Day 5 at sea - halfway cake and endless weather chat
Day five at sea
29 48S 167 44E, speed 3 knots under sail, course 135T, distance to Opua 465nm
This trip is flying by, even though we are not exactly getting the miles under our belt in the right direction at the moment. We have a whiteboard with miles to go, and days on passage, and the children take great delight in putting a big cross through a day every morning, and a mile-marker every 25 miles. We have just passed 465 miles to go, which marks half of the total distance, and are going to make a cake for afternoon happy hour in celebration. We have actually sailed rather further than 465 miles to get to where we are now, but that's ocean sailing for you. We are hoping we have put ourselves in a good place for the weather ahead of us, and a good wind angle for part two of the passage. The second half of the trip should be faster and in a straighter line, hopefully. We've heard there's a big rugby game here on saturday evening, so will try to be in for that.
Right now we are 45 miles south of Norfolk Island, hanging around in the ocean so that we don't go too far south too soon. There's a pretty deep low pressure which will pass over the North Island of New Zealand tomorrow, and the cold front from it will sweep past our position, bringing wind of 20-30 knots and some pretty big waves. Once the front has passed, the waves are still forecast to be over 5 metres for several hours, so we are trying to make sure we keep as far away from the centre of the low as possible.. After that, we'll put our foot on the gas, and be rocking and rolling to New Zealand in the remaining wind and waves, reaching (wind at 90 degrees) on starboard tack.
Starboard tack has several advantages for us; it's definitely our preferred tack. With gravity heeling the boat to port, several activities of daily living are much easier. It's all about people and things gravitating naturally towards the "low side".. The water drains readily down the galley sink as the plug hole is on the port side, and the person washing up can do so without having to cling on for dear life, and employ the safety strap to prevent them from falling sideways across the boat. The fridge lid opens easily with gravity and is less likely to fall on an unsuspecting child when they are searching for the milk. The aft heads loo seat lid stays up all by itself, rather than continually hitting the "user" in the back, and when the boys do a stand-up wee, gravity helps it to go where it is supposed to. Angus and I can sleep in our own bunk on our off watches without risk of falling out. The kids can sit at the saloon table without slipping off the cushions or dropping their cereal on to the floor, and they can also reach the book shelf without having to scale a mountain to get there. Plus, the cockpit seating area (where Eloise now sleeps on passage) is on the low side on starboard, which removes the risk of her rolling down the hatch in her sleep and falling into the saloon. (Actually, as she has a harness and tether on while she sleeps, so she would just be dangling down the hatch.) All in all, starboard tack is a good tack for Victoria. The only downside is that things on the chart table are rather vulnerable, so we have to be super careful with the ipad and boat computer, both of which we use a lot for weather and routing.
We have got much better at at-sea weather even since my last blog a couple of days ago - this has required quite some time input and concentration! We have semi-solved the glitch of the computer wanting to restart repeatedly, and we have got the hang of text forecasts (using less data) and weather faxes. The weather faxes are great because they show the high and low pressures and the fronts, and we can print them to study them. The only issue is they seem to come out with image in two or more sections, with the right half to the left of the left half, or the bottom above the top. It's pretty crazy, so after printing, we have to get going with the scissors, ruler and tape to create a readable image. Really, it is taking "cutting and pasting" to a new level.
I better get going on a half-way cake now for tea. The kids are currently watching the Lego movie and Angus is reading his book on deck. They are half way through painting the papier mache hot air balloon (and most of the cockpit..) so that activity will resume after the early-afternoon film. This time tomorrow the weather will not be conducive to cockpit painting projects, so we better get it finished today! We are all wearing more clothes by the day - definitely thermals, sea boots and woolly hats at night now, but still lovely and sunny by day.
Lots of love from all of us on Victoria
Xx
29 48S 167 44E, speed 3 knots under sail, course 135T, distance to Opua 465nm
This trip is flying by, even though we are not exactly getting the miles under our belt in the right direction at the moment. We have a whiteboard with miles to go, and days on passage, and the children take great delight in putting a big cross through a day every morning, and a mile-marker every 25 miles. We have just passed 465 miles to go, which marks half of the total distance, and are going to make a cake for afternoon happy hour in celebration. We have actually sailed rather further than 465 miles to get to where we are now, but that's ocean sailing for you. We are hoping we have put ourselves in a good place for the weather ahead of us, and a good wind angle for part two of the passage. The second half of the trip should be faster and in a straighter line, hopefully. We've heard there's a big rugby game here on saturday evening, so will try to be in for that.
Right now we are 45 miles south of Norfolk Island, hanging around in the ocean so that we don't go too far south too soon. There's a pretty deep low pressure which will pass over the North Island of New Zealand tomorrow, and the cold front from it will sweep past our position, bringing wind of 20-30 knots and some pretty big waves. Once the front has passed, the waves are still forecast to be over 5 metres for several hours, so we are trying to make sure we keep as far away from the centre of the low as possible.. After that, we'll put our foot on the gas, and be rocking and rolling to New Zealand in the remaining wind and waves, reaching (wind at 90 degrees) on starboard tack.
Starboard tack has several advantages for us; it's definitely our preferred tack. With gravity heeling the boat to port, several activities of daily living are much easier. It's all about people and things gravitating naturally towards the "low side".. The water drains readily down the galley sink as the plug hole is on the port side, and the person washing up can do so without having to cling on for dear life, and employ the safety strap to prevent them from falling sideways across the boat. The fridge lid opens easily with gravity and is less likely to fall on an unsuspecting child when they are searching for the milk. The aft heads loo seat lid stays up all by itself, rather than continually hitting the "user" in the back, and when the boys do a stand-up wee, gravity helps it to go where it is supposed to. Angus and I can sleep in our own bunk on our off watches without risk of falling out. The kids can sit at the saloon table without slipping off the cushions or dropping their cereal on to the floor, and they can also reach the book shelf without having to scale a mountain to get there. Plus, the cockpit seating area (where Eloise now sleeps on passage) is on the low side on starboard, which removes the risk of her rolling down the hatch in her sleep and falling into the saloon. (Actually, as she has a harness and tether on while she sleeps, so she would just be dangling down the hatch.) All in all, starboard tack is a good tack for Victoria. The only downside is that things on the chart table are rather vulnerable, so we have to be super careful with the ipad and boat computer, both of which we use a lot for weather and routing.
We have got much better at at-sea weather even since my last blog a couple of days ago - this has required quite some time input and concentration! We have semi-solved the glitch of the computer wanting to restart repeatedly, and we have got the hang of text forecasts (using less data) and weather faxes. The weather faxes are great because they show the high and low pressures and the fronts, and we can print them to study them. The only issue is they seem to come out with image in two or more sections, with the right half to the left of the left half, or the bottom above the top. It's pretty crazy, so after printing, we have to get going with the scissors, ruler and tape to create a readable image. Really, it is taking "cutting and pasting" to a new level.
I better get going on a half-way cake now for tea. The kids are currently watching the Lego movie and Angus is reading his book on deck. They are half way through painting the papier mache hot air balloon (and most of the cockpit..) so that activity will resume after the early-afternoon film. This time tomorrow the weather will not be conducive to cockpit painting projects, so we better get it finished today! We are all wearing more clothes by the day - definitely thermals, sea boots and woolly hats at night now, but still lovely and sunny by day.
Lots of love from all of us on Victoria
Xx
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