L'Eau Commotion Westabout

An (other) attempt to sail non stop Westabout around the world

Vessel Name: L'Eau Commotion
Vessel Make/Model: Northshore 38
Hailing Port: Brisbane Australia
Crew: Bill Hatfield
25 February 2020 | Scarborough Marina, Brisbane
21 February 2020
21 February 2020 | 59 Miles To Go
20 February 2020 | 114 Miles East Of Australia
19 February 2020 | 220 Miles East Of Gold Coast Seaway
19 February 2020 | 262 Miles To Gold Coast Seaway
18 February 2020 | 304 Miles East Of Gold Coast Seaway
18 February 2020 | 328 Miles To Go
17 February 2020 | 423 Miles To Go
17 February 2020 | 423 Miles To Go
16 February 2020 | 505 Miles East Of The Gold Coast
15 February 2020 | 617 Miles To Go
14 February 2020 | 755 Miles To Go
13 February 2020 | 888 Miles To The Gold Coast
12 February 2020 | 1032 Miles To The Gold Coast
11 February 2020 | 580 Miles North Of The Waikato
11 February 2020 | 1167 Miles To Home
10 February 2020 | 1300 Miles To Home
10 February 2020 | 1309 Miles To The Gold Coast
09 February 2020 | 1460 Miles To The Gold Coast Seaway
Recent Blog Posts
25 February 2020 | Scarborough Marina, Brisbane

Thank You

D Day Plus 4 7am Wednesday 26th February 2020

21 February 2020

A Definite Maybe ETA

Day 259 6am Saturday 22nd February 2020 (UTC +10 )

21 February 2020 | 59 Miles To Go

All Good

Day 258 6pm Friday 21st February 2020 ( UTC +10 )

20 February 2020 | 114 Miles East Of Australia

ETA Looking Likely

Day 258 6am Friday 21st February 2020

19 February 2020 | 220 Miles East Of Gold Coast Seaway

Amended ETA

Day 257 6am Thursday 20th February 2020

19 February 2020 | 262 Miles To Gold Coast Seaway

Amended ETA

Day 256 10:30pm Wednesday 19th February 2020 ( UTC+10 )

Departure Date

14 May 2018 | FIC Jetty Stanley, Falkland Islands
3:00am Monday 14th May 2018 ( UTC-3 ]
Yes at long last I have set a departure date - Saturday 20th May 2018. I’ve been so long here I thought it best to include the year! The major delay has of course been the difficulty in obtaining the necessary parts for the rigging but now everything is well in hand. Thanks very much to Andrez Short the rigging has been made up using Sta - Lok fittings . It is noted here that what I suspected for the Port Lower Diagonal turned out to be correct. I thought I saw one parted strand before my fall from grace in Puerto Espanol and it turned out to be all too true. In fact four strands of the nineteen had parted which could have had interesting consequences had I continued under jury rig. The mast was stood up using a JCB pallet loader which once the jib is up it must have its feet on the ground so is unable to slew left or right, but this problem was easily overcome by winching L’Eau Commotion fore and aft whilst alongside the dock. We picked a rare calm day that unfortunately coincided with the heaviest ( and coldest ) rain we’ve had in the last two months but with Dion driving and Hector and Roberto cheerfully dogging all went remarkably smoothly. All the standing rigging is now complete which includes the furling staysail which had failed in the first few weeks of the journey and was much missed in the Southern latitudes. The furling headsail, the furling staysail and the mainsail with the boom now reattached are all strapped on and with a few minor tweaks are all ready to go. Thanks to Bob McLeod of the Falkland Islands Yacht Club, of which I am proud to be the most recent member, the multiple problems with VHF aerials have now been sorted out. I now have good solid VHF voice communications with a spare set, as well as the original handheld VHF which has a rechargeable Li battery and most importantly a 5 AAA backup pack.Another vital piece of equipment, again with a new aerial, is an Onwa 708A combined chart plotter and AIS transceiver with complete charts of South America and all the islands of the South Pacific. It was great to pick up the full ships details on the AIS at 18 miles range over one hill and two mountain ranges ( it is basically a “line of sight/VHF transmission ) of a departing trawler, but even more importantly Jason on Speedwell reported getting L’Eau Commotion’s AIS signal from Berkley Sound so I am confident I can now be seen as well as heard. In addition the new LED Tricolour on the masthead is shining brightly which is superior to the previous navigation lights at the pulpit which had failed due to corrosion but in any case would often be below the largish swells hereabouts. The new Watt & Sea hydrogenerator is now connected electrically and all the indicating lights are as per specs but the system has not been sea trialed. It will be a busy week possibly hampered by a forecast two days of snow but all should be ready to take advantage of a North or North Westerly breeze from Saturday on - the winds of recent weeks though moderate have been predominantly South or South West so will grab another four hours sleep till daylight at 8:00am.
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L'Eau Commotion's Photos - Main
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Northshore 38
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