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
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 )
Instruments
21 June 2019 | 220 Miles South of Kangaroo Island
Day 14 7:30pm Friday 21st June 2019 ( UTC+9 )
The sailing has been very quiet and despite indications at dusk that the wind was going to swing around to the North fickle breezes and calms have left me no option but to ignore them and get on with the blog.
Though I am quite capable of shooting the sun and stars I decided not to carry a sextant as there are so many instruments and backups aboard that accurate lat/long is always available. By way of explanation both Iridium units constantly put out GPS as do both iPhones ( when coaxed ) . My primary chart plotter is a Lowrance HDS 7m which is connected via the proprietary Raymarine SeaTalk bus to the Raymarine 200 autopilot, Raymarine St 60 wind, Raymarine St 50 speed, ( via paddle wheel ) log, depth and temperature. The Lowrance is particularly noted for its intuitive operation and there is a vast amount of information available from the whole system which all integrates flawlessly. I have a ST 100 remote wireless controller for the autopilot which again integrates with the system to follow heading, track or wind. The backup chart plotter is a Chinese Onwa with free open source charts for the world downloadable via the web. While the charts aren't as detailed as the Navionics they are more than adequate for the purpose. This Onwa plotter also includes an AIS transceiver which details the ships on the plotter and has a whole range of options for warnings etc, but purposely is not interconnected with the other system in case of any clash. A very important and independent system is an Echomax Active X- Band Radar Enhancer. The transponder unit is mounted vertically on the push pit about 2 metres above water level and does not interfere with the Onwa GPS aerial, The Iridium aerial or the VHF aerial. When lit up by a passing radar it displays a green light on the panel and a loud, ( mutable ) alarm, a quieter ( mutable ) alarm. It also instantly returns an enhanced echo which has the echo size of a small coaster and is obvious to the ships watch while a fibreglass yacht is barely discernible beyond 2 miles. Fishing boat radars are detected and replied to at about 8 miles, well out of sight, and ships radars at over 16 miles.
Not strictly instrumentation but included here are Navigation lights. On the masthead is a 3 LED tricolour plus all round anchor light, on the doghouse are Port, Starboard and Stern lights as an alternative plus above the lower spreaders a forward facing steaming light for requirements under power and a foredeck light. All these are LED and quite bright with very low power consumption. Also all cabin lights are LED with the main galley light, which is really bright, is for cooking and reading.
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The sailing has been very quiet and despite indications at dusk that the wind was going to swing around to the North fickle breezes and calms have left me no option but to ignore them and get on with the blog.
Though I am quite capable of shooting the sun and stars I decided not to carry a sextant as there are so many instruments and backups aboard that accurate lat/long is always available. By way of explanation both Iridium units constantly put out GPS as do both iPhones ( when coaxed ) . My primary chart plotter is a Lowrance HDS 7m which is connected via the proprietary Raymarine SeaTalk bus to the Raymarine 200 autopilot, Raymarine St 60 wind, Raymarine St 50 speed, ( via paddle wheel ) log, depth and temperature. The Lowrance is particularly noted for its intuitive operation and there is a vast amount of information available from the whole system which all integrates flawlessly. I have a ST 100 remote wireless controller for the autopilot which again integrates with the system to follow heading, track or wind. The backup chart plotter is a Chinese Onwa with free open source charts for the world downloadable via the web. While the charts aren't as detailed as the Navionics they are more than adequate for the purpose. This Onwa plotter also includes an AIS transceiver which details the ships on the plotter and has a whole range of options for warnings etc, but purposely is not interconnected with the other system in case of any clash. A very important and independent system is an Echomax Active X- Band Radar Enhancer. The transponder unit is mounted vertically on the push pit about 2 metres above water level and does not interfere with the Onwa GPS aerial, The Iridium aerial or the VHF aerial. When lit up by a passing radar it displays a green light on the panel and a loud, ( mutable ) alarm, a quieter ( mutable ) alarm. It also instantly returns an enhanced echo which has the echo size of a small coaster and is obvious to the ships watch while a fibreglass yacht is barely discernible beyond 2 miles. Fishing boat radars are detected and replied to at about 8 miles, well out of sight, and ships radars at over 16 miles.
Not strictly instrumentation but included here are Navigation lights. On the masthead is a 3 LED tricolour plus all round anchor light, on the doghouse are Port, Starboard and Stern lights as an alternative plus above the lower spreaders a forward facing steaming light for requirements under power and a foredeck light. All these are LED and quite bright with very low power consumption. Also all cabin lights are LED with the main galley light, which is really bright, is for cooking and reading.
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