Zac Sunderland: Dolphins, Ships and Wind!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Last night the wind picked to 8-10 knots on the beam and has stayed steady. This morning I started stowing everything for the heavier winds that are certain to come. Around 10:30 am I was in the cockpit when I saw a pod of dolphins coming over to the boat. They stayed awhile and surfed Intrepid's wake. After about 1/2 hour, they took off. I'm amazed that they are the first dolphins I've seen since I left Los Angeles! I went back into the cabin and took a look at my AIS radar. I saw that there was a ship about 12 miles away headed towards me. I kept an eye on the radar but we passed a couple of miles apart without either of us having to change course.
I've been rereading Tania Aebi's book Maiden Voyage. It is interesting how the book reads so much differentl now that I am out here. I'm also reading a book that was sent to me by Mike Williams called The Chronicles of the Schooner Lusty I. It is great to read about other circumnavigators. The wind has stayed steady and I think I'll be hitting the heavier, steadier trade winds before long. It feels good to be moving again and I hope that the wind holds now.
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 8:34 PM 12 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Torres Strait Part II
Last night I had real light winds and only made about 20 miles. Around 5am a little breeze picked up and I moved along at 5 knots. That lasted about 3 hours and now the wind is down to about 3-4 knots. Progress, if you can call it that, is way slow.
Torres Strait Part 2:
Entrance to the Torres Strait:
It was 4 am when I reached Bramble Cay. It was blowing 20 knots with hazy fog. I set course for my first way point. I had a good point of sail and was moving along at 6-7 knots. I reached my first way point just as the sun was coming up. By now it was a few miles within the shelter of the reefs. The swell died down from 8 feet to nothing. The winds dropped down a little to 15 knots. So I sailed along that whole day, dodging reefs and islands and constantly altering course. By nightfall I was nearing the entrance to the Vigilant Passage. This is an area where the course alters from the wide Great North East Channel and heads between a narrow break in the reefs. I sailed through. It was marked well and easy to navigate. By the time I got through the passage it was about 10pm. I was starting to feel the effects of the lack of sleep from the night before. I still had a good 80 or more miles til I was out of the Strait. I plugged my next way point into the chart plotter and set course for it. I had about 14 miles (2 hours worth of travel time) to my next way point. I was very tired so I got out 2 alarms and set them to go off in 15 minutes. I set them on either side of my head and slept. (Through my extensive experience with sleep deprivation I have learned that if you can get even 5 minutes of sleep it will make you feel almost as good as new and will give you a couple more hours on your feet.)
After my nap I sat on deck with the wind keeping me awake studying the maze of reefs and nav lights against the charts. A couple of way points later, I was entering the Prince of Wales Channel which is the last part of the Strait and also the most difficult to navigate. As I approached the channel there was a ship on its way out. I hailed them and we decided which side we should pass each other on. We passed within a few hundred yards and then they were gone. The next way point took me between 2 shoals. They were marked with lights and I made it through fine and headed for the next way point. This one was nav lights about 100 yards apart. On either side was a reef. This one was relatively hard to aim the boat through so I ended up taking the boat off autopilot and hand steering through. Once through that I was in the Prince of Wales Channel and navigating by red and green nav lights which I found out pretty quickly were reversed from what we have in America. All those years of my dad shouting 'Red Right Returning' had to be reprogrammed to left instead. The sun rose as I was about 5 miles from the channel. I was going about 9.5 knots from wind and running with the current. I got out of the channel and set course for Booby Island about 15 miles away; the official exit of the TS. All went well until the tide turned and now I was going 2 knots. That was a pain because I hadn't slept accept for that 5 minutes and I was starting to fall asleep while on watch. I decided to hand steer for a little while to keep my mind active and awake. I passed Booby Island about 10am and set my new course and slept. The passage was a challenge to my navigation skills but easier than I had expected.
The Clearpoint forecast shows some wind coming this afternoon. I certainly hope so...
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 10:33 PM 27 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Lake Indian Ocean
OK, so sorry for not blogging but there has been a lot to do the past few days. Being incredibly hot and sweaty makes it hard to get going. My email is backed up from the time after PNG when I wasn't able to receive them. I can only pick up so many per week and right now I have a backlog of over 200 emails! Right now it is about 8:000pm and there is about 3 knots of wind which is barely enough to keep the boat moving in the right direction. There is no swell so the sea looks like a calm lake. Not much happened today. I passed some oil platforms and a couple of ships, one of which came within a half of a mile of me. I contacted him on the radio and he already knew where I was so it was safe. Later in the afternoon I was doing something on deck and I saw a big white shape under the water. As I looked closer I saw that it was a shark. Not just one shark, I was in a school/pod of them! They weren't like the friendly Pacific dolphins that play around the boat. They were off after a couple of minutes. I guess I'll add that to my list of reasons not to swim at sea. I had been actually contemplating swimming because of how hot it is though I probably would not have done it.
So I guess everyone wants to hear about the Torres Strait. Here you go...I had just gotten off the phone with Mike Smith (Team Zac electrician extraordinaire). We were trouble shooting my AIS radar that for some reason wasn't working right. I set my phone down on the top companionway step and opened the Pelican case where I always keep it. Before I put it in, the drag on my fishing pole started screaming. I ran up top to real in the fish. The fish ended up snapping the line and when I went down below I saw the sat phone had fallen into the galley sink into a bowl of oil. Why was there a bowl of oil in my galley sink? The mechanics from Papua New Guinea were supposed to dispose of it but were not able to. I was to get offshore and dump it. Only 1/4" of the upper corner of the phone had touched the oil. I wiped it off with a paper towel and called Mike back to tell him that I had to deal with some issues on the boat and that I would call him back in the morning. Then I took the phone apart and saw that a fair bit of oil had gotten inside. I wiped it off the best I could and put the phone in rice over night to draw out the moisture. In the morning I put the phone back together and turned it on. It went okay and I entered the pass code. It came up with a message that said 'Phone Failure See Supplier'. That was really helpful since the nearest supplier was the best part of 10,000 miles away. I tried for awhile to get the phone working again but it was no use. I think I probably made it worse. The slapping against hand technique etc... Then I fired up the computer but for some reason it wasn't working either. I did manage to get an email out to mom and dad after a hundred attempts just to let them know that all was well with me and the boat.
The next day I got on the Rag on the Air Net and make contact with the people out of Majuro. They were able to relay with my parents back home. I had no idea what my parents had been through and that they were about to call on Australian Search and Rescue.
As I was getting closer to the Torres Strait, I managed to get a few way points that had been stuck on the computer before the screen died. Not sure how but the back light of the computer screen had stopped working. I went to use the other computer but water had dripped on the keyboard and I couldn't type in my password. With no comms except the SSB, I kept in touch with everyone through the guys from Moana and Majuro. I spent the few days before the Torres Strait with light winds and was able to study the passage guide again. The night before I got to the entrance at Bramble Cay, the wind picked up to about 20-25 knots so I reefed down and entered the Strait under sail. I arrived at Bramble Cay, the entrance to the Torres Strait, at about 4:00am. I never did see the light and there was a lot of fog. That was the first of many surprises in he Torres Strait. Stay tuned for part 2 of Zac sails the Torres Strait!
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 9:25 PM 32 Comments Links to this post
Last night the wind picked to 8-10 knots on the beam and has stayed steady. This morning I started stowing everything for the heavier winds that are certain to come. Around 10:30 am I was in the cockpit when I saw a pod of dolphins coming over to the boat. They stayed awhile and surfed Intrepid's wake. After about 1/2 hour, they took off. I'm amazed that they are the first dolphins I've seen since I left Los Angeles! I went back into the cabin and took a look at my AIS radar. I saw that there was a ship about 12 miles away headed towards me. I kept an eye on the radar but we passed a couple of miles apart without either of us having to change course.
I've been rereading Tania Aebi's book Maiden Voyage. It is interesting how the book reads so much differentl now that I am out here. I'm also reading a book that was sent to me by Mike Williams called The Chronicles of the Schooner Lusty I. It is great to read about other circumnavigators. The wind has stayed steady and I think I'll be hitting the heavier, steadier trade winds before long. It feels good to be moving again and I hope that the wind holds now.
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 8:34 PM 12 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Torres Strait Part II
Last night I had real light winds and only made about 20 miles. Around 5am a little breeze picked up and I moved along at 5 knots. That lasted about 3 hours and now the wind is down to about 3-4 knots. Progress, if you can call it that, is way slow.
Torres Strait Part 2:
Entrance to the Torres Strait:
It was 4 am when I reached Bramble Cay. It was blowing 20 knots with hazy fog. I set course for my first way point. I had a good point of sail and was moving along at 6-7 knots. I reached my first way point just as the sun was coming up. By now it was a few miles within the shelter of the reefs. The swell died down from 8 feet to nothing. The winds dropped down a little to 15 knots. So I sailed along that whole day, dodging reefs and islands and constantly altering course. By nightfall I was nearing the entrance to the Vigilant Passage. This is an area where the course alters from the wide Great North East Channel and heads between a narrow break in the reefs. I sailed through. It was marked well and easy to navigate. By the time I got through the passage it was about 10pm. I was starting to feel the effects of the lack of sleep from the night before. I still had a good 80 or more miles til I was out of the Strait. I plugged my next way point into the chart plotter and set course for it. I had about 14 miles (2 hours worth of travel time) to my next way point. I was very tired so I got out 2 alarms and set them to go off in 15 minutes. I set them on either side of my head and slept. (Through my extensive experience with sleep deprivation I have learned that if you can get even 5 minutes of sleep it will make you feel almost as good as new and will give you a couple more hours on your feet.)
After my nap I sat on deck with the wind keeping me awake studying the maze of reefs and nav lights against the charts. A couple of way points later, I was entering the Prince of Wales Channel which is the last part of the Strait and also the most difficult to navigate. As I approached the channel there was a ship on its way out. I hailed them and we decided which side we should pass each other on. We passed within a few hundred yards and then they were gone. The next way point took me between 2 shoals. They were marked with lights and I made it through fine and headed for the next way point. This one was nav lights about 100 yards apart. On either side was a reef. This one was relatively hard to aim the boat through so I ended up taking the boat off autopilot and hand steering through. Once through that I was in the Prince of Wales Channel and navigating by red and green nav lights which I found out pretty quickly were reversed from what we have in America. All those years of my dad shouting 'Red Right Returning' had to be reprogrammed to left instead. The sun rose as I was about 5 miles from the channel. I was going about 9.5 knots from wind and running with the current. I got out of the channel and set course for Booby Island about 15 miles away; the official exit of the TS. All went well until the tide turned and now I was going 2 knots. That was a pain because I hadn't slept accept for that 5 minutes and I was starting to fall asleep while on watch. I decided to hand steer for a little while to keep my mind active and awake. I passed Booby Island about 10am and set my new course and slept. The passage was a challenge to my navigation skills but easier than I had expected.
The Clearpoint forecast shows some wind coming this afternoon. I certainly hope so...
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 10:33 PM 27 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Lake Indian Ocean
OK, so sorry for not blogging but there has been a lot to do the past few days. Being incredibly hot and sweaty makes it hard to get going. My email is backed up from the time after PNG when I wasn't able to receive them. I can only pick up so many per week and right now I have a backlog of over 200 emails! Right now it is about 8:000pm and there is about 3 knots of wind which is barely enough to keep the boat moving in the right direction. There is no swell so the sea looks like a calm lake. Not much happened today. I passed some oil platforms and a couple of ships, one of which came within a half of a mile of me. I contacted him on the radio and he already knew where I was so it was safe. Later in the afternoon I was doing something on deck and I saw a big white shape under the water. As I looked closer I saw that it was a shark. Not just one shark, I was in a school/pod of them! They weren't like the friendly Pacific dolphins that play around the boat. They were off after a couple of minutes. I guess I'll add that to my list of reasons not to swim at sea. I had been actually contemplating swimming because of how hot it is though I probably would not have done it.
So I guess everyone wants to hear about the Torres Strait. Here you go...I had just gotten off the phone with Mike Smith (Team Zac electrician extraordinaire). We were trouble shooting my AIS radar that for some reason wasn't working right. I set my phone down on the top companionway step and opened the Pelican case where I always keep it. Before I put it in, the drag on my fishing pole started screaming. I ran up top to real in the fish. The fish ended up snapping the line and when I went down below I saw the sat phone had fallen into the galley sink into a bowl of oil. Why was there a bowl of oil in my galley sink? The mechanics from Papua New Guinea were supposed to dispose of it but were not able to. I was to get offshore and dump it. Only 1/4" of the upper corner of the phone had touched the oil. I wiped it off with a paper towel and called Mike back to tell him that I had to deal with some issues on the boat and that I would call him back in the morning. Then I took the phone apart and saw that a fair bit of oil had gotten inside. I wiped it off the best I could and put the phone in rice over night to draw out the moisture. In the morning I put the phone back together and turned it on. It went okay and I entered the pass code. It came up with a message that said 'Phone Failure See Supplier'. That was really helpful since the nearest supplier was the best part of 10,000 miles away. I tried for awhile to get the phone working again but it was no use. I think I probably made it worse. The slapping against hand technique etc... Then I fired up the computer but for some reason it wasn't working either. I did manage to get an email out to mom and dad after a hundred attempts just to let them know that all was well with me and the boat.
The next day I got on the Rag on the Air Net and make contact with the people out of Majuro. They were able to relay with my parents back home. I had no idea what my parents had been through and that they were about to call on Australian Search and Rescue.
As I was getting closer to the Torres Strait, I managed to get a few way points that had been stuck on the computer before the screen died. Not sure how but the back light of the computer screen had stopped working. I went to use the other computer but water had dripped on the keyboard and I couldn't type in my password. With no comms except the SSB, I kept in touch with everyone through the guys from Moana and Majuro. I spent the few days before the Torres Strait with light winds and was able to study the passage guide again. The night before I got to the entrance at Bramble Cay, the wind picked up to about 20-25 knots so I reefed down and entered the Strait under sail. I arrived at Bramble Cay, the entrance to the Torres Strait, at about 4:00am. I never did see the light and there was a lot of fog. That was the first of many surprises in he Torres Strait. Stay tuned for part 2 of Zac sails the Torres Strait!
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 9:25 PM 32 Comments Links to this post
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10/04/2008 02:34:00 PM
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