St Helena Outbound Day 9

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 10 50S 021 10W, saillng at 5.5 knots on a course of 290M. The wind is ESE at 20-25 knots with a 2m SE sea and a 1.5m S swell.  We are sailing under double-reefed main and single-furled yankee.  Sunny with scattered small cumulus (again).  Our day's run was 138nm, our DMG was 111nm and we have 2940nm to go.

Rain shower passing by (Monday afternoon)

Following our first week's disappointing stats, particularly our speed down the course (VMG), we did some thinking.  We recalled our sail from the Wessel Islands off the Northern Territory of Australia to Darwin in 2011.  We had dead-running conditions there too and tried out a "trade wind rig" using only our No 1 Genoa.  This worked very nicely for us at the time.  FSC member Jim P also made us think about this in an email yesterday.

So yesterday afternoon we decided to try running more broadly downwind under our yankee with the main double-reefed (= trisail size) and hauled in tight amidships.  With the 18-22 knot wind the boat slowed by a knot or so.  Unfortunately the motion was more rolly which wasn't fun.  But our VMG was clearly better so we stuck with it.

We broad-reached in this manner all night and the motion didn't improve, but we like the faster progress towards those Caribbean rum punches.  Zigzagging all over the ocean was probably the best approach when winds were less than 15 knots but now our new cruisy approach is clearly the go.  Our gybing angles will be reduced from 80-90 degress to 50-60 degrees, perhaps even less.  We hope Jim is suitably chuffed!

Cruisy Broad-Reaching Rig

Our DMG (distance made good) from noon yesterday to noon today was the second best yet for this passage, and we weren't in the new mode for the entire 24 hours.  Here's hoping the wind holds in and we get a "record" tomorrow.

Last night was spectacular yet again.  The half moon really sets off the two types of night skies well.  First half with no moon and gazillons of stars.  Second half with bright moonlight and only limited stars.  It is also amazing how much the times of sunset and sunrise move as one travels west (or east).  We'll be in yet another time zone soon!

Trust all's well where you are.

St Helena Outbound Day 8

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 10 40S 019 00W, saillng at 6.5 knots on a course of 270M. The wind is ESE at 18-22 knots with a 2m SE sea and a 1m S swell. We are sailing under single-reefed main and triple-furled yankee. Sunny with scattered small cumulus. Our day's run was 151nm, our DMG was 100nm and we have 3051nm to go.

Yesterday afternoon we had a pleasant sail on port tack. We had the S swell on our beam which made the boat's motion much more regular. In the early evening the wind decreased to 10-12 knots but held in nicely overnight. Unfortunately the wind slowly backed so our course went from 280M to 260M. Period when we're not heading 45 degrees off our desired course seem to be few and far between!

The sky was clear for much of the night. The moon rose around midnight at the start of my watch. Twas a very pleasant night watching the stars, listening to music and working on our communications systems (see below).

This morning we transferred 30 litres of water from jerries into the main tanks. The filler is on the port side deck so we need to do this on port tack in reasonably settled conditions. Moving 20kg jerry cans around the cabin, up on deck and along the side deck can be exciting in a seaway. We believe we used about 50 litres in our first week at sea, out of the total of 270 litres. This is in line with expectations and means we still have about 4 weeks of water left. We expect to collect water in the ITCZ (doldrums) in a week or two.

I've been working on using our Iridium Go! with Winlink's RMS Express software. I'm discovering all sorts of interesting things about the Go! along the way but haven't got the two to play together yet. Winlink's Cape Town operator Colin (ZS1RS) is being a great help.

The voice nets on HF/SSB are continuing each day. Deesse runs the morning net on 6227kHz (changed from 6224kHz) at 0800utc and I run the afternoon net on 6224kHz at 1900utc. There are about 10 boats taking part. Some of the boats are now using DSC to exchange positions with me prior to the net. I wonder if this has been done before.

The only problem with being net controller and working on the computer half the night is the need to run the engine daily to charge batteries. The solar panels are giving us 15A for much of the day but that's not quite enough to get the battery voltage up to the level required for good HF transmission.

We're nearly half way to our waypoint near Fernando de Noronha. That's a good excuse for a (weak) rum punch this arvo. Gotta find and honour all the milestones!

St Helena Outbound Day 7

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 09 55S 016 55W, saillng at 6.5 knots on a course of 270M. The wind is ESE at 15-18 knots with a 1.5m SE sea and a low S swell.  We are sailing under single-reefed main and double-furled yankee.  Sunny with scattered small cumulus.  Our day's run was 134nm, our DMG was 89nm and we have 3151nm to go.

We are two hours short of completing our first week at sea, close enough to give some stats.  First here is our speed plot for the week up to the early hours of this morning.  Day 2 was certainly a slow day but otherwise we've had good speed.

Week 1 Speed Over Ground

So here are the stats:

• Log Distance = 976nm
• Average Boat Speed = 5.8knots
• Distance Made Good = 669nm
• Average VMG = 4.0knots (ouch!)
• Engine Hours = 6 hours (charging only)

Overall it has been a nice week's sailing.  However our progress towards our waypoint off Fernando de Noronha has been disappointing.  The problem is the wind being light and blowing directly towards the waypoint.  Hence the zigzagging we're doing.  We've actually taken a deliberate "hit" sailing north on the non-favoured gybe over the last two days.  We want to be roughly between Ascension and Fernando de Noronha to be closer to other boats.  Once we get to the waypoint we should be able to sail the course, with current assistance.  Bring it on!

Yesterday afternoon we had 10-15 knots of wind and rain-bearing cumulus clouds passing by.  We only got wet a couple of times but we reefed and shook it out twice.  We left the reef in overnight to avoid being caught out by a rainstorm but it ended up being a nice night with 8-10 knot winds.  We were doing only 4-5 knots for much of the night but we both slept very well!

At 1045 this morning we gybed over on to port tack.  This tack seems to be more comfortable and is certainly the leading tack for our waypoint at present.  We tucked a reef in immediately after gybing since the wind was 15-18 knots.  We're now trucking along nicely, and only 20 degrees off the waypoint.

As mentioned a couple of days ago I've been playing with the Winlink HF radio email system.  Last night I managed to connect to PY4LF in Brazil.  This station is the closest for yachts west of St Helena and Ascension.  It has 7MHz, 14MHz and 21MHz frequencies.  The operator Jo has been very helpful, leaving the station on the air for the last 24 hours for me.  Normally it is only on the air from 1800 to 2300utc.  Below is a DX Toolkit propagation prediction for the path between us.

HF Propagation to/from PY4LF

Last night I connected on the 14MHz frequency at 1530, 1700 and 2000utc with the connection being very strong at 2000utc.  This is in line with the prediction, and should have improved further later in the evening.  However I was asleep by then!  In the early hours I tried the 7MHz frequency without success, due I think to interference on the channel.  Hopefully the above info is of use to other Winlinked boats passing this way!