Tag Archives: catana 471

NZ Bound #3: 760 till the bouncing ceases

Champagne sailing still elusive, but we do have Mr Toads wild and Willy ride.

Winds, Waves and Water We got em all, or is that beer bait and ammo?

The clouds summoned the winds for a crazy party last night, still glad we only had scraps of sails showing. They must have one heck of a party up there, hooting and hollering some 35 knots of wind making a general nuisance of them selves. The saving grace was they must have been a part of my generation and no longer needed to whooop it up till day break and shut the party down about midnight and left the younger generation to carry on. The younger generation had nothing compared to the old timers they could only muster mid 20s level excitement. Must have been too busy staring at a device of some sorts.

All in all, a bouncy windy night but this morning is looking promising

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Sun rise miles from no where.

All well onboard after the wind party we all got some pretty good sleep. Hopeful we will find at least some Prosecco sailing today, raising a little more sail this morning since the winds are for the first time under 20 kts.

NZ Bound #3: 896 nm left to find Champgne

Well 24 hrs down, plenty to go. The search for champagne sailing continues. Stomping grapes more adequately describes the seas out here. We did have a few hours of sparkling wine, not even Prosecco, where the wind and waves agreed on which direction to bounce us around. We all got some good solid rest during those precious hours before returning to the salt mine.

We might be starting a new business. Deep Water Salt, made from only happy salt. Happy salt jumps out of the ocean, sun dried and delivered fresh to your table. Since Deep Water Salt is happy, its also good for all your friends with high blood pressure.

New batch of happy salt jumping onboard.

Stop by in NZ and you can claim your very own.

Ps. Thats a puny small splash, that’s all I could get a picture of without getting drenched

All well onboard, knocked out 186 miles direct to NZ, the boat traveled 197 miles so even if it is bouncy we are doing well with barely 1/3 of our available sails. We have had 2 reefs in both sails since we started.

155 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

Wowzers what a day!

Sailing can be fun and today was one of those days. winds and seas cooperated, and even a milestone was achieved.

Another day without the drone of the engine, and the diesel supply remains intact. We have enough fuel if we need to motor the rest of the way, the gauges read 60%, so in the first 5 days, we only used 30% since we left with about 90% full. The math, or the numbers. We hold 800 liters (210 gallons) of diesel in our main tanks. We would normally fill them and 4 jerry cans for a journey like this. let’s say 900 liters. So since each engine consumes about 3 liters per hour, that would be 300 hours (12.5 days). We left with maybe 600 liters, so 200 hours (8.3 days), the journey was starting to look like 10 days or more. Thus the concern, being able to sail for the past 2 days has eased the mathematically minded.

Now back to the specular day.. nice sun, nice breeze, forecast looks good for the rest of the day, and a questionable wind shift materializing with rain a day ahead. That ain’t gonna stop an equator crossing!

Christine was the most productive, our stalk of bananas was quickly becoming too many ripe bananas to swallow. Froze a few (er 20), smashed another 10 and she baked banana muffins, and since the oven was hot she also baked cookies. All this before the equator even suspected we were coming.

Wanting to be the first to spot the equator.. or just relaxing from a busy day. Or waiting on the champagne celebration

I think we surprised the middle of the marble. We had been climbing up from the south quietly but speedy. We had good wind and made better progress and crossed in the daylight hours. Expected a red carpet affair watching the “S” fall over and become a “N” on the GPS. Poof, just like that the toilets flushed the other way around. No carpet, no fan fare, and didn’t even spot the pink tape holding the 2 halves of the globe together.

Shellbacks, pollywogs is what you become for crossing the equator. I was so excited, I was going to order one of those trendy “Sail Naked” t-shirts to mark this occasion but then figured a T-shirt would defeat the purpose of the message.

Cajun pasta from our passage meal collection, with the obligatory copious amount of cookies for desert.

The wind shift started, we are no longer able to make our point of sail, off by 10-15 degrees, so all that easting we did is dwindling rapidly. There are still 400 miles to go, so fingers crossed for a little shaft back in our favor. The forecast doesn’t support it, but you have to think it will happen! All is well on board and with the universe.