To date it has been a delightfully uneventful passage.
We don’t like exciting passages. We prefer deathly dull, unintersting trips were the sailing is easy, nothing major breaks, and there’s, as our Aussie friends are keen to say, “No Drama.”
A Few Things Acting Up
It wouldn’t be an offshore passage if a few things didn’t go wonky. The hose connection to the check valve on the water heater popped off, executing an unplanned steam cleaning of parts of the engine room. The backup autopilot drive threw an error and stopped working. We haven’t tried it gain to see if it’s broken again, or just got overheated and lost it’s temper. We’ve been watching a slow oil drip, but it’s in checl. So far nothing major to complain about.
The Snazzy New Satcoms
I’ve been playing a lot with the new Iridium GO! satellite communications device, and the related XGate software and the Predict Wind weather routing. I’ve learned a lot, found a few flaws in everything, and have found some really nice, powerful functionality with the new tools.
I’ve not yet made an HAM/SSB digital connection to send a position report. I’ve tried, but I’ve not been connecting. Compared to the Iridium GO, it’s looking a lot less reliable and low tech. It works, but it’s spotty and slow. The GO has it’s moments when you’re ready to chuck it overboard too, but they’re fewer and farther between.
The Predict Wind data and routing tools are a nice complement to the existing routing we’ve been using with MaxSea/TimeZero. PredictWind has the edge in a few areas – like data from the Euro model, which is why we bought it. But the current information is expensive, and the data files are too large to be practical with the Iridium GO data speeds.
So far though, the weather information and routing has been pretty solid, and we’re happy with most of it.
The Good Kind of Excitment
There is such a thing as good excitement on a passage. Wildlife is always exciting, whether it’s a pod of dolphins, a trio of Albatross, or a huge Mahi Mahi that became The One That Got Away (again…). We’ve had several large pods of dolphins come along for the ride, even one at night when all you could see was their wakes in the water in the phosporescence. Yesterday we had three Albatrosses circling the boat for the last hour or two of the day. If I can figure out how to upload a picture with the new tools, I’ll do it. And many other birds – petrels, gannets, a boobie, and shearwaters in addition to the majestic Albatross.
Wind Issues
We didn’t expect much from the wind this trip. Leaving on a massive high that was pushing Cyclone Oma to the north, I didn’t expect to do much sailing before Wednesday. So we’ve been pleasantly surprised to have done a fair amount of sailing so far, though much of it more upwind than we like. But I’d rather sail at 5.5 knots than motor at seven if I can. It’s not just the diesel, it’s nicer to sail. Evenstar is a sailboat, not a motor boat, so the motion is better under sail even if we’re tipping.
But the models all have the wind dying more than it has already. We’re not expecting to see more than 10 knots for a couple of days, and much of that light air is on the nose. I’d definitely rather run the engine and motor at seven knots than beat slowly to windward in light air.
So motoring it is, for now.
