Roaring 40s, South Pacific 16 April 2011 2:30 a.m. Tahiti Time 41S52 156W09

We’ve had great weather so far. Winds are up tonight 20-25 knots, Silver Lining is toodling along at 7-9 knots. We’re attempting to stay ahead of a system behind us without catching up to the system in front of us. Just glide between them, that’s the goal, ’cause our GRIBs say that these 40 latitudes are ready to roar. So we’re easing our way north, 39 looks (and sounds) just a wee bit friendlier. If you have wood nearby, a quick knock on our behalf would be appreciated.

Logan informed us today that Google knew about the unrest in Egypt before the CIA, apparently the usual searches for Egyptian pop stars were replaced by searches for Tunisia. The conversation had Frank and Logan trading ideas for bizarre searches that would confuse the analysts, I can’t remember any off the top, but it was great entertainment, and I find that I do, at times, wish internet were ubiquitous out here, to satisfy our idle curiosity (emphasis on the idle). So what is the origin of “Knock on wood?”

We saw a boat today! Well, no visual on this one, but she did show up on AIS – a cargo.”Ocean Friend” was too far away to see, still 15 Nmi, that’s a near miss out here.

We put a line in the water; even though we still have some tuna, we were craving fresh. Fish-on as soon as Frank’s head hit the pillow for his before dinner nap. Logan got it most of the way in, but Frank had to help with the last 4′ feet into the cockpit. I’m hoping I can hold out a little longer on this watch so he can recapture the lost sleep.

I no longer need a hat inside, does that count as shedding a layer?

xoxomo

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South Pacific 15 April 2011 2:45 a.m. Tahiti Time 43S38 158W56

Light winds tonight, but fine sailing all day. Today’s highlight was a new Albtross sighting a “light-mantled sooty albtross” according to the book, even Kennan exited his sleeping bag to come look, so you can mark it Gary. There are lots of whalebirds too (a.k.a. broad billed prions), they’re pretty little gray/almost blue birds. But we’re not seeing the flocks of Albatross and petrels we had closer to the Chathams. When Gart sailed through this section of ocean 15 years ago or so, he said he heard Orca song through the hull, that would be magical, but nothing heard (or seen) yet. We still need to eat more more tuna, before we can put the lures back in the water, maybe next time we should only put one in, and see if we can stretch the fishing task out longer than 10 minutes this time. Hey – happy tax day.

xoxomo

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South Pacific 14 April 2011 3:45 a.m. Tahiti Time 44S42 161W51

Another uneventful 150 mile day. All’s well onboard. Making way on the long. not much change in the lat., so no layers shed yet. Today’s highlight was Frank’s albacore in coconut curry sauce. The kids actually seem to be enjoying the ride, and we found scurvy hiding in the bottom of Kennan’s sleeping bag, and made him hand over some of his musings, which I think some of you would rather read than mine (yes I’m a little jealous). I’m not handing them all over at once.

Good night, Mo

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South Pacific, Roaring 40s (not roaring right now) 13 April 2011 2:30AM Tahiti Time 44S50 165W09

It’s a little drizzly out so I was just sitting in the companionway facing forward well under the dodger, in the Kiwi driver’s seat of this boat, when some bright headlights flashed from behind casting long shadows on the inside of our dodger ceiling. Instinctively, I looked up where the rearview mirror should have been, seeing nothing, I sent a quick glance to where my sideview mirror should have been still nothing, so I turned around. There, barrelling down on me, was the moon coming out from behind the clouds, “watch those brights, your ruining my night vision!”

He ignored me.

I’d just been wondering what the chances were of seeing anything in this section of ocean. We’re in the roaring forties, so I know there must be fishing boats somewhere out here. But it is so big. 2000 nautical miles to go, to the little spec that is Rapa (our next island not to be confused with Rapanui/Easter Island, although we may get to Rapa for Easter). If we stayed this easterly course, and did not head north for the Australes, then the next land we’d hit would be Chile in 4000 NMi. NZ is about 800 NMi behind us. There are 1800 NMi to Antarctica, and I just crashed my chart plotter, trying to zoom out to see what major land mass is due north of us right, now assuming we’d miss any islands between here and there. So Antarctica is closer than Rapa…I think we’ll save that for another season. We’d need thicker woollies than we have now, and already as Leo pointed out, we’re at risk of compression fractures and suffocation with all these layers. So the population density in our neighborhood is pretty low right now. No boats yet (Yes I did just check anyway, still do every 15 minutes). The moon isn’t tailing me anymore. It’s black out when the clouds cover him up, black and wet.

And yes another relatively uneventful day, if you don’t count a brief moment of excitement when a rogue wave slapped the side of our hull dumping hundreds of gallons of water on our heads, causing Logan, in full foulies, to laugh gleefully, and me to cringe at the cold water dripping down my raised arm (the one that was holding onto the dodger). The autopilot in all the excitement blew a fuse that we didn’t know it had on the rudder motor. That was a first. It is a new autopilot, so always new things to learn. Luckily we bought it so we’d have a backup. But as I hand steered while Frank looked into the problem, I couldn’t help thinking of the afternoon it took him, at dock, to swap the old autopilot out for this one, the thought of swapping the old one back in, at sea, gave me pause…as did the notion of hand steering for the next 10 days. But Mr. Fix-it bypassed the fuse for now, not an ideal solution but, probably what MacGuyver would have done. For an item as expensive as an autopilot, you’d think it would be easy to toss in a few extra fuses in the box, or at least use a standard fuse. So now we know, stock up on those fuses, when next we reach a port that carries such items (2 months?); and the new autopilot does not like being knocked too far off course, and works too hard to get us back on course. I’ll have to have words with him, we do not require any overachievers onboard, this is an easygoing, do everything slow, go with the flow ship. If he gets off course now and then, it’s OK, we’ll take over for a bit, give him a break, nothing to blow a fuse over.

Good wind and sun this morning, not so much of either now. Thanks for sticking with me and keeping me awake on my dog watch.

xoxomo

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New Zealand Economic Zone 11 April 2011 43S56 168W30

Well looks like I goofed our position again yesterday, and i’m finding heaps o’typos in my messages. i’m blaming it on this new flexi-keyboard. It’s supposed to be waterproof…unlike the last one. But I have to whale on these keys to get a letter to appear on the screen.

Today’s milestone is that we officially left New Zealand. We’re back in international waters now (a.k.a. no-man’s land). Even our albatross friends are fewer and farther between, although that may be because our freezer is full and we have not been fishing today – yes it’s true, we’ve confirmed the facts, there is a limit on how many fresh albacore fish tacos you can eat in 24 hours.

Fine sailing today, with lighter winds predicted for tomorrow, then some windier weather expected this weekend. We’re attempting to ride the backs of the lows, the fronts of the highs, and to glide through the troughs of the weather terrain charts. It’s kind of like skiing the moguls on a much larger and slower scale – yea, I wish we could just plant a pole on top of that next high and glide around it, with a quick jump and weight shift past the next low. Similar to bumps, it’s the zone in between – the icy face of the mogul – where you get too much speed. Must be this chill Antarctic wind and the fact that longjohns are a permanent part of my wardrobe, that has me thinking skiing analogies. If all else fails we’ll hunker down and toss out a sea anchor and wait for any nastier weather to pass – just a quick stop at the hut for some spiced cider.

Yes, basically not much to report today.

xoxomo

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New Zealand Economic Zone 11 April 2011 43S50 173W16

We’re still in New Zealand waters. 2400 miles to go, seems like too many right now. I’m tired. It’s that first-couple-of-days-of-passage syndrome. It takes awhile to get back into the swing, back in the roll, back into the sway. Good wind, good speed, and we’re going the right way today. An unbelievable quantity of seabirds follow us – even more since we caught two albacore. Our new best friends are sure we’ll cough up some more fish guts any second. Silver Lining may look like she should be able to consume more than two lousy tuna, but our fridge is not that big, and we have to eat all we catch. I’m sure the whales and fishing boats they’re used to following are much more productive than us. So we confuse them, but they continue to follow – hope springs eternal.

Schools of tuna are everywhere. They are voracious too. Frank sent a titalator off the back to tease them. It’s a giant lure he found on the beach in Mag Bay when Logan was a baby. He did not put a hook on it, we’re just towing it. we never actually used it for catching – I’m not sure we’d really want to land the monster that would be tempted by it. We keep it around more as a souvenir. Imprinted on it’s side in big iridescent letters is written, “EAT ME.” Apparently these tuna are literate (and they have no aesthetic taste); frequently throughout the day, the line goes taught from a wild strike. Hmmm, maybe they do have good taste, and are infuriated by it’s gaudiness. Lucky them, we’re done fishing for the day. The galley has been a packing house, Frank slaving away to vacuum pack, boil, cook, can, freeze and sauté all that we can. Fish soup and sashimi for dinner, tomorrow we’ll be making tuna pate, and sushi rolls. Wish we could share some with you, it’s delicious.

xoxomo

what about that blue? It’s so close to gray on this monochromatic day. -Frank-

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North of the Chatham Islands, New Zealand 10 April 2011 43S37 176W38

I think the Chathams is one of those places you could spend a few months – that way you’d increase your chances of getting a few days calm enough to go ashore. As it was, we had a quick visit ashore at the main town (yes where Frank’s unkempt week old watch attire, fish-blooded rubber boots and all, won him best dressed at the local pub – a rough and tumble bunch indeed). Then the very next day with winds expected to turn Waitagi into a lee shore, we sailed across the bay to Port Hutt (we did have time to catch up on sleep first). We only visited shore once at Port Hutt, it was a beautiful rugged windy place, and when the winds were down the rain was up. Ahh, autumn. It feels like birthday weather, next should be pumpkins, turkey, peppermint cappacinos with Marsh before work, and the scent of pine bows. But no – April fools – in this upside down world we’re headed back to the tropics. It’s way past time too.

So after 50-60 knot winds at anchor night before last, and a big SW swell that worked it’s way around our protective point and into our little bay, the weather has calmed, a high is nearby. We won’t be taking this opportunity to explore the Chathams by looking for fossilized sharks teeth, visiting the flower pot, or seeking out some life birds for Gary (Logan claims that if he, Kennan, and I all see the same new bird, it counts as if Gary had seen it…genetically speaking). Instead, we’re grasping a different opportunity, and jumping into this open weather window, fingers crossed that it will stay open for the next 2 weeks. If it closes? Close your eyes and hang on tight, we’re going through anyway. If you look on the map in a southwesterly direction you can see that nice white antarctic wind source. We won’t be turning around and heading into that anytime soon. Eastward ho. Maybe next year we’ll get a chance to do something other than school in the Chathams.

xoxomo

P.S. Gary have you ever seen the Buller’s Albatross (or Mollymawk) We just had 15 of them fighting over a fish-head off our stern, neat looking birds. Big, mean, colorful beaks, I’m glad I wasn’t between the fish-head and that pack. They have a slight indentation in their feathers that runs from the corner of their beak in a line under their eyes. It looks like the line where the elastic should run to keep a fake beak in place. They probably have some whimpy gull beak underneath. You can officially check him off your list, along with the dramatic black and white Cape Pigeon. There are lots of little blue penguins too, but I think you’ve seen those.

P.P.S. Frank just turned in for a nap, and informed me that we have 7 layers of blankets on our bed right now. Let’s see about 14 days ahead of us, but we won’t start removing any till we head north in about 5 days. I’ll let you know at what rate we get to peel them off, degrees of latitude per blanket. On my person, I only have four clothing layers below and 6 on top, plus hat, hoodie, foul weather hood, and headphones on the ears (every little bit counts). It’s almost tropical under all that – almost – there doesn’t seem to be a tropical solution for the fingers though; they just stay cold.

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1 April 2011 -43.933 -176.555 Here we are in the Chathams . Waitangi hotel/fishermen’s club Margo said :Frank you’re the best dressed man in the house! I hadn’t changed since my 4to8 watch , a week old beard and can’t remember my last shower. Seventeen years of marriage does improve a man! I felt quite at home in that bar, and certainly not so much out of place. Well few beers later, the kids cooked dinner, and we are doing great. Frank P.S. she is not going to like that post!

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