…stole is the wind again!

Since last night, 2245 all sails are down and MaRe is drifting. As an additional punishment, the monkey poured also some rain us. Not long but I needed to move from the cockpit inside and sit at the navigation desk.

Now the sun is out again and his light colored the few clouds above an almost glassy sea.

Yesterday, we heard over the whole day that there are conversations on VHF CH69, the ship-ship channel, Ralf and I agreed upon for communication. It was partially annoying because we could not hear a human voice but only electronically noise. As this was heard all day long with little sound improvements in the afternoon, I was wondering what why a boat follows us and is edging closer.

It was Tjasa who first saw, at the beginning of her watch, a light at the horizon. Verification at the radar showed that there is something at a distance of a bit more than 12 NM, and the object doesn’t move. We assumed it’s an
drilling platform. Now in early morning light, and only at a distance of 2 NM, I can see through my Minox marine binoculars, that it is a sea floor exploring ship. These ships are stationary. I just wonder why they don’t send an AIS signal.

When I called the ship on VHF CH69, I only got a not understandable answer. Could not even recognize the language the other side was speaking. Now the fantasies about the origin and real purpose of this ship can start.

It’s still early. Beside me, all others are still in bed. Most likely Tjasa will come out next. Her watch ended at 1100, Dennis’ watch ended only at 0300, thus he ‘ll sleep a bit longer.

What will this 7th day at sea bring us?

Still can’t believe it but MaRe was attacked today from air!!! An unbelievable heavy conventional load was dropped on MaRe.

A rather big bird dropped a full load on MaRe’s STB stern

It’s still an hour until the sun rises at the horizon.

I’m sitting in the cockpit, enjoying a cup of coffee and some cookies. Tjasa had mercy with me, the only cookie-monster on board of MaRe and bought 10 packs of Ginger Snaps in the very, very, very last moment.

The last nightd, the air was cool. A sweater or a second T-shirt was needed. But today the nightly wind feels good on the skin. Barefoot route feeling.

In the east the sky got already a light grey color, which will then change via very light blue to the blue sky in places just 5 deg north of the equator.

The clouds are too be seen in various shades of grey from white to dark grey. Currently it’s a 1/8 sky but it can become a 1/4 sky or even more. A 1/8 etc sky means that 1/8 of the sky is covered with clouds.

Recently I got the question why I don’t say a “10 % sky”. The answer was easy. “It’s a custom and sufficiently precise to describe the degree of the sky covered with clouds in terms of 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 4/4.”

In the meantime I can see the thermo nuclear fire of the sun in red peeking through a small hole in the solid cloudy sky at the horizon.

A night with decently wind is gone and we are again a bit further south and looking forward to reach in a few days the SE trade winds south of the equator.

Soon the crew will come out of there cabins and we will have breakfast in the cockpit while enjoying the blue Pacific Ocean limited in the east by central America, in the South by the Galapagos Islands, and unlimited in the west until SE Asia.

What will this day bring us?

The possibility to follow our sail is very good. However, it also had drawbacks in it’s technology. There can be delays or even failures, which leads to no new narrations and/or no position data.

Position data have a long way. The Iridium GO on board of MaRe sends every hour automatically position data via an Iridium satellite to an Iridium server at earth. From there, the data are send to a PredictWind server. After processing data, the position becomes visible.

The narrations have even a bit a longer way. I write them in my mobile phone, copy them over into the PredictWind OffShore app and from there, they are sent via the Iridium GO on board and via a satellite to an ground based Iridium server, which forwards them to an PredictWind server, which processes the data, and displays the narrations at the site you are looking at right now.

Normally, this all works fine. However yesterday and this early morning I had problems to sent the previous narration. Reason is unknown.

Also mails to and from skipper-cat-mare@myiridium.net go such s long way.

During the Atlantic crossing, suddenly, I could neither sent nor receive something. At the end it was a bug in the Iridium GO SW. I had to make a reset by removing the battery for a about 30 sec. Then the Iridium GO worked fine again. Until I found the solution out took a few hours. It also could have taken a day or two or more.

That time I understood the problem of all this nice technology: regular readers of our tracking site will start worrying about us if there are no new position data and/or no new narrations or emails.

Thus, I ask you to please never worry if there is no position update or no new narration. We will be still alive and enjoy a good time on board of MaRe. MaRe is not a cheaply built mass production boat, but is a customized, very solidly built and maintained boat. I, the skipper and, together with my OBM, the owner of MaRe, maybe a bit crazy but not stupid and take no risks.

Please enjoy following our sail.

Yesterday evening we were frustrated with the little progress we made. We searched for alternative routes to get more wind.

Then we downloaded the wind forecast after removing the “Use motor when STW is less than 1 KN” completely. Result was a completely different weather routing. However it showed us the same time that we only have to sail S to get into areas with better winds.

In the morning, just after sunrise, we set the gennaker with wind of only 3 KN. The gennaker was just filled enough with air that MaRe started moving. We simply wanted to catch each blow of wind to bring us further south.

It paid off, the wind increased and so did the speed. During the whole day boat speed varieties varied between 0.1 – 3.5 KN. Mit much indeed, but we moved South. At the end of the day we made 30+ NM.

Sailing can be very fast or can be very slow. The slow traveling is the point. It allows to “inhale” what’s going on around a slow travelling sailor.

One of the problems we had to fight with today, was the varying current in direction and velocity. We always needed to adjust MaRe’s heading to get the desired COG.

Beside this, it was a relaxed day. I enjoyed several times watching the sea and getting lost in thoughts.

However, I also had write a bunch of mails. This took so much time that I have the time for writing the narration only now after our dinner.

As for dinner, or meals in general, I have to give my compliments to Tjasa and Dennis. They are pretty good!

Tjasa prepared already yesterday “boat made yoghurt”. It tasted good today, so she prepared another yoghurt for the coming days. We just have to eat a lot of marmalade to get empty glasses for yoghurt.

The skipper baked his first round of board baked bread on this long sail. He backed 8 breads and 2 are gone already. It see the crew likes skipper’s bread.

Today, Dennis also challenged fishing. Unfortunately not successful. However, he doesn’t give up and tried it with 3 different lures. Tomorrow is another day!

With SY Katinka we agreed of an exchange of position data, COG and SOG etc every 4 h. This turned out to very good because we know what going on, on the other boat and where it is.

Hope you enjoy reading and questions can be sent to skipper-cat-mare@myiridium.net

It still was dark when the tanker “Hovden Spirit” from the Bahamas showed up in the AIS layer of radar and chart. She was about 18 NM east of MaRe. The intercept data showed a CPA of only 0.8 NM in front of MaRe’s bow. This was too close.

I carefully watched it and called the tanker immediately to ask her, to please change course to pass behind my sterns.

At a distance of a bit less then 10 NM I reached her via an individual DSC call on channel 72.
The friendly officer on watch agreed to my request and changed the COG 249 to 278. A 29 deg change!

Then I went out to have a direct look for the “Hovden Spirit” and saw a wonderful sunrise with the sun just above the eastern horizon. A gradient of red to orange into the light blue of the morning sky.

When the “Hovden Spirit” passed behind MaRe’s sterns, she looked, illuminated by the morning sunlight, pretty good although her most likely heavy oil burning engines pollute the atmosphere with plenty of CO2 and sooth. I experienced the sooth while being in Shelter Bay Marina and in Vista Mar Marina. It is a lot what’s coming down. I also got an infection in my eyes. According to the doctor I visited, the likelihood that sooth is the cause of my infection is very high.

How many people have to live in an air polluted by such, cheap oil burning engines?

At the end, when she was clear of MaRe’s sterns, I called her officer on watch again and thanked him for changing course.

Yesterday, at about 2300 the monkey with the tin tool switched off the wind of again. With the genoa rolled in to handkerchief, the small jib with a tighten up sheet and the boom secured, we drifted again.

But at 0200, Tjasa woke me up because the wind reached stable 4 – 5 KN. We set sails again. As it was just the time that Dennis’ watch started, I decided to try a butterfly with the main and genoa and shifted the genoa just on her clew by hand around the inner stay to STB. Then we attached a barber hauler to open the genoa more and keep her better open. It worked and we gained more speed. Next was the boom, which we set as much as possible to PRT and tightened the preventer. Final we dealt with the storm jib which we most always have up. This one we trimmed also on PRT because it got some wind from the gap between genoa and main.
We had an excellent configuration and started with only 1.8 NM into a COG of 156 deg. Not the ideal course but much better then drifting. I also expected the wind turns right to North. Then we would sail course of up to SW.

It turned out that my expectations were right. At the end of Dennis watch we had COG of 218 deg. Perfect because the weather forecast model predicted in this direction more wind.

Dennis reported SOG of 5 KN and AWS of 18 KN during his watch.

Currently we are running a COG of 212 deg with an SOG of 3.8 KN. Definitely not MaRe’s speed record but a good progress.

What will this new day bring us?

Let’s see!

Shortly after uploading the previous narration, we gut busy.

There was first of all the wind carefully awakening. We set the gennaker and had for few hours a good sailing. Not fast because wind was not that strong. We made good way.

Then we cleaned the cockpit, which got dirty from splinters from the barnacles we had to remove from a few fenders.

While we were happy with the wind and our sailing, again, someone switched it off. It must have been a monkey with a tin tool.

All sails down and we drifted again. SY Katinka, send a message via Iridium phone saying that they have a drifting competition with 3 other boats.

While drifting, we added and additional net for fruits and vegetables. We also strengthened our first net which carries now 8 pineapples. Quite a weight!

While working, Dennis spotted a big sea turtle just at MaRe’s PRT side hull. In 2 days we saw, whales, a big shark, quite many dolphins, and the sea turtle. Not bad for the first 2 days.

Tjasa spoilt us today with 3 meals. First a breakfast with Slovenian pancakes (completely different from American pancakes!) with banana, honey and marmalade.
In the afternoon a nice snack with bread, chorizo, butter, marmalade, hummus. Finally the dinner was also Slovenian style. It was just good!

As for sailing, we got a nice wind again. Nice but not very strong. Thus, we hoisted the gennaker tuned it carfully so we could run with an AWA of 70 deg. We used it until approx. sun when we changed for the night configuration, main (reef 2), genoa full, and a small jib sail. With this, we are prepared for the night.

It’s 0651 local time at MaRe and no wind at all. Since last night roughly since 2200 we have no wind at all. The current is moving us with 1 – 2 KN towards west.
Another moving thing is the wind direction indicator needle. It turn frequently in full circles.

During yesterday we did plenty of sail changes and sometimes the wind conditions changed so quickly that before we finished a sail change, the wind conditions had changed again. But such is sailing!

Dennis fixed last night a quick and delicious meal. Excellent after a day with lots of work.

Since more than an hour we have no wind to sail and the little bit we feel comes from where we need to go.

So we are currently drifting with 2 KN towards west.

When the coffee for our coffee break was ready the wind increased but directly from the direction where we want to go to.

Nevertheless, after the coffee break, we set main and genoa to make miles good to south and with westbound current we make it a bit west of south, which is not too bad. We trimmed the sails well and are running at 45 deg on STB pretty often with more than 5 KN.

Keep fingers crossed that wind turns to at least NE.

What are the sailing conditions for SY Katinka? They are about 15 NM ahead of us due to a start about 6 hours before we could take off.