July 3, 2009, Fanning Island, Kiribati
We got up late yesterday, as is our habit while we are in harbor, and I went ashore to finish the check-in, since the immigration guy had already gone home when I came in the afternoon of our arrival. Imagine my surprise to find a big PA system set up, and a DJ playing pop music over the field by the decrepit array of buildings that serve for government offices. I was told that this was the practice session for the big independence day parade that will happen on the 13th. So, after I filled out the paperwork, I spent the next hour watching the local parade. Very colorful, very small-town. Surprisingly, all the music was stock parade music, no hint of island rhythms. But there was a lot of laughter from the watchers when some of the lead squad - 13 policemen - stepped out ahead of the beat. I guess that's why they practice!
When I got back to the boat, my present from Sandra was on the table - a dive mask with a digital camera built in. Fun! Then it was time for lunch, and Sandra asked what I wanted. "Something different from the usual," I said. Be careful what you ask for; you might get it. As we settled to eat, a fierce gust picked up (over 40 knots) and our anchor dragged about 300 feet. First time since we've owned Aquila. But we had anchored very conservatively, well away from the shore, so we had room. After we let out more chain, the wind went down, and we tested our new location with more reverse than we ever use. It stuck solidly, so we feel OK about it.
I got to use the new mask, and went down to take a picture of the anchor. It turns out that it isn't a great-looking placement. The bottom is terrible - thin sand over coral. But one blade of the anchor is tucked down into a hole in the rock, and seems to be holding well. At least until the wind changes, which it shows no signs of doing. It turned out we hadn't used quite enough scope the first time, either, for the shallow water we were in. 4:1 is great in 40 feet, of water but you want more in the 17-foot depths here. Now we have 8:1 out. All is OK in our world again. But if I had thought I was asking for such an event during lunch, I would have rephrased my answer!
The rest of the day was uneventful, and dinner was fantastic: a cassoulet with a Te Mata Coleraine for the wine. This is one of the best wines we tried in New Zealand, and it was perfect with the meal. Yum!
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July 2, 2009, Fanning Island, Kiribati
Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) is the first Micronesian country on our trip, and perhaps the largest, depending on how you count these things. The country consists of about 100,000 people on 33 islands. Its territory, though, extends over 2400 sea miles near the equator, encompassing the Gilbert Islands (in the East 170s), the Phoenix Islands (in the West 170s), and some of the Line Islands, which is where we are now.
That explains how we missed Ken's birthday yesterday. The International Date Line takes a dramatic turn of over 20 degrees to the east near the equator, so that the Phoenix and Line Islands are on the same side as Australia and New Zealand - and more importantly, the rest of Kiribati. We'd forgotten about that until Ken checked us in here yesterday afternoon and received a receipt with "July 2nd" written at the top. But we're flexible, so we're going to celebrate today instead, on US coordinates. It's probably just as well that he didn't know that he was spending most of his birthday tossing in the swell outside the lagoon until it was over.
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July 2, 2009 | Harvey (hjkarten att ucsd dott edu)
Happy, happy birthday. What could be better than sailing with one you love on your birthday.
warmest regards, Harvey |
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July 4, 2009 | Chantal (grassc att gmail dott com)
Happy Birthday, Joyeux Anniversaire Ken. Looks like Sandra has spoilt you and that you will be taking some amazing underwater pictures. Looks like you might have the same B'day as Ian (2nd July). Ian is still in England, route has changed drastically due to Swine Flu border restriction in Turkmenistan. You can check his progress on http://mongolia.charityrallies.org/en/wonderingsailors. He is the wondering sailor of the wondering sailors.
Wishing you both some good wind. Chantal |
July 1, 2009, hove to off Fanning Is.
They wait for no man, we are told, but the converse sure isn't true. As Gordon Bok once asked, "Who can count the hours and days spent waiting for the tide?" The problem is partly that they seem longer than they actually are, the maritime version of the watched pot never boiling.
We picked up some breeze yesterday afternoon, and sailed right through until about 3 in the morning, when we hove to. For the non-sailors, this is a trick to nearly-stop the boat in the water when it is too deep to anchor. For the sailors, this is another advantage of the ketch rig: sheet the mizzen flat, drop the rest of the sails, center the rudder, and presto! But the waiting here isn't very pleasant, since there is swell coming around both ends of the island, and Aquila is rolling quite heavily. For obvious reasons, we didn't want to stop too close to the fringing reef in the dark of the moon in the wee hours. We're also hoping that the squalls that are around now will blow by, improving the visibility for getting through the pass. But mostly, we are waiting for slack water, which will happen a bit after 1 PM today.
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June 30, 2009, en route to Fanning Island
Our good wind held until midnight, when we were hit with the first in a long series of squalls. For the rest of the night, the wind was all over the place, in both strength and direction. Ken had the boat as much as 50 degrees off course for parts of his watch. After six hours of taking sails down and putting them back up in the pouring rain, he had moved the boat only 10 miles closer to our destination. Now he's getting some well-deserved sleep.
The unsettled weather cleared just in time for my watch, and shortly thereafter the wind died almost completely. So we're making progress again, under power, with just under 100 miles left between us and Fanning. If we don't get more wind, we can expect to arrive tomorrow morning.
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July 1, 2009 | jim frey/spirit of arnaldo (jnfrey att yahoo dott com)
Hi,
did you ever get your windvane self steering operational? If you did, how's it working? When do you expect to be back at Marina Bay? Jim |
June 29, 2009, en route to Fanning Is.
We crossed over the equator this morning about 4:30. We really don't time these crossings very well for the expected party! (Last time it was also deep in a night watch.) This time I was on watch, and Sandra elected to sleep rather than come up to party with me. So, I had a little toast of our best liquor (Remy Martin XO, obtained by an error from the duty-free shop in Auckland, for the price of VSOP). I thanked Neptune for all he has done for us, and shared a snort of the Remy with him. I hope a fish didn't intercept it.
We're a bit more than a day out from Fanning, and once again it looks like our timing is rotten, and we might have to stand off for a night before going in. But last time I said that, the wind died, we had to motor, and the timing ended up perfect, so you never can tell till you get there. But it's looking pretty unlikely for us to get there in good daylight tomorrow, since the wind is down to around 10-12 knots. Still nice sailing, but not fast enough.
The other excitement today was the sighting of a ship, about 4 miles away, heading south. The first one we've seen at sea since leaving New Zealand. I'd guess it was on its way from Honolulu to Penrhyn in the Northern Cooks, from the course it was on.
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June 28, 2009, en route to Fanning Is.
The wind is behaving better today, and agreeing with the GFS model again. It's back on the beam and lighter, making for some quite idyllic sailing. Now that she's not jumping around as much, and there isn't as much spray coming across the decks, we have been doing some tidying up and airing out of things. Sandra is baking bread, and we dumped all the bottles that had gathered while we were in Suwarrow. We don't mind dumping these in 15,000 foot depths - no one will ever see them. Better than in some island landfill. It's also kinda fun to imagine the bottle sinking down, down, down for 3 miles under the keel. No doubt to the puzzlement of various peculiar deep-ocean dwellers.
The conditions also encouraged Sandra to set the mizzen, for the first time since we left New Zealand. It's funny how rarely it's useful. We've either had so much wind we didn't need it (most of the time), or else been going either upwind or downwind, where it does harm instead of good. It feels good to be a ketch again! Too bad there's no one around to take our picture.
So, we saw on the latest files what caused the wind to shift, and also why it was that it hadn't been forecast the day before. It was a low pressure "system" that was barely there at all. It was about 2 millibars below the surrounding surface pressure. By way of comparison, a typical Pacific storm in Northern California will be maybe 20 millibars down. But such is the way out here - the pressure is much more homogeneous than it is in the temperate zones, and pretty small differences can swing the wind around a lot, and bring rain as well. Weird. But it fizzled out anyway, and that's why life is good.
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