Whale, oil, beef, hooked!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 18 Apr 2010 04:40
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April 17 0846 Local Time 1646 UTC
09:44.79S 131:39.64W
The Bumper Weekend
Edition
It seems our glory days are behind us in terms of
clocking up big mileages. The last 48 hours have been for us relatively slow
with one day (1200 - 1200) being 187 miles. Now I know that many of you
especially sailors will think either what are we grumbling about or that we are
being unrealistic or in fact just a bit spoilt. However the fact is that at
67 foot the boat is good for 200mile plus days as long as we have some wind and
we have a decent True Wind Angle so like any other skipper or crew we are
disappointed and frustrated if we are sailing below our optimum for the "given
conditions" and if we are doing that and the "given conditions" dont allow us to
sail to the boats average performance like any other sailors we get
frustrated.
We have been sailing in "white out" conditions. The
main out to starboard almost to the spreaders and prevented. The genoa out to
port and on the pole with one reef in it and the Jib to starboard and driving.
Trish does not like this as it completely blocks out the sun in the afternoons.
We also expect to cause a partial eclipse of the Marquesas on Monday morning.
(The East / West thing - get it?)
The wind has been behind us, from the East, and
last night moved slightly into the North East and was between 12 - 15 knots all
night. If we move at 7 knots this leaves 5 - 8 knots apparent wind. Warning: If you are not technical switch now to the
TV or the stuff about the whale below.
Back to the technical stuff - at 15 knots almost
dead downwind (165 degrees say) sailing at 7 knots we have 8 knots
apparent (Approximately, for the example and of course I am using
simplicity as the guiding principle here as there are many other factors which
will affect things in practice) , at 12 knots we would sail at 6 knots and
have 6 knots apparent: Claro? OK .... next let me explain that because
of the size and weight of the boat and the height of the rig and the sail area
we have to use fairly heavy and strong canvas in the sails to be able to take
the load when we are fully powered up. Great, when we are fully powered
up, however in light winds the sails are unable to be supported if there is
insufficient pressure on them, and they tend to collapse and the boat will roll
to windward and then slam as they refill with temporary increase in pressure
from the windward roll causing us to roll again away from the wind. Merrily
we roll along .......... not! This destroys the rigging, the gear and the
sanity. That's one point, the other is that if the wind moves up and down from
12 - 15 knots, given our boat speeds (6 & 7 Knots) and apparent wind (6
& 8 Knots ) we get a resultant increase in pressure of
................. ?
Yes you guessed it 77.8%.
If the wind is dropping from 15 to 12 knots the
resultant decrease in pressure is? Yes again I knew you would get it
................. 43.7%.
Interesting eh? Of
course if the wind is forward and the wind speeds are higher the differences are
less exagerated.
So combine the data and information above and you
will guess that we are not being flippant about only doing 187 miles in the day
but in fact that we have had a very frustrating and nerve fraying couple of
nights with the rolling ,slamming and lack of progress. We could of course have
turned into the wind, and away from our destination, to fill the sails but in
these light winds we would have to sail at about 130 degrees to the wind so
would be 35 degrees off course and we wouldn't want to do that. We could
also put on the engine but we wouldn't want to do that either. So being
presented with the alternatives and not taking them, I'll just shut up
and get on with
it.
Indulge me just a little longer though, until
I give you one more set of numbers. A couple of days ago I sailed Rhiann Marie
past the 12, 000 nautical mile mark. Adding this to the 12,000
nautical miles I had already sailed before starting this adventure makes of
course 24,000 nautical miles. And of course you all know what this is equivalent
to, don't you?
Yes you guessed it again - 1.11 times sailing
round the world. If you have not worked all these things out then don't worry
I'll bore you to death some time over a drink about them!
Trish our resident chef and all round fantastic
wife has done a sterling job on this passage, which she was not looking forward
to. However she is struggling to sleep (the rolling and slamming again) and I
think she is just starting to feel things a little tough.
So, because I know she has been desperate to see a
whale, this morning when she and Angus were in bed (opposite ends of the boat
Janette) we organised a Humpback whale to come and visit us.
She was a big beauty. I estimated 70 - 80 foot but
the book says 70 foot max and that is for females. We identified her as a
humpback from her fin, the relative proximity of her fin to the tail and the
spout and also the shape and height of her spout. All this and her size allows
us to confidently identify her as a Humpback female, and though I only spotted
her when she was 200 metres of our port quarter I called Trish who rushed up and
got to see a whale! Magnificent, majestic and humbling all at the same
time.
We have started making some provisional plans for a
return home to Scotland and we expect to leave Tahiti on 30th May and leave
Scotland again on the 14th June. This will allow us to see Craig and Rhiann,
catch up with business and Trish to touch base with home and some of her friends
which she needs.
While the boat is in Tahiti and we are away
we hope to get a long list of jobs completed including an overdue oil change for
the main engine and generator. I will probably get someone to do this while we
are at home rather than spend my time in Tahiti in the engine room and working
on stuff the whole time. The boat builders are supporting us in this which is
great.
Our fishing has come to a stop over the past few
days due to the increased hassle factor in slowing the boat down and
turning her to windward with the sail plan we have up. We have now after
last night eaten the last of our fish which we had caught and had frozen so we
are now onto beef. This is no hardship and Trish took out a filet steak (a whole
filet!) which we bought in Columbia and had shrink wrapped for freezing. Only
problem is we may have to eat it for several days to get through it. Anyway
that's the beef.
As our stocks of fish are now all residing in tins
we are going to fish today regardless of the rig and the hassle slowing down so
I won't send this till I can report back at the end of the day.
............. back
again. Damn it! Nothing hooked. Despite dragging out our $5 battered up but
ever faithfull old squid lure and fitting it with a double hook we did not get
a bite and we hooked nothing. Oh well steak again tomorrow
night.
Talking about hooked - Angus and I are hooked on
Scrabble (hooked is worth 45 points in Scrabble if played in the optimum
position and 15 if played in the poorest position) and we play most days and are
becoming expert at keeping the board playable in all conditions. Today I had
over 150 points in three plays, "Butch", extended to "Butcher" and then extended
to "Butchered" across a triple word square.
Important Notice:
Please do not read the title of this blog quickly
in an Irish accent three
times!
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