06/01/2009

Hello Boys & Girls, it's your old buddy Banzai Bozo here... we've got a beautiful day at the top end of the South China Sea, and lots of Bozos to play with...

Weather went from good to great overnight. The clouds cleared sometime after sunset and we had stars; the bit of wind gradually died off and this morning we have:

Beaufort Force 0-1 glass with a little SE swell, clear skies overhead with haze. Overnight small dip in barometer is now up to 1008.2 Position: 22deg 04.191'N, 116deg 49.293'E, COG 093, (Heading is 097 so we are already picking up some N-bound current, and compensating for it), speed 6.7 kts, should clear the south tip of Taiwan in about 36 hrs. Hong Kong Observatory still reporting Force 4-5 E in the Bashi Channel. (where we will pass between the south point of Taiwan and the north end of Luzon PI); similar in Taiwan Strait.

All crew and equipment are operating well. A couple of issues:

we have a strong smell in the engine room; can't decide whether it's coming off the thermal insulation wrap we put on the engine exhaust before leaving Aberdeen, or something else?

after running for a couple of hours yesterday, I opened the valves on the Gulf Coast oil by-pass filter, over a couple of hours the oil pressure dropped from around 50 to the low 30s. Shut down the filter and it took about 6 hours to get up to the low 40s. When we get into Japan, I can check and see if the by pass is bringing the oil volume down, thereby dropping the pressure, but we'd prefer not to shut the engine down in the middle of a passage.

the BalMar alternator on the engine, which charges the house batteries, reached it's "float" voltage and dropped down to just coasting, putting out less amperage than we're using with on-board systems, mainly the electronics. It stayed shut down for 6-8 hours, then kicked into a stage where it charges a bit, then backs off, then charges a bit again. The Heart panel shows about 500 amp hr deficit from the last couple days before leaving, where we had the house batts down to 12.10 and didn't completely re-charge with the genset. I'm not sure if it's a real deficit or just numbers on the panel. The voltage, even during the "float" is staying up at 12.85-90. There are some things I can do to get more charge into the house batts, but for now, I'm just watching to see what the BalMar regulator does.

Berry: do I need to shut down the boat electronics before switching them to the start battery power source you installed?

Water a beautiful cobalt blue here with flying fish skimming across the surface, but unfortunately we also see a lot of trash.

Victoria, could you please send us Dr Phil's email address, it didn't get onto the group list. Could you please forward to him until we can adjust the group list in Japan?

Kate, could you please go into our AOL email and get Erne Ballinger's, Bill Henson's, Bob Rubin's email address and Tony Matthews and send these to us at the gmn-usa address. If you forward to them for the next couple days, we will use the info you send us to update the group list when we get to Japan and back onto the Internet.

Jane-Jane Chou, can you forward our messages please to Bob and Margaret Jack, again until we can get to the internet in Japan and update our group list.

Don & Margie, sorry, didn't get you onto the group list either, but will rectify later. Jane, could you please forward yesterday's message #1 to Don & Margie.

Feel free to forward our underway messages to whomever you think would be interested. Also, send to us additional email addresses for those who you wish to see added to the group list when we have the capability.

Until tomorrow everyone... Dave (Mike), Dorothy, Jim, Craig, Kirk, Justin and Rusty

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Comments [2]

06/01/2009

Hello Everyone, this message list organized by Justin so that we can email one address only from the boat, but have you all receive via "westernsierraguides" which is the guide dogs club he and Kirk belong to. You can email to us, but not at "westernsierraguides". To email DavidEllis, send to davidellis@gmn-usa.com . Please do not add attachments or photos or simply hit "reply" or forward to this email. Type a new message and keep it relatively short please. All this happens via satellite phone which charges by the minute, and we have a limited number of minutes.

We left our mooring in Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter yesterday, and crossed the Lamma Shipping Channel to Lamma Island, which is south of Hong Kong Island. We spent the day, and last night in Sham Wan Bay, finishing our preparation tasks, including cleaning the boat bottom, the screens which supply water to the sea chest and the water maker, and the prop. We also cleaned out the sea chest (from the inside, rather than from under the boat) secured everything on deck; lowered and checked the shackles at the top of the paravane poles and I climbed the mast, one more time, to make sure everything was secure there and to secure the steps which allow one to climb it.

I left a short message on Sailblogs this morning, and expect that Scott will place this message there also, along with coding our position into the blog so you all can click on the blue button up in the right corner of Sailblogs to see our position in relation to everything else. You will need to have GoogleEarth loaded on your computer to make this last thing work, but it will be worth it, and GoogleEarth costs you nothing, and is very, very cool.

Conditions are good and we are moving right along at an economical speed of 6.6kts. We are quite heavy with full fuel and water tanks, stern down a bit (which is preferable if we get into following seas). As we proceed and use fuel, we should get better mileage than we are right now, or be able to run at slightly higher speed for the same fuel usage. Right now the little bit of wind is on the nose, so the sails stay furled for now. Dorothy, Jim, Craig and Rusty are nappy. Kirk is at the helm and Justin is trying to figure out how everything works.

We sent our first weather message to Lee Chesneau, who's helping us with our weather-routing. This is the text:

" 0430 Zulu 31 May 2009. we are now several hours underway out of HK, 22 deg 11.693'N, 114deg 31.169'E, Course 090, speed 6.6kts, wind E 5kts, seas minimal, 1 m E swell, baro 1009, 100 cloud (stratus) cover, haze at SL."

To translate: 0430 Zulu is 4:30 in the morning Greenwich Mean Time, or UTC (Universal Time Code) or Zulu. Weather forcasting is based on Zulu time because forcasters, observers and users may be in different places all over the world and need to be sure they're all talking about the same thing regards time. Actually, I don't need to explain this stuff, ask Future Girl (you can find her on facebook or at ackayaker@sbcglobal.net , she knows all about it. Then comes our Course (actually Course Over Ground COG) meaning the course made good as measured by GPS satellite. Speed is also actually Speed Over Ground, SOG as measured by GPS satellite. Depending upon currents, we may be faster or slower through the water, but SOG is the actually speed over the bottom of the ocean. Wind is measured in kts from the direction it comes; in this case 5kts (knots are a little bit more than a mph) out of the east, which means it's on our nose, but not causing any big problems because it's a light wind. Seas are the waves you see which are created by the wind that is also there; which swell are waves created a long ways away that have traveled to the area where you are. Baro is barometer, or sea level pressure, and we have 100% cloud cover as well as hazy conditions at Sea Level.

Hoping this gets to all of you. Remember, if you're emailing back to us, please do not hit reply. Send a new email message, no attachments or photos to davidellis@gmn-usa.com . dave (mike)



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sunny, Beaufort Force 1-2, out of the E
05/30/2009, 22deg 11.408'N, 114de 14.341'E

Despite the date/time shown above, local time HK is 0945hrs 31 May. We are underway, proceeding eastbound away from the east approach to Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong. Yesterday we left our mooring and transited the Lamma Shipping Channel, to Lamma Island where we anchored to finish preparations to leave: inspecting the para-vane pole shackles; cleaning and inspecting the bottom, prop and screens; cleaning the sea-chest, removing the big bimini that covers the whole back deck, and replacing with a smaller one which provides shade to the cockpit only. re-stowing the kayaks to present a smaller profile to the wind. After all this we were too pooped to get underway, deal with the shipping traffic in the dark, so we spent the night at anchor.

Morning meeting, up anchor and then out of Sham Wan bay on Lamma Island and generally east & a bit north to make our way clear, then eastbound towards the south tip of Taiwan.

Next message will cove to the blog via daily satellite phone message that Dorothy's brother Scott has kindly offered to post. Dave

PS, thanks to Clint, Erne, Mike for you messages....

Comments [1]