Photos from the Indian Ocean

Today was a very quiet day windless day. It has been a long time since I've jumped up and down over a 5 knot gust! It should be picking up soon though and in a few days I'll have 30-40 knots. Really looking forward to that! For now it is rest and prepare...

No wind - but sun!

The sun!

My gigantic main sail is a real pain getting that thing all the way up but I love it in light wind

I don't get to see the sun very often down here so it is quite a big deal when there is a clear day

Thrane & Thrane: the wonderful people that make it possible for me to send blogs and photos from sea!

A nice night, not much wind but good weather for getting some deck work done

Me at the nav station

Sunrise - first morning out of Cape Town

All is Well

Things have been going well since my last blog. I've had some lighter wind most of today but it's picked up some now. I've got about 30 knots and am moving along very nicely. My gear has all held up well so far - a few small auto pilot problems and a pretty small leak in the water ballast are all I've had to deal with recently.

There was so much to put in my last blog that I completely forgot about some very important news. I caught my first fish!! I'm still a little puzzled as to how because I was going pretty fast when I caught it. I was down below and just looked out the door and saw it jump out of the water. It looked pretty big, but unfortunately he got away :/ so it took me half the world to catch a fish. I've never been into fishing much myself because it requires way too much patience. I will continue to keep a line out and maybe I'll have a some better luck down here.

After my last blog, this one doesn't seem to interesting, but check back tomorrow. I've figured out how to take lower resolution pictures with my camera and I'll post some tomorrow!

A Tale from the Sea

Hey everyone,
Sorry it has been so long since I wrote. There were some problems with one of the Inmarsat satellites and so I wasn't able to get online. That's all sorted out now though and hopefully won't happen again.

I have had a pretty busy past few days. Things went well getting out of Cape Town - everything was working well and I was having a lot of fun with my new auto pilot. I've been able to carry a lot more sail with the working auto pilot and making some pretty good speeds.

A few days ago (I'm sorry I don't know exactly how long - the days started to blur together after awhile). I was sailing along nicely doing about 12-15 knots in perfect conditions. The wind started to pick up just as it was getting dark and was a bit too much for the sail I had up, so I went out to reef, but the sail wouldn't come down. After a while I realized it was stuck on the top spreaders.

There was a line on the top of the sail meant to help when pulling it down so I don't have to climb all over the boom. While I was in Cape Town I think someone may have messed around with it a bit. I had never had trouble with it before. The wind was starting to pick up even more and it seemed like the only thing to fix it was go up the mast. I called one of the guys from my team just to run everything by him. Well, nobody was too excited about the idea of me going up the mast in over 30 knots but there was no doubt that it would have to be done to free that line. While the team went to check the weather forecast for a break in the conditions I went down below and dug out my boson's chair, helmet, padded suit and all the gear I needed to pull myself up the mast.

Back out on deck it was dark out now and Wild Eyes was almost heeled all the way over on her side with the auto pilot struggling to keep her on course. Eventually, the autopilot couldn't handle it though. I had to get Wild Eyes hove to. It was too dark to see anything and my little flashlight wasn't much help. With Wild Eyes headed just off the wind and riding the waves it was still a pretty wild ride. The seas seemed to have no backs to them and Wild Eyes would plow up and through the waves and seemed to fly through the air before crashing back into the sea.

It wasn't all that easy keeping myself on board while trying to get the spinnaker halyard down and get my bosun's chair hooked up. I was trying to think positively. In general things like this wouldn't have scared me, but I couldn't help thinking how I was going to get myself almost to the top of the mast when I couldn't see what I was doing and was having a difficult time just standing on deck. I kept telling myself worrying wasn't going to do any good. I had enough to focus on in front of me without getting bent out of shape over going up a mast I had been up hundreds of times before.

As I pulled up the halyard it kept getting stuck on everything because of the wild motions of the boat. If I couldn't get it up with out it getting stuck then it would definitely get stuck when I was trying to let myself down and this was not a good night to get stuck at the top of a mast, not that any night is.

I like going up the mast and I like heavy wind, but going up the mast when it is pitch black, when it's gusting well over 30 knots and wave after wave is breaking over the whole boat, well, that's just a bit much. I wasn't going to be going up the mast, at least not that way. I still had the back up main halyard so I went out to the end of the boom were it was clipped on and started getting that ready. It was wrapped around something but I couldn't see what. I tried to get it untangled, but not being able to see what it was tangled around I was just getting it tangled even worse. That was the only other way for me to get up the mast. I needed to get it untangled. I couldn't see that high up with my flashlight no matter how hard I tried. It was maddening.

I needed to get up there but I couldn't. I had done just about everything I possibly could, but I was at a dead end. I was completely out of ideas and beginning to get more scared that I couldn't do anything about it than I had been about going up the mast in the first place.

I called Jeff from my team again and told him I was stuck for ideas. He said that the weather was going to get better the next day and that I should wait until daylight to take a better look at things. I spent the night sitting up at the chart desk. There was no point in trying to sleep. I knew that I wouldn't have been able to.

The next day the wind started to lighten, not much but enough that I could sail with my main where it was. It was still a bit rough out but if I could sail I could get somewhere with lighter wind and get up the mast safely. I was just headed out to set things up outside when I heard something hit the hull. I jumped outside to see what it was. My bowsprit was hanging in the water attached by one line on the bottom of the boat. Hanging down off the front of the boat, I could almost reach the line, waiting for the boat to rock so I could pull it up. The boat did rock, a little more then I had hoped for and I had to pull myself back up to keep from falling in. I dug out my boat hook and gave that a try. It was still almost impossible to get the line up high enough that I didn't have to hang down off the side. It seemed like everytime I got the line up on deck a wave would hit and I would have to hold on, dropping the line of course, then having to start all over again on cutting the line. It took a good long time, but eventually I was able to cut through the line. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get it back on board. Fortunately, I only use it with my Code Zero that I only use in very light wind so the loss wasn't too serious.

This blog is starting to get pretty long so I'll hurry things up a bit. I spent that day and night sailing towards a spot where there was some lighter wind, still not ideal for going up the mast alone, but out here you can't be too picky about that sort of thing.

I was on the phone with my mom the next morning, just giving her my position and letting her know what was going on. The Iridium phone had been having awful reception down here and so I went outside hoping to get a better signal. I was looking around at things out there and saw that the line didn't look like it was stuck any more. I set the phone down and went to let the main down. It came sliding right down just as fast as it usually does. I picked the phone back up, told my mom and quickly got off so I could get the line off the sail before it got stuck on something else. I got the line off and my main back up and changed course heading back south into the stronger winds.

It was an incredible relief. I just sat on the side of the boat watching as the sun started to come up. It had been an interesting past few days. I would have been very happy if none of that had happened, but, it's gonna make a great chapter in the book!!

Today, I have a good 25-30 knots with the auto pilot working perfectly and making a steady 10 knots on course eastward. I have had a good night's sleep and am feeling happy again to be out here doing what I love!

A Quick Update

It has been an eventful few days. Abby’s Thrane & Thrane Sailor 250 Fleet broadband system has been unable to connect for the past few days due to a problem with a processor on the EMEA satellite that services her area. This is the system that she uses to send and receive email and also as a back up phone to her 2 Iridium sat phones. The Inmarsat satellite trouble has nothing to do with her equipment and it has been repaired so we are hoping that she will have time to blog soon.

She is well though busy. She has had a series of cold fronts followed by a low pressure system arriving today. Nothing too serious but keeping her busy as she readjusts to life at sea 24/7.

If Abby is unable to blog for us today we will update for her.

Another Cape - Agulhas

Things are still going well out here. The new auto pilot is amazing. I can carry way more sail now without him going into standby. The wind is dying down a little right now, but earlier I was making about 12-15 knots so that was pretty fun. Things are pretty much perfect right now - it really helps settling back into life at sea having nice weather and equipment working. I have a few gauges I still need to play around with a little but other than that things are good.

I'm pretty far offshore now so there aren't any ships around me which is really nice. Getting out of Cape Town was pretty crazy with so many ships around. I caught my first fish yesterday! But unfortunately, by the time I got outside it was gone. Really! I was surprised I caught anything since I had been going pretty fast at the time.

The route page will be up hopefully later today. The way it was set up we were only allowed 103 waypoints so the format needed to be changed. I am now directly south of Cape Agulhas (about 200 miles offshore) which is actually the southern most point of South Africa - not Cape of Good Hope.

The team will be putting together a report of the repairs and faults that they discovered while in Cape Town once they recover from their jetlag.

That's about all there is for now. I'm playing around with my cameras so I can lower the resolution enough to send some over. So I'll try and get some up tomorrow!

Good Bye Cape Town!

Going past the Cape Grace Hotel and under the bridge

Photo Courtesy of Correne Coetzer

Heading out: Correne Coetzer

Photo of Wild Eyes outside Table Bay: Scott Lurie

Wild Eyes and I have made it back out to sea today!

We weren't sure if I would be able to leave this morning. Just the night before, the bridge broke down and the engineer was away working on another bridge. The marina was determined to get me out that morning as planned so they arranged to have the part they needed flown down and had the guys working all night long. As it turned out, they couldn't get the part flown out until 8 o'clock that morning, so they ended up raising half of the bridge by hand, giving me just enough room to get out with out leaving my mast behind.

It was great of them. Everyone at the marina was so helpful and did a lot to get me out on schedule. So far the auto pilot is working great. I only have 20 knots but I should be getting some heavier wind soon enough!

I haven't slept much the past few nights so I'm beginning to get a little tired. With all of the local shipping it will be a few nights till it will be safe to sleep in my bed. It's great to be back out here, I really missed it so much.

Thanks so much to Erik Bjerring from Cape Town for all your help - who knows how much we would have been able to get done without all your help! To Wiltel Marine: you guys have all been great and we are all grateful for everything you have done; for your support and for helping to get Wild Eyes and I out this morning.

Jannie, Tracy, James, Anna, Sanazo, Sisanda, and Trish: thank you for opening your house to us, putting up with all of our odd comings and goings and really making my stay in Cape Town special.

Thanks to the Cape Grace Hotel for putting us up for our first night. I have never been to a nicer hotel! I felt a little strange walking in barefoot and dripping wet in my foul weather gear that first night but, man, that was a great place to spend your first night on land! There was always something to hold onto when the ground started to spin! And there was a big enough bed that you didn't fall on the floor every time a wave hit!

And, of course, thanks to all of my faithful bloggers for your continued support!

Another great video from Jeff Ayliffe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2dH3_GbPZQ

Good bye Cape Town!

Cape Town - Final Days

Repairs are going well. The new auto pilots are working very well and this time they are the type that can have two heads attached, one inside and one outside. It will help a lot not needing to run up and down everytime I set it. We also put the auto pilot brain boxes in a place a little easier to get to so I won't have to crawl into the depths of what has affectionately become known as hell, or should I say unaffectionately? (the small compartment in the back under the cockpit) Even if I do have to pull them apart, put them together, switch everything back and forth, re wire, or whatever problem might occur with the new two pilots, at least I will be able to see what I am doing.

Erik Bjerring, Me and Scott

There are new DC lights everywhere so I should have better lighting for the times I am up at night. Of course now that I know how to do just about everything with my auto pilots and now that things are set up a little easier to get to they will probably work fine.

Fiberglass repair to water ballast!

The wind generators are both on the back and are working well. They are a little different from my last ones, they put out better amperage in lighter wind, and from the looks of things the blades are a little bit stronger. They don't get so thin at the end so I hopefully won't have to worry about the blades breaking so easily.


Wild Eyes gets a new eye

I'm sorry I haven't written much while I have been here. As nice as it is to be on land for the time being, it's not at all a vacation. We're all pulling hard to get things together and get me back on the water. I had planned to leave this morning, but as things turned out, my dad and Scott had a 20 hour lay over in Johannesburg, so they just changed there plans and are now leaving late Friday. Now I will be leaving early Friday.

Yes, I do know all the superstitions and about how you're not supposed to leave on a Friday, but as things are right now waiting a day or two to get out of here could bring a whole new set of troubles weather wise. I know that a lot of people have been worrying about my next leg with how late it is in the season.

But hey, people said I wouldn't be able to get around Cape Horn because it was getting late in the season. It is about picking weather windows and knowing ahead of time about fronts that are forming so that I can alter my route to avoid them. I may not be able to avoid everything but with my weather router and Wild Eyes' speed I should be able to avoid the majority of really bad weather.

I will stop again if I need to but I'm not racing out here. I'm taking things slowly and if I can avoid bad weather, I will. Wild Eyes has been around the world before, she's been in 60 knots, she's been knocked down, she's a great boat and as safe as they get. As long as I stay on her, I'll be safe as well. The next leg is probably going to be harder then any thing I have done so far in my trip, but I am ready for it and so is Wild Eyes.