Archive | January, 2016

day two

January 11, 2016 by

Rally Start Photo

We are on the gerbil wheel! The gerbil wheel is a Two Fish sailing term describing the phenomenon of never changing arrival time. For the last 12 hours we have had 4 days to go. No one is complaining and some secretly wish this trip to last forever as the wind and waves have been kind. We have both the chute and the screecher flying in 12-13 knots and making 6 to 7 knots SOG. The current is contributing half a knot to our progress.

Gail’s banana bread day’s are numbered. Despite it have stayed in the oven 5 minutes too long it is darn tasty. Thanks for the recipe M/V Barefeet (formerly known as PDQ SV Barefeet). Gail has started 20,000 leagues under the sea and asking me odd questions with four letter answers so she must be doing the crossword puzzle. James and Jackie are fitting in quickly. Jackie was worried about night watches but seems to take to them like a jib to a furler. Tonight we will be flying our double headsail rig as long as the breeze does not shift more to the south. If it does go south we will roll up the screecher and raise the main and steer a 140 true wind angle course.

Sailing west makes easy sailing math. You are heading 270 and the wind is from 90. Big numbers (i.e. greater than 90) be on port jibe and small numbers (i.e. less than 90) be on starboard jibe. We are breaking the rule and taking the comfy but slower approach of DDW. I feel guilty saying it in public.

The SSB worked like a champ. We dialed into the daily call and heard almost everyone and they seemed to hear us. It is still rather mystical how it works, not the best user interface. It was great to hear from the other boats. Some caught yellow fin tuna, others abstained from any motoring, one break a gooseneck and many boasted of great breakfasts. We stuck to the facts of wind speed and sail plan. The boat leading the call did a brilliant job. Sound

Just read the marina in Colombia uses finger print scanners. Do I want them to have my finger prints?

Chute practice Pre-Start

Day one

January 9, 2016 by

At some point this post will be 12,500 nautical miles in our wake. Right now we are close enough to St Lucia that VHF from the marina can still be heard. We are cutting the tentacles to the familiar at a slow rate.
We set up for the pin end of the start line and crossed in 4th. However committee end was hugely favored and we were rolled by a big chunk of the boats while we switched from the Genoa to the screecher. Black fish got us back in the game and we passed a few boats. But the horror show rally folks had put a turning mark in Castries bay. Which had winds of 6 knots and upwind. Screecher down and Genoa back up. More boat lengths gone. Fun rounding at the mark as we came in on starboard and Paw Paw ducked us. Chute went up in crushing style. I rigged the sheet wrong 3 times.
Banana bread was broken into and the hydro gen is making amps and a relaxed humming noise. The winds are light and a few of the boats have sparked up the engine. One of our two sisterships is near by and the other coming from Martinique.

Gail is helming and the chute is pulling us west. What could be better? Dinner time and that is soon. Out for now.

Jason
+1 646 510 3500

Day Minus One

January 9, 2016 by

We will set sail from Rodney Bay, St Lucia towards Santa Marta, Colombia, in the morning.

Last paddle in St Lucia

Last paddle in St Lucia

This five day passage is the first leg in our trip to Australia.  It would have been cheaper and quicker to buy two first class airline seats, but this will be a lot more fun.

I feel a bit more pressure than average passage for a few reasons.    Firstly,  we have joined a rally with other boats and this creates more rules and timelines.  I will get used to it over time.   Secondly, we are going on a L O N G trip.  It is 12,500 from St Lucia to Australia.   In the past 2 years we have sailed 12,400 miles so we will be under sail many of the days.  About 2,100 hours or 86 days of sailing in the next year.  Good news is we have a kind forecast for our trip to Colombia.

Gail has cooked up a storm so we have eight frozen dinners (Chili, Baked Ziti, Lentil and Chicken Couscous x 2).   We plan on inviting some fish over for dinner as well. We found some new invitations at the hardware store earlier this week.

 

Over the past few weeks, we have readied Two Fish for the Pacific.   The engines were gone over with a fine tooth comb and  had their share of fixes.   Every filter has been changed.  Every system tested. Oil changed. Even a wood squeak was removed from port forward.   The stuck fuel filter on the genset was changed and the leaky gasket on the governor was replaced.


In addition to our usual chartplotters, we have collected a few more resources for navigation:

1)   We have downloaded Google Earth for offline use for our entire trip.  It takes up about 25 gigabytes of room.  It has good spots and some weak spots.   We use the app Tallon on the PC to download regions. Our files seem to work only on Windows 8.1.
2)   We have many great tracks from other boats.  We load these gpx files onto our chartplotter and into Google Earth.
3)   We have made some of our cruising guides into raster charts that I can use on the tablet.    I use SeaClear II and Map Cal to create these charts. We are trying to buy a tablet holder to keep near the helm.

We will write more about our navigation as we progress through our route.

 

The ARC group (our rally) is still feeling its way.  Some boats are veterans of sailing in rallies, others are getting ready for their first big passage and others, like us, are loners trying to adjust to the pace.  We will find our stride, but for now I have to bite my lip a few times.  Tonight is a leaving party and by morning I will be at sea where I belong. The rally has a start line, which I expect will create some high blood pressure. I am not sure how many boats know the racing rules, so I will try not to win the start.

One More Cruise

January 9, 2016 by

Before leaving the Caribbean, we were eager to put boat work aside and enjoy a bit more of the Windward Islands. We will miss Grenada and the weekly hashes but hope to see some of our cruising friends again.

Fenix and Kirby Crews Post Hash

Fenix and Kirby Crews Post Hash

Fortunately, Beth and David found some time in their schedules for a one week cruise from Grenada to St Lucia.  As much as we like and will miss Grenada, we were excited to push off towards the Grenadines.

I am not sure how much our guests appreciated the favorable breezes during our one week cruise. After last season’s continuously breezy upwind conditions, we were lucky to sail with the wind behind us, of course trying out every sail along the way.

At one point, we almost mutinied when Jason’s adherence to keeping the screecher up had us headed, albeit quickly, towards Nicaragua. Or maybe he was going to bear off more and start the trip to the canal?

Tobago Cays was beautiful but not the snorkeling paradise I was hoping for; while the winds were not howling, they were enough to muddy the waters.

Mustique proved to be my favorite Grenadine, yet again.

Mustique

Mustique

 

 

Tuna

Tuna

David reminded us that our best chance of catching a fish was to invite him aboard. He caught three tunas that week. Not only is he an expert fisherman but he provides sea to table cuisine; he served up delicious ceviche, bbq tacos and seared tuna.

Jason enjoying the gym

Jason enjoying the gym

Did I say no boat work for the week? Well, almost. We managed to squeeze in a fix to the furler, the door latch and an attempted fix to our water heater pressure relief valve.

Marigot Bay beckoned with flights home and Fed Ex’ing our chartplotter for rapid repair. It is fun to return to places we have been before and we again enjoyed the food at Masala Bay, Christmas Eve dinner at the Rainforest and daily workouts at Capella’s gym.

I wanted to try the local bakery, to see if they had any St Lucian holiday treats. I walked up the hill and couldn’t see any sign for a

Local Bakery

Local Bakery

bakery. I asked a shopkeeper where the bakery was and she pointed down the hill and told me it was just past the blue van, just as the blue van started pulling away. I walked down the road and asked a man who told me it was up

Two Fish from Top of Road

Two Fish from Top of Road

the road, just past the mango tree. I was too embarrassed to tell him that I had no idea what an out-of-season mango tree looked like and that my usual mango tree is in the fruit aisle at Fairway. I finally found the shop and bought some ginger cookies and coconut bread.

Now we have returned to Rodney Bay and the countdown to our departure towards the canal and points west begins.