DAY #15 Saturday May 16, 2015
LTY Stats update:
LTY (local) time: 17:15 Saturday May 16th, 2015th (LTY time = UTC +12)
LOCATION: We’ve been going east so still about 300nm north of pass through northern barrier reef into Fiji
POSITION: 11 41,.172 S 179 40.41.707 E (can cut & paste into Google Earth)
SOG: 6.0 kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 88 (COG = Course over Ground, our GPS based compass heading)
WIND: 14-18 kts SE
SEAS/Swell: 1m @6 seconds out of SE
WEATHER: More perfect sailing weather; sunny, blue skies and wind building all afternoon
SAILS: Main & Genoa out full
AIR TEMP: 82.2F 27.9C
SEA TEMP: 88.7F 31.5C
HUMIDITY 65%
BAROMETER: 1008
DISTANCE TRAVELED last 24 hrs: 123nm
TOTAL DISTANCE TO GO: (to Fiji): about 400nm all together to Savu Savu where we think we will go to check in. All depending on weather, wind and whim as usual
Day #15 BEARINGS of ALL KINDS!
We start into our third week of the passage today and the past 24 hours we’ve done a bit of everything sailing wise. Weather continues to be marvelous as we seem to be following a mild high pressure zone that is keeping things nice and constant. So we’ve continued to have that “birds in a nest” environment with blue skies ringed by fluffy white clouds on all horizons. Best of all the wind has picked up overnight and so we’ve been sailing with full sails up since early this morning. The wind continued to build gradually all day from around 5 knots up to about 12-15 now. It is still out of the SE to SSE so not ideal direction but we went onto a starboard tack (wind coming over our starboard (right) side bow that put us on a bearing of pretty much due east or 90 degrees and we’ve been on that all day. It’s now almost 18:00, sun just set here and we’ve tacked just before dinner and are now on a bearing that is a bit west of south with our COG being about 200 right now. That bearing has us pointing a bit too far to the far west end of Fiji and we’d like to enter of about mid-way along the north reef above the west end of Vanua Levu so we will probably have to tack again to jog over to the east one more time before tacking back and heading south to SSW to whichever pass we decide upon to get through the northern outer reef of Fiji. So while we are still not able to have the ideal southern bearing we’d like and need to tack our way down, the weather and the ride are ideal and we are both reveling in it.
Barney and Ruby concur as well as we are not heeled so much and the boat isn’t quite as “active” as she was in the higher winds two days ago so they are able to sleep without sliding around too much and have their little walk abouts the deck to look after business throughout the day up on the “poop deck” in front..
I was also busy with bearings of another kind for a few hours today. I needed to start the main engine in order to get us pointed into the wind and get rid of the two reefs we had in the main sail last night and so it would be up all the way and grabbing all the energy possible in these climbing wind speeds, and when I did the sea water pump flow alarm didn’t shut off. I figured it might be about time for the rubber impeller in the pump to need changing so assumed that was what it was, but upon opening it up I found it was just fine. Getting Christine to start the main engine up again while I was down in the engine room watching quickly showed me the real problem which was that the secondary alternator wasn’t turning and the belt was sticking. This second alternator is on the same belt as the sea water pump and it is the smaller of the two alternators we have, being dedicated to keeping the two starter batteries, one for the generator one for the main engine, all charged up. Turned out that the bearings were shot and this was keeping the pulley from turning and hence the belt sticking and not turning the sea water pump. Fortunately I cary a spare alternator (I know, surprise, surprise, surprise!) and though it is a larger output one, it fits the same brackets as the smaller one and so swapping one for the other wasn’t too much of a chore. I took the opportunity to “upgrade” some of the electrical cabling for this alternator while I was at it and the ride was so smooth and soon had it all back together and happily charging and pumping sea water which keeps our exhaust gasses cooled down so they can be routed through long rubber exhaust hose and out the stern.
Guess what I did next? ………………………………………………… Yup, you guessed it, another date with Joy on the sunny and breezy aft deck which was a true joy after all those hours down in that very hot engine room. In short order I was no longer Christine’s “dirty old man” and back to just her clean “old man” and we were back to smiling and sailing and kissing in the sunshine.
Sun’s all gone here now and so I’ll take that as my cue as well and leave you with this short update of another perfect day out here on the wild blue yonder. See you tomorrow……………………..
Wayne, Christine, Barnacle Barney and Ruby the WonderDog
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