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Singlehanded Sailing Society
2002 TRANSPAC News and Position Reports | Home |
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Singlehanded Sailing Society
2002 TRANSPAC News and Position Reports | Home |
0900 hours radio check in
via SailMail from Steve Wilson on board Westerly
Wind is coming back for the leaders, all is well with the fleet.
| Yacht | Latitude | Longitude | Notes |
| Rusalka | 31.06 | 132.55 | |
| Alchera | 30.45 | 134.12 | |
| Tease | 30.02 | 131.60 | |
| Endangered Species | 32.04 | 133.06 | |
| Seabird | 30.32 | 132.45 | |
| Zapped | attempted to check in, position could not be understood | ||
| Westerly | 30.19 | 131.14 | |
| Haulback | 30.50 | 131.32 |
2100 hours radio check in
difficult conditions listening in to last night's radio reception for Rob in San Francisco. Received the positions this morning from Steve.
from Steve Wilson on Westerly
| Yacht | Latitude | Longitude | Notes |
| Rusalka | 30.49 | 134.23 | |
| Alchera | 30.04 | 135.40 | |
| Tease | 29.30 | 133.38 | |
| Endangered Species | 31.40 | 134.36 | |
| Seabird | 30.08 | 134.23 | |
| Zapped | did not check in | ||
| Westerly | 29.41 | 132.35 | |
| Haulback | 29.57 | 132.33 |
from Mark Deppe on board Alchera
Alchera Log 6/19/02 1033 hours
Postion N30 20 W134 28
I no longer have the use of the forward part of my boat. It's now full of sails in various unmanageable heaps. It will probably take me days to figure out how to fold them within the confines of the cabin.
Last night was an ordeal. During the first part I was flying the running spinnaker in the dark, winds 20-25 knots with the boat hitting speeds up to 13. Had to switch the autopilot from wind to compass mode because the boat was beginning to surf on even these little waves and trying to round down. Then the wind died down to less than 10, and backed around so that I would either have to head up and start going back north, or gybe around and start heading for Antartica. So I stayed awake all night trying to keep the spinnaker from collapsing and trying to squeek southward. I finally realized this would be alot easier if I switched the autopilot back to wind mode, so around 3 in the morning I figured that out and was able to get a couple of hours sleep. Funny how you just don't think very clearly when you're dead tired.
I waited until the sun was just coming up, around 5:30, then started in on 'the big project' - taking down the 95% jib and putting up the twin 125% jibs. If I had had the twins up last night I could have headed as far downwind as I wanted and gotten some sleep. So I resolved to get that done today. It sounds simple. It's not, when there's only one of you. I finally managed to take the 95 down without having it blow overboard, and stuffed it down the forward hatch, on top of the code zero and the running spinnaker. Then I dragged the twin 95s up on deck (Damn they're heavy!) and got it hooked up to raise. Then a squall decided to come through, and I had to wait that out. Finally got it hauled up and furled. One last job - get the two whisker poles hooked into the clews of the sail, attach to the mast, and deploy the twins on either side. This little project took 3 hours from dawn until the morning radio check-in to accomplish.
(A side note - every task on deck is done wearing a harness attached to a tether which can run the length of the boat on a long 'jackline'. This hopefully keeps you with the boat if you should fall overboard. Unfortunately, it also makes every simple task you do on deck a nightmare, because the tether is always getting fouled up on various lines, preventing you from doing what you're trying to get done. Often the tether has the uncanny ability to know exactly where to foul up so that the object of your task is 6 inches out of reach of your grasp. So any fairly involved task is at least twice as difficult and frustrating with a harness and tether on.)
The last few days have been excellent spinnaker days, and I've enjoyed every minute, with the exception of last night. Alchera is pretty much headed right in the direction of Kauai now. The high is still keeping the winds low, but at least they are in the right direction. Today I'm going to leave the twins up for awhile and grab some quality sleep time.
Radio check-in notes - Turns out Rusulka was struggling with getting her twins up this morning the same time I was, and also took 3 hours to do the task. Now we both have cabins filled with unmanagable sails. Audacious still hasn't caught a fish. Seabird had a bad spinnaker wrap yesterday and it took several hours to deal with it. Seabird is also worried about switching to the higher frequencies when the boats get further apart, because his autopilot quits when he transmits on those frequencies. Westerly came up yesterday with a garbled transmission, and finally figured out that the topping lift had wrapped around the insulated backstay and was shorting out the antenna.
- Alchera
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