http://www.oceanhippie.net/ News and blog updates from oceanhippie.net Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:41 BST en-uk http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=805 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=805 Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:41 BST Spot the mistake Events seem to be conspiring against us. First Dingo arilines cocked up Jackie's flight, marooning us till she (hopfully) arrives tonight, then we can sail off to the loverly Ha'apai Group (know on board as the happy islands - mostly cos we can't prounounce it). Shaggy Calls a Taxi Oh no we're not, just got a weather forcast, 2 systems are going to roll over us between now and friday bringing winds from north, north east north west and west. We can't go to our ha'apai place with nor'westerlies at 30kns as were exposed on the western side of the islands. We'd be safe and sheletered in the norhtern Tongan islands, the Vava'u Group. But in a northerly that would take ages to get too, we'd have to beat, posibly into 30 knots*. Tonight is North East. North tommorow then north west then west. In short we can't make it that far up wind before the nasty stuff hits. Even if we could check out now and leave asap, which we can't. Guess were staying here till it blows over. We even thought of going back to Nuie, but Alofi is wide open to the West and Norht too, even Rarotoga's harbour is untennable in a Norhterly. On the bright side it is cheap here, the Tourist office has a huge billboard in front of it, with a map of the island. Well I say a map of the Island, actually is a mirror image of the island, conciencioulsly labled. Don't belive me look it up on google maps. So at least the map we were using was the right way round. Also Thursday the islands got a gig, Shaggy's comming to town. That bloke's following me arround, last time I was in Antigua, another Shaggy Gig. * this is no fun. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=804 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=804 Thu, 01 May 2008 23:06:37 BST Ok the last gallery I uploaded doesn't work yet, nor does the video. The reason. Tongan internet (formally the best in the Pacific) is absolutly dreadful. Now a modem can theoreticaly do 56000 Bps. Entry level broadband is (in theory) 521000. My upload speed yesterday when trying to update this was in the range 300-500 Bps. It takes a long time and many re-connections to get it done. The main cause of the trouble is Beebo. Tongan school kids on beebo. The nice internet cafe in the Reserve bank of Tonga is no more. Which is a shame. There's no wifi here, or not at the boat. I'm going to carry on blooging off line and uploading when I can, but if images etc are missing then you'll have to check back later. MUCH later. Jackie was suposed to arrive last night. But due to a Koala on the runway in Port McQuaire. She's missed her connecting flight to Tonga. She'll be comming monday now. Their right bastards those Koalas.The net reuslt was we got trashed. Beer here is cheap as is "Rumski" the local un labled Rum. Actually quite drinkable. Alchohol consumed in quantity can lead to stupididity. Principally pushing of people into harbour. Al and Chrisian were determied not to be the first to go in. Al came a close second. The boat, which we speant most of yesterday meticuliously cleaning. Is now liberally dribbed with harbour water. Butter from late night apocolyps snacking. I'm lucky me nice clean bedding is still that way. I had the presnece of mind while Al and Christian were wrestling to clamber round the side of the boat without getting chucked in. Unfortunatly Chrisian's wallet is missing, presumed sunk. Incuding his card and Cook Islands Driving Licence, the only licence he's got at present. Leaving pictures out of the post, can't deal with the stress of uploading. nbsp; http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=801 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=801 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:32:47 BST Ok at present I usually don't know what day it is. Mondays are less of a problem. But years of work mean I still dislike them. Three things are eternal. Death, Taxes and Mondays. They follow the weekned, in my case, usually equiped with the pain and bruises acrewd sailing and the liver bruising hangover obtianed at Brighton Drinking Club, like the plague, exaserbating the long drag to towards the folowing weekend. I doubt I'm alone in this, Mondays are universally reviled. Its impossible to get one over on Monday. Its permanent eternal, you can reason with it, it absolutly will not stop. It follows sunday like a hangover follows a good night out. You must pay for your weekend fun, The payment is Monday. There is no way to get to the comparative tranquility of Tuesday without going through Monday. Case closed, no way, imposilbe. Except.... if you slip your moorings at Alofi, Nuie timzone GMT -11, bound for Nuku'lofa, Kingdom of Tonga timezone GMT -13. I think you can sea where this is going. The time in the 2 islands is the same -11 to +13 is 24 hours. Since Tonga is west of the International Date line and Nuie east and we're going east west accross it we set the clocks forward 24 hours. We got up yesterday morning set our clocks and skipped Monday completly. I won, I beat monday. This week there was no monday. It didn't happen, I was never there. savour the sweet smell of my victory. Hope you all had a good day of wor on Monday the 28th of April. For me it didn't exist. Monday the 28th of April 2008 will for ever be my favourite Monday, it only happened to other people. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=800 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=800 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:55:02 BST Tombstoning Nuie a trully exelent Island. Think the Chrisian Piety might be as a result of snubbing geologists. Now I'm not a geologist, but I belive that islands that stick out of the sea near plate bounderies should be volcanic. The rest of the islands in this ocean are. Their made of lava and stuff. Sharp and pointy. Igneious rock. Now sedementary rock is layed down as sea creatures die and sink in oceans. They're flat. What the hell is Nuie? its sides drop off like a cliff, making the echo sounder useless right by the shore. So if its a tinny volcanic style island why the hell is it flat and made of limestone? Maybe their is a god, and its his little joke. I'm sure the geologists have an explanation. Nuie is a flat plateau of limestone sticking out of the ocean. Population 1500, last year it attracted 3000 tourists. 75 odd yachts. Its awesome. I love it. Techically its the first new county I've been to this trip. Due to the arival at the weekend however we didn't even get a passport stamp. The islands lack of acidic soil and flat with underground drainage gives a new defination of lush. The water flows out to sea in caves or georges made collapsed caves like wot we leared in geography at skool. Swimming in these is wonderfull. Some have underground streams emerging in them, wich are compared to the sea water freezing. The cold fresh water floats on the surface, making wierd distorations when snorkeling. Its cold. We swam in Limu pools, wierd limesone pools. We swam in the Royal Cave at Avaki, we swam in Matapa Chasm. The last one is a limestone george whos landward end is fed by an underground stream and whos seaward end is cloged by huge boulders. Nearly fresh is a favourite with Nuians out for a sunday swim in between church services. They go twice a day. Its also know as the Royal Bathing Pool. We wen't tombstoning. I.E. Jumping off the cliffs into the water. Was epic fun, not to menton scary. I videoed a nice kiwi called Eli its here More photos availble in the Nuie Gallery LINKS FOR RSS USERS: http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Cat=11Res=777 - Videohttp://www.oceanhippie.net/thumbs.php?gal=778 - Photo http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=771 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=771 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:38:09 BST Promising title for a blog post. I just thought it was funney. Gin and beer suplies arrive There is no icecream here, sorry. Its not Sundae or Sunday. But yesterday evening was pretty nice. I think my perfect Sunday or (Sundae) would probably involve sitting in the cockpit drinking on a south Pacific afternoon. We seem to be going through a gin-n-tonic phase at present. Would go very nicely with a sundae, gin-n-tonic would. Christians hit an all time low and played himself at scrabble. We suspected he cheated and looked at his own letters. Austrialians are all about winning, no sence of sportmanship. Though winning and loosing at sport (or scrabble) are important. Winning and loosing at the same time is asking for a padded cell in your future. Rolling Ciggies on a boat is slighly tricky, I've managed to get hold of some filter tips, which is great too. The usuall method is to stick the filter (or "Mouse Tampon") in your mouth whilst aranging the tobaco. I keep bum sucking it when doining it in the dark, which leads to soggy papers and roll up failure. I have developed a new technique which avoids this problem. Instead of putting the filter in your mouth, use your left (or right if you must) nostril to hold onto it whilst preparing the rest of the rollup. I know, I know I'm supposed to have given up again.... http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=766 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=766 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:37:22 BST Road Legal in Rarotonga Play Carter USM Damn the cook Islands beurocracy , they've lost me licence records. I had to apply for a new driving licence. They noticed I had no motor bike entitelment, didn't last time. In fact the only place I've legally driven a bike is errrrr Rarotonga. Unfortunatly I've lost my Cook Islands driving licence. I had to take a bike test. Now the Cook Islands have been forceing people to get a licence for the islands for at least 9 years, I've held a Cook Islands driving permit before. I havn't however driven a scooter since last time I was here in 1999, OK I'm exagerating, it was Thailand in 99 I last time I drove a scooter. ARRRRGHHHHH! I got lost on the test, "Turn left at the Gas station" Gas station? I've seen bigger sheds! The test consited of driving once around the block, all left turns. My Scooter's left indicator didn't work. I remembered to stop at the stop sign, but over the line. Still passed. Mind you a 19 year old lass who took the test was stopped by the police motor cyclist "do your indicators work" he said, she "replied what are indicators" he pointed at the button. She still passed. Te Police station is one of a handfull of three storey buidings on the Island. Its sheathed in marble. I think the $10 for a licence and $5 for a test might be very profitable. Hell I've had 2 licences and a test. Oh and now they sell Cook Island police merchandise. I've got a Cook Islands Police cap now! Police Islands Scooter Patrol (no driving licence at this point) I love the Cook Islands, I don't begrudge them the driving licence fee. Its the coolest thing I brought back from my last trip and, oh I've a full motor bike licence...... Passed me test and every thing. Getting lost on the test was an achivement, bearing in mind Rarotonga has 2 bus routes (probalbly 2 busses), clockwise and anti-clockwise. This should give you an idea of the size of the place, and how hard it was to get lost. For the tourists there's a sign with arrows for clockwise and anti-clockwise. nbsp; http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=746 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=746 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:52:56 BST "Wet Feet" may not sound like a partilularly serious title for a blog post. Its all about context. Wet feet when stepping out fo the car, one driver having parked with the passeger door next to the only puddle in south east England is merely annoying. Wet feet, when the rest of the boat is asleep and your stting in the cabin (Ahem) watching Buffy the Vampire slayer (disk 14 of 37ish) on watch is not annoying its profoundly worrying when watter starts sloshing arround your feet. Arrrgh..... Abandon ship! Follow me lads we're sinking.... Alan, showing a level of intelegence far behond mine, but which I will remember should this happen again, dipped his finger in it and went. "Its alright its fresh". Turned out to be the frsh water hose to the water filter in the Galley had come off and pumped a quarter of the large forward tank of water into the bilges. Add this to the Autopilot failure this morning, the demise of the memory card on my camera, the fishing reel (gone again), the irratic gas supply (maybe 2 regulators in line wasn't such a good idea). You think maybe I've done something to annoy God lately? I'm sure I have, going arround declaiming their non existance is probably irritating to any deity. Its hardly a new habit of mine. My recent decision to simplify christianity, judeism and islam to one religeon may have irrititated him (or her), I suppose, but franky I doubt it. Haveing three sects all beliveing in he same God and doing their best to make life as misserable for each other as humanly* possible probably irritates him as much as it does me. That having been said, keep at it you abrahmic sects, till its to late for you to reailse that its not the other belivers that you wanna worry about. OK, it is the other belivers you want to worry about, they'll quite happily shoot, burn, beat or other wise murder you for beliving err pretty much the same as you but in a difernet time zone, but you religeon will carry on*. Its us Aithest you want to worry about. Remember its not anchient Rome any more your not fighting oppresion biggorty hatred opression and so on your most likly peddling them now. Its us Athiests who have the moral high ground, or think we do. Yeah I know only I could take a minor, if worrying incident of wet feet and blame it on orgaised religeon. Its a blog, its not suposed to make sence. * it could be "as godly possible" but frankly I doubt it.** Secretly the'll be very happy about your myrterdom/oppression - its good publicity. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=744 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=744 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:06:05 BST French polynesia has higher booze an fags tax than even the UK. Last time me Borrje and Ros took up rollup smoking. Now even Al has. Unfortunatly the only papers you can get are ungummed. They're a bloomin nightmare. Thats all. Wonder why you botherer reading my rants. nbsp; http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=743 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=743 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:01:49 BST "The time has come to speak of many thing, of fishing reels and generator things" Bits of boat keep going wrong at present. Some are minor. Chris's tea, minor, that was sat on the gimbaled stove (the stove is on hinges and can swing so it stays upright, even if the boat doesn't) on top of the frying pan. The Pan's handle caught under the edge of worktop creaing a miature catipult. Which was funny rather than fatal. The generator has been broken for a while, but I got some wirewound resitors of RS austrailier. Jobs a gooden we thought. Well no. Problem soldering iron don't work. Alan's soldering iron is 240v and is more of a branding iron. Either it don't work or the inverter can't power it (inverters convert 12volts DC to 240volts AC). So the soldering job was perfomed by blow torching the bit of the soldering iron then quickly soldering the componant on. Miracle it worked! McGuiver as Al puts it, I'm more of an A-Team man my self. Another Pole Dunno what happened to the fishing reel. Took it to bits (fiddly as hell). Put it back to gether, then a huge fish ripped off all our line, Our new 50kilo line, it ripped off so fast the sides of the reel melted. Breaking the reel again. The engine then wouldn't swich off. Itermittant fault. Fortunatly I know where to find the mechanical off. I do like it when things fix themselves. The big breakage was the spinnaker pole u-j. Another one, with the car this time. This one was probalby some what over loaded. A poled out full genoa in a 40+ knot squall will do that. Well every thing's back to gether bar the pole. That's in pieces. I found some more bugs in my blog, and fixed them. I was trying to stop it showing a "next" link on the current month. I can't describe how much harder PHP coding is when: A: its difficult to see syntax errors due to the large cracks and black blotches on the screen. B: You have to rely on the ofline manuals for PHP and MySQL - neither of wich have a search function in flat HTML. "I'm gonna take me bike, cos once again the canal's on strike" Poor old Sam on Ramprasad, the Guy I did 2 of my previous Atlantic crossings with, and who I once had to fish out of the river Neva in St Petersburg has gotten to Colon for his Panama Canal transit, to find that due to a strike by the Pilots, he's sceduled for a tranist on June the 11th. Don't scan bank notes in the Bank of EnglandThis one scaned in Bank of Tonga Sam seems to be making the best of it. He's going to San Blas. A place i have increadible memories of. Victor and his dog taking us around his island, having paddled up in his dugout canoe. Hopefully its as good now as it was 9 years ago. He's also planning a trip up the Chargress river. Wich We were thinking of as a waiting strategey. The Chargres was dammed to build Gatun lake that feed the canal. Its navigable for several miles into virgin rain forest. Wake up to the howler monkeys - you will they're not called howlers for nothing. I was inicailly unhappy at missing Carnival in Trindad. Not now had I waited in the Caribean for it, I would want to be stuck in Colon for 2 months. I can only assume therfore that due to the strike the ocean is empty of yachts behind us. Well bar the ARC World and Blue Water Rally. Hopefully we'll get to the Cook Islands on Friday. Theoretically this Northery will go on friday morning. Apparently the harbour at Raratonga is not suitable fro northerlies. Jackie, Al's girlfriend, who got off in Panama, is now flying out to Tonga, not Fiji, at the beginning of the month. Apparently the air port she's landing at is 10 miles from the Marina? Marina? What marina? I don't no nuffin bout no marina in Nuka'Lofa, Tongatapu (insert random apostropies in all Tongan spellings). So she knows where the marian is but we don't and we're the ones on a boat. Hope she's going to the same island we're going to...... Last time I was in Tonga the internet and the national bank were the same place. Banks need good coms. So it was a good internet cafe. We should put one in the Bank of England. Just north of Luku'Lofa (not sure of capitaisation of Tongan capital) is a reef. Entitled "Dido Shoal", I have visions of Dido wrecked on it, I dream of waving cheefully at her and sailing off merrily, leaving her there with sharks circling. With that pleasant thought its time to go. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=742 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=742 Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:17:19 BST The weather forecast was for 15-20kn's. This has turned out to be true. For a given value of true. Currently, as near as I can figure, rounded up, allowing for boat speed and subejectivly I'd have to say we had none. Therefore the given vaue of true is: "Average of really light bits and 40knot gorrey death with pleasant* periods of gale force 8 boat cleaning hozizontal rain from a random direction" Its not that the forecast is wrong - its just missleading. * for a given value of pleasant, in this case its the same one that formular 1 bloke likes - sadomasocistic. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=729 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=729 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:18:49 BST Aproacing the island of Boring Boring,In bad weather. Bora Bora, the most beautiful island in the world, or a contender for it. Shame the weather is rather like that of an English Bank Holdiay, damn thats bad luck. Well were here, its sunday and the islands closed, its hard this life. None the less the yacht clubs closed.; Its not a yacht club, its a resteraunt called a yacht club. But judging by the wifi in Papeete the club is changing hands, its certainly closed. Since the anchorages here are 27 and 25 meters (and I'm beeing optomistic), we've borrowed their mooring on the assumption that nobody cares. Well I'm ata beatiful island, the Yacht CLubs WiFi's out. The wonderfull lagoon is around us, but I'm not allowed to swim. The islands closed. So I guess its back to bed. We'll probably leave for Raratonga tomorrow. With our fixed genereator. Yay, hope my Cook Islands driving Licence doesn't need renewal. For those of you who don't get a postcard, sorry (could be all of you if I don't find a postbox) look below to see where I am, being rained on. Post card of Bora Bora Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=728 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=728 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:44:11 BST Acedently visited Moorea, took so long to get diesel we figured we'd arrive in Bora Bora in the dark. So we stopped at Cooks bay Moorea. Cooks Bay Moorea In Papeete Christian recieved a parcel from home, laptop diving stuff etc. Also is parents enclosed thoughtful gifts (inc vegimite). Also included was royal Auto magazine. The magazine of the RACV. Thats the Auzzie RAC. A quailty publication on a par with an inflight magazine. The reason for this incusion with easter eggs, vegimate and stuff is that Jackie, who's autrialinainity is Al's reason for going to the beer and kangaroo continent is a resident of Port Macquarie, New South Wales. The magazine contains an artical. Let me tell you about Port Macquarie. Its got Austrailiers best climate, according to CSIRO - whatever the hell that is. its Gum trees are home to one of austrialier's largest koala populations. Wich means its also home to the only NSW Koala hospital "Austrailier's cuddliest marsupial". Other unmissables incude. "WALK Don't leave town without stepping out along the two hour beach-to-beach walk" Convit ruins etc. Apparently the north coast is an "anglers paradise". Now for the cyinic in me.... Ok this sounds like eastbourne - refered to by most Brightonian's as 'God's Waiting Room' due to the average age of its inhabitence requiring 3 digits, it usually has Englands best sunshine records, is equivalently convineintly located "4 hours from Sidney", on in this case London, has a zoo at drusillas etc. etc. etc. Ok I'm gonna get killed by the Sarno family better stop now...... Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=727 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=727 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:39:16 BST Pap Arived in Papeete, all this time I've been spelling it wrong. Mostly however its the ear ache I'll remember, straight off the boat down the hospital. On antibiotics(very expencive ones) and ear drops. Not to mention pain killers. Not allowd to swim. On drugs in pain and not allowed to swim in Paradise. Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, in fact the whole of French Polynesia, is the origin of the word "pap". As is clearly ilustrated by the free calendar we got from the supermarket. The goodnews is I have a nice new T-Shirt with "Hinano beer of Tahiti" embazened on it. Which should help spread peace an light amuncsed my frineds when I get home. I've got some of their stickers too, with the nice kneeling polynesain lass with a flower behind her ear. Some of you will be reciving postcards, maybe with a beer sticker on instead of words, then ou'll see what i mean. Obviously you have to be here to really appreciate it..... Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=725 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=725 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:05:03 BST Hmmm tis nights like this that make me nervious. Were less than 2 miles from the corner of Rangiroa, an island who's maximum height is 6ft incuding palm trees. Al claims he saw a 3 storey building, but I don't belive him. There's no moon, less than 10 kn of breeze and another atoll in the way. Oh and Rangiroa's not where the chart says it is. According to the radar - which only works when the engine's on, and a bit of caclulating its .3 of a nautical mile out. Given even now were less than 2 miles from it, that's not pleasant. Its got one light on it. Echo sounder is usless as were outside the 1000m contour (even this close). The gap between the islands requires a course of gybes and the gap is only 5 miles. Assuming the other atoll's where the chart says it is. Most likely is .3nm out like the other one. So I've adopted the motor the straight line through and use the radar approach. Damn the fuel, the enviroment and the temerature in my cabin. Its hot here, and the engine doesn't help, its right next to my cabin. Ah well. must get away from corraly death. I likes Atolls, pretty on the inside sharp on the outside. They realy are spoony things, 20m deep and 20 miles across with a glorified beach as a border. 1000 meters half a mile out side. Does ones noggin in and if one is not careful ones boat. "Id rather be on the boat with a drink on the rocks, than in the drink with the boat on the rocks." I waxed all philosphical on the way over here. There are three sorts op people in this world, not the usual 2. Optimists, who sea a half glass and say "Its half full"Pesimits, who sea a half glass and say "Its half empty"and of course sailors, who're just happy the damn things not in their lap. Its also faintly possible that the sailors jsut see a half glas and go "I'll have that" and down it in one. Due to the inadequacies of French polynesian internet (no to mention beer stocks, cash points and charts) I've not had much of a chance to update. When you see this look out for my tribute to our Weather Girl, Jackie. In odds and ends. Alan's wild life video entitled Attenborough and a loverly and a loverly desktop walpaper of Jackal and her Crew in Tom's Travels. LINKS FOR RSS USERS:http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Cat=10Res=724 - Weather Girlhttp://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Cat=11Res=722 - Attenboroughhttp://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Cat=11Res=691 - Wallpaper http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=723 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=723 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:35:44 BST We attempted to enter Manhie, twice, going aground the first time, slight damage to the rudder. Second time we hit the ebb tide. Got forced back out the pass again. Third time the current was still running. The entrance looked like the area behind an over flowing dam. We go in there found the anchorage was 20 meters deep. Hugh rocky lumps of coral sticking up every where. Got the anchor jammed upside down backwards on the top of a 5 meter high protrusion of rock. It didn't jam too badly, mostly becasuse the chain was wrapped around too many other lumps to pull on the anchor its self. We gave up trying to anchor and left for Rangiroa. Which is a differnet storry. We had to wait half an hour for the Pass to Calm down (we'd learned our lesson about atoll Navigaition). The laggon here is unbeliveable, the water's 20 meters deep and you can see every detail. The Visablity is as near infinate as damn it. Went snorkeling yesterday, and playing with baby sharks, which was fun see the Attenborough video in "Tom's Travels". Some serious fish here. See the rangiroa photo gallery. Good Snorkeling There may be a problem with my newslettery thing, assume by the time you read this I will have fixed it! nbsp; http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=692 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=692 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:58:33 BST Oh boy I wish I had a copy of "Charlie's Charts of French Polynesia". Actually I do. I permanently loaned it to Sam on Ramprasad when I brough it home from Ornen in 1999. It would be churlish to have ask for it back after 9 years, when he is now queuing up for the the Panama Canal and his first pacific crossing. Apparently the Canal is like the London Underground. Its on strike. So he may have to speand some quality time in Colon, poor bloke. Meanwhile I'm headed for the "Murderious Archepelego" with out the book that tells me how to negociate the atol passes to access the laggony goodness within. I've been naughy, I took a digital camera aboard another yacht and took photographs of the apropriate pages of the book. Not practical by it worked. We're now headed for Manihi ( I have so given up trying to prononce the south pacific). Then maybe Ahe, and definatly Rangaroa. The Image above is my Chartlet of the Tuamoutos, Items underlined in blue are muderious "9kns current and coral heads in the pass" etcHiglighted - Should be able to get in, without trauma. Underlined, maybe at slack water. The boat is moving nicely, should be in crystal clear laggon by the day after tommorow. Atill? Atoll? Atull? WTF? There are 3 sorts of Islands in the Pacific. 1. Volcanic, and young. The Marquesas are an example. The islands have forced them selves up from the deep ocean by vocanic action. They are surrounded by cliffs. Coral may be eaking a living on the edge. 2. Vocanic medium age. The Coral around the edge grows an sustains its self, forming a ring around the island. The island is meanwhile erroding. What you end up with is a tall vocaninic island surounded by a laggon with a reef on the edge. Like Castaway with Tom Bloody Hanks!. Bora Bora's a clasic example. 3. Anchient. Assume the the errosion continues, eventually the whole volcano will disapear. The errosion will the stop at water level, the coral protects it from the waves, a shallow lagoon forms where the volcano once was. The Coral still stays, forming an empty lagoon who's tallest point is the palm tree on the surrounding reef. The Tuamoutos are all like this. The top of the Island is 2ft high, not countinmg the palm trees! The Ilets on the side of the coral reefs are called "Motu", for instance Rangaroa has 240 islets in a ring, with a huge shallow lagoon inside. The big gaps betwwen Motu are called passes. Unfortunatly, the tide rises and falls, and the entire rise for the Lagoon has to flow in and out through the passes. This kicks up eddies, overfalls and nasty currents. Add the total irrelavence of these atols to international shipping expalins their poorly serveyed state, the anchent surveys don't incude the tnedency of coral to grow...... The maximum height of on Palm tree (radar absorbant), the sharp coral and you've got a cruising ground that deserves respect. So I'm drawing pictures, and looking at blury photos on digital cameras. Don't do as I do people. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=690 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=690 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:14:02 BST Its Alive..... When your bottom is covered with barnacles, its not which hand, but how many. All three of us had a go at it. Finally we've a clean bottom. Its wonderfull. The boat feels like its sailing on butter. The ride is so fast and smooth. The picture right gives you an idea of how thick they were. For your information the anitfouling is the black. Not that you can see any of it. The job wasn't too bad, I got nearly half of it done in Hiva Oa, the rest was done in Huka Hiva. We were told that sharks come into the harbour at Hiva Oa. But decided "what the hell" I want those barnacles gone. In Nuku Hiva, all three of us were in the drink for ages. Scrubing scartching ourseleves. Blood, dead barnacles in the water. Fortunatly we saw our first shark the following morning instead. Would have runined the fun if we'd know there were sharks about. I didn't get scratched, I've got nice dinghy sailing gloves, to stop the scrapper (formaly a family circle buiscuit tin) digging into me. I was also wearing a rash vest. Well it was a rash vest, now its more a sort of T-Shirt. I've lost a lot of weight. We're no longer at Hiky Naky, I mean Nuka Hiva, we're off to the Tuamotus. A serise of atols. bettween us a Papette. The Tuamotus are rings of coral with a lagoon in the middle, oftern 20 miles across. With no actall island. The highest point in the archpelego is a palm tree + a beach. See my trip one section for the Apataki video. We've made some friends out of Tiger. A South African family, who very kindly (given is pound;50 a bottle hear) brought some scotch over, whic we helped them remove from their customs declaration. We fed 'em steak as compensation. I do feel soory for them though, Al and I offloded junk on them. My inflatable baseball bat now belongs to their kids. Whould you want so share a small boat with 2 small kids and one infaltable baseball bat? http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=689 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=689 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:36:03 BST Mon Capitan: posilble "Check in"Gendarme: Non, retornez sept heur a onze heur Lundi (return 7 till 11 monday)Capitan Alan: Posible "check In "nooky Nooky"Gendarm: Comont? (What?)Mon Glorious Leader: Niky Naki?Gendarme: Comont?Al: Niky Nooney?Gendarme: are... (en francais). "Nuka Hiva", oul sai posible. ("Nukanbsp; Hiva" yes, thats posible.) So off we go to Nuka Hiva. I'm looking forward to it. I havn't been to Nuka Hiva. I've been to Hiva Oa before. I'd forgoton how beautiful it is, It makes the Carribean like Skem. I hear by nomitate the Marqesas as the lovelyest place on the planet. On the subject of Skem, aka Skelmesdale, a new town to house the inner city population of liverpool...... Liverpool FC were doin OK, they had a shot at the premership. They still sent out scouts, one of them phoned up from Basra. "Look I've got this kid he's *%$ hot. I mean hes great." So the manager puts him on the squad. Final of the FA cup, 10 minutes to play, Liverpool are 2 nil down. manager goes. "We've got noting to loose put the Iraqi kid on". The lad comes on 3 minutes, he shoots he scores. Crowed goes wild. I mean nuts. He knocks off 2 more goals. Liverpool wins. As soon as the Iraqi's out the shower, he rings his mum. "Mum" he says "We've won. I scored 3 goals. Every one loves me, Its Great." His mum says "Waht about us". He says "What happened are you OK?". Hs mum says "Well your sisters been raped, we've been burgled, and last night we were firebombed."He says " I'm sorry mum, I really am" She says "you should be, your the one that made us move to Liverpool". errrm i'd better stop now in case any scousers are reading this......... http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=677 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=677 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:05:16 BST Bloggin May be curtailed. nbsp;Some time last night somehow my laptop got broken. Dunno how its useable but the screen is shot. This may curtail my web develepment. Damn. Hiva Oa is georgeous, the scenery is stunning. The locals are great. Unfortunalty the beer in the Bar is pound;6 a small one. Bottle of spirtits is pound;50. Even supermarket beers are pound;2. However the price of food, though unpleasant is not too bad. Leaving Atuona today. This evening probably. Hopping the closed intenernet with less people on will be quicker.! Ohnbsp;andnbsp;i'venbsp;fixednbsp;thatnbsp;newsletternbsp;upload....nbsp;nearlynbsp;(85%nbsp;completed....) View from Jackal, eat your heart out boys. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=654 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=654 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:16:47 BST The allure of a lure, well I hope thatrsquo;s how you spell it. There are a few minor problems on board, and 2 major ones. The Minor one Irsquo;m alluding to is wersquo;ve run out of fishing lures. The last one went a few days ago and was replaced by Al and My home made contraption. All yachties seem to use the fake plastic squid to catch fish, since we ran out of them wersquo;ve been making our own out of a weight a hook with a bit of a blue and white striped plastic bag shredded into tentacles all held together with gaffer tape. Given we havenrsquo;t actually caught a fish in a week on a proper one we werenrsquo;t entirely hopeful. Al and Christian then modified the mark one lure with some tinfoil. The Mk 2 in action The mark 2 proved is worth immediately, catching a Dorado within the hour. Fresh fish tastes so good at this point. We wanted more so it went straight back out. Within 5 minutes the line was streaking off the reel again. This time it was big. Seriously big. It jumped out of the water behind us, about 5 or 6 foot long Blue Marlin the kind you see hanging next to photos of Americans by sports fishing boats with moustaches nad cheese grins. Huge fish. The Bird we caught Unfortunately we only have a bit of 50lb line, the rest is 20lb. Yoursquo;ve not got a snowballs chance in hell of landing a fish that size on a 20ld line on a boat doing 5 knots + with the sails rigged for downwind. Its very hard to stop with the Genoa Poled out one side and the boom preventered out the other.It got away, but we built another mark 2 lure and a little later caught a bird. Their bloomin good these plastic bags.The bird was hauled in (pecking viciously) and left to its own devices on the cabin roof. After a break it flew off apparently none the worse for wear. Yesterday was therefore pretty eventful, additionally there was a bad smell in my cabin. I thought the cans of food on the boat had all been reorganised a week ago. I didnrsquo;t realise there were any left under my floor. The joy of finding food we didnrsquo;t know we had was seriously tempered by the rotting maggot infested remains of a tin of Vienna chicken sausages that had burst. The smell was dreadful and the clear up operation seriously unpleasant. So much so we had to wash the experience down with a bottle of wine and some olives. The olives wersquo;re an unexpected bonus. We thought we didnrsquo;t have any, they had to be de-maggoted. Donrsquo;t think theyrsquo;ll let me have that in scrabble. Yes Irsquo;ve been forced to play scrabble this crossing is that dull. Irsquo;ve even one twice now. Irsquo;ve never won a game of scrabble before. Even with the maggots it was a good day, we made good progress and ate better than we expected (chicken noodle soup and my home made bread for lunch, fresh breaded dorado with garlic mayo and lime juice for a snack, followed by fried spam, mash potatoes and gravy for dinner. With tinned fruit (de-magotted) to finish off. The last bottle is drunk The bottle of wine and to a lesser extent scrabble are synonymous with the two major problems we have that I mentioned before. It was the last bottle of wine. Problem 1: Wersquo;ve no more booze on board. Problem 2: Wersquo;ve no more booze on board. I know technically these are the same thing, but its so important I thought Irsquo;d mention it twice.Stone cold sober, after three weeks at sea, even I will play scrabble. On that bombshell its time to end. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=653 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=653 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:34:19 BST Billions of blue blistering barnacles. Litteraly. Cheap year old Greek antifouling paint. We were going a bit slow, I wanted to stop for a swim. So over the side I go, equiped with a mask snorkel and scrubing brush. I was viciously attacked by a fish. It was only a tiddler, maybe 6 inches long, but the f***er bit me. I was driven from the water by a six inch fish. Here's the paddle wheel of the Speedo (log)No Wonder it wasn't working.The whole hull looks like this There are 2 sorts of anitfouling paint, hard and soft (or abladive). The soft stuff wears down, exposing more toxic paint to the nasty sea critters. The hard stuff doesn't. Most people opt for the soft, racers the hard. Ours is clearly not working. The pacific has a repo for barnacles anyway, last time I avoided it by sailing on a boat with copper nailed all over the boat. We've managed to coax about half a knot back out of the boat. Since its hard antifouling me and Christain got a large rope. Passed it unde the bow and while the boat was moving dragged it back and forth accross the hull. We've definatly got a lot of the buggers.These are gooseneck barnacles, not the little volcano shapped things you see on rocks. They're tubular and about an inch long. Completly cover the hull and they're slowing us down a great deal. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=652 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=652 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:46:58 BST I've now read so many cold war thrillers I can finaly draw a conclusion as to why the USSR lost. Its entirlry due to social pressure. You see (according to my reading) the Russians defected all over the place, by car plane, walking over the Bugarian border, shooting their way accross the Finnish one etc etc etc. Quite frequently with out telling their wives in advance. But this is alright cos all of themnbsp;(andnbsp;theirnbsp;wives) have no friends or realatives to miss (or be hauled off to the gulag)."vake up honey, Suprise, look, vee have defeted","This is America?","no dear this is Finnland, but if I tell all secrets of glorious motherland to nice CIA mannbsp;with detatchablenbsp;mustache he give us house in place called 'Wisconsin'".This would never happen to us brits...."We must defect darling or dragged of to Gulag, Chop, Chop","Defect?","Yes Come quickly","Don't be silly our Daryls comming around Tuesday, can't deftect till then, and then there's Becky, you know the cousin of Shona at the greengrocers' wedding next month, I know were not invited but Shona may need help and there's Mavis","But honey you hate Mavis?","If you think I'm gonna give that Mavis the satisfaction of watching me defect you've another think comming, I'd never hear the end of it. And then me Chrismas card list? How can I get cards throughnbsp;the iron curtain...." Mind you I can't Imagine our gulags would be quite as bad either, they'ed probably inflict unspeakable horrors like putting the milk in after the tea. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=651 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=651 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:50:14 BST Party Well we got the nicknacks out and I put on my least scummy T-Shirt. Had a shower (aka a bucket), but nobody came. Its really hard to meet girls in this ocean. nbsp;We had a ball anyway, when I said nobody came. We did have a Dolphin and a Dorado. The Dolphin had one plastic squid and left. With some of our fishing line. The noise from the fishing reel was aweswome. Imagine fishing at the Top Gear test track and catching The Stig on his way past. That kind of speed. We fried the Dorado with batter peas and chips. Dunno if anones battered a Dorado before. Twas good. We also drank lots. Have hangover now :-( http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=650 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=650 Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:40:37 BST Mid Way The party is on Jackal Position, 6deg;56'N 113deg;56'W. Car parking can be found at Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Equador, 1500Nm West North West of the Party or at Atuona, Hiva Oh, Marqusas, Polynesia Francais 1500Nm West South West of the Party. There are no public transport links, but at a pinch you could land the Space Shuttle at Easter Island a mear 1200Nm South of the Party. Bring a bottle cos we're running out. Party starts at the 1500Nm to go mark. Food will be monkey nuts, marine pizza (tortias for a base), fresh bread and whaterver tinns we have. We've no eggs left for making a cake, sorry. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=649 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=649 Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:39:07 BST Melon 13 day's into the passage and we're definatly in the trades. Jackie our weather girl says we've got steady wind for the next seven days. There's fresh bread in the oven we've 48 beers left. Half a bottle of rum. That's the good news. We're nearly out of the first gas bottle (there are only 2) and we've another day till we reach nominal half way (1500Nm to go). The onions are almost gone. So's most of the fresh vedge. The bacon and eggs won't last mutch longer either. I think maybe we should have brought more food. We're not going to starve, we're just running out of things before they go off. Which is frustrating. What we do have left is a melon. A large one. wanna see my melon? Visit the non RSS version. Yes is a a melon-drama. Sorry i'll stop being so melon-dramatic. I'm really starting to get bored, you can tell by the melon gags. I've been quite good so far this trip but 13 days and no exitement. The last 2 nights we've caught a glimpse of light on the horison. The first signs of humaities existance in over a week. Whoopy doo. The fish seem to have dried up. So when food was all fresh we caught loads. Now we'd really like some there's none. Typical. This trip is going to be long. The sweep stake is me 13 days left, Alan 14 left, Chris 12 left. Which is bad for me cos I have to be spot on or one of them wins by default. nbsp; http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=648 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=648 Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:20:54 BST Precilla, Queen of the Desert(toy Camel) We've been barreling along with good wind for 2 days now. Its wavered a little, we're making a mere 5.7Kn at present. Yesterday we were running for hours at an average of over 7. Definate improvement over the 2s and 3's of the first 9 days. Its now 1998Nm to Atuona, by my reconing. At 5.7 knots thats another 14 days. Which would, unfortunatly, be a record for me. My previous best on theis passage is a mere 24 days 9 hours, also my longest ever time at sea. Not a record I'm terribly keen on breaking. Food is declining, oh god not fish again. We've done 2 dorados and a bonito so far. The other 2 want as much fish as they can get. We're short of onions, which is worrying since an awfull lot of recepies invovle onions. Nothing we can do about it. Al had me going saying we'd run out of rum. It turned out we haven't he was winding me up. With luck the beer may hold up, or at least close. Yesterday we speant the day dismembering the Generator. wonder whether the'res a shop round here selling 25watt 10Omega; Wire Wound resisters with heat sinks? Probably not. "Round here" there is nothing. Its been 7 days since we last saw any man made object bar what we brought with us. No ships, no planes, not even any rubish. Clouds, sea, fish, acouple of birds, the sun and stars, the moon and planets and the odd shooting star. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=647 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=647 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:10:06 BST The 1979 fasnet race was carnage. The bigest ever disaster in yacht racing I've just been reading the book, writern by one off the competitors. Some of it hit home. Dragonfly, Duncan's race boat I served my yacht racing aprenticeship on was 32 foot long, built to the IOR rules that the race boats of the 79 fastnet were using. Dragonfly was built in 1978 as Gaffer, the boats in the horendous pictures in the book look remarkably like her. The boats that come in for crisim (abeight veiled) are the late 70's lightweight boats, partucularly the smaller ones. Exactly like Dragonfly. The fastnet was truly horrendous that year. 5 yachts sank, 15 people were killed. Hundreds were rescued by helecopter. It is an exelent book, a sailing book most of interest to those who can follow it. Its a harrowing read, and technical but a real page turner for someone like me. Even 9 days into the Pacific ocean I've only been through 3 books. That one took me less than a day. It has made me wonder greatly what would happen if a similar disaster happend today. The sheer number of people rescued by chopper is astonomical. I'm pretty certain that the coastguard choppers have been cut many times since 1979. The lifeboats are larger and more modern, but getting from a raft or yacht to a ship of any sort in the conditions described in the fastnet race are life threatening in its self. One thing that might help is the comunications changes. The 79 fastnet rescues were oftern hampered by inacurate position reports and clogged radio frequencies. Modern navigation aids should illiminate that. One would hope. However few (if any) even modern boats would maintain elecrical power in the capsizes and knockdowns experianced by the fastnet fleet. Would the modern rescue services be able to pull that many out? Are modern sailors less hardy? I feel that I'm not as tough as a late 70's offshore sailor. Modern life and modern techology has made us softer I am sure. I'm no longer a racing yacht sailor. In fact just the Genoa drop on Island Kea was hard enough, a job I once did routinely. I've been spoilt by roller furling engines that actually work when you turn the key (unlike Dragonfly's). Modern clothing means that bar the winter series at Chichester YC (wear i routinly wear a 3mm wetsuit) I no longernbsp;experiancenbsp;thenbsp;coldnbsp;asnbsp;Inbsp;didnbsp;innbsp;mynbsp;earlynbsp;sailingnbsp;days. Puts the Atlantic force 9 into prespective, it was mild and not really dangerious for a boat like Island Kea. One thing that came out of the book is the sucessfull strategy for dealing with serious storms varies from boat to boat, being able to carry on sailing and to helm well were serious conteders for the most sucessful boats dealing with the storm. I don't helm much these days, thats what autopilots are for. I do know that I can helm, well, which gives me great confidence. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=646 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=646 Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:14:52 BST Many of you may have heard the term "Trade Winds", other words like "Azores High" sometimes appear. I'm hoping we've fround the south east trades that will drive to the marquesas. High Pressure = Good weather so open a bottle of Wine!Low Pressure = Bad weather open a bottle of scotch You need a corkscrew nbsp;(screws in clockwise) for wine, you unscrew a bottle counter clockwise. Helps you remember that in the Northern Hemispere wind Spirals clockwise out of a high and counter clockwise into an low. I'll try and explain, I'll start with the Atlantic, becasue I know it best. Arround the Equator (in all oceans) lies the Intertropical Convergence Zone aka the doldrums, abreviated to I.T.C on the diagram. This is as mentioned an area of hot fickle weather, with thundery showers and irratic winds. Above and bellow it should be the trade winds. North east trades blow in the Northern Hemisphere north of the doldrums. Over simplifiying they're driven by the Azores High, an area of high pressure that usually sits over the Azores, of the coast of Portugal. Wind spirals out of a high pressure in the Northern hemisphere in a clockwise direction due to the coriolis effect The southern hemephere it spirals out anti clockwise. Its this high that generates a steady flow of wind from the north east at the Canaries that Yachts use to cross to the Caribbean. This is the North East Trades. The Norhtern Atlantic North Easters are some of best examples of trade winds in the world. South of the Equator (and the I.T.C) the rules are reveresed, coriolis spins the wind the other way generating South East Trades. Simplified Diagram of the Trade Winds We're trying to use. This occurs in the pacific too. Where mountain ranges and Land impose they get overridden by local effects, but out in the open ocean you should get them. We've been in the Doldrums since Panama City, the Pacific Dodrums are slightly north of the Atlantic ones. We've been sailing south west out of the Galapgos in the hope of getting out of the light, hot sticky and variable weather and into the Trades. Wind is light, but steady from the South East. Woot!. I'm (and I suspect I'm not the only one) praying that this is the trades and we'll get some steady wind. This phenomenon also expains why Engand is so wet, and cape horn in so misserable. The UK is north of the Azores high. So its tending to get warm Caribean air thats come North of the Azores High, generating the Warm Wet weather we all know and love. The weather at cape horn is worse, the UK weather is generated by the Atlantic, cape horn has the same ocean on both sides, so the lows roll around the bottom of hte world. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=645 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=645 Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:21:22 BST We found a movie on board. Called "Stealth". Now I've seen some complete tosh in my time, and, when your being rained on "like manchester" to quote Al, have been at sea for a week and have 2 more at least, probably three to go anything that will pass the time is good. This movie was still appaling. How this even went straight to video I cannot imagine. Imagine starwars, only worse, where Mark Hammils acting might actually have improved it. Though having ones feet burnt off by the Spanish Inquisition while watching it might actually improve it. There are three pilots, and Eddie the UAV. Rather like Eddie the shipboard computer from the HHG2G. Only worse. The computer is however the best actor in it. One of the pilots is a girl one white male and one black male. Guess which one gets killed. To quote South Park "we need one Black person to come allong in case someone has to sacrifice them selves to save the mission" Do not on any account watch this movie. Unless you are: Attempting to provide grounds for Divorce. The Spanish Inquisition, inflicting torture. Compliling a list of the Greatest Turkeys of all time. Err and we're still goning nowhere fast. Though to be fair we've been clipping along most of the last few days. I've now put my old "Hiva Oa Wallpaper" on my desktop, just to remind me of the nice weather I should be having and nice destination I may eventually reach. God I'm gonna enjoy the next epesode of Buffy, comapred to Stealth its that good.... http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=644 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=644 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:06:20 BST Life is slow, very slow we've been going since about noon on the 1st. Looks like I'm missing March this year. Not much loss. Its the month before the sailing season, before the weather improves enough to be bearable, but after the fun of winter and possiblility of snow. I it is snowing in the UK please ignore.....Remember I said the boat came with the entire Buffy the vampire slayer? Well thier are 37 DVD's And I've only got to disk 4. Shudders. Well since our progress has been slow, I've been watching some of them because We've got the power. Too much motoring. We've taken to just bimbling along on idle revs. Not fast but burning minimum fuel. Keeps the boat more stable than just stopping but don't burn too much fuel.We've only managed 500 odd miles in nearly 6 days. Anyway, Al's finished "the Talented Mr Rippley" on DVD so i'm gonna watch Buffy. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=641 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=641 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:14:49 BST Not as think as you drink I am Now there are 3 of us every three nights one of us get to sleep properly from 10:00pm till 6:00am. Last night was my turn The wind on the other hand had other ideas. As soon as my head touched the pillow, the wind shifed around leaving Christian learning about hove to. I got us back on coures went to bed and it happened again. After 2 more head to wind auto pilots and light wind I gave up. Stuck the motor on and went to bed. Christian waited ages till he was sure the wind had settled down. Then tried to sail again. 5 minutes later (1:40am). We're hove too again in another shift. Al's watch started at midnight, he preceeded to weave all over the ocean too, at least without my assitance. Engine starts maniacal changes of direction etc are not what I call fun, or condusive to a good nihgts rest. So here I am at 7:00am having had little sleep and I'm back on the graveyards shift of 2:00am till 6:00 tonight. great. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=640 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=640 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:58:13 BST Well we're at sea on the big one. So far so good. We've not had much wind yet. But thats not as bad as it was the other side of the Galapagos. We can bimble along on minimum revs and the current helps a bit. Our speeds therefore not been great. Foods good. By accident we left at lunch time on Saturday not early morning. The result was a trip to the Market. Wish we'd go all our stuff there. Hindsight's a wonderful thing. Been eating like kings. Roast Chicken, Fried breakfast, tonight the rest of he chickens in a curry, and boy does it smell good. Last night I made bolagnaise. Which I might add I'm pretty good at. It was a late meal due to an aperitif of fried Dorado (straight out of the ocean). The rest of the bolgnaise got padded and spiced and we had it with cheese and sour cream in wraps for lunch. Unfortunately we only have a fridge and that meas we run out fresh meat tomorrow. :-( We're sort of in a race. Well with think we are. As we were coming back from the market "tiger" was hauling up her hook (anchor). We're a great South African couple with 2 cute kids, one of them has an exosketch. When he can get it back of Alan. The third boat leaving Saturday was "WMD". Its very, very suspicious saying "WMD, WMD this is Jackal" into a VHF radio. Wonder what GCHQ made of that bit of radio traffic. Worse they're probably reading this website now. Hello GCHQ! Hope the weather's ok in England! Its loverly here. one of the Guy's on WMD's got a flight booked for the 24th of March from Hiva Oh. His brothers wedding. With the speed we're making I imaging his fingernails are getting a bit short right now. Ther'es a whole 3 bucks riding on who gets there first. Christian is great. He doesn't get sea sick, he's never been sailing before so he didn't really know. I left the poor bugger on watch last night at 2 am, it was blacker than the inside of a coal man's sock. Raining. I built him up to it by having 2 minor squalls on my watch and going off close hauled (as near the wind as possible) on different tacks. Then explained that Tiger might still be near by, and possibly on a different tack. Should have kept that to my self. Poor bugger has spent the afternoon reading up on the col regs (rule of the road). http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=639 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=639 Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:17:35 BST Moooooon Riiiiiivvvver, wider than a mile.... Leaving Galapagos tomorrow. 3000Nm miles to the Marquesas, French Polynesia. Owch. Remind me again why I want to sail the Pacific again. For most people its the dream of a lifetime. I've already done it. Now I'm doing it again. You'd think the 30 days at sea last time would have put me off. They probably should have put me off. If you don't hear from me in a month get worried. What is it with lost Aussies trying to go home? Last time I sailed across the Pacific we took Ros and non sailor. Now we've acquired Christian another one. He and I were shopping for supplies (easier said than done in Santa Cruz). "Shall we take 4 crates of beer or three"? "Four". He'll fit right in. Somethings haven't changed here. Butchers don't exist. Meat is hard to come by. We've done ok on veg. We'll make it. We simply can't carry enough booze. We've 30 odd tins and 48 pint bottles of "Cesveza Pilsna", 5 dollar deposit on each crate. Yeah like we're sailing 3000Nm miles up wind and up current to return the empties. I'm as eco friendly as the next man but you have to draw the line somewhere. Havn't managed to see giant tortoises this time, shame. But had a cool mountain bike trip yesterday. Yadda, yadda, yadda, sun, Iguanas, Lava Tubes, seals, beer, haven't manged to post any cards.... will post 'em from somewhere. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=616 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=616 Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:16:30 BST you are NOT here Well, we're here, got it at about 4. The wind gave up an the current came back at about midnight. We motored in at about 4am. Praying the engine wouldn't run out of fuel as we cut the corner over uncharted bottom at 2.5 knots against the tide. You can tell we're in the Pacific islands proper now. The chart says we're anchored on land. Coming in last night was interesting, fortunately we had the Radar. Which told us that the shore that looked closer than it should be was closer than it should be. Fortunately there was a moon. Since the wind died completely a few nights back, the stars have been fabulous. I've been using a little program called "Stelarium" to look about. No no not the cold probe! With this program I was also able to identify Alan's UFO. To be fair, the thing was flashing different colours. It looked like a carousel in the sky. In fact it was Canopus, a -0.65 magnitude star some 312 light years away, and therefore no direct threat to Jackal. Alan and I are proud of our decision making. Neither of us wanted to run out of fuel. Neither did we want to stop and float backwards on no wind. More importantly neither of us wanted to be responsible for the wrong decision! Its been clear for days that it would be close and at times re-assuringly good and others obviously bad. Thanks to our refusal to come down off the fence either way until the last possible moment we got lucky. The night before last when we stopped. We we're headed sw west into the current. When we stopped we floated slightly more north than our original course. This and the early morning attempt to sail resulted in us crabbing east in a semi circle. By a miracle of luck we (I think) found ourselves in the lee of the Island the tide must have been eddying around inshore and pushing us south. I know just how lucky we we're. This has happened to me before. Last time we got near the islands, had the same view for a week as we stayed effectively still, then floated in a big arc around the north of the whole group for another week. This trip took 9 days. Thats a fourteen day improvement on last time. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=615 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=615 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:29:12 BST At about 8:00pm yesterday we were motoring at 5.3 knots. But due to the current making a mere 2.9knots forward progress. We stopped the engine and went backwards, initially at 2.2 knots. Before we got even the faintest hint of a breeze at 7:00am this morning we'd floated backwards on the current 11 miles. We are now about a mile from where we stopped last night. The log (the sensor that tells you half fast your going through the water). Reads 1 knot ish (not that its gonna be terribly accurate at that point, but thats still sweet Fanny Adams). But were doing 2.2 knots in the direction we want to go. That doesn't make sense. Even in terms of tidal not current it doesn't make sense, since the time of day is similar, and tides only shift forward a bit each day. The don't go completely opposite. I'm not complaining mind, but if we'd had this current last night, this would be on the internet, and I'd be in the pub. Not staring at the same view as yesterday http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=614 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=614 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:41:55 BST 22 miles from the destination, we've stopped the engine, and are floating backwards at 2 knots We took the lid off the fuel tank and looked there's about an inch above the fuel inlet pipe. We decided that we might not make it and eventually even I was convinced we'd have to save it so we can get in. trouble is I've been here before and gone backwards here for a week. We heard that there might be wind on Tuesday. That means we'll just have to sit here and wait It also means if it arrives then we'll have floated miles backwards. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=613 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=613 Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:02:40 BST Nearly there? We've got about 55Nm to go, we're in the res, there's zip wind. Current seems to be abating. My handy mk1 eyballometer says we've 14 hours of fuel left. Assuming the gauge is linear. I'd like to assume that, like most guages zero isn't cough splutter stop. Lets also assume my eyeball is accurate. and the current speed over the ground (thats the boats speed after correcting for any tides and currents remains constant then our ETA is about 13 hours. Thats a lot of assumptions, and none of them are accurate. Do we shut down now? Or try and make it and risk running out of fuel. Alan has made 40 miles on this little fuel, I was generous with 55Nm. Fifty might do. Might. Repressurising a diesel engine isn't difficult. But that would mean we've run out of fuel. And we really need that engine to get in the Anchorage. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=612 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=612 Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:26:25 BST Gps Say 155nm to go Wer're not going to make it, there's no wind, we've half a tank of fuel and the GPS says we've one hundred and fifty five Nautical Miles to go. Theoretically thats half a tank, however we've got at least a knot of current against us. So if it take us 36 hours to get there we effectively need fuel for 191 Nm. and right now, that 1 knot of current is looking mighty optimistic. 150Nm left in the tank Help its happening again! Last time I came this way on ornen. We got within sight of the Galapagos and sat there for a week. Were a good day's sail, on a good day from our goal. However we're not going to get there without running out of fuel, and with the really light head winds and current we're going to do exactly what we did last time, sail just fast enough to stand still. Please don't let this happen to me again, I've speant forever sitting here near the Galapagos already. I don't want to do it again. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=607 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=607 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:57:33 BST Ships Log Hmmm we've got 250Nm to go, we've got half a tank of Deisel and three small gerry cans left. When I say "gerry cans" I mean were using them as gerry cans the writing on the side says "sunflower oil". I wonder if the oil would have been cheaper. Engine probably wouldn't have minded. 2 birds sitting on a log is the only interesting thing we've seen in 2 days. God this is a big ocean, I'd cind of forgoton. This is a small hop to some islands barly off the coast of south america! http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=605 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=605 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:42:40 BST Morning of the 6th day out from Panama Still in the doldrums, saw a couple of hours of sun yesterday, that's it for this trip so far. Wind has been slightly better, though we had to beat most of yesterday morning and afternoon. Thats painful if your used to trade wind sailing. Last night we had joy beyond measure, a following breeze that lasted several hours. Panama City is a mere 450Nm away. Todays Thursday, nearly 5 whole days, and we've done 450 miles and burned a lot of diesel. Still we are more than half way at last. With a bit of luck and conserving fuel when we can, that should be about 10 days to the Galapagos, which is a hell of an improvement on last time when it took the Ornen 23 days, thats longer than all 4 of my Atlantic crossings and a third the distance. Even if the wind has been all over the place, at least the wind from last night and the 180deg; different wind this morning are cooler. The first few days brought the term "muggy" to a new level. It was light drinking the air, heavy and leaden. Any sort of motion resulted in dripping sweat as the air could suck up no more moisture. Like I said, its probably character building http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=604 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=604 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:51:25 BST Tom's Boobie Well actually there's only one booby, and, disappointingly it not blue footed. I like blue footed boobies. Wow Firefox actually spell checks "boobies". Well this is seriously getting to be character building. As is I'm actually having to sail. I've reefed in and out about 8 times so far today. The good news is, we're moving, generally (though this varies wildly) towards the Galapagos. We've only used the engine for about an hour since I set sail shortly after dawn. However its raining cats, dogs chickens, hamsters and possibly badgers. Eugh. The photo is a stitched together panorama of the cloud this morning, looks less menacing in this pic. Normally my panorama image join prog is pretty good, struggled with this one. The black dot just above the hatch is the boobie, it stayed for the night. Finished "SEAWOLF", very good bar the last few pages. It was in such a state I took to reading a page, tearing it off and throwing it overboard. There's something very decadent about ripping up a book as your read it and throwing the pages over the side! http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=603 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=603 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:41:52 BST Doldrums Day 3 - Sunday the 18th Feb Boy did it rain last night, I mean biblical, I changed sail config about 15 times and achieve about 5 miles. Its pretty frustrating out here. At least we don't have David Beckam's "My life in football" on board, or anything by Geoffry Archer. We do have plenty of other complete tat to read. I'm reading "SEAWOLF" about an American Sub spying on the Chinese, Its probably important that its in capitals, the cover seem to think so anyway. Its redeeming feature is that it was written by a Brit. So it contains odd references to the quality of UK subs and submariners usually absent from htis sort of book, being usually written by Americans. Tom Clancy's "Red Storm rising", also contains a lot of submarines. All irritating barreling around the oceans at 20 30 40 knots. Both authors seem enamored with the British Spear Fish torpedo. Oh dear torpedo envy, what would Sigmund Froid have made of that. We've plenty of food on board so time isn't bothering us. Fuel is we've got bugger all wind, right on the nose. We've got about 0.7 knots of current. Also right on the nose. We've burnt so much fuel all ready we just had to check the engine oil. We didn't buy any American Heritage brand cheese slices, whose packet contained an oldy worldy picture and the words "American Heritage - Artificial Processed imitation cheese food" . American Heritage, the Americans should sue for slander, if it wasn't unfortunately true. Errm i may have gotten the "Artificial" and the "Imitation" swapped over, but you get the jist. Wine Dark Sea http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=602 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=602 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:11:41 BST The Doldrums Defiantly in the doldrums, Squally black clouds are gathering. Wind is very light and right on the nose, we've been on both tacks, sailing, motoring or motor sailing at random intervals since we left Panama City yesterday lunch time. I get the laptop out and it begins to rain. Defiantly the doldrums Oh dear I can feel a multi day ramble coming on, brought on by exposure to large amounts of open sea and nothing to do. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=600 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=600 Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:06:57 BST Panama Canal Video Been doing some updates, there's a video medley of the Panama Canal, a write up of the Panama Canal in Tom's Travels I've also updated Pilotage with a Panama Canal mini Howto and a little bit about where to put you boat in Panama City Also theres a humorous (rather than rude - honest) analysis of cruising yachts persons in Odds and Ends. If you are a former skipper of mine, a current skipper of mine or a future skipper of mine do not read this!, please, pretty please, wiv sugar on top. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=567 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=567 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:17:50 BST Use your card in millions of cash points around the world they said.... The Eastern Caribbean chain works intermittently. Some days it doesn't. In Venezuela, in 4 days and more than 2 dozen attempts in a dozen cash points no money was forthcoming. We've been in Panama for a week, not one cash point as given me money. Nor have any of them given Al money. Thats 2 English people. Jackie's an Auzie, she can't get any money out either. Yesterday we me 2 Brits and 2 South Africans 2 I know. They couldn't get money either! Becky couldn't get any in Venezuela either. Aruba - 2 machines no money. Bonaire loads of machines for 3 days, managed $300 dollars on one occasion. VISA DOES NOT WORK http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=562 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=562 Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:16:54 BST Some Pacific Ocean What's the first thing you do when you reach another ocean? Jump in it of course. I tried this last time, the Caribbean is a balmy 27° the Pacific a few hours travel through a ditch is not. This is because of Humboldt, inventor of the current (still in common use in fruit cake to this day). Actually it was pleasantly cool. After the organizational nightmare standing round in the sun at Balboa Yacht Club looking for a AWOL Colon taxi driver called Dracula. To the right (grrr had to give up on my images in RSS - it broke outlook) is a picture of some sea. This is not to be confused with other pictures of some sea I may have posted this one's the pacific. I must confess guilt forgive me oh Cowley Club, for I have sinned I entered a TGI (should be TFI, but the Americans don't do swearing). It was that hot I bought a coke. If your wondering more about the canal than the crap American chains. Well we lived, we didn't break anything, we didn't have to motor at 8knots, which is hand y cos we couldn't get 8 knots downhill with the wind behind. Even in the canal, which few places where you can take a yacht down hill. As a result of me still typing this post after sunset, I've decided its an artical not a blog you can see it in Tom's Travels on the website. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=561 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=561 Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:01:14 BST I will be transiting the Panama Canal Tomorrow and Saturday. You can see us going through the Gatun Locks on Webcam tomorrow (friday) night. Were leaving here at 18:30 local (23:30GMT). So Estimated lock time is about 7:30-8:30 at GATUN. That early AM UK time. Assuming we're following the patten I expect we'll be coming under the bridge cam around noon (17:00 GMT) and maybe 14:00 Local (19:00gmt) at mirraflores locks. I'm on "Jackal", which is a white Yacht. It has a blue Bimini (sunshade) over the cockpit, with 2 solar panels on it. The rear guard rails have panels of blue fabric (dogers). For those that know yachts its a Beneteau first 411, 42ft long, with roller furling main I.E. no sail cover. We have no UV strip on the Genoa, but we do have a blue cover that may or may not been on. IE Genny may be blue or white. link here: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=556 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=556 Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:31:13 BST I've tweaked my rss feed, to allow it to show small pictures. I'll be working on it some more. But new posts should no include illustrations. I'f you don't use RRS, its ver cool. If your useing a descent browser (opera or firefox) it will notify you when they update and notify you. subscribe to my rss feed http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=554 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=554 Sat, 02 Feb 2008 22:16:31 BST Woot! I had a cold and wrote up some info on Rodney Bay Marina. A few weeks ago, I can also tell where people are coming from when they visit my site, and what they're searching for. I'm only page 4 of google for Rodney bay Marina. Not bad huh. Better do some more. Mini howto for Pananma canal comming right up.... http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=509 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=509 Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:19:16 BST Approaching Colon, the nicest spot in South America, described by the rough guide as "Colon is a dangerous slum, unless you have a pressing reason to come here, do yourself a favor and give it a miss." The trouble is that after 5 days at sea I'm actually looking forward to the place. This is in no way related to the fact that we have only 2 beers left on board. Yesterday morning we caught a fish, wahoo which we consumed last night, with a sauce of butter, garlic, lime and lemon. With a side of baked potatoes and sweet potatoes. That really hit the spot. Poor old Jackie is still sea sick so her dinner went straight back overboard. Al and I have been standing most of the watches, its hard work with just 2. I think Al's had the worse part of the deal, so last night we swapped. I got the latter part of the night, which means I can see the southern cross. It only rises late at night, its about the only southern hemisphere constellation I know. We're 9 degrees now. I've not managed to pick out Polaris for a while now. There's no equivalent in the southern sky, you have to follow the the vertical of the southern cross and make a guestimate. There's no doubt however, I'm sailing where the stars a strange. Not that I've all that much time to gwak at them, the traffic round here is like Friday on the M25 If you look at the panama canal its not long. If you look at it closely, the only bridge I can see, or remember (watch this space), is the bridge of the Americas at Panama city. So the Atlantic ocean is separated from the pacific by a spit of land (2 hours on the Bus) north and south America are connected only by the same narrow isthmus and the one bridge. Its lucky religious terrorists aren't too bright. Drop the Bridge of the Americas into the Canal and god knows what you'd do to the world economy. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=508 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=508 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:29:49 BST Those of you that remember your Molesworth (you probably don't its a public scool thing). Remember me publick scool educated, ok Educated is over generious to Sedbergh, I think we can say I attended it, while the teachers were in the pubs.. However Molesworth's exam question "Are the Andes" can now be answered. Yes they are and they've got snow on them. Didn't expect to see snow on this trip. Podcast atomic rss viewers who are listening may will have to visit website for the photos. I still can't help Molesworth with the following question "In Africa". Were just north of Cartegena (another of Sir Frances Drakes conquests), no fish again. We think it was the knot this time. We'll be in Colon in a couple of days, then through the Canal, however the World ARC will be there at the same time. So it could cause a queue. Winds been fickle, and now when were suposed to have flat water we've nearly 30 knots and waves. Jackie's not enjoying it much. I'm getting queasy writing this so I'm going to stop now. "The americans need a weather window, the brits are forever looking for a weather forcast, the Fench just go sailing." Richard off the boat next door in Aruba. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=507 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=507 Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:42:48 BST Take a 1960's high rise office block. Rotate through 90 degrees. Pack it with the overpaid, over weight and unfortunately over here and you have a cruise liner. Broadly speaking they are square. Many stories high, infected with e-coli and other bacterium. The one pictured right is actually quite pretty. Despite the risk of food poison, the price and the ugliness they've become unbelievably popular. We were in Aruba for 48 hours and we saw 8 liners. At sea they clip along, to power that much flab along takes oomph. The're also manoverable, to get in and out of small harbors. At night they are ablaze with lights, making the navigation lights completely inviable. They hare arroud, and since they're basically square and uniformly randomly lit its almost impossible to tell which way they're pointing and they come up on you awful fast. I don't like 'em - you can tell. I count 24 balconies per deck in the section of side in that pic, with 5 decks of cabins. 2 per cabin and you've got 240 peoples worth of posh cabins in this small section. These things have thousands of people on them. Unfortunately they let them off too (the ones without food poisoning) http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=503 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=503 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:49:20 BST oooh err its posh here. The marina is owned by the 5 star hotel ($6US a beer), that means we get to use the gym, pool etc. Or in my case nick towels. The boat next door has been hear a year. They have covered everything in a towel. The must have dozens, when they spill something they just swap the towel. The have casinos. Dark, bleepy, full of slot machines. Looks about as much fun as sticking ferrets down your trousers. But less exciting. I've spent to long being sensible to try casinos. Especially slot machines. The national lottery is not about the winning, its the dreaming of what you'd do if you won. Thats the whole point of it, and according to research the main reason people play. I too dream what I'd do if I won the lottery (guess what it involves boats). I don't believe I will, nor does anyone else. I find that you can dream about winning the lottery, since its irrational anyway, quite easily with out actually entering the lottery. Best of both worlds, I don't waste money and I get happy thoughts. The hotel has a private Island, we were going to take the boat out to it but got distracted by a happy hour. The boat actually drives into one of the hotel's receptions. You swipe your room card and get on. Tacky or what. So you can experiance this without shelling out for expencive hotels or marians iv made a video. Sorry about the theme music, I couldn't get hold of Carmia Birna opera at short notice. So I used pilates of the Caribbean. RSS users will need to paste this http://www.oceanhippie.net/content/vid/ArubaSillyBoat.wmv When I say posh, the poshness only extends a few streets back from the harbour. Then its tin shacks dogs and rought streets. The difference is more noticeable, and more condemnable here. A few streets back and its very Caribbean. Not as Caribbean as Sourfier in St Lucia. Sourfier has a repo for beggars, dinghy watchers (kids who hand around and offer to watch your dinghy not go anywhere instead of school) boat boys (guy with a pre war surfboard/half sunk boat who will offer to show you in, tie your rope to a palm tree or other unnecessary service). More impressively Allen and Jackie were approached on the sports field by a bunch of locals who asked them for $18.75EC - to buy a cricket ball. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=497 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=497 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:10:56 BST My h key is dying, from now on this website may be missing this unapreciated letter. From now on you may ave to add tem your selves. For instance erring, means herring, muc is much. I'm sure you'll all get te hang of it. I'm in Aruba, to save money I ave networked my laptop to te oter laptop on te boat, so we can use one paid for wifi chit for bot laptops. Remember you must add missing letter h to the above sentance to make it work. Aruba is hot and had 2 cruise linners in when we arrived, thats at least 5000 people. Whew. Due to the small dinghy and the windy arbour (harbour) we are in a marina. Joy o joy. Electrisity! Water! Walking ashore! You don't know what a privalege that is till youv'e lived without it. We're short of informaion on Panama, so we're using google earth instead. oops not a proper navigational chart. O well. Bonaire was good, but I've been spoiled by the internet. So avn't been writing it up. All I've done is add some pictures. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=494 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=494 Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:12:44 BST Jackal the boat I'm sailing on is in need of an other Crewmember. A third person to cross the pacific. If your interested. Get in touch with me and I'll put you through to Allen the skipper. Panama to Australia, Via Galapagos F. Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia etc. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=472 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=472 Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:31:19 BST Arrived in Bonaire, things relatively cheap, English well spoken. Town awash with Americans of above average girth (well maybe not above average for Americans), sporting T-Shirts from every island in the Caribbean. They'll be from that cruise liner then. Cash points work *sighs happily*, wifi doesn't *sighs resignedly*. I'm beginning to feel justly proud of PierToPier.net it worked most of the time covered a wide area. Nobody round here seems to be able to compete with us on that score. Competition Time Can you spot the flying fish in this photo. No? Nor can I that will be another picture to add to my list of failures in the flying fish photography stakes. Face it readers, you can't experience all of life from the internet. There is no virtual reality version of being hit by a flying fish; to be honest I can't see the commercial appeal of that one. I've never been hit by a flying fish yet, I've had a few near misses. One bloke I met had one go up his shorts (eugh), Bory on Ornen had one land it his bed, thought the skipper was throwing sausages at him. Green Flash Apparently just as the sun goes down in the tropics, you get a green flash. This story is twittered inanely by yachties , especially those new to tropical sailing. I've spent close on 2 years in the tropics. Oftern with nowt better to do than watch the sunset. I've not seen it once. I think it total tripe. If someone says they've seen the "green flash", they're either lying or have been staring at the sun sol long their eyesights fubared. Can you see any green in this photo? No thought not. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=468 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=468 Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:30:27 BST The Currency of Venezuela is the Bolivar. Its about 2000 old bolivars to the US Dollar officially or up 5000 changing cash. Thats if we had any cash, which we don't. Wish someone had said. I've got some us travelers cheques. However checking in means the agent has my passport. No changing travelers cheques then, I'd need a bank anyway and guess what that means bad exchange rate. Cash Point rip off it is then, not that any of the damn cash points work either. All I want is to buy a few beers in the Bar. Is that too much to ask? I'm prepared to be ripped off, there's nowt I can do about it I'd just like to actually get it over with. Thats old bolivars on the 1st of January the bolly was made smaller. They knocked the 3 zeros off the end. 10 After nearly 48 hours we finally got to change some money ripped off of course. None of the ATM's work (govenment is trying to restrict the flow of money in and out of the country, and belive me its working). Eventually I changed some US travelers cheques. At the "Government rate" of 2.144 new bollys to the dollar (here after named after Hugo Chavez the "Chav"). The commission and a fee. So bugger all chavs for loads of money. Grrrr. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=467 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=467 Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:24:19 BST Apparently the other is in a famous concert establishment in the British Capital. This is not the only lost testicle out there. More can be found in a small group of Venezuelan Islands approximately 2/3rds of the way from Grenada to Isla Margarita. Los Testigos, literally "Lost Testicles" in Spanish are a small group of rocky islands with sandy beaches, population 140. Ok I lied actually Los Testigos means "The Witnesses". Nothing to do with Testicles at all. Shame really. There is apparently a shop, however its main contents are apparently fish. Fish and fishing boats are what Los Testigos are about. Not much else there apart from a history of salvaged outboard motors and a couple of goats. Twas gorgeous though. Local boats being built on the beach. Bright painted fishing boats under the palm trees. Pelicans sitting on the boats at Anchor. No Beer. No beer! Its also home to a frigate bird colony. There are huge black frigate birds wheeling overhead constantly. Difficult to photograph though We sailed there overnight from St Georges Grenada. Stayed there last night and are on route to Polimar, Isla Margarita. Also Venezuelan. After a few days we'll probably Island hop further west, to Los Rochas, then Bonaire or one of the other ABC's I very much doubt Los Testigos will appear on the google maps thing on my site, but trust me they're there. Will try and upload this from Margarita. Assuming we don't get robbed, pirated or otherwise killed to death. Incidents have been happening in Venezuela recently. Though its difficult for me to tell if they haven't always happened in Margarita. Quite possibly there were incidents on record last time I was here on Ornen in 99. The Beach and fishing hammlet on Tesigos Grande http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=465 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=465 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:08:17 BST In Grenada, flew here via Barbados, on board "Jackal" a 42ft beneteau. We'll be heading off for Isla Margarita in Venezuala with in the next few days. My Zaurus has died, so those of you who had to mererably type you Addresses into it had better send me then again. Sorry. Sales Tax Passenger Facility Charge Airpoirt Developement Tax Airport Authority Taxes Airport Passaenger Taxes Fuel and Insurance Surcharges Enough with the Taxes already its more than the flight! Rodney bay Marina from the Plane. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=464 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=464 Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:12:54 BST Fixed my little upload failure. Those Video Clips should now work, hopefully... Kill Your Television, a video shot of the reefs off Anse Chastenet Black Pearl my Arse, I thought I'd lost this and it disappeared off the internet, so I've uploaded it here for posterity or until I get sued. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=463 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=463 Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:59:24 BST Some of you may have seen an earlier blog post entitled Karma. About how I lost a pair of sun glasses on reduit beach, then found a new pair. Well Karma hadn't finished with me yet. The pair I found in the surf on Reduit beach, retuned the Davy Jone's locker whence they came, during a rather rough dinghy landing. May be I should have tried harder to find the owner. Also this morning I wen't to the Dentist, its been a while since I last went. Quite a long while. I've been meaning to for ages. But haven't been on the books of a Dentist, and there hard to find on the NHS these days. The ache that made my mind up started days before I flew out. The Dentist here in St Lucia, was nice friendly helpful, not too disaproving of of my long absence from the chair. What I can say is, even If I was on the NHS its a lot cheaper over here. If we in England are worried about people comming over and using the NHS as "Medical Tourists" then we probably get it back on the Dental side £35 for a checkup and a filling. Don't thing hte NHS can beat that. Even If you could find an NHS dentist. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=460 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=460 Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:48:17 BST I'm sick as a parrot, snot still pouring out of every orifice. Drinking beer makes me feel worse. Sitting around with the laptop is about all I'm good for, its given me some opportunity to work on the website. No, no not the speeling, just the content New Items Search Button, not brilliant but it works. Kill Your Television, a video shot of the reefs off Anse Chastenet Black Pearl my Arse, I thought I'd lost this and it disappeared off the internet, so I've uploaded it here for posterity or until I get sued. There's also some yotty information on Rodney Bay Marina Some snorkeling photos of Anse Chastenet A full write up of the Atlantic Crossing I've got some of Steve's videos, but since there in a DV codec I can\'t do out with them at present. Such is life. I can watch them, but hey I've got Mplayer - it will play anything. Gonna see if I can upload this then see a dentist http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=457 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=457 Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:14:24 BST Its New Year 2008, happy new year readers who are listenting. Its my birthday the day after tommorrow. But I wont be 33, I'll still be 32. On the way across the Atlantic we put the clocks back 4 times - the sun just kept setting later and later* What with the early moring chrismass texts from the UK waking the boat up 4 hours early, my immanent birthday and the new year it set me thinking. You go on holiday, Gatwick misery, car park nearer Brighton than the air port, no legroom, terrororists, toothpaste banned, jokes by the Now Show etc. Eventually you fly out and change your watch and get sunburned, riped off, hungover, skint etc. Proper holiday. Get on your plane and fly back, change watch back to the time it was before. Nothing lost or gained. However, I kind of went west, putting my watch back and back. I might not have sailed all the way round the world, but when I flew home I went west again from Thailand. Not back east. Now I'm a bit confudesed. Maybe the international date line takes care of this, I just lost my watch in Pappete (Tahiti), so have no reliable memory of exactly what happened when I crossed it, but if you assume that every day contains one sunrise and one sunset I've missed one. I only get to be 33 on the 4th. I'm doing my nut in here just thinking about it, since ultimatly execept for relativity time its self doesn't change and, trust me on this, sailing boats do not move at relavistic velocities. I will still be 33 on thursday. However I've still seen one less day than you lot, even if some the days I did see were a bit longer than yours. Made you think didn't I, and I didn't even get sidereal** on your ass? Tom * observant readers will realise it rose later too, but I'm not to observant at that time. ** Look up the difference between a solar day and a sidereal one some time. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=438 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=438 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:10:04 BST Sorry to blaspheme so badly, but I have snot pouring out of me faster than Neil from the young ones. The only think thats more incined to make me blaspheme is the newly accuired extra hot pepper sauce. Our first arrival in St Lucia on Ramprasad was on a sunday, the only open place being the petrol station, where we obtained a bottle marked "Local Pepper", writern in permanent marker on a gummed on label. Re used bottle of course. It was lethal. Simon fried some of it with plantain. The results can only be described as mustard gas. It led to the evacutaion of the boat The new extra hot stuff, bought from the market in Castris is pure dynamight, Katrin was a little in cautious last night. Steam came out of her ears, she looked like Wily Coyote having swallowed some Acme(tm) TNT. She reported it cleard her sinuses wonderfully. Helped mine too. Made my eye's water, but there doing that anyway I've such a bad cold. I'm slightly concenred I'm unable to contact "Jackel" who I was hoping to sail with, originally from here, but now possibly from Grenada. I would feel a lot happier, even if I have to get to Grenada, I'f I knew where she was. Or even where and when she was was going to be. I't I don't work this out I may well have left it too late to find someone else. Wich woukld be a bit of a problem. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=418 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=418 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:54:56 BST http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=415 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=415 Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:56:47 BST Merry Chrismass to anyone/everyone. Hope the English weather improves. Christmass shopping in downtown Castries is more fun than Brighton. That's not saying much, its also a lot hotter, its already 30 degrees outside. Ipod accessories are hard to find. Ipod sales in St Lucia can't be high. I suspect cos you can't turn the base up enough. Base is very important round here. Main chrismass plan is to hit the beach and have a barbie. More apologies to the English audiance. Yes I have heard about the UK weather forcast. Sorry, if its any consolation its too hot here right now. Last night I slept lousy. Too hot and sweaty. Twas the night before chrismass and all through the boat nothing was stiring, except for a soaking wet Caroline who'd been in a dinghy that ran out of fuel in the middle of a squal... Will try and upload this before I go to the beach. Had rum and bannana cake for breakfast. Hummm Rum. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=400 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=400 Sat, 22 Dec 2007 18:16:26 BST Andrew Bishop, head ARC honcaio's microphone don't work. Sound engineer has gone to Castries. The last words we heard from him was "Turn it up". Somebody did, the feedback reached an ear-splitting crescendo. I mean loud (this is the Caribbean) and the blew the main power and out went all the lights. So we all went out for more rum punch! Which caused trouble cos. I'd had the foresight to bring in a couple of spares. Eventually power was restored. We got an honourable mention as Steve was a net controller. Flute II's crew's a mate, he'd got bored of the prize giving and was outside when they won their class. Ooops. The Crescendo of the prize giving was balloons falling from the ceiling. They were all wrapped up in a long tube of bin liners. The whole tube fell down intact. There was a then a frenzied banging as the 28 ARC kids tried to get the balloons out. Several awards went to people we knew. The "Spirit of the ARC" went to the couple on Hippopotamus, 2 nice Germans on their honeymoon. Hippopotamus is very hard for a German to say, which is why they chose the name - to irritate harbour masters customs officials etc. That award was well received as 2 days previously they#8217;d, despite being a small boat, hosted a very large party which blocked pontoons all around them. Flute II, Tulla, and another boat were all mentioned in relation to the boat load of Immigrants they ran into. Tulla was reportedly boarded by 2 of them and had to restrain them, the other yachts got chased by the boat. I've spoken to Neil on flute, they were 400Nm past the canaries and the boat had 48 people on board and no compass. That far into the Atlantic they were in serious trouble. With that many desperate people on board so were the yachts. After much wrangling they were picked up and taken to Gran Canaria. Apparently 2 of the immanent had died prior to the Yachts finding them. Many many people try to get from Africa to the Canaries, in dreadfully inadequate boats. Many die. It is tragic. I've no doubt given their location all of this lot would have died but for being found by the Yachts. Mention was also made of John Thompson, who died on route to hospital in Barbados after an accident during the crossing. A trust has been set up in his memory to fund an Organ Replacement clinic in Barbados for the Caribbean, details of donation address will follow when I have it. Caroline has managed to get a House, in Gros Islet. Or half of one, you know kitchen diner, bedroom, bathroom, fridge freezer, goat etc. So after we#8217;d demolished an awesome amount of free beer. Listened to the steel band and congratulated people. We went to her house, petted the dog, met the goat, bought beer from the shop next door and put it in the fridge. Then on to the Jump up in Gros Islet. I didn't dance I just looked drunk and nodded my head and drunk more beer of course. Hangover V bad this morning - wireless internet is worse.... Euugh... Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=397 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=397 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:06:15 BST St Lucia now has roundabouts, it didn't last time I was here. The locals blame the English. Apparently they were intoduced by the british to keep them down, post colonial medeling and all that. Went zip lining through the rain forest today. Fun! Twas the guide that came up with that thought. He also said: "There are no stupid questions? You've hear that phrase? Well its rubish 'Does it rain in the rainforest, that's a stupid question'" He's right you know. Well maybe not the bit about the roundabouts. He gave us some tips on different Lucain rums, Chairmans reserve, Admiral Rodney (platinum award winner) and "element 8" or possibly "8 element" he couldn't remember. He said "drink element 8 and you won't know who you wake up with. You'll get there in the morning and say 'who's she', roll over and go 'and who's she?' then try and get out of bed and work out who the girl on the floor is as well." Must be very good rum...... Add that to some euphemisms I've heard, incuding "badgers nose" when you've been to the loo in the night and poke her with the wet end and "crashing the yoguart truck" which I'll leave you to work out. All this means I've learnt stuff this week. Did I just put that on the interent? Ooops? Will do some rain forest pics when I have a bit more time. Determined to go to bed before midnight, rainforest knackering. Yesterdays it took 12 hours of hair of dog to recover from the party the night before. Think I've found a boat heading for OZ thought so everything looking good. Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=396 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=396 Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:32:43 BST We've all been watching my name is earl. Karma is a very fasionable concept. In 1998 I left my sun glasses on a rock on Reduit Beach. I remembered and went back for them, too late unfortunatly they'ed gone. Today while wading ashore on Reduit Beach, in about 2 feet of water were some sunglasses. The old pair I lost were cheap and nasty. Now I have some rather natty oakleys. Karma dictates I should track down the owner. However this is the Caribbean and that sounds like hard work. Also things on land and things in the sea are different. These were in the sea. So thats salvage, not theft. I doubt they are jetsum, more likly flotsum so its salvage. I bought a mask snorkel and flipper set for #8364;22, the mask didn't leak at all. In fact its great for spotting sunken sun glasses. Nice buy. I should fix that google earth thing, while this goes up, its link is: http://www.oceanhippie.net/content/pic/gal/ARC%202007/ARC%202007.kmz Hopefully the file will actually upload this time. Either that or I will blow it up with an exploding lifejacket. These wonder full gagets auto inflate when you fall in. Woot. Since I havn't fallen in however I can't vouch for that. They definatly go off when they get wet.... We've had 2 spontaniously explode into fully inflated mode. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=373 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=373 Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:50:41 BST Take one Digital camera, one GPS, an ocean and Google Earth and you can gps your pics and attach them to google earth. NOTE: you need to have google earth installed for this to work, its a free down load! Use the folloing link to view my Alantic Crossing route and some select pictures from it. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content/pic/gal/ARC%202007/ARC%202007.kmz There'll be a conventional photo gallery too. Also I have added an RSS feed for you geeks out there, this blog only full content else where. Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=371 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=371 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:41:45 BST Ships Blog, boat date 3.1 days, 28th November. this is Bilge boy Tom talking to an audience of 1. I.E. I've got no way of actually posting this to the internet. Standard quote is: Sail south until the butter melts and then turn right, well we decided to turn right early. Oops blogging interrupted by possible Whales sited, blows and so on too far away to really see. There have been 4 sets of marine mammals so far one per day. Which is nice. Also the navtex (for landlubbers its a very slow text based navigational/weather warning system) reports a plague of locusts. I've seen wonderful navtex reports before, including the car transporter ship sinking etc. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect locusts to constitute a hazard to shipping. Weather is already warming up. Wind irritatingly drops towards sunset. We don't have quite as much wind as we'd like, we're expecting a 21 day passage. The ARC average. That means keeping an average of 6 knots or 144Nm per day. So far its been about 120Nm 5kn. Its proper dark tonight. Moon hasn't risen yet. Its cloudy too. No ships or lights. Just a black hole behind the boat, you can hear the water washing by rather than see it. Ghostly reflections of the guard rail and and occasional blob of phosphorescence in the wake. The Atlantic so far has been busier than I remember. More ships seen already than my previous crossings. First flying fish fond on deck today. Small one. The water temp sensor on the boat is telling porky pies. Its over reading. however its risen by 2 degrees since Gran Canaria. "Tidiness is next to Godliness, fortunately I am an Atheist" Tom Griffiths 2007 Last night was spent without autopilot. It broke, fortunately just a loose bolt. Its not much fun having to steer all watch, all alone, when you can't take your hands off the wheel. Waking Caroline up for the next watch consisted of running to the fore cabin and back again before we got too far off course. To fix the george (the autopilot) we had to empty the one of the cockpit lockers. This is tricky, coos I spent about an hour cramming 2 bikes, a fender, three gas bottles, 4 buckets, 2 gerry cans, 2 oars and another halftone of smaller crap into it. Caroline aptly described this as "Tetris". Fortunately Steve got the job of crawling in to the locker and getting under the cockpit of a moving boat and lining the rudder quadrant up with the autopilot ram. Day 4 (November 29th) Hammer down today. Clouds look like proper trade wind clouds, wind's up. We spent the daylight hours flying along under the main and cruising chute. Never set a cruising chute before. Great on a beam reach. Yee ha. Actually Steve and Katrin have only set it the once before, we weren't quite sure where to sheet it. Got that wrong. chafed its way through the sheet in a few hours. Day 6(December 1st), today's been a cracker. Hot, flying fish swooping all over. Been running downwind at 7+ knots under parasailor, after we fixed the spinnaker pole universal joint that is. We spent yesterday periodically hammering a pin back into it. I swear this is the second time I've had one of these go on me mid Atlantic. A parasailor is a blooming great spinnaker with a slot in it, in the slot is a kite. Weird. We got the fishing gear out yesterday. I spent most of yesterday untangling the line. Today we caught a nice big Dorado. We appear to be catching some of our division. The race boys are miles ahead. Well most of them. Pindar, a Volvo 60, is presumably behind us still. We last saw their carbon racy ass beating back towards Las Palmas under headsail alone about 4 hours into the fist day. To be fair to them, we've had our share of troubles. Some boats have had far far worse. One of the race boats has a burn patient on board. Another lost their rudder and got a rope round their propeller on the first day and got towed in. One, 4 days out into the atlantic, were boarded by illegal immigrants, poor buggers were probably in serious trouble that far into the Atlantic. They got control of their boat back I think. Saw a boat loose their boom on the start line and heard another go back with engine trouble, since then their have been various blown parasails etc. All in all I'm happy with our compass that doesn't point north and a crew member with a bruised bottom. Steve recons I should be able to got this to go through the irdium satellite phone. Will try and post this to the web tomorrow. Position is position now. Sunset on the 6th day out from GC, December 1st. Glad I didn't bring an advent calendar. The Chocies would have melted by now. Well that didn't work, suspect my server may be down. Ooops. Dave did say his ADSL was a bit dickey, as was his electricity. Day 10 and a bit. Well the Autopilot broke again, this time the brand spanking new hydraulic ram and pump unit, put in just because the old one was old. Its only been in since Gib and it died. I spent about an hour upside down in a locker, leaning under the aft cockpit, though a tiny hatch removing the new ram and putting the old one back in. Woot. That was fun. Spinnaker pole has gone again too. Now its held together by, a boat hook, a block of wood, a jubilee clip some string and some gaffer tape. Damn were good. All troubles aside, we had a couple of slow days pole less, and heading south to avoid a big hole in the wind. Yesterday we ran most of the daylight hours under cruising chute, charging along. Today we were running with the Parasailor up. Till the wind hit 28 knots, which is brown shorts time. Anyway, pole is back up and we're half way to St Lucia. Some time in the night actually. Bubbly for lunch, and sandwiches. Yesterdays lunch was better. It was tuna sweet corn pasta salad, with onion and tomato salad on the side, made by yours truly. Hang on I made a salad, none of you are going to believe that are you? Damn, damn, damn should have photographed it damn. Oh well no one will have read this far through a blog entry this long anyway. Managed to get off my cooking day by spending the time fixing george the autopilot. Think I should have cooked..... Last night was kind of nervous, somewhere out there is a yacht, a NARC yacht, who's crew abandoned it several days ago. There's a saying amuncst sailors. "You only step up into a life raft", as in if your not actually sinking don't get into the life raft. They abandoned to a life raft. cos of a problem with a chain plate, aside from that the boats fine and merrily making its way to the Caribbean. Chain plates are the metal load spreading straps on the hull the rigging is bolted too. Think of them as foundations for a mast. Nasty but not "abandon ship". This happened several days ago. They left the nav lights on, but the batteries will be long flat by now. Yachts are plastic (usually) and therefore right buggers to pickup on radar. Normally you assume the guy on the other boat will be paying attention, even if he got his lights off. The Marie Fucking Celeste, is another matter. Day 14, Sunday the 9th. The weather has been very trying for the last few days. It started off 3? 4? nights ago. I was on watch at 2:30AM black cloud visible so I reefed. Not enough, not nearly enough. The 43 knots (Severe Gale 9). You need a lot of reefs in that sort of breeze. The cloud wasn't just a squall. We were still under bare poles at 4:30 when I finally got to go below. It rained from then till the following evening. Incessantly. To keep the boat dry you have to keep the hatches closed. Its like a sauner down bellow. On deck its soaking and too windy to be comfortable. The waves where coming from 2 directions, making it very uncomfortable. The rain finally stopped just before it got dark. The sun came out ahead. Ahead! the wind was from behind how did it come out ahead? Instead of clearing up the wind rose and rose. We were doing watch on watch 1 hour on one hour off in pairs. With me and Steve taking it in turns to helm. Too windy for the others and the autopilot. Steady wind in the high thirties (gale force 8), prolonged periods in the the low 40's (Severe Gale 9). In gusts 46 knots (storm force 10) seen on the deck instruments which seem smoothed, the spikier NMEA down below. Saw a 49 and a 50 knot appear. Not fun at all. Boat doing 11 knots under bare poles. The following day was at least sunny, with horrid squalls all over the place. I had a nice shower in one of them. 30+ knots for prolonged periods was common place. Squalls are so wet visibility is in feet. Rain is in inches per minute. Sea boils. Nice..... The morning of day 13 was squally again. 42 knots of breeze, me driving in a battened down boat in my boxers. biblically wet. Noah was a wuss. 42 knot power shower. 40 knots of driving rain stings. After the mooring squall the rain set in again. Solid lake district holiday style rain, sometimes worse. Wind between low 20's and mid thirties. Huge mixed up sea. Horrible motion. Not fun, everything damp or worse. Rained for 18 hours non stop. I made bread, which didn't help the sauner down below. This mooring (Day 14) has dawned sunny wind is down, sea still confused but not so bad. Sun, glorious sun. Cockpit is covered in olives tea towels and other wet stuff. Everyone is so happy. We can still see the rain etc behind. So this may only be a rest bite. But its so welcome. Its been 2 weeks since the pub. 2 weeks since the internet. Hell no beer yesterday. I'm loosing weight. Sure of it. So's everyone. Were eating like kings its gotta be the booze. That and the stress and effort of living on a boat where gale force gusts aren't even registered anymore. Those of you that haven't done much yotting, I can't begin to describe how difficult it can get. Everything moves. In 4 dimensions. The cooker is on pivots. The pots have to be clamped or wedged in. Pouring the tea is downright dangerous. Nothing can be put down or it will fall over or fly across the cabin. In weather like we've been having everything is we or covered in condensation. Those of you who have been sailing, will know what I mean. However normally these things happen in the channel or north sea, where shelter is a day away at most. Lifeboats can get to you etc. We'd just passed half way across the Atlantic ocean when the bad weather hit. We had to sit through 4 days of it. No chose. No helicopter can operate out here they don't have the range. Lots of yachts are having it far worse than us. Boom's sails and rigging lost. "Spam" a boat ahead of us lost her rig and was taking on water. Her 3 crew are safe aboard another yacht and she's presumably sunk. That's 2 yachts lost so far. Since I wrote the blog this morning, the autopilot (now called "Georgina") has gone again. Sheered bolt this time. However the spare bolt is fatter than the old bolt. There is a removable plastic bush on the universal joint that allows a fatter bolt. Removable my arse not on the old ram. So we took the UJ off the new ram (that's the one in box wot doesn't work, remember? Do try and keep up...) and stuck it on the old one. Phew. I am so glad it didn't go in the last few days while we were having awful weather. It wasn't like we trusted the autopilot in the heavy stuff but when it can handle it its so nice to have. Here's a handy guide to Island Kea II's autopilot. Sung by the Mid Atlantic Gospel Choir: The Autopilots connected to the Drive Computer, The drive computers's connected to the connection box, The connection box is connected to the Hydraulic ram The hydraulic ram's connected to the UJ, The UJ's connected to the bolt, The bolt's connected to the quadrant, The quadrant's connected to the rudder post. So hear the word of the lord... I'm intimately familiar with that lot now. http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=338 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=338 Thu, 22 Nov 2007 13:37:57 BST This isn't making getting ready to leave any easier. Its chucking it down I want to do my laundry, the block on the boom is held to gether with insulating tape to make so I can get a replacment screw and its chucking it down. Woot My back hurts, trying to manover 4 200Ah batteries along a pontoon, over a gang plank, through a boat and into some bilgewater infested holes in the floor and of course the reciprical with their predessors will do that to you. So yesterday it was bilgewater and heavy lifting, today rain. Tommorow its the market and buying 3 weeks worth of friut and veg. Glamourous life I lead. "Bilge water" a definition: The "bilge" is the lowest part of the boat. Where water collects. Since gravity is univeral and aplies to other liquids and solids, the phrase "bilge water" is deceptive since it neither looks or smells like even the vilest pond water. Simulalating Bilge Water at home For proper effect at home you require one bucket, some protective clothing (the sort normaly used in Nuclear Power stations). The Hoover, some nail clippers, some bath water prefereably at least third hand. A spanner and a car jack. Dip the bucket in the bath, half fill it with water - wear protective clothing. Then pop the lid on the hoover, pour the contents of the bag into the bucket. Clip your toe nails, add them. Now take the bucket and add go to the street, find the most decrepit old white van in the street jack it up and use the spanner to drain its oil into the bucket. If you want add flour, gravy, urine, random nicknacks, beer and wine to taste. Stir and store in the airing cupboard for 6 months to simulate the tropics. Shaking occationally to simulate motion of the boat. Finally find some irreplacable item or priceless heirloom, drop it in the bucket and fish it out (quick before it disolves). http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=336 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=336 Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:58:27 BST He he... Skilled crew. I just fixed the wifi in the marina in Las Palmas. Damn I'm good. Good Job they didn't change the default password on the router! http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=332 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=332 Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:51:08 BST Arrived in Gran Canaria, this time without the 9 hour delay. Boat is great, already fixed the inverter and the ciggy lighter socket, so got power for the laptop. Marina bar has wifi, so geeking is go. Gonna put some photos on face book at some point. Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=331 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=331 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:08:57 BST Well I\'m ready to go. Well nearly. I\'ll find some internet in gran canaria sometime before I head off. Wonder what I\'ve forgotton. I hope it nothing important. My back in 2 kilos over weight. I look like a terrorist. The top of the back pack contains my loverly \"pulling pants\" best primark y fronts with a pink trim. Hope I don\'t have to unpack it. Hee he. Going now. This is displacement activity. And a temporay post will probably be over written. Tom http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=330 http://www.oceanhippie.net/content.php?Res=330 Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:08:03 BST A big thankyou to Brighton Sailing(Drinking) Club, who've bought me some new Olilies. Probably the most expencive and most respecable item of Clothing I own(or ever have). A very big thankyou to all of you. However.... They also gave me a "survial kit" containing: rubber gloves (don't ask) vaseleine (see above) johnsons baby powder (shark repelent?) baked beans (for lack of wind) wind settlers tablets (for hurricanes) primark boxershorts deoderant pulling pants (blue y fonts with pink trim. dioralate gaffertape ear plugs (for the rest of the boat I belive) gloves in a bottle and a gay pride whisle flavoured condoms (emergency ratio