Still looking for the elusive dolphin. (YouTube link)
Subject: 23 April Update
Sent: Apr 23, 2011 7:07 AM
Good morning from the crew of Chasch Mer. We made 180+ nm yesterday despite the light winds. Our position is N25.6 W 155.4. We had good winds last night and close-reached at 7 to 8 knots. Our heading is 040M and the seas are 1-2 feet with a 2-3 foot swell. We are hoping to reach a cold front and low pressure system to the north of us. We've seen no ship traffic and only one airplane in the past day. Very few birds since we left Hawaii, although we did have a blue-footed booby land on the mast top and deck. It managed to poop on Dave in the process.
Bill
And on that note, while Bill and I were on watch he was at the helm and I was seated on port in the cockpit looking aft. We watched the bird fly around the top of the mast and make many attempts to land but never succeeded. In one of its circuits it managed to drop a gift that literally landed on the front of my right shoulder. What are the odds of that? I heard it hit my wind-breaker but initially did not see it. It stunk, bad. After looking around for the stink I realized it hit me on the shoulder and was a little hidden behind my PFD. It landed at just the right spot so that my PFD was hiding it and rubbing it into my jacket. Ugh, down below I went to the galley to wash off my gear. Seriously, do they drop with intentional pin-point accuracy?
Jack (YouTube video)
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| This graphic accurately illustrates the low-wind conditions referenced in the e/m update below. |
Sent: Apr 23, 2011 3:22 PM
Unfortunately, we ran out of wind and have motored during the last watch. Our heading is 015M trying to get above the high pressure and into some good westerly trade winds. The good news is that it is slowly starting to fill in from the west. We took advantage of the calm seas and took bucket showers off the back of the boat. No luck fishing so far.
Bill
Within the hour of Bill's last e/m update Mark managed to hook and bring in a decent sized Dorado. As you can see the weather was still pretty nice but then again Mark seemed to always be nearly stripped while the rest of us were slowly putting on layers.
Being the cook I am and having the interest to handle this project I took it upon myself to make something happen in the galley. I have always said that the hardest part of cooking on a boat is being able to make something tasty from a lack of ingredients. Admittedly, we did not supply the provisions with fresh fish in mind.
I knew the oven worked since I tested it back at the dock and I now intended to use it for this meal. I placed the fish in foil and my memory of the ingredients I used has now faded. I know for sure that there was olive oil, black pepper?, crushed garlic and blueberry jelly or whatever jelly was on board. It worked! There was plenty of fish for all and it was fantastic given the limited galley and being underway.
Dorado (YouTube link)
With the lack of winds an eerie calm settled on board...until the engine was started. Ugh, motoring sucks. The smooth calm surface of the water at sea is commonly thought to be a myth. As far as the eye could see across the water was a flat calm. In the distance we could see rain falling but at this time in the passage we had not had any rain actually fall on us.
Most boats have an audible alarm that is activated when the ignition key is turned. It usually stops sounding when the engine starts to run on its own. We had a special little problem with the alarm on this boat in that it would not turn off. So, whenever the engine was running you could hear a high-pitched whistling alarm. It wasn't like a siren but rather just an enormously annoying alarm.
If below I would wear earplugs to try and alleviate the sound. But, in the cockpit there was no way to get away from it.
After a couple days of this I went below and found the source of the sound behind the ignition panel that was accessible from the cockpit. Through trial and error of pushing on things and putting my finger on a little diaphragm device that I saw connected to the circuit panel I was able to reduce the volume. I then discovered that if I covered the little hole in the diaphragm the sound was very much reduced. Out came the tape and I taped the hole.
This fix only worked for a little while and probably not more than a day. I finally got so fed up with the alarm that I could not go another 1,000 miles having to deal with it. Granted, it was only making noise when we ran the engine but it was just too much to deal with. Through trial and error again at the circuit board I fiddled with the device and started to just pull on it. Well, it came all the way out with a long skinny wire dangling from it that had been embedded in there somewhere. The noise was gone for good. I set the device down on the little shelf at the back of the ignition panel in hopes that it would rest well and be someone else's problem many miles down the road.
....the head-sail came down, the sun went down.
Within the hour of Bill's last e/m update Mark managed to hook and bring in a decent sized Dorado. As you can see the weather was still pretty nice but then again Mark seemed to always be nearly stripped while the rest of us were slowly putting on layers.
Being the cook I am and having the interest to handle this project I took it upon myself to make something happen in the galley. I have always said that the hardest part of cooking on a boat is being able to make something tasty from a lack of ingredients. Admittedly, we did not supply the provisions with fresh fish in mind.
I knew the oven worked since I tested it back at the dock and I now intended to use it for this meal. I placed the fish in foil and my memory of the ingredients I used has now faded. I know for sure that there was olive oil, black pepper?, crushed garlic and blueberry jelly or whatever jelly was on board. It worked! There was plenty of fish for all and it was fantastic given the limited galley and being underway.
Dorado (YouTube link)
With the lack of winds an eerie calm settled on board...until the engine was started. Ugh, motoring sucks. The smooth calm surface of the water at sea is commonly thought to be a myth. As far as the eye could see across the water was a flat calm. In the distance we could see rain falling but at this time in the passage we had not had any rain actually fall on us.
Most boats have an audible alarm that is activated when the ignition key is turned. It usually stops sounding when the engine starts to run on its own. We had a special little problem with the alarm on this boat in that it would not turn off. So, whenever the engine was running you could hear a high-pitched whistling alarm. It wasn't like a siren but rather just an enormously annoying alarm.
If below I would wear earplugs to try and alleviate the sound. But, in the cockpit there was no way to get away from it.
 |
| The back of the ignition panel is exposed inside the wood box above the extinguisher. |
After a couple days of this I went below and found the source of the sound behind the ignition panel that was accessible from the cockpit. Through trial and error of pushing on things and putting my finger on a little diaphragm device that I saw connected to the circuit panel I was able to reduce the volume. I then discovered that if I covered the little hole in the diaphragm the sound was very much reduced. Out came the tape and I taped the hole.
This fix only worked for a little while and probably not more than a day. I finally got so fed up with the alarm that I could not go another 1,000 miles having to deal with it. Granted, it was only making noise when we ran the engine but it was just too much to deal with. Through trial and error again at the circuit board I fiddled with the device and started to just pull on it. Well, it came all the way out with a long skinny wire dangling from it that had been embedded in there somewhere. The noise was gone for good. I set the device down on the little shelf at the back of the ignition panel in hopes that it would rest well and be someone else's problem many miles down the road.
....the head-sail came down, the sun went down.
 |
| 12am 4/24/11 (155nm/408nm) |
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