Zac Sunderland: October 27-30, 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008
Update from Mom
Latest Position: 10/31/08 0305Z 17 02.338S 78 26.366E


From Mom:
Zac was cruising along this evening/his morning with a good 20 knots on the aft port quarter. This is the optimum angle for Intrepid sailing under Genoa alone. A few people have asked if he is using the mainsail with the repaired boom. He has used it but will only do so if he needs to to minimize risk of any further breakage. At this point, he does not need it.
He had had a terrible headache all day yesterday and so there is no blog from Zac today though he is feeling better. He did finally go up on deck to scrape drying, smelling fish off as the fish apparently landed on the high/dry side of the boat and have not washed off too well. He has some exciting plans for this afternoon which we will tell you about tomorrow. Yes, Rory, Zac received your t-shirt. He almost left it at Home Island as the postmaster brought it home with him so Zac could pick it up. Zac was picking up his boom from Parson and ended up leaving the shirt at Parson's house. He did go back the next day to retrieve it. This has probably been one of his favorite presents as there were no laundry facilities in Cocos Keeling and his clothes are getting smelly - even by his standards! Did you receive something from Zac?
He also opened his letters and gifts in Darwin. Being the rather unorganized chap that he is, many of them got wet en route to Cocos Keeling. He loves getting your letters and cards and has taken to buying postcards in port to fill out on his passages as responses to some of you all.
As far as Zac's holiday plans, he will most likely be sailing to Durban on his birthday, November 29th. He will have birthday presents to open including a microwave cake complete with candles. Thanksgiving is a few days after his birthday so we'll have to get him some turkey somehow in Mauritius. We have been planning and scheming about Christmas. He should be in Cape Town by then and in a position to relax more. At some point the whole family would like to go out to visit him but half way around the world with 6 kids may be a bit much - in more ways than one!
We had quite a few good questions asked on Sunday night when we had Zac on the phone. I think it might be fun as he is in the middle of the Indian Ocean to fire some more questions at him to answer here on the blog. In case you didn't realize it, you can read and leave comments at the end of each blog posting.
We are busy here preparing Laurence to go out to Mauritius via England where he will visit his mother and deliver our Christmas presents a bit early. Then on to Dubai and Mauritius where he will be bringing Zac birthday and Christmas presents and a list of things like chart protectors, french language tapes, a Pelican case for his ipod, more pens and paper, a spare bilge pump and a sea anchor. I am filling a small box for his halfway points. This is when the candy is gone the books are read and the DVDs watched. We tried this on his last leg to Cocos Keeling and he really enjoyed it.
Hoping this finds you all well.
Cheers,
Marianne
PS If any of you have any knowledge of shipping a 13', 45 pound boom halfway around the world, let us know at zacsworldadventure@yahoo.com
posted by Zac at 9:13 PM 59 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sleep, Squalls and Storms
Latest Position: 10/30/08 0255Z 16 32.397S 80 57.703E

Last night the wind shifted around to be directly behind me. The swells are still confused making it hard for Intrepid to stay on track downwind especially in confused seas. This meant another rough night of sleep. I had a few squalls again which means keeping watch until they pass to see if I would need to reef down or not. It is really hard to wake up and reef quickly because your arms are still asleep and your fingers don't want to do what you tell them to do. I had one squall that hit pretty hard taking the wind from around 15 knots to 25 knots instantly. It also brought tons of rain that came down so hard it actually hurt.
My mom was asking me about my thoughts as I pass so slowly through the Indian Ocean day after day. I think that rather than thinking about one day at a time, it is better to think about the goal of getting into port and fixing the boat, doing laundry and oh yeah, having some fun!
At this pace, I should be arriving in Mauritius around November 8-10. I am scheduled to take one week there before timing my departure for Durban, South Africa. When I watch the weather forecasts on Clearpoint Weather I can see the storms passing through that area every 3 days or so. Amazing!
posted by Zac at 10:20 PM 23 Comments Links to this post

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Cocos Log Part III
Latest Position: 10/29/08 0346Z 15 48.636S 83 09.646E


So I'll pick up where I left off in Cocos...the next morning I took half of the boom into Parson the carpenter. It was quite a ride to bring it in with the 20 knots on the nose and the 6 foot peice of aluminum bouncing around in the dinghy. Parson thought he could fit the boom with some wood in a day or two. We had the word from David Morris to fix it if it took less than 48 hours so it seemed like a go. When I got back to the boat, Jed and I went over to Direction Island and found our way to the end of the island and climbed up the ladder on the side of this huge nav light marking the end of the island. It was 30' from the ground and from the top I got a pretty good view of the island. Then we went back over to the bay to this little floating pontoon and busted out some back flips for about an hour. We swam back to my boat and chilled for awhile then we went back to the beach and continued exploring the island for awhile. After circumnavigating the island on foot we went back to Ingrid for dinner. It was great to spend time with someone my age and to be on land and so free.





Last night I had a couple of squalls going into the night. Around 2 am the wind shifted about 30 degrees so I had to tack until it shifted around a few hours later. All told I had 3 sets of squalls so there wasn't much sleep to be had. The swells are still bad and it is raining. I was pretty tired this morning from lack of sleep. It is good to be making progress and it is good to be talking with everyone back home about plans for the future.

Cheers,

Zac
posted by Zac at 9:12 PM 37 Comments Links to this post

Monday, October 27, 2008
Another day in the life of a solo circumnavigator...
Latest Position: 10/28/08 0445Z 15 20.612S 85 24.720E

I'm still rocking and rolling out here in some pretty confused seas. (Swells coming from different directions) Intrepid doesn't know what is going to hit her next. Sometimes two big swells will slam together from opposite directions right by the boat make a huge pointed swell. Not very comfortable out here so I'm just giving an update on today and will say more about Cocos Keeling and other things another day.
Last night I had between 20-25 knots and was making an average of 6.5 knots. About midinght there was a ship about 4 miles off that I sat and watched for awhile. I woke up about 5 am to a series of small squalls. The wind died down to 12-18 knots though the weather called for higher winds. Maybe the squalls are stealing the wind. This morning I woke to find about 200 flying fish on my deck. There must have been a whole school of them that flew on board at once. Hopefully they will get washed off during the day. I don't like going on deck too much with this motion but I don't want to have to pick them off after they've dried on there either!
I am rationing my matches from now until Mauritius. My stove lighters have all died and now my matches are damp. I have 32 matches left but they don't always light.
Its hard to do much on days like today but I'll hopefully get to my list of chores some.
Thanks for coming out to LA yesterday. Glad you all had a good time.
Cheers,
Zac

Link to Karyn Newbill's photos from the fund raiser:
http://karynn.smugmug.com/gallery/6381180_V566d#403397852_2Yi3k
posted by Zac at 9:59 PM 29 Comments Links to this post