First Days Sailing South/southeast of Gambier
11 March 2019
Alan Cresswell
March 3
We continue to dive south, closehauled on port tack. The seas are big enough but the boat goes through them well. The northern route is so far out of the question still.
Boeuf Bourgignon a la alan for lunch with secret ingredient: ketchup and of course the bottom shelf box wine..... we'll see. We're having big breakfast and large late lunch with then very little for dinner. Our fresh food dates from 2 weeks ago since the Gambier had nothing fresh (we did get more eggs)
The Watt and Sea plus Solar panels are doing a bang-up job.
At 4 I'll call JC and Francoise and then the PacSea net at 5pm.
Pos at &:05pm your time: S25d03 W134d05 on a course of 160d Trues at 6.8kts. Heel angle 25d (perfect for the cooking of the bourguignon (since it's really not a Bourguignon I'll call it "Alna's Jurassien"- close enough but no cigar))
March 4
Monday 10:45 my time (4hrs earlier than you: UTC-9) Pos S2642 W132d54 COG140True at about 6 kts average. Still going S close-hauled on port tack at an average heeling angle of 20d... not too bad but cooking is interesting with the waves - I've got to add a strap to the galley.
Coco puffs and milk for breakfast.... regression, I guess; sailing makes me younger maybe? Get ready to change my diapers ( baby diapers , that is!) when I get home. We just got under the 3000nm to Puerto Montt last night. At 3pm, after 48hrs, we'll probably will have gone 280nm since we started, in spite of some current against us; really not bad. and most of the miles are in a really good direction.
The weather is getting less hot- at night a long sleeve shirt is nice outside. It's windy and wavy but beautiful. This boat is so well built: after 25 years close hauled in a seaway nothing creaks inside.....just amazing.
Cleaned the galley this morning. Took to [using] the sink of the forward head (marine doesn't use it so I figure it was ok): it avoids the old trick of the toilet lid come crashing down on a wave achieving thereby 2 undesirable outcomes: one, a guys thus pees on a toilet whose lid is down and two, on the way down the lid probably Guillotined the hell out of his pecker. In addition in the sink I don't have to pump
out: what's not to like? really...!
Both heads being on port facing the centerline, they both have the same problem on port tack
March 5
10pm here. S27d35/W132d06 Course: SE by S(ie 147d)@6kts wind: E by N (about 80d) @17kts
Correct on the heeling We're heeling less now: 15 to20d.
I slept already a couple hours. Marine is in her cabin, sleeping. I'm at the chart table; it's been dark for 3hrs now. The weather has noticeably gone cooler. I made the rounds on deck before sunset and I was cold in my tee shirt. The wind is essentially the same so same cog/sog.
Got Suditude today at 16:00 on the SSB but barely. I understood they're leaving tomorrow from Fayu Hiva (the marquise island where Nathaniel and I first made landfall at the bay of the verges,.. I mean the vierges) and heading for the Gambier. JC had a scheme of going straight east from the Marquesas and arriving at Paques from the north but it's now probably shot. They've got easterlies so they have to go south. I have a feeling they'll have to scratch Easter as well: deliverance is in the South. If we're lucky we might make it south quick enough to get westerlies for a while. It all depends on how a small high developing SE of us is going to evolve. We have to round it by the west to get following winds which we could do on our course but I don't trust the GFS model that I'm getting from Maxsea because the weather is complicated (there are air masses all over the place) and so the predictions are unreliable. Do you see that high centered on S31/W128 on Wednesday in the ECMW as well as I do in the GFS? If both models predict identical location then it's trustworthy...somewhat....
Also talked to Jane [Pacific Seafarers Network in Hawaii] but it was not very clear. Still manage to give my report.
Hot Cepes (mushrooms) soup and cheese and bread for dinner; on account of the cold, you know....
March 5
Thanks for the info. Very helpful about the 2 models. [Alan had asked me to look on windy.com for a comparison of the weather prediction from the GFC and the ECWMF models.] Tomorrow we should hit some calms.
Shrimp curry with coconut milk for our large late lunch.... quite good, even if I say so myself!
Pos S29d09/W131d14 cog 150 @ 5.8kts.... and still close hauled on port tack so heel still 20d or so. I installed a nice strap at the galley and it is most helpful.
Took a shower and shaved and boy does it feel good. The hot water tank is so well insulated that we stil have some hot water from getting out of the Gambier on Saturday! Nice!
I am realizing that I don't have many shirts now that tee's are not quite enough.... like I found a single one (other than the short sleeved cotton ones that are worthless on a boat)
March 6
We are having a very peaceful day; finally wind at 6 kts out of the NE, no seas just a few swells from the SW (storms in the South)and a couple other direction.
This am we calibrated the wind instrument and the speed/log instrument which involved doing 360s under power and 1/2 nm runs back and forth but now the reading are trustworthy.
Eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast.... with a couple slices of fried saucisson! And a pamplemousse for good measure.
POS S30d15/W130d25 cog: SE @ 2.6kts
Another jane austen -type crap novel almost finished (the devil's web). Always the same ; why don't they sit down and talk?
Next book will be better!
I've been trying to play "Goota get away" by the Black Keys (C/A#/F): I really like that song and was playing it in loop this morning at sunrise in the headphones to figure out chords and words - Chords not too hard; but some phrases I don't get. Please play it. I'd like to play it with you.
March 7
Pos S31d41/W129d06 Course: 1550 @ 2.7kts It's overcast with low clouds and occasional rain. The night was really humid and it was the first night I put a sheet on me while sleeping. The water temp is slowly but surely dropping as we gain to the
South: now at 19C compared to 25C in the Gambier and 26C in Tahiti. We motored about 20hrs through the worst of the calms, yesterday and today.
An hour ago we touched some wind so we started sailing again. But it's touch and go, because now we have very little again. The last GFS GRIB shows that we should get some decent wind starting a few hours from now, and then it's a bit tricky in the next couple days, but we should be good until Saturday when another High should engulf us bringing very light headwinds - but at least if winds are light, it's better to have them on the nose since the boat speed gets added to the true headwind to create a stronger headwind (the reverse is true in strong winds since the boat speed is deducted from the true wind to create a weaker apparent wind).
Marine fixed a yummy frittata type breakfast. Yesterday night was merguez with puree and some sautéed apples with onions: very good!
This morning I improved the setup of the boom brake and started studying the gauges (water and fuel) with great interest. I think that the problem is that they take for ever to settle: this am we are more fuel than when we started motoring yesterday!!
We got a couple decent size flying fish on the deck (9" or so) but I noticed too late so they went back to water - although quite dead.
Rachel's sourdough is alive after a couple days in the ER! So it's on for some bread. ..... and just in time since we just ran out of the Papeete sliced bread (not good to start with) When do you get your crown?
If you listened to the Black Keys song try and write down the words: the last line of the chorus is stumping me
Maarch 8
Definitely not in the tropics anymore! Last night I had a fleece and a fleece blanket to sleep. Winds are pretty stiff out the S: 2 reefs and genoa rolled 30%. Sun finally came out an hour ago.
pos S33d/W126d43 course 105d @ 6.3 kts. 2500nm to Puerto Montt. So we've gone 763nm since the Gambier and sailed about 650nm toward Puerto Montt. The extra 113nm correspond to extra miles going South. The gribs show pretty good winds until Monday and after that some light headwinds for a while. Very little life around but we just saw one bird.. I have some sourdough ready to start making bread.
Give my love to Evan and tell him to set up his ham shack. I think I might just be able to reach you guys on the Ham radio. Although he probably has no time for that.
Now I'm in the middle of "the lost girls of paris". Good read.