LTY UPDATE: Thursday, August 30, 2012
Dillon’s Bay, Erromango Island, Vanuatu
LTY time: 16:40 (Vanuatu time = UTC +11)
Location: Dillon’s Bay, Erromango Island, Vanuatu
Position: 18 49.105 S, 169 00.694 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 10-15 knots SE (inside the bay)
Seas/Swell: 2ft @ 6 seconds SE (coming from)
Air temp: 78.8 F 26C
Sea temp: 85.1 F 29.5 C
Barometer: 1018mm
GREAT DAY of LEARNING & SAILING
It was still overcast in the early morning but there was enough blue sky breaking through that I figured it would clear off up north and so I quickly got everything all ready, made some breakfast, put up the main sail, pulled up the anchor and we were off to Erromango Island. The wind was nice and strong running 15-20 knots out of the SSE which meant that it was going to be pretty much a dead downwind sail to Erromango today. I headed straight north out of Port Resolution to get a bit better wind angle for the sails until I was about five nautical miles north of the northern end of Tanna and a bit more clear of the wind shadow and then changed heading to about 315 degrees to head straight for Dillon’s Bay which is about mid way up the west coast of Erromango. Just as I was leaving Mount Yasur had an eruption large enough that I could hear it and so it seemed like a very fitting However this put the wind dead downwind which is one of the more difficult wind angles to sail.
Before I knew what little I do now about sailing I thought that this would be the best wind angle but what I’ve learned is that it is one of the slowest and is very tricky because your main sail completely blankets the genoa (large front sail) from the wind. Initially I tried to run what is called “wing on wing” where you put the boom out to one side as far as you can and then fly the genoa out to the opposite side. This way both sails are getting the full “push” from the wind. This is also why this is not the best wind angle for sails because, again counter to what I would have previously thought, you get much more power from a sail when it is acting like a wing and producing lift, rather than when it is being pushed by the wind alone. Also, because you are sailing the same direction the wind is coming from, each knot the boat goes in effect “subtracts” a knot or more of wind speed. I tried this setup for a bit but the genoa kept loosing its wind whenever the wind shifted or with the corrections of the autopilot and then it would snap back into place and this was putting a lot of strain on the forestay and mast. Last year I finally got my large spinnaker pole that I had salvaged from a wreck all set up and so now was the perfect opportunity to learn how to use it to pole out the genoa and keep it there.
This spinnaker pole is quite large as it has to stand up to some significant forces when being used with the spinnaker for this size of boat and it is 24 foot long and 4 inches in diameter. It takes quite a bit of rigging to control this pole and so I had to rig up a halyard from the top of the mast to the outer end of the pole and then two “guys” as they are called that run from the outer end of the pole back to the deck of the boat, one fore and one aft. The inboard end of the pole is attached to a “car” that slides up and down a track in the mast and you set it up so that when the pole is out to the side it is parallel with the water. Not having done this before it took a bit of time for me to get all the lines and blocks set up, walk the outer end of the pole up to the bow, get the lines all in place, furl in the genoa, run the genoa sheet through the end of the pole and then get the pole out so it was about perpendicular to the length of the boat and the outer end was about 12’ off the deck. Of course the wind decided to pick up just as I was doing all this plus there was another sailboat about a nautical mile off to my port side so it was a bit challenging as I figured out how to adjust all these lines and get the genoa unfurled and flying properly off the end of the pole. Seemed like more but it only took about half an hour and I finally had it all setup properly (I think?!) and could get back in the cockpit to see how it all worked.
Wow! We took off! At one point about an hour later we touched NINE knots! The fastest straight sailing speed I’ve seen I think as I don’t count the higher speeds when I’ve been surfing down the back side of large swells. Plus the motion is very nice as I also had a following sea and so the boat pitches, where the bow and stern go up and down in a rocking horse like motion and occasionally it would also roll as some of the large sea swells hit at a bit of an angle. It was a very sweet ride and one of those experiences where it feels especially good when you’ve overcome challenges, figured things out and get it all working. As I’ve mentioned many times, Learnativity turns out to be the perfect name for my boat and learning is one of the best things about this whole experience.
To put the icing on the cake, the skies which had been very overcast for most of the trip, suddenly started to clear as I rounded the SW corner of Erromango and as I made the turn to sail into tiny Dillon’s Bay it was out in full force with nothing but blue sky overhead. Turns out that I didn’t need much lighting for this bay as it seems very free of corals and I’m now anchored in about 22 feet of water with nothing but sand below. The “bay”, really just a small indentation in the shoreline as you’ll see if you check it out in the sat photos on Google Earth of Bing, is just the kind of spot I love. In addition to great holding for the anchor (mind you with the 75kg monster I carry it is good holding pretty much everywhere) there is a relatively large creek that flows into the middle of the beach ashore and about six or so homes of various sizes that I can see ashore. There are cliffs on either side of this river entrance and beach area that rise up probably 100 meters in spots and are all covered with various kinds of lush green trees and vegetation.
I had just got the anchor snubber all set and the latest batch of black volcanic dust from Yasur all washed off and was about to splash the dinghy when “Charlie” rowed out to greet me in his outrigger canoe. These are the most common boats in these islands and are all hand hewn from local trees. Very simple and smart design. I asked if it was OK to anchor here and he said I was most welcome and I’ll come see him in the morning to meet others and see a bit of the island. He said they have lots of fruit and vegetables so that will be good to replenish my galley as there wasn’t much at Port Resolution. And just now Robert and his 18 month old son Roland rowed out to say hello. I was surprised to learn from them that there are about 500 people in this village but makes sense as the river is here and apparently most of the homes are lining the river and so I can’t see them from here. Erromango has a population of about 2000 I think but I’ll find out more when I go ashore in the morning.
And so ends a perfect day. Lots of learning, fast sailing, sunny skies, beautiful safe anchorage, enough wind to keep the wind generator humming and a great looking sunset just starting to happen. Do I lead a charmed life or what?!
Wayne
Comments