65) Delivery: day 6

For the record, Clive is English.  Why do the English put pockets on the back of shirts?  Answer: fatigue.

Overall,  the four of us got along very well and had lots of laughs.  Everyone had a very low-key persona and that helped to keep things very calm.  Mark was able to keep us entertained with much of the funny-ass stuff that he would say.  Clive supplied us with great photos good for a laugh.

Life on board (YouTube link)



From: Tina Irvin
Subject: Updates
To: "Dave Berke"
Date: Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 9:54 AM

So... initially the only updates were from you via last text and Gib got one from Bill, so I was updating facebook. Suddenly Carolyn (friend of Bill's) got updates for the last 2 days and posted them.

There must have been a delay or it wasn't working or something!

Anyway, just glad to hear all is well.

-------------------------------------------------

Subject: 26 April Update
Sent: Apr 26, 2011 12:47 PM

We've had very nice wind for the past 24 hours--12 to 15 knots on the beam.  Still have not seen another boat since leaving Hawaii.  Have seen only one aircraft since being buzzed several times by a P3 Orion near Hawaii.  Pretty cool.  They made two very low, close passes.

We have less than 1500 nm to go, so hope the wind stays up.  We are getting above the high and hoping for the 48-hour forecast to hold.  Looks like 20 knot NE winds at that point.  Still no westerly tradewinds.

Our position is 31.4N 148.0W.  Our course is 055M.  We may need to go further north depending on the weather.  The seas are 2-3 foot waves on a 6-8 foot swell.

All is good.  Having a blast.

12am 4/27/11 (182nm/938nm)

64) Delivery: day 5

Mark at the helm, no sound. (YouTube link)

3:38am Apr 26

A third from Bill:
25 April (morning)
We had a beautiful sail last night. Winds started light, but picked up to 10-12 knots. The moon rose in the east followed by a very bright Jupiter and then the sun. The winds have really picked up now at 0830 local time. We have 18+ knots of wind from the east and are making 9-10 knots beam reaching. The swell is 3-4 feet with 2-3 waves. Actually, a very comfortable, fast ride.


The yacht and crew are doing well and looking forward to making up for the light-air days. We've made 600 nm and have 1760 nm to go. Position is 29.5N 151.6W.

Strong wind, flat water (YouTube link)

Bill and I had hand-held GPS's of which mine was on continuously and he sporadically turned on his.  We regularly compared numbers and specifically the distance-to-go.  I wasn't doing any desk or laptop work, of which I had my own laptop, and I wasn't constantly tracking our sailed distance.  But what got me was that our distance-to-go number was always off by 100 miles or so.  I was fairly confident that I entered in the coordinates at the entrance of the correct marina in Long Beach based on info I received from Gib.  I really needed to get to the bottom of this and I noted to Bill on a regular basis there was a discrepancy.  I asked what coordinate he used for his end mark and never did get a substantial number to work with.  I took it upon myself to look at the charts at the nav table to verify my entry in my GPS.  

Upon looking at the chart that Bill was using I looked closely at his pencil notes and discovered that he was using the Channel Islands up near Santa Barbara as his waypoint for calculating distance-to-go.  I casually brought this up to him and asked him to check the chart.  Luckily he came back and admitted that he read the chart wrong.

In my eyes this was a huge error.  He was using that waypoint to calculate all the things we consider when approaching land after a long-distance passage.  If no one had been checking the navigation on this passage we most likely would have ended up well north of Long Beach.  Granted, we still would have hit California but errors in navigation of this sort are not warmly regarded. 

This error would have become significant in the several consecutive days wherein we had to consider running to the middle of Baja or close-reaching to a point above San Francisco (in the very rough conditions we encountered several hundred miles from CA).  The conditions were so bad that in an effort to keep the boat moving and the shiny side up it was safest to run with the wind and waves and that would have put us well south of San Diego. 

 ----------------------------------------------------

3:39am Apr 26

Final from Bill (hope I got them in the right order - he sent them all at once but not all were dated)
25 April (evening)

                                            Transom bucket bath (YouTube link)


Hey, hope everyone had a nice Easter. The Easter bunny seemed to have forgotten us, but then we found three cold beers in the cooler. :-) Our position is 30N 151W. We had a fast start today, but the wind died around noon. We took advantage of the time to take bucket showers off the back of the boat and motor to charge the batteries. We tried wing and wing with the aluminum spinnaker pole, but the winds were too light and the swell too big. We hope to be up above the high in 72 hours. We've made 700 nm and have about 1700 to go. Hopefully, a faster trip once we reach 35N.


Dave and Clive have done an excellent job with the food and Mark, as usual, is a mechanical whiz with the engine. He also found a cotter pin on the bow which was backing out of the clevis pin which holds the forestay. It hadn't been bent to hold it in place. The engine is losing about a quart of coolant every two hours, but we haven't had to add oil. I am getting the best of the sat-phone and trying to make use of the weather charts I download.

Rain (YouTube link)

FZPN26 KWBC 251611

OFFPZ6

OFFSHORE WATERS FORECAST

NWS OCEAN PREDICTION CENTER WASHINGTON DC

930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011

CALIFORNIA WATERS FROM 60 NM TO 250 NM OFFSHORE.

SEAS GIVEN AS SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT...WHICH IS THE AVERAGE

HEIGHT OF THE HIGHEST 1/3 OF THE WAVES. INDIVIDUAL WAVES MAY BE

MORE THAN TWICE THE SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT.

PZZ089-252330-

930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011

SYNOPSIS FOR CALIFORNIA WATERS

A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS

THE NRN AND CENTRAL WATERS TODAY. A HIGH PRES RIDGE OVER THE

CENTRAL WATERS WILL BUILD INTO THE NRN WATERS TONIGHT INTO TUE

NIGHT. WEAK LOW PRES WILL MOVE INTO THE CENTRAL WATERS

WED...THEN DISSIPATE THU AS HIGH PRES BUILDS IN FROM THE W AND

PERSISTS INTO FRI. A LOW PRES TROUGH WILL STRENGTHEN ALONG THE

CALIFORNIA COAST TONIGHT AND PERSIST INTO FRI.

PZZ083-252330-

POINT ST GEORGE TO POINT ARENA

930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011

TODAY

W TO NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 20

KT...HIGHEST N. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT. SCATTERED SHOWERS EARLY.

TONIGHT

W TO NW WINDS DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS

BUILDING TO 9 TO 13 FT...HIGHEST N.

TUE

VARIABLE WINDS 10 KT OR LESS. SEAS 9 TO 12 FT. ISOLATED

SHOWERS.

TUE NIGHT

VARIABLE WINDS 10 KT OR LESS...EXCEPT SW PART

BECOMING E 10 TO 20 KT. SEAS SUBSIDING TO 7 TO 9 FT.

WED

WINDS BECOMING NW 15 TO 20 KT LATE. SEAS 7 TO 10 FT.

THU

NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING HIGHEST SE. SEAS BUILDING

TO 9 TO 11 FT.

FRI

N TO NW WINDS 10 TO 20 KT...EXCEPT SE PART 20 TO 30

KT...HIGHEST FAR SE. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT.

 

PZZ084-252330-

POINT ARENA TO POINT CONCEPTION

930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011

GALE FORCE WINDS EXPECTED THU AND FRI

TODAY

NW WINDS 10 TO 20 KT. SEAS 5 TO 9 FT.

TONIGHT

NW PORTION...NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SE PORTION...NW

WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT FAR SE PART INCREASING TO 30 KT. SEAS

7 TO 9 FT THROUGHOUT.

TUE

NW PORTION...VARIABLE WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. SE PORTION...NW

WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT FAR SE PART TO 30 KT. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT

THROUGHOUT.

TUE NIGHT

NW PORTION...VARIABLE WINDS 5 TO 15 KT...EXCEPT NW

PART BECOMING SW 15 TO 20 KT. SE PORTION...NW WINDS DIMINISHING

TO 10 TO 20 KT...EXCEPT FAR SE PART TO 25 KT. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT

THROUGHOUT.

WED

WINDS BECOMING NW 15 TO 20 KT THROUGHOUT. SEAS 7 TO 10 FT.

THU

N TO NW WINDS INCREASINGN TO 20 TO 30 KT LATE...EXCEPT

FAR E PART TO 35 KT. SEAS 8 TO 12 FT.

FRI

N TO NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT...EXCEPT FAR E PART TO 35 KT.

SEAS BECOMING 8 TO 15 FT...HIGHEST SE.

 

PZZ085-252330-

POINT CONCEPTION TO GUADALUPE ISLAND

930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011

GALE WARNING

TODAY

NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT NEAR THE CHANNEL ISLANDS

TO 30 KT. SEAS 5 TO 10 FT...HIGHEST E OF 121W.

TONIGHT

NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT...EXCEPT NEAR THE CHANNEL

ISLANDS TO 35 KT. SEAS 6 TO 11 FT...HIGHEST E OF 121W.

TUE

NW TO N WINDS INCREASING TO 25 TO 35 KT...EXCEPT FAR W

PART 15 TO 25 KT. SEAS 7 TO 12 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.

TUE NIGHT

N TO NW WINDS 25 TO 35 KT...EXCEPT FAR W PART 15 TO

25 KT. SEAS 8 TO 13 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.

WED

NW WINDS DIMINISHING TO 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT ALONG 120W

TO 30 KT. SEAS 7 TO 12 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.

THU

N TO NW WINDS INCREASING TO 25 TO 35 KT. SEAS BUILDING TO

9 TO 14 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.

FRI

N TO NW WINDS 25 TO 35 KT...EXCEPT E PART DIMINISHING TO

15 TO 25 KT LATE. SEAS BUILDING TO 11 TO 16 FT.

 

.FORECASTER SHAW. OCEAN FORECAST BRANCH.

12am 4/26/11 (180nm/756nm)

63) Delivery: day 4

Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:50:27 -0700 (PDT)

To: Gib

Subject: Updates?

Hi Gib,

Any updates today? I haven't heard anything on my end... 

Tina

Date: Monday, April 25, 2011, 6:45 PM

Subject: Re: Updates?

None yet.

Hopefully soon.

Aloha,

Gib

---

(Sent 3:37am Apr 26)

From Bill:
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 07:55:54 -0500


Greetings from N27.36.847 W153.58.932


Sometimes you have to wonder what the attraction to long distance offshore passage making can be.  Several thoughts come to mind.  But, one stands out at the moment.  Yesterday we spotted a few dolphins off the port bow about 500' feet away.  They appeared to be coming for us and we suspected that they were going to greet us by riding the bow wave.  That is predictable behavior.  This time we were treated with an amazing spectacle.  The dolphins crossed our bow about 300-500' feet ahead of us and in an instant a line of dolphins about 300' long appeared above the surface. 


After crossing our bow they turned 90 degrees in unison and began swimming away in a perfect line.  This was no ordinary swim for them.  They were coordinated in their effort to slap their tails as they hit the water and it appeared they all worked in concert for a common cause.  We think they were herding bait fish.  They swam away from us at least halfway to the horizon and without a doubt there must have been at least 40-50 all in a line.  We originally thought it was only a few and were amazed that this group communicated to each other in a split second and they all came out of the water at the same time.


We are finally through a light air patch and back to heeling and sailing along at 7kts+.  The air is warm, the sky is clear.


dammitDavid

___________________________________________________________________________

(Sent 3:37am Apr 26)

Another from Bill:
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 08:23:41 -0500


Not sure if I mentioned it, but the first night out I saw two fireballs.  One was quite large and bright with bits of debris coming off of it until the mail part evaporated in a flash of light.  A few minutes later I saw another, though much smaller.


Last night we motor sailed through phosphorescent plankton.  The wakes on boat side glowed with thousands of "fireflies".  What was really interesting was the prop created such a disturbance that it looked like a 20 foot flame trailing behind the transom.  Just incredible!


Although we have been sailing the fastest course, we are very close to following the May Hawaii to California route from Cornell's "World Cruising Routes".


Winds has died down some from this morning, but we are still doing 5 kts.  Got to get into those trade winds soon!


Bill

Me, on the beanbag waiting for dolphins; Mark at the helm.

Sailing Along (YouTube link)

 

Quiet time (YouTube link)

Sunset.

12am 4/25/11 (168nm/576nm)

62) Delivery: day 3

Sunrise 4/23/11 northeast of Oahu (YouTube link)

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) 

This graphic accurately illustrates the low-wind conditions referenced in the e/m update below.

Subject: 23 Apr PM Update
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.

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)