Zac Sunderland: Latest Waypoint, Cocos Keeling
Friday, October 17, 2008
Repairs in Paradise
Hello All,
Zac in Paradise...He has definitely hit the ground running. There has been a steady trickle of boats arriving at Cocos Keeling. They are all on the fast track to head down to Mauritius and beyond as quickly as possible to avoid any early storm activity. Zac has figured out the ferry system that takes people around the 3 islands in the atoll and has hooked up with the right people. He will have to blog about all of the amazing connections he has made. He was introduced to the woodworker from Home Island 2 days ago. Zac marveled at the man's shop where he was building beautiful wooden sailing boats all with hand tools. He was happy to repair Zac's tiller and fashion a new one out of a nice chunk of teak he had in his shop. Thank you to whoever it was that suggested the Home Island woodworkers!
Thank you for all of your emails of concern and advice regarding the repair of Zac's boom. His mission today was to haul the 5 foot piece of broken boom around with all of Laurence's ideas for possible makeshift fixes in mind and attempt a timely repair. The issue of repairing the boom is being weighed against the cost of delaying his departure into the already brewing Indian Ocean this close to cyclone season. He does not have the option of waiting for a new boom nor of waiting 2 weeks while a repair is made. With the well established weather patterns and expert meteorologist David Morris watching for danger from the satellite imaging, he should be able to be routed safely across.
On a positive note, Zac has been eating lots. He finds the canned food in CK to be a bit odd with mostly canned mac and cheese and canned beans for sale. He'd better do some fishing on this next leg! Meanwhile, he is filling up on fresh food which is fabulous. He hooked up with the local missionary doctor on Home Island, who had heard of him, and was given a once over and a shower. He weighed in at having lost just about 10 pounds. Probably mostly muscle as he had been working out pretty consistently with Laurence before he left last June. He did attempt to swim, the water is beautiful, but noticed a few sharks swimming by and changed his plans. Not sure where people dive there but none of the cruisers at Direction Island were swimming after that! Most of the cruisers/boaters who are there right now are part of a round the world rally and are at the tail end and passing through fairly quickly. We are speaking only once a day now because of the time difference. Hopefully, he will get his blog out soon because our sat phone connection has not been very good (in fact, neither has my cell phone?) and I miss a lot of what he says.
Thanks for listening. Zac should be back in a day or two!
Cheers,
Marianne
PS: Here is a link to a wonderful photographer from Cocos Keeling. Her shots are absolutely breathtaking!
http://www.karenwillshaw.com/
posted by Zac at 11:31 PM 35 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Welcome to Paradise
Zac will attempt to type up a blog tonight (it is still his late morning) but I will update you all as to what the plan is. Zac was immediately greeted by the other cruising boats at Cocos Keeling - 3 in all. They shared stories and fed Zac a homecooked dinner of meat and salad that he said was wonderful. They are all heading to Mauritius next and have set up a radio schedule for the journey. After weighing the pros and cons, it was decided to have Zac stow the boom (a weld would not be strong enough) and sail downwind to Mauritius under genoa alone. Zac proved this to be successful as he sailed the last 30 miles to CK under genoa alone with very little decrease in speed. Many thanks to Rob Jordan and Dave Hickson for their knowledgable advice.
When we spoke with Zac this morning he was planning on heading out to Home Island about 1.5 miles away from the anchorage at Direction Island to seek out the woodworkers to see about having 2 new tillers made. He will also be able to buy some food there for his next leg to Mauritius. He sounded really good and was inspired by the other cruisers to be about his business and join them on the passage to Mauritius and his halfway mark!!
The following link is the most amaizng article on the history of Cocos Keeling Island:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6730047.stm
Until tomorrow,
Marianne
posted by Zac at 10:08 PM 43 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Limping to Cocos Keeling
Good evening all!
It has been a wild couple of days here. Zac has been busily preparing for his arrival in Cocos Keeling. Sunday afternoon he had a long list of chores that he was hoping to handle including cleaning up and organizing, sorting out his anchor and chain, gathering his paperwork, entering his waypoints into the spare GPS etc. Sunday night at about midnight Intrepid came off of a wave and Zac awoke to a loud cracking sound. He ran up to see what the noise could have been and found his tiller cracked in two. The boat headed up into the wind and rode the swells while he tried to figure out how on earth to repair the thing in the dark and, did I mention that it was raining?
After a few hours of trying different fixes, he found that screwing four hose clamps around the tiller would hold it pretty well. He was able to strap it back into the Tiller Pilot and get back under way. We spoke several times during the day. He was checking off his list and was going to have another look at the engine before having a nap last we spoke.
This morning I got a call from Zac early. I thought that maybe he was excited about his arrival at Cocos Keeling and couldn't sleep. He had been sleeping when he was awakened by a loud crashing sound and the boat slamming around. He ran up to see what was going on and saw that the tiller had come off of the Tiller Pilot causing an accidental jibe. This is when the direction of the boat is changed so that the wind switches to the other side of the boat. This can be a violent motion and causes the boom to crash to the other side of the boat. I'm not clear why Zac didn't have his preventer hooked up but I suppose he didn't feel he was in any danger of jibing under his current pointof sail. I cannot imagine what he thought as he looked and saw that his boom had completely broken in two! The boom is the metal bar that extends from the mast to hold down the bottom part of the sail. He wasn't in that much wind at the time (about 15 knots). He figures that the boom was weak because of age and an accumulation of wear and tear from heavy use.
He was still moving along at about 6 knots with the mainsail sagging. He managed to pull everything in and secure the boom and at last conversation was moving along at between 5-6 knots under genoa alone. He had made contact with Cocos Keeling Customs who were alerted to his condition and would be on standby if he needed any help. The plan at this point is for him to sail into the bay and drop the anchor as soon as he is in the lee of Direction Island. Hopefully the tides, currents and wind will be in his favor and he will have no problems. It is a risky move due to the reefs on either side of the channel.
He is still in excellent spirits considering everything and hopeful of finding a welder on the island. Of all the stops that Laurence has gone to meet Zac, this one would have been the most needed but he did not plan to go out having been to Darwin so recently. In fact, no one is going out due to the expense!
Perhaps the mysterious Indonesian fishing boat was successful in tossing their evil spirits onto Intrepid. But we don't fear because He who is in us is stronger than he who is in the world!
I expect a call from Zac sometime tonight to let us know how his arrival went. I will post again if it isn't too late.
On my knees,
Mom Sunderland
PS At 10:45 this evening Zac called to say that his motor miraculously started (and I do mean miraculously!) and he motored all the way to the anchorage! He is sitting in paradise as I type!
posted by Zac at 10:01 PM 64 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wind, Engines and Questions
The wind and seas have been intense and consistant over the past 24 hours. The wind is at about 25 knots and the seas at about 10 feet now. I still have this annoying cross-swell that slaps Intrepid off of her course every now and then. I had to adjust my radar because the swells are getting so big they set off the radar alarm from time to time.
I have been getting some good feedback on anchoring under sail in Cocos Keeling. Thanks to Billabong Blog and Rob Jordan and the other commenters who have ideas for me. My filters are clean so it has to be something with the lines or the fuel pick up again. I'm hoping to be able to rig something so that I at least have time to set the anchor properly. I'll have to get to the yard in Mauritius and have them cut a whole in the tanks so we can see what is going on in there.
Mom sent over a bunch of questions from Bill and Linda in Camarillo. Here they are:
What has been your favorite and least favorite part of your journey?
My favorite part of the journey this far has been my stop in Majuro. The locals are friendly and the lifestyle is layed back. I had a great rest and food at the Robert Reimers Hotel. It was the last part of my easy Pacific crossing - easy compared to what came next anyway!
My least favorite part of the trip so far was my stay in Papua New Guinea. Even though I had some great people there assisting me, I felt stuck there because of my engine problems and the limited parts and service available there. Every extra day I spent there was a day I could not spend exploring Australia.
What has been your biggest fear?
My biggest fear so far has been the fear of falling asleep and not waking up for an alarm. Second biggest fear was navigatin alone through reefs.
What have you learned about yourself that was a surprise?
I was pretty to realize that I am OK being alone for long periods of time. Although after about 2 weeks I start to get pretty bored and restless.
What do you wish you would have done before you left home that you didn't get to do?
Change out my fuel tanks!!
What do you miss most that you thought you wouldn't miss?
I am really missing football. Football is your whole lofe during the season. I have really missed it out here.
What are you surprised that you can live without?
I am really surprised at how I have adjusted to eating so little.
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 6:09 PM 52 Comments Links to this post
Saturday, October 11, 2008
More Wind!
OK so I am fully in the trades now. I have been making great time day and night. I have had a consistant 20-25 knots all day. There is an annoying swell that is hitting me on the port aft quarter and knocking me off course continually. I have altered course as much as possible but it hasn't helped much. I am reading through a book called Singelhanded Sailing by Richard Henderson. I have been reading up on how to anchor without an engine because all of a sudden I my engine is stalling out on me again. I start it up every now and then to make sure it is running. I think the rougher seas have stirred something up and has clogged it somewhere again. All of my usual tricks haven't worked this time and in 20+ knots and 8 foot seas I'm not really feeling like crawling in the engine room to troubleshoot. So, it seems, I will have to pay a price to enter paradise after all! Should be there in a few days.
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 10:53 PM 38 Comments Links to this post
Friday, October 10, 2008
In the Trades
The wind has been picking up gradually and has been more steady now. I have had a consistant 15 knots all day and am making between 6-7 knots average. The wind has shifted from the beam to the stern (coming from the side to the back) and the swells which are growing are now mostly behind me. It feels great to be really moving again. I haven't seen any boats in the past few days. I did have a squall that set off the radar alarm this morning which was unexpected because I haven't seen a squall in 3 weeks. Things are going well. I have been studying my charts and getting familiar with the approach and anchorage in Cocos Keeling. I have been reading up on some heavy weather techniques and taking care of the continual boat maintenance. I probably won't spend too long in Cocos Keeling as the longer I am in the Indian Ocean the closer it gets to cyclone season. As it is David Morris is keeping a look out now for any early activity in the area. It is not unheard of for an early cyclone to develope in as early as October and November even though cyclone season doesn't officially start until December.
I hear that you are all planning for a party in the next few weeks. Wish I could be there but I guess a few days in paradise will have to do for now!
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 10:13 PM 32 Comments Links to this post
Repairs in Paradise
Hello All,
Zac in Paradise...He has definitely hit the ground running. There has been a steady trickle of boats arriving at Cocos Keeling. They are all on the fast track to head down to Mauritius and beyond as quickly as possible to avoid any early storm activity. Zac has figured out the ferry system that takes people around the 3 islands in the atoll and has hooked up with the right people. He will have to blog about all of the amazing connections he has made. He was introduced to the woodworker from Home Island 2 days ago. Zac marveled at the man's shop where he was building beautiful wooden sailing boats all with hand tools. He was happy to repair Zac's tiller and fashion a new one out of a nice chunk of teak he had in his shop. Thank you to whoever it was that suggested the Home Island woodworkers!
Thank you for all of your emails of concern and advice regarding the repair of Zac's boom. His mission today was to haul the 5 foot piece of broken boom around with all of Laurence's ideas for possible makeshift fixes in mind and attempt a timely repair. The issue of repairing the boom is being weighed against the cost of delaying his departure into the already brewing Indian Ocean this close to cyclone season. He does not have the option of waiting for a new boom nor of waiting 2 weeks while a repair is made. With the well established weather patterns and expert meteorologist David Morris watching for danger from the satellite imaging, he should be able to be routed safely across.
On a positive note, Zac has been eating lots. He finds the canned food in CK to be a bit odd with mostly canned mac and cheese and canned beans for sale. He'd better do some fishing on this next leg! Meanwhile, he is filling up on fresh food which is fabulous. He hooked up with the local missionary doctor on Home Island, who had heard of him, and was given a once over and a shower. He weighed in at having lost just about 10 pounds. Probably mostly muscle as he had been working out pretty consistently with Laurence before he left last June. He did attempt to swim, the water is beautiful, but noticed a few sharks swimming by and changed his plans. Not sure where people dive there but none of the cruisers at Direction Island were swimming after that! Most of the cruisers/boaters who are there right now are part of a round the world rally and are at the tail end and passing through fairly quickly. We are speaking only once a day now because of the time difference. Hopefully, he will get his blog out soon because our sat phone connection has not been very good (in fact, neither has my cell phone?) and I miss a lot of what he says.
Thanks for listening. Zac should be back in a day or two!
Cheers,
Marianne
PS: Here is a link to a wonderful photographer from Cocos Keeling. Her shots are absolutely breathtaking!
http://www.karenwillshaw.com/
posted by Zac at 11:31 PM 35 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Welcome to Paradise
Zac will attempt to type up a blog tonight (it is still his late morning) but I will update you all as to what the plan is. Zac was immediately greeted by the other cruising boats at Cocos Keeling - 3 in all. They shared stories and fed Zac a homecooked dinner of meat and salad that he said was wonderful. They are all heading to Mauritius next and have set up a radio schedule for the journey. After weighing the pros and cons, it was decided to have Zac stow the boom (a weld would not be strong enough) and sail downwind to Mauritius under genoa alone. Zac proved this to be successful as he sailed the last 30 miles to CK under genoa alone with very little decrease in speed. Many thanks to Rob Jordan and Dave Hickson for their knowledgable advice.
When we spoke with Zac this morning he was planning on heading out to Home Island about 1.5 miles away from the anchorage at Direction Island to seek out the woodworkers to see about having 2 new tillers made. He will also be able to buy some food there for his next leg to Mauritius. He sounded really good and was inspired by the other cruisers to be about his business and join them on the passage to Mauritius and his halfway mark!!
The following link is the most amaizng article on the history of Cocos Keeling Island:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6730047.stm
Until tomorrow,
Marianne
posted by Zac at 10:08 PM 43 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Limping to Cocos Keeling
Good evening all!
It has been a wild couple of days here. Zac has been busily preparing for his arrival in Cocos Keeling. Sunday afternoon he had a long list of chores that he was hoping to handle including cleaning up and organizing, sorting out his anchor and chain, gathering his paperwork, entering his waypoints into the spare GPS etc. Sunday night at about midnight Intrepid came off of a wave and Zac awoke to a loud cracking sound. He ran up to see what the noise could have been and found his tiller cracked in two. The boat headed up into the wind and rode the swells while he tried to figure out how on earth to repair the thing in the dark and, did I mention that it was raining?
After a few hours of trying different fixes, he found that screwing four hose clamps around the tiller would hold it pretty well. He was able to strap it back into the Tiller Pilot and get back under way. We spoke several times during the day. He was checking off his list and was going to have another look at the engine before having a nap last we spoke.
This morning I got a call from Zac early. I thought that maybe he was excited about his arrival at Cocos Keeling and couldn't sleep. He had been sleeping when he was awakened by a loud crashing sound and the boat slamming around. He ran up to see what was going on and saw that the tiller had come off of the Tiller Pilot causing an accidental jibe. This is when the direction of the boat is changed so that the wind switches to the other side of the boat. This can be a violent motion and causes the boom to crash to the other side of the boat. I'm not clear why Zac didn't have his preventer hooked up but I suppose he didn't feel he was in any danger of jibing under his current pointof sail. I cannot imagine what he thought as he looked and saw that his boom had completely broken in two! The boom is the metal bar that extends from the mast to hold down the bottom part of the sail. He wasn't in that much wind at the time (about 15 knots). He figures that the boom was weak because of age and an accumulation of wear and tear from heavy use.
He was still moving along at about 6 knots with the mainsail sagging. He managed to pull everything in and secure the boom and at last conversation was moving along at between 5-6 knots under genoa alone. He had made contact with Cocos Keeling Customs who were alerted to his condition and would be on standby if he needed any help. The plan at this point is for him to sail into the bay and drop the anchor as soon as he is in the lee of Direction Island. Hopefully the tides, currents and wind will be in his favor and he will have no problems. It is a risky move due to the reefs on either side of the channel.
He is still in excellent spirits considering everything and hopeful of finding a welder on the island. Of all the stops that Laurence has gone to meet Zac, this one would have been the most needed but he did not plan to go out having been to Darwin so recently. In fact, no one is going out due to the expense!
Perhaps the mysterious Indonesian fishing boat was successful in tossing their evil spirits onto Intrepid. But we don't fear because He who is in us is stronger than he who is in the world!
I expect a call from Zac sometime tonight to let us know how his arrival went. I will post again if it isn't too late.
On my knees,
Mom Sunderland
PS At 10:45 this evening Zac called to say that his motor miraculously started (and I do mean miraculously!) and he motored all the way to the anchorage! He is sitting in paradise as I type!
posted by Zac at 10:01 PM 64 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wind, Engines and Questions
The wind and seas have been intense and consistant over the past 24 hours. The wind is at about 25 knots and the seas at about 10 feet now. I still have this annoying cross-swell that slaps Intrepid off of her course every now and then. I had to adjust my radar because the swells are getting so big they set off the radar alarm from time to time.
I have been getting some good feedback on anchoring under sail in Cocos Keeling. Thanks to Billabong Blog and Rob Jordan and the other commenters who have ideas for me. My filters are clean so it has to be something with the lines or the fuel pick up again. I'm hoping to be able to rig something so that I at least have time to set the anchor properly. I'll have to get to the yard in Mauritius and have them cut a whole in the tanks so we can see what is going on in there.
Mom sent over a bunch of questions from Bill and Linda in Camarillo. Here they are:
What has been your favorite and least favorite part of your journey?
My favorite part of the journey this far has been my stop in Majuro. The locals are friendly and the lifestyle is layed back. I had a great rest and food at the Robert Reimers Hotel. It was the last part of my easy Pacific crossing - easy compared to what came next anyway!
My least favorite part of the trip so far was my stay in Papua New Guinea. Even though I had some great people there assisting me, I felt stuck there because of my engine problems and the limited parts and service available there. Every extra day I spent there was a day I could not spend exploring Australia.
What has been your biggest fear?
My biggest fear so far has been the fear of falling asleep and not waking up for an alarm. Second biggest fear was navigatin alone through reefs.
What have you learned about yourself that was a surprise?
I was pretty to realize that I am OK being alone for long periods of time. Although after about 2 weeks I start to get pretty bored and restless.
What do you wish you would have done before you left home that you didn't get to do?
Change out my fuel tanks!!
What do you miss most that you thought you wouldn't miss?
I am really missing football. Football is your whole lofe during the season. I have really missed it out here.
What are you surprised that you can live without?
I am really surprised at how I have adjusted to eating so little.
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 6:09 PM 52 Comments Links to this post
Saturday, October 11, 2008
More Wind!
OK so I am fully in the trades now. I have been making great time day and night. I have had a consistant 20-25 knots all day. There is an annoying swell that is hitting me on the port aft quarter and knocking me off course continually. I have altered course as much as possible but it hasn't helped much. I am reading through a book called Singelhanded Sailing by Richard Henderson. I have been reading up on how to anchor without an engine because all of a sudden I my engine is stalling out on me again. I start it up every now and then to make sure it is running. I think the rougher seas have stirred something up and has clogged it somewhere again. All of my usual tricks haven't worked this time and in 20+ knots and 8 foot seas I'm not really feeling like crawling in the engine room to troubleshoot. So, it seems, I will have to pay a price to enter paradise after all! Should be there in a few days.
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 10:53 PM 38 Comments Links to this post
Friday, October 10, 2008
In the Trades
The wind has been picking up gradually and has been more steady now. I have had a consistant 15 knots all day and am making between 6-7 knots average. The wind has shifted from the beam to the stern (coming from the side to the back) and the swells which are growing are now mostly behind me. It feels great to be really moving again. I haven't seen any boats in the past few days. I did have a squall that set off the radar alarm this morning which was unexpected because I haven't seen a squall in 3 weeks. Things are going well. I have been studying my charts and getting familiar with the approach and anchorage in Cocos Keeling. I have been reading up on some heavy weather techniques and taking care of the continual boat maintenance. I probably won't spend too long in Cocos Keeling as the longer I am in the Indian Ocean the closer it gets to cyclone season. As it is David Morris is keeping a look out now for any early activity in the area. It is not unheard of for an early cyclone to develope in as early as October and November even though cyclone season doesn't officially start until December.
I hear that you are all planning for a party in the next few weeks. Wish I could be there but I guess a few days in paradise will have to do for now!
Cheers,
Zac
posted by Zac at 10:13 PM 32 Comments Links to this post
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