4/22/11 (Note: E/m's are sent by Bill from the navigation table laptop linked to a satellite phone. Bill always had control of incoming and outgoing communications. It appears in hindsight that he had been sending e/m's to a friend of his that was supposed to update the Facebook page. It turns out there were times when no messages were sent causing confusion with Gib and others following the boat.)
Gib,
I believe FB is being updated. Our position is N24.3 W 156.4. Everything is well with boat and crew. Winds are light, but we hope to be through a cold front and into some westerly in a few days.
Bill
Bill at the helm 4.22.11 (YouTube link)
The first day out we had wonderful conditions. The sky was clear, air was warm and the winds were steady in the 10-15 knot range. Upon departure we settled in to our watch system. We maintained this 4-hour-on & 4-hour-off watch schedule for the entire trip:
Many hours before departure I brought up the subject of the watch schedule. Bill's response was that he thought it best and easiest for whomever wants to helm should do just that; no set schedule. To me this aspect of offshore crew management was unacceptable. I knew this would not work so I pushed for a rigid watch schedule. Luckily, logic prevailed.
Underwater shots northeast of Oahu 4.22/23.11 (YouTube link)
I planned to get underwater shots while underway and the sugar-scoop was a perfect platform to use. A reverse transom (labeled Rocket Ship above) angles forward from the waterline to the deck. A great example is the sugar scoop variety. A sugar scoop stern is a reverse transom usually with swim steps. It gets its name from of course the actual sugar scoop.
The boat's stern is then not the end of the cockpit but actually a molded part of the hull.
Sugar scoop sterns provide easy access to the water. The crew can easily slip off and on stern-wise to take a swim, launch the dinghy, or just drag their feet along lazily.
Traditional sterns, especially a boat with high free-board, are harder to climb. With a sugar scoop, the stern opens straight from the cockpit to the ocean.
After a while it dawned on me to get underwater shots of dolphins riding the bow wave. We had seen dolphins already and I thought this would be easy. Not only is it hard to hold onto the underwater camera but the water is splashing all over. I was now on a mission to get the shots. On all my warm-water daylight off-watches I sat in a beanbag on the transom with my camera, book, magazine and mp3 player, waiting. I really needed to get the shots in the warm clear water and had a feeling that once the temperatures got colder I would not be hanging off the back. Unfortunately, we never saw the dolphins again and I never got the shot. It is now on my list of things to do.
In the cockpit 4.22.11 (YouTube link)
One of my data collecting tasks was to keep the hand-held GPS powered. I intended to use the 12v plug at the nav station but that turned out to be in conflict with the laptop and sat phone. Knowing the GPS burns through a set of AAs in about 23 hours I brought enough for the entire passage. After about 23 hrs the batteries are not fully discharged but too low to keep the GPS at a full functioning level. So, I carried batteries in a pocket at all times and of course they mostly needed changing in the dark or the most inopportune time.
With this hand-held I was able to lay below and get all the information I wanted. After a while you get sensitive to the motion of the boat but can not accurately tell what heading you are on. I also carry a small compass that I can review anywhere on the boat to determine heading. We all pretty much know where the target at the end of the passage is and any variation in heading can be a penalty in more distance traveled.
Most of our route planning was based on where the center of the high-pressure system was located. The closer you get to the center the lower the wind speeds will be. In simple terms and graphics, the picture above is fairly accurate in that we were going to head into the wind for almost the entire trip since we decided to stay below the center of the high. We thought the distance-penalty to go over the high was too great compared to heading into the wind below it. We relied on the wind angle changing from on the nose to off the port side as we got close to California.
Weather update 4.22.11 (YouTube link)
Bill at the helm 4.22.11 (YouTube link)
The first day out we had wonderful conditions. The sky was clear, air was warm and the winds were steady in the 10-15 knot range. Upon departure we settled in to our watch system. We maintained this 4-hour-on & 4-hour-off watch schedule for the entire trip:
12am–4am: Mark/Clive
4am–8am: Bill/Dave
8am-12pm: Mark/Clive
12pm–4pm: Bill/Dave
4pm–8pm: Mark/Clive
8pm-12am: Bill/Dave
8pm-12am: Bill/Dave
Many hours before departure I brought up the subject of the watch schedule. Bill's response was that he thought it best and easiest for whomever wants to helm should do just that; no set schedule. To me this aspect of offshore crew management was unacceptable. I knew this would not work so I pushed for a rigid watch schedule. Luckily, logic prevailed.
 |
| Clive. |
 |
| Sadly, Jack did not qualify as an auto-pilot even though he was strategically placed on the leading edge of the binnacle. |
Underwater shots northeast of Oahu 4.22/23.11 (YouTube link)
 | |
| Sterns. |
I planned to get underwater shots while underway and the sugar-scoop was a perfect platform to use. A reverse transom (labeled Rocket Ship above) angles forward from the waterline to the deck. A great example is the sugar scoop variety. A sugar scoop stern is a reverse transom usually with swim steps. It gets its name from of course the actual sugar scoop.
The boat's stern is then not the end of the cockpit but actually a molded part of the hull.
Sugar scoop sterns provide easy access to the water. The crew can easily slip off and on stern-wise to take a swim, launch the dinghy, or just drag their feet along lazily.
Traditional sterns, especially a boat with high free-board, are harder to climb. With a sugar scoop, the stern opens straight from the cockpit to the ocean.
After a while it dawned on me to get underwater shots of dolphins riding the bow wave. We had seen dolphins already and I thought this would be easy. Not only is it hard to hold onto the underwater camera but the water is splashing all over. I was now on a mission to get the shots. On all my warm-water daylight off-watches I sat in a beanbag on the transom with my camera, book, magazine and mp3 player, waiting. I really needed to get the shots in the warm clear water and had a feeling that once the temperatures got colder I would not be hanging off the back. Unfortunately, we never saw the dolphins again and I never got the shot. It is now on my list of things to do.
In the cockpit 4.22.11 (YouTube link)
 |
| 12am 4/23/11(156nm/253nm) |
With this hand-held I was able to lay below and get all the information I wanted. After a while you get sensitive to the motion of the boat but can not accurately tell what heading you are on. I also carry a small compass that I can review anywhere on the boat to determine heading. We all pretty much know where the target at the end of the passage is and any variation in heading can be a penalty in more distance traveled.
Weather update 4.22.11 (YouTube link)
 |
| Correlating the GPS track from above to this wind forecast I can in hindsight say that it was accurate. The winds were light and stable. |
 |
| One thing that sticks in my mind is that the water temperature must remain 79 degrees or higher to sustain a hurricane or tropical depression. All too soon we would exit the warm water. |
 |
| The area inside the 1020 isobar is generally a no-wind to light wind area and we needed to go over the north side to get favorable winds. |
 |
| ...and in every sense this was very accurate. The waves literally were 1 foot. |
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