Adventures of Orcinius

05 April 2014 | Whangarei New Zealand
31 March 2014 | Whangarei
26 March 2014 | Whangarei
14 March 2014 | Whangarei
13 March 2014 | Whangarei, NZ
18 November 2013 | Port Whangarei
14 October 2013 | Whangarei NZ
31 July 2013 | Waikiki, Oahu
10 July 2013 | Same as Title
03 July 2013 | Bottom of the Bilge
25 June 2013 | New Zealand to Fiji in early June
04 June 2013 | Savusavu
04 June 2013 | Savusavu Fiji
25 May 2013 | Whangarei NZ
23 May 2013 | Near Minerva Reef
20 May 2013 | Whangarei
19 May 2013 | Whangarei
07 May 2013 | Whangarei Heads

Slow to Post

11 September 2015 | HOME - Vancouver WA
John
Well it has been just about two weeks since we tied up to our house here on Hayden Island.

Been a busy time. First we drove up to Neah Bay where we surprised our good friends Bob and Ann on Charisma. They made land fall a week later than we did and had to put up with yet another strong front coming from Alaska but they made it in just fine. We got our crew working hard on removing all the STUFF from the boat and now stacked in the garage. They are in the process of waxing the entire outside so Orcinius will look good for the winter. We also took them to the Oregon Zoo last week end. They got to see all the animals in their habitat. They really enjoyed that outing. This weekend we will take a little drive up the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon Side and then back down the Washington side.

Sunday after the gorge trip we are going to make a typical Fiji feast with all the stuff we can find that would be organic to them and of course with their help. We will do our best but one thing is for sure they will have the Puaka (Pork) and Chicken.

One final note, we are making the conversion from sea dwellers to land lubbers. I came across a great deal on a Prevost Motor Coach. Low mileage and in pristine condition. So that will be our ride to LA with the boys to get them on an airplane home in about two weeks. Lisa had sold her wheels before we left back in 2011 so we had to replace those and of course the coach was a little big to drive around town so we put a Jeep Wagoneer under her seat (with a towbar of course).

I suspect this blog will become a little stale as time goes by but those of you who have wanted to contact us have been able to so good luck and cheers to all.

One more thing.... you can chase down Lisa on Facebook.

John

Landfall in Paradise

24 August 2015 | 46 11.4'N:123 51.4'W, Port of Astoria Marina
John
YEP.... we did it. We made landfall at 2230Z, 24 Aug 2015. 15 Days 22.5 hours after leaving HI. On our way in at about 120 miles we caught three small Albacore tuna and then at about 50 miles from the Columbia River Bar we landed a 25lb Albacore. I have canned 2 quarts, 12 pints and 6 half pints of tuna. As of right now, I still need to pressure cook 5 pints and 1 quart.

Great stuff.

OK we are here in Astoria until Thursday when we start making our way up the river, stopping just West of Longview and then will make it into North Portland harbor and through the railroad bridge sometime mid afternoon.

All for now.

Cheers.

John, Lisa and the Fijian Crew

Dahl and Rot Day

22 August 2015 | 46 42.0'N:132 09,4'W, 330 West of CR Bouy, Astoria
John
Dahl and Roti Day

Even after making the adjustment yesterday to our time schedule for all the Easting we have

been doing, Lisa and Malo didn't crawl out of bed until 1000 local Astoria time. Not that we

are in Astoria yet but I am trying to get them on the PNW time clocks. Mosese and I had

pancakes for breakfast about 0800L and then I made a batch for Malo. Lisa was on her

normal no breakfast day. After breakfast I started soaking a bag of dahl chips and pieces,

then I told Mosese he was going to have to show us how to make Rotis. What is a roti you

ask?? It is very much like a tortilla but a little thicker, not much but a little. So while the dahl

was soaking, Mosese and I made up some roti dough. Nothing fancy, flour, water and salt.

Mix the salt and flour (Lisa and I added about 2 table spoons of powdered garlic) then add

boiling water. Hard on the hands. Mix until it is a very heavy dough and make it into little

balls, roll them out and fry them in a dry skillet. So Mosese mixed up the dough and while

he was making the dahl soup, Lisa and I fried the roti. Now of course Lisa is paying close

attention to how to make the dahl soup and also of course Mosese is being a little coy about

his recipe (he is pulling it from somewhere). He decides to toss in a can of tuna and lets it

thicken.

So the rotis are done the the dahl is getting close, it is time to re-hang the spinnaker. At

0600, Malo came to me and said that there was't enough wind to keep the spinnaker full. I

had just woke and told him I would look at it and at that moment it was full. Less than an

hour, Mosese wakes and we both decide to douse the spinnaker. So we did, uneventfull as

there was absolutely no wind. Now it was time to re-deploy. All hands to the task as this

spinnaker is a "Parasail", meaning it is a symetrical sail that would normally be flown with a

spinnaker pole of which ORCINIUS does not have one to its repertoir of equipment so there

are two sheets for each tack and clew which are interchangeable depending on which way

the wind is blowing. Tack would be on the windward while clew is leward or the sheet. Why

two I don't really know but two do come in usefull. The Parasail part is what helps the sail

spread full across the midsection. It is like a mini parasail cut into the midsection. It flies

and holds the midsection apart as well as the lower half being pulled up and the upper half full

to the wind. So the sheets are used through blocks at various parts of the boat. On ours it is

on the two tips of each bow and then at the new chain plates I had installed for other uses

and then on this trip I added a couple blocks using some dynema line at the upper part of the

shroud chain plate. It is kind of a trial and error. But when we put it up today it was sheeted

through each of the blocks on the bows because we were running ddw (dead down wind) and

it was doing a fair job. We only had 10 knots of wind but forcast for 12-14. Early this

morning the wind had died and was at about 6 knots. We were motoring that fast. So as the

next hour goes by, the wind starts to shift a little more out of the WNW and of course we

don't want to go any further south so we adjust the spinnaker by taking the second sheet and

running it through the furthers aft block and the second tack line and connecting that to the

bow sprit pole and let the spinniker shift over to the starboard bow aft to the sheet. Now we

are still heading towards our Astoria CR bouy and makeing some decent time. As I write this

the wind is steady at 14 knots, we are motor sailing at 2100 rpm doing 7.3 knots VMG.

The dahl soup lunch was great. The rotis were a little chewey but Mosese said it was

because I rolled them a little too thick. I have told the boys that we each need to learn one

new thing each day. I always ask them if they leaned anything new today. I did. Roll the roti

dough out alot thinner. Pulled pork with what is left of the roti.

Changing Time Zones

21 August 2015 | 46 41.8'N:136 13.8'W, 500 West of Astoria
John
Changing Time Zones

We are in no man's land. Someone forgot to draws the time zone lines from Alaska South to the equator so we would know what time zone we are in. Why is it important, well you see as you go from West to East it get light earlier and dark earlier. So if we don't make an adjustment then we wouldn't have anyone on watch when it first gets dark and my watch (the last one of the night watches) would be in full daylight. When we started out from Fiji Lisa and I paired up with Mosese and Malo respectively. I usually took the right after dinner watch until about two hour into the night time when Lisa and Mosese came on and each took 3 hours watching each other's back and then Malo and I would come on for the next 6 hours. The 4 night watches between Fiji and Western Samoa wasn't too bad because they are both on the same time zone and then from Western Samo to Christmas Island it was the same time zone until we got to Hawaii. We didn't pay too much attention to changing for that leg as everyone just kept with the Z Plus 12 hours until HI when I said it was now Z minus 10 hours... Yep you lose a day and a few hours. OK everyone gets adjusted sitting around HI, soaking up the sun and having a good time. OK time to make the adjustment so we start out with Mosese having the first watch at 0600Z or 1800L Fiji time. For all intents and purposes the day really didn't matter it was more for the bodily clock adjusting to night and day. So Lisa on at 2100L, Malo at 2400L and John at 0300L. That works because John sends a Yotrep report into Pangolin sometime around 0330. At the beginning, it meant John was on watch for about 2 3/4 hours before the early dawn. But as we traveled further North, it was getting a lighter a little earlier and also staying lighter a slight bit earlier. Oh yeh the sun is in the northern hemiphere. Mosese had it the best to start with because he started in full light and ended in total darkness, Lisa and Malo both had full three hours each and like I said I had 2 3/4 hours but then I would just stay up and download the weather after the 0600Z time.

Once we crossed the 30N Lat we started angling a little to the East and then at 38N Lat even more of an angle. We are shaving off light at night and darkness in the morning. By the time we reach 145W Long we had the beginnings of darkness while we were eating dinner, no one is assigned the watch and of course I am now completely in some form of dawn to full daylight. Time to switch and slide everyone up an hour. We are at about the half way point in the route from HI to Astoria but not in changes of daylight and darkness. So again here we are time for another change. In reality we should have done this either yesterday or the day before but it will take place tonight. From there we should be good until we reach Astoria and everyone will forget all about Z time and the boys will wonder when is a good time to call their families.

On another subject, traffic. We have seen more vessel traffic here on the north side of HI than all of our travels in the past. That was until we crossed the majic 46N Lat. Must not be a great circle route East to West or vice versa North of the 46. So last night just before the watches and dinner there was a vessel some 30 miles off heading streight for us. I had written down all of his information in the event he did not respond to my hail. When he got within 15 miles I hailed him on Channel 16. He responded and I asked him if he saw my AIS. I saw his because that is how I got his call sign of Barrow Island. He said he didn't have me on either AIS or Radar. I gave him his heading and his course according to his AIS data and informed him I was about 10 degrees to port of his heading and on a direct line with the intercept of his course over ground. His AIS showed a CPA of 250 feet to less than 1/2 mile. We still had about 45 minutes before the intersect. He aske d me what my course was, 085 true. He was on 310 true so there was not much angle difference. One of us had to change our course. He asked me again what my call sign was and when I said I was SY ORCINIUS, he said he would alter course to starboard. I thanked him and asked if he could alter to port as then he would not be crossing my bow. He obliged and took up a course of 330 in plenty of time to change his CPA to 5 miles. We saw his lights off our starboard side.

Some might want to know what difference it would make wether he pass in front of us or behind us. In our case we were motor sailing with the wind at 125 degrees apparant and 160 True doing 8.5 knots. If I had to fall off to starboard I could not do that without a major gype of the sails which takes time and if I had to come up I would have had nearly the same problem only then it would be a tack. Also for those of you who are unaware of the rules of the road, he was going to change course to starboard which would leave us crossing Port bow to Port bow which is the standard. It was only because I asked him for the Starboard to Starboard pass that he obliged with a port turn. Nice and accommodating, from South Korea and after we were both clear of each other we exchanged nicities and were about our business. Chaffing has become a bigger problem on this longer run. I am sure some of it was beginning before we got to Hawaii but we weren't able to use the sails the same way before. I have a major chafe spot on the main halyard as the line passes through the chieve at the top of the mast for my double reef. I don't have a long enough line to replace the halyard (about 200' long). Also the furling line to the boom drum was about to go and I replace that with some spare line. Finally the leech of the mainsail is really starting to frey at the battons when we furl it for a reef. It is chaffing from the boom. I have used sail repair tape on the spots more than once. It should make it home.

The only other exciting news of the day was our distance traveled. Best to date with 195 miles motor sailing. We had a single reef in the main, a full gib and one engine running at 2300 RPM. My goal is to have all the fuel used up on deck when we arrive in Astoria. Gona make it.

Broken Quadrant

20 August 2015 | 46 22.82'N:140 28.00'W, East end of High
John
We got this fixed just before the wind picked back up and we were under way.
Vessel Name: ORCINIUS
Vessel Make/Model: Lagoon 440
Hailing Port: Vancouver, Washington
Crew: John LeDoux & Lisa Danger
About:
Sailing since the mid 90's. Prior to this trip, 4 sailing adventures from Vancouver WA to the San Juan and Gulf Islands in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Bought ORCINIUS in West Palm Beach Fl in April 2010. Sailed her South through the Panama Canal and back up the West coast to home port. [...]
Extra: Lisa is the real captain. I have never been at the helm when docking or anchoring, she has a great touch to docking.
Home Page: www.orcinius.com

Who: John LeDoux & Lisa Danger
Port: Vancouver, Washington