Pacific NW

Expeditions

The excellent sailing continued throughout the night, and into the morning and afternoon. We made 170 NM on our noon-to-noon! All under clear skies, steady wind, and low seas. We kept pace with the 56′ sailboat “Aliena”, keeping her sail on the horizon all day long. In the morning we crossed paths to within about 1/2 NM, snapped a few photos, and watched as her sails slowly diminished under the horizon. Aliena has decided to push further south before rounding Madagascar, while Privateer is sticking closer to the coast and the favorable currents.

The morning was heavily marred by the shocking election news from the USA. We feel like we do not have a country to sail home to anymore. What a sad, sad disgrace.

We hit an area of counter-current which Mark quickly routed us away from, and were soon back to the edge of the main flow. The Indian ocean current hits Madagascar like a big fire hose, creating a line of 1-3 knot current with associated back-eddies and counter-currents, just like water hitting a rock in a giant river. It’s important to know where to go, because it’s the difference between sailing at 8 knots with the current, or at two knots against.

As we round under Madagascar we’re sailing over a broken plateau of shallower water and many sea-mounts. In rough conditions this would be a dangerous lee shore with hazardous seas. Fortunately today, she’s a sleeping giant and we’re gliding along at 8-9 knots nearer the shore (within 70 NM) in the current stream and low seas.

Tomorrow, the swells are supposed to kick up, pumping in from the intense low in the Southern Ocean. The first front should pass over us after we’ve rounded Madagascar, then a second one on Sunday, followed by a developing system over Durban that we will keep a very close eye on, as we close with the S. African coast.

For the time being, we are still charging along downwind at 8-9 knots! It feels strange to make these boat speeds with less than 15 knots of wind.

I don’t know what else to say. Our thoughts are with our family and friends in the USA, and around the world, as we stumble into dangerous and uncharted waters.

Last night the winds dropped to very light and I was surprised we had any steerage at all, but we still eked out about 3.5-4 knots. After a few hours of lurching around, however, things got old and we fired up the engine. Fortunately, the wind filled again soon after, right at sunrise, and things developed into the most fantastic sailing day as can be imagined.

With an almost flat sea, 15-18 knots abaft the beam, and sails set to wing-on-wing, Privateer achieved a fast point of sail. As soon as we poled the full yankee out to windward, we surged like a greyhound through the gentle swells, 8 knots, 9 knots, 10 knots. For the entire day and into the night now, the winds were steady and even, with a gentle heel to keep things comfortable down below-decks.

Mark is keeping us informed about where to sail to catch favorable ocean currents and stay out of the adverse currents (there are a lot of them on this route). Like clockwork, we sailed into an area of predicted favorable current and picked up a knot of boat speed.

Taz didn’t go down for his usual nap today which threw off the watch a bit. Then he took three poops in a row–no wonder he couldn’t sleep! All that food he ate when he got his ocean appetite back…

My day was somewhat shadowed by my apprehension of the next week to come. Many important decisions need to be made about how far out to round Madagascar’s southern cape, and what way-point to aim for to set ourselves up for the frontal systems. A shelf extends off Madagascar that is known for freak waves, and we want to clear by that ASAP. I will breathe a bit easier after we round Madagascar’s southern cape, when we can draw the rest of our cards and see what kind of hand we’re dealing with.

Today was also the day of the freighters–we have found the major shipping lane from Cape Town to Singapore. One by one or three by three they pop up on our AIS. If they’re in line with us we make contact with the bridge and they alter course to give us a safe 3 NM pass. We also spotted a sail on the horizon today! She is the 56-foot yacht Aliena. I was very pleased that despite her much longer waterline, she’s only gained on us by about 2 NM over the last 12 hours. We’re on a converging course and only about 3 miles away from each other now. Hopefully in the morning we will be close enough to take pictures and exchange e-mails.

We managed to sail 144 miles noon-to-noon in fairly light winds. At very first light, I set the pole, as the winds had swung around more to the north (behind us). The swells flattened out and a steady light wind made for some easy wing-on-wing sailing. Other boats are motoring, but Privateer did just fine, making 5-6 knots under sail most of the day. We really want to conserve our diesel as much as possible for the second half of the passage, as we close in on the South African coast. We’ll need as many cards in our hand as we can for the infamous Agulhas current.

The self-steering gear works wonderfully in light air, keeping us right on course at all times. We’ve nearly mastered the art of setting the vane, though we always learn something new each time we sail. Privateer–what a fine boat! Heavy weather, light airs, she handles them all in grace.

Taz sprang back into his sea routine today, devouring all food in sight. We had a marathon playdoh session until it devolved into Taz flicking little bits of the pink dough all around the bunk and mashing them into the cushions. Oh well…much better than yesterday’s vomit. Kelsey also has her appetite back, after turning the corner on her morning sickness (finally!)

We’ve been in constant contact with Mark (creator of this website) on “Tuuletar” and he’s devoting an extraordinary amount of time in giving us detailed weather forecasts, routing advice, and ocean current synopses. His help comes at a time when our Sailmail, GRIB, and WxFax reports are nil due to the poor SSB reception here. Thank you a million times over, Mark! We are also in contact with Sam, a local South African meteorologist who is also giving us reports (although less detailed, as he focuses primarily on HAM radio communications). And finally, another boat “Simmer Down” on passage with us has some sailor friends in Russell, NZ providing them with their synopses. We receive and trade all this info over our DeLorme inReach, a magic device that lets us text message from our iPad from anywhere on the planet. Every sailor can benefit greatly from the DeLorme inReach. “Simmer Down” uses one too, and contact with them is effortless. Repeat: every boat should have a Delorme inReach.

Right now it looks like we’ll have two frontal systems sweep past us, on Friday and Sunday, as/after we round Madagascar, with a large 4.2 meter swell arriving from the south, originating from a big low in the Southern Ocean. When we turn the corner around the bottom of Madagascar, our sailing will get a bit trickier. Luckily the first system looks to be pretty mild, and the second one more intense but moving through rapidly, with potential thunderstorms. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the barometer!

Where do we want to sail today? How about Africa!! The provisions are loaded, passports stamped out to exit, and we are on our way.

It took the better part of the daylight hours to finally make it free of the wind shadow of La Reunion. Piton Des Neiges (“Peak of the Snows”) is the highest point in the Indian Ocean, so I’ve heard, which effectively blocks the normal wind direction and creates a massive lee. We had a light SW wind right on the nose for about 8 hours. With all sails set and pinching as close as possible to the wind, we eked out 4 knots in roughly the right direction.

We had to motor for several hours as well, which was fine as our batteries needed a good deep charge after being in a marina for two weeks. We left our shore power cord on the dock years and years ago, and we use only solar and wind power to charge our batteries. Ironically, marinas are poor environments for making your own power. The land and buildings and boats shadow the solar panels and block the breeze. Privateer prefers the free and open anchorage for a multitude of reasons.

Poor Taz did not enjoy motoring through confused swells near the land this morning. After two months kicking around in the Mascarenes his sea legs got a little soft, and he puked all over the bed sheets and all over his Mom. Fortunately he only gets sick with the following combo: long time away from the open sea, motoring, & confused swells. He quickly perked up when we shut the engine down, all sails drawing and windvane set. He’s wild for his orange-flavored electrolyte drink, and we had to administer it in small doses otherwise he sucks it down too fast!

Around 1500 hrs we finally broke free from the curses of the land and found the solid Easterly winds, and are now sailing the rhumb line toward our 1st southern waypoint, south of Madagascar. We reefed the main before sunset (always an assurance) as a fine 17-knot breeze developed abaft the beam, and we are clipping along at 7-8 knots with spray flying.

The first day on passage is always kind of a tough one. Particularly the first 12 hours. We have a light-wind forecast for the next week, and our doubts were raised when we encountered the contrary SW winds. But I’d spent way too many hours in the past weeks staring cross-eyed at the Windyty and Passageweather forecasts, watching them change hourly, taking my mood up or down depending on the outlook. What finally pushed us off the dock is that cyclone season is bearing down on us, the forecasts will always change, and the fact that this passage leg is a notoriously tough one, with little chance of having favorable conditions the whole way. Next week’s forecast didn’t look so hot for leaving, and a $25 per day marina bill really adds up fast. I groggily nodded to another groggy sailor in the pre-dawn morning who’s also setting out today. “You going?” he asked. “F- it, we’re going” I said. “Yeah, F- it” he said (in case you’re wondering how sailors communicate when not over the airwaves).

The decision of when to leave harbor is a deeply personal one. The fleet watches as each boat goes, on this day or that, and wonders who will be the luckiest boat with the luckiest weather. We’ve cast our dice, pushed beyond the initial first 12 hours at sea, and are now freely beam-reaching our way to Africa! Every mile sailed is another in our wake.

Greetings from L’ile de la Reunion! We are safe in harbor and preparing for the big upcoming passage to South Africa. And…we also have some big news! Taz is going to be a big brother soon! The Indian Ocean is bringing us another child. One for the Pacific and One for the Indian…

Kelsey is currently 14+ weeks pregnant and due around April 20. We’ve known for quite some time (since Cocos Keeling) and it was a bit of deja-vu when we found out. Yet again, we were on a remote coral atoll out in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by coconuts and hermit crabs, and Kelsey was even wearing the same dress. It was meant to be…

Our cruising plans have changed radically to accept the upcoming circumstances. We’ve decided to have this baby in the USA, partly due to the expense and hassles we faced having Taz abroad. Also, partly due to the fact that South Africa is the last stop before we’d sail to Zika inflicted countries, which eliminates South & Central America and the Caribbean as options for Kelsey right now. Kelsey and Taz will hop on a plane in mid-January and fly from Cape Town, South Africa to Minnesota.

My Dad is flying into Cape Town in January and the two of us are preparing to deliver Privateer 7,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic, with brief stops at St. Helena and an island or two in the Caribbean before making landfall in Florida. From there, we’ll try to make our way back to MN as soon as possible, so I can get back to Kelsey and Taz in time for the birth.

We are thrilled that Taz is getting a sister or brother! The new baby has now almost crossed the entire Indian Ocean in the womb, much like Taz did in the Pacific.

We’re still poled-out and charging along…we made 156 miles over ground, for a solid 6.5 knot average over 24 hours. The trades in the Indian Ocean are really giving us a good sail! We keep adding a bit of diesel-stabilizer and biocide to the fuel tank every now and then, because we haven’t touched our full tanks in so long…

I’m glad we left when we did–the winds are forecast to drop lighter on Monday afternoon, and we don’t want to be wallowing around in this swell. The winds dropped off a few knots today and we have the perfect amount of wind (around 15 knots) for a comfortable, fast ride. We’ve seen about a dozen freighters on the AIS, and we appear to be crossing a major shipping route from Africa to SE Asia. Extra eyeball scans on the night watch are a must!

The water and air temps are finally cooling down to a sane level (i.e. not sweating 24/7) and one of the additional perks is that our solar panels are cranking out more amps. Cooler panels make more electricity. We were able to run our water-maker longer, which means longer showers, more water for washing down the boat, etc etc… Our new (in NZ) air-cooled fridge is also working less-hard now, which frees up a ton of load on the battery banks. Privateer’s electrical system is optimized for temperate latitudes, and it’s nice to see everything working so well together again.

I finally connected with the Africa radio station today and we appear to be back in business. This is good, as now our attention is turned to the tough passage ahead, from Reunion to South Africa, where we will need to receive the most accurate weather forecasts every day in order to make safe decisions on our passage routing.

October 1! And what better way to ring in this great month with a little 350-mile passage from Rodrigues to Mauritius? The new moon will guarantee we see lots of stars on the night watch. Our friend John on Sapphire is departing with us, but he is bound for La Reunion, one more day sailing beyond Mauritius.

After clearing the inner harbor we met with 18-20 knots of stiff breeze and started off our passage running out the gate, under reefed sails. The pole is out and we are wing-on-wing under the old standby sail configuration that has served us so well for the last 6,500 NM from Vanuatu. We’re really racking up the ocean miles this year!

The seas sort of zippered together as we came out of the lee of Rodrigues, with swells meshing from two different directions. It made for the “metronome” effect for about 6 hours. But we are clear of that now and enjoying a fast ride, around 7 knots. We reluctantly leave Rodrigues in our wake, and hope to meet up again soon with our friends on S/V “Ralph Rover” and S/V “Fleur de Sel”. For now, the weather window is right and we must sail on…

While in Rodrigues we unbolted the Monitor from the back of the boat and did a complete disassembly and re-build inside the boat. She’s really working well now, with all new bearings and bushings, and polished up to look like new. I used as many parts out of the spare kit as I could!

Kelsey and Taz unfortunately have the 2-day bug that’s going around Rodrigues now, so they spent most of the day sleeping down below, but Taz and I still had fun flinging his stuffed animals around the cabin and watching a great sunset. I can single-hand this passage as it should only be a few days to Mauritius.

Our motoring last evening was short-lived, and the perfect breeze struck up to carry us through the night, and into the lagoon at Rodrigues. We are safe in Rodrigues! I didn’t want to jinx it, but I can now safely say that we had THE ideal passage from Cocos Keeling to Rodrigues. Boats in the previous weeks ahead of us reported horrendous conditions, and behind us several nasty lows filled in, stalling out the next wave of boats. With luck from the smiling weather gods, we were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, all the way across the Indian ocean. It was a “good angel” passage as I call it, with a few little “demons” thrown in there in the middle to spice it up a bit.

I will leave the description of Rodrigues for another post at a later time. The place is incredible! Turns out that if you drill a hole through the center of the earth from Oakland, CA, you will find many things the same, but different. It’s funny how the young men here dress just like the gang-bangers in Oakland, but here they will greet you with a polite “bonjour monseuir” and a shy smile. The hills are arid like much of CA, and the whole island used to be teeming with hundreds of thousands of giant tortoises… a very special place.

Many of you are wondering about the absence of posts in the past few weeks. We are in a dead-zone area for SSB propagation and can’t connect to the Africa station right now to send out our messages. As we sail closer to Mauritius, we should have improved reception. We are in a very unfrequented corner of the world… We do ping our exact location via a tracker device every ten minutes, which our family closely follows. So even if these e-mails stop for several weeks, they can see that Privateer has made it safely to the anchorage and can text-message with us. Please, no need to worry! 🙂

These past three days have gone by in a pleasant cadence. Easy downwind sailing in 20 knots, mellowing seas, sometimes wing-on-wing and sometimes deep-reaching. We’re at that point in the passage now that time has shattered and we are like the sunrise and the sunset, making circles over the horizon each day in our sea routine.

On September 11th we finally shook one reef out of the double-reef main. When I hoisted the sail, several mummified and very stinky flying fish appeared, pasted to the sail right in front of my face. They had jumped into the sail at some point in days past, falling into the flake. Our mainsail now has a few greasy black smudges and many fish scales glued all over it, just under the second reef.

Privateer is finally nearing Africa! This has been a dream for so long now, and it’s hard to believe that we’re actually within reach now. We have been very fortunate on this passage, one of our finest so far. We’ve been very lucky with the winds, which have held steady and blown us now to within 89 miles of Rodrigues before we had to fire up the engine.

We have a new record for Privateer’s longest tack: 1,910 miles in 13 days on port tack!! Rodrigues is a very significant landmark for us: it is on the opposite side of the earth as Oakland, CA, which was our easternmost point of the voyage. With the initial Alaska leg and the south-north detour to NZ, and the general southern leg from Oakland to Marquesas, we have sailed about 3/4 the way around the world distance wise, but we are now geographically 1/2 way around the world now. For the first time, we will be getting closer to home now with each mile sailed west. The majority of our sea miles are behind us now, as we take off on a more direct line toward North America.

Under power now, we should reach Rodrigues sometime tomorrow afternoon. It’s kind of nice to end the long passage with a bit of a motor. We’re re-filling our water tanks with the water-maker, taking long hot showers, topping up the battery bank, and cleaning the salt crystals off the boat. The seas have settled right down, with the swells marching under the boat in orderly 2-meter rows from the SE. Thank you, Indian Ocean!

It was quite a lurchy day as we “metronomed” through the seas today, wing-on-wing. The winds are still holding steady at 20 knots E-SE. While the height of the seas has decreased to about 3+ meters, they were a bit peaky, and every now and then one of the breaking crests would decide to clobber the side of the boat and flood the cockpit. Nothing dangerous, just inconvenient. For example, as I was preparing Taz’s morning oatmeal, the bag of frozen blueberries flung itself across the galley and opened in a shower of buckshot. I frantically tried to rescue as many blueberries as I could back into the bag as they rolled back and forth across the counter and onto the floor.

Taz likes to take “copty (helicopter) rides” around the cabin. As we hold him aloft and fly him around he names and points at everything he sees. “Porthole, waves, deck, waves, water, sailboat, GPS, ‘nother porthole–two!” He places his toy cars on the floor and they take off back and forth, as the boat rolls. I’m amazed at his ability to remain steady in a seaway. He rotates his torso and subconsciously anticipates the next wave, keeping his upper body steady vertical. He’s a natural.

Our boat speeds are good and we’re averaging about 150-mile days now. With our mileage to destination down into the 500s, we are on the home stretch! The last few days are always the longest for me, the big count-down. I’m just hoping these winds hold steady for us. It would be great to at least make it within 200 miles of Rodrigues, before we might have to motor-sail. We have been very fortunate so for on our 1,500 mile-long tack and counting!

Last night Kelsey fine-tuned the Monitor course and sail trim, and she must’ve done a perfect job. For the past 24 hours, the boat has been pegged directly on course, not deviating even more than 1/10th of a mile either side of the rhumb line. I’ve never seen anything like it, even when motoring under autopilot. We didn’t touch the helm or sails all day long, as Privateer winged along, straight as an arrow.