sailing) (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 057 degrees (COG = Course over Ground)
Wind: 5-30 NNE
Seas/Swell: 3m @ 4 seconds NE
Weather: Dark and stormy with some clearing to the NW and SE
Air temp: 86 F 30C
Sea temp: 95.5 F 35.3 C
Barometer: 1017nm SAILING on the FLIP SIDE of PARADISE It was a dark and stormy night and that’s not the opening line to my book! Still is very dark and storm and has been since I wrote you last night. Mother Nature just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t getting complacent with that boring perfect wind, sun and seas so she decided to serve up a very good batch of storms for me to enjoy. The weather hasn’t been anything special or dangerous, highest winds I’ve seen have been in the 40’s with lots of torrential driving rain but these only come in relatively short bursts as I pass through one of the storms. It is just such a sudden stark contrast to the past days of idyllic conditions so seems a bit more severe than it really is. The most uncomfortable part is that the seas have now flipped to be out of the NW now that I’m nearing the equator (5 degrees to go) and these storms have whipped them up so they are running about 3 meters high about 4 seconds apart and quite steep. I’m now on a heading of 55 degrees (NE) so the ride is a lot better and I’ll stay on this until the wind hopefully changes around as forecast sometime tonight to be out of the NE or East. I’ve had to run the engine for most of the time since these storms arrived as the wind gusts and changes direction too much and the seas are opposing me as well. However Learnativity is as good at motoring as at sailing as she was purpose built to be a motor sailor and so she is handling it all with her usual aplomb. And lest any of you are thinking it was all blue sky, crystal blue waters and sunshine paradise out here all the time and all I do is watch the sun rise and set, I had a wee bit of excitement last night when the fan belt that drives my main engine sea water pump broke. It was about 2am, as seems to always be the case and fortunately I have a flow meter alarm on this sea water system for my wet exhaust so I was able to shut the engine down quickly without any further harm. Just as I was gathering my tools and heading down to the engine room I heard the wind start to sing in the rigging and the drumming of the next downpour of rain so I had to dash up top and get the sails set to get us through this storm while the engine was down. Wasn’t too big a job to replace the fan belt but it did take some time as it the fan belt on the very inside so I had to remove the other main alternator with its two belts and my hydraulic pump drive to get at the water pump belt. Best of all though the engine room was doing its best to imitate a sauna for me with the high heat and humidity so I worked up a very good sweat in the process and Learnativity once again helped me to keep this girlish figure of mine as an extra benefit! The rest of the night and all of today has been pretty consistent as we move through one storm and on into the next. What I’ve really noticed today is how much this dark grey weather creates a feeling of being closed in and confined. When it is sunny and clear and you are out here completely surrounded by ocean and sky as far as you can see in all directions, I have such a feeling of enormity which simultaneously humbles me as to just what an infinitesimally small bit of stardust I am as well as the frisson of pure elation that I am part of it all. So when I now find myself enclosed within this cocoon of ominous dark grey blue clouds I am struck by how constrained and small it now feels. This whole spectrum of feelings and emotions is one of the great things about this life though. I’ve long believed that pretty much everything in life is relative and as such we can only know as much joy and greatness as we know deep sadness and pain. If it weren’t for experiences like this I would have so little appreciation of those previous days of sailing in that Birds in a Nest paradise. Being challenged and meeting those challenges is what enables me to experience that incredible felicity when I’m sitting out on the aft deck with Learnativity gently tugging at her anchor chain and watching yet another sun rise or set. All very salubrious for my soul and I’m sure each of you can relate to similar feelings. Well, it is getting much darker and ominous up ahead so I’ll stop for tonight and send this up to the satellites and on its way to you.
Day #6 of passage from Vanuatu to Marshall Islands LTY time: 16:35 (Marshall Islands time = UTC +12)
Location: 722nm NNE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu
Distance to go Majuro: about 740nm
Position: 05 07.631 S, 170 30.299 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 6.5 kts (motor sailing) (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 057 degrees (COG = Course over Ground)
Wind: 5-30 NNE
Seas/Swell: 3m @ 4 seconds NE
Weather: Dark and stormy with some clearing to the NW and SE
Air temp: 86 F 30C
Sea temp: 95.5 F 35.3 C
Barometer: 1017nm SAILING on the FLIP SIDE of PARADISE It was a dark and stormy night and that’s not the opening line to my book! Still is very dark and storm and has been since I wrote you last night. Mother Nature just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t getting complacent with that boring perfect wind, sun and seas so she decided to serve up a very good batch of storms for me to enjoy. The weather hasn’t been anything special or dangerous, highest winds I’ve seen have been in the 40’s with lots of torrential driving rain but these only come in relatively short bursts as I pass through one of the storms. It is just such a sudden stark contrast to the past days of idyllic conditions so seems a bit more severe than it really is. The most uncomfortable part is that the seas have now flipped to be out of the NW now that I’m nearing the equator (5 degrees to go) and these storms have whipped them up so they are running about 3 meters high about 4 seconds apart and quite steep. I’m now on a heading of 55 degrees (NE) so the ride is a lot better and I’ll stay on this until the wind hopefully changes around as forecast sometime tonight to be out of the NE or East. I’ve had to run the engine for most of the time since these storms arrived as the wind gusts and changes direction too much and the seas are opposing me as well. However Learnativity is as good at motoring as at sailing as she was purpose built to be a motor sailor and so she is handling it all with her usual aplomb. And lest any of you are thinking it was all blue sky, crystal blue waters and sunshine paradise out here all the time and all I do is watch the sun rise and set, I had a wee bit of excitement last night when the fan belt that drives my main engine sea water pump broke. It was about 2am, as seems to always be the case and fortunately I have a flow meter alarm on this sea water system for my wet exhaust so I was able to shut the engine down quickly without any further harm. Just as I was gathering my tools and heading down to the engine room I heard the wind start to sing in the rigging and the drumming of the next downpour of rain so I had to dash up top and get the sails set to get us through this storm while the engine was down. Wasn’t too big a job to replace the fan belt but it did take some time as it the fan belt on the very inside so I had to remove the other main alternator with its two belts and my hydraulic pump drive to get at the water pump belt. Best of all though the engine room was doing its best to imitate a sauna for me with the high heat and humidity so I worked up a very good sweat in the process and Learnativity once again helped me to keep this girlish figure of mine as an extra benefit! The rest of the night and all of today has been pretty consistent as we move through one storm and on into the next. What I’ve really noticed today is how much this dark grey weather creates a feeling of being closed in and confined. When it is sunny and clear and you are out here completely surrounded by ocean and sky as far as you can see in all directions, I have such a feeling of enormity which simultaneously humbles me as to just what an infinitesimally small bit of stardust I am as well as the frisson of pure elation that I am part of it all. So when I now find myself enclosed within this cocoon of ominous dark grey blue clouds I am struck by how constrained and small it now feels. This whole spectrum of feelings and emotions is one of the great things about this life though. I’ve long believed that pretty much everything in life is relative and as such we can only know as much joy and greatness as we know deep sadness and pain. If it weren’t for experiences like this I would have so little appreciation of those previous days of sailing in that Birds in a Nest paradise. Being challenged and meeting those challenges is what enables me to experience that incredible felicity when I’m sitting out on the aft deck with Learnativity gently tugging at her anchor chain and watching yet another sun rise or set. All very salubrious for my soul and I’m sure each of you can relate to similar feelings. Well, it is getting much darker and ominous up ahead so I’ll stop for tonight and send this up to the satellites and on its way to you.
That was a cool experience and thanks for the updates about it,sailing specially in some cargo ship is quite risky if you do in bad weather,in Finland country it is very important to a transportation services to not sail in bad weather for safety all of the container and customer product.Anyway great one.
Posted by: Transport Export | October 04, 2012 at 05:50 AM
Stay safe Wayne! The storms sound very ominous and scary!
Posted by: Elton Hammond | October 04, 2012 at 08:00 AM