Where Is The Far Reach--Part III

[John Stone]

I have been watching the weather forecasts out to about 8 days--Windy, the NWS 96 hr Surface and 500mb Forecasts, Predict Wind, and of course listening to C. Parker in the morning and evening on 8.317 and 12.350 mhz. Looks like there is reasonable wind till Sun morning. I called Parker about 1200 today and we discussed my sailing straight back to NC. He was very cautious. He essentially said highly recommend you wait at least 8-10 days. Fine to go up to Turks and Caicos but after that this could be a significant LP system with strong northerly winds.

So if I left tomorrow I could make it to about 24N or about even with San Salvador or stop further south at T&C. But the wx get sketchy by Monday with that major Low coming expected to develop. Wind will be out of the north. Probably a big swell to go with it. I have some feelers out to see how clearing in works in the Bahamas (San Salvador). Don't think I'd want to pay a big fee or deal with a complicated covid protocol just to anchor and wait a couple days for the winds to settle. But it's an option.

I'm not in a big hurry. So I may hang out here a bit longer, swim, work on my celestial skills.

Carnival ended yesterday. The sun finally came out here mid morning after sitting behind thick clouds for three days. Never saw any significant rain. The humidity has dropped a bit, thankfully.

[Jim Walsh]

I’d just wait a few days for a favorable forecast. I also get antsy when I’m ready to move on but it’s still early in the season and there’s nothing to be gained heading into the path of potentially nasty weather. We’ve had more than our share of cold blustery conditions this year so I’m cooling my heels for another week or so.

[John Stone]

I’d just wait a few days for a favorable forecast. I also get antsy when I’m ready to move on but it’s still early in the season and there’s nothing to be gained heading into the path of potentially nasty weather. We’ve had more than our share of cold blustery conditions this year so I’m cooling my heels for another week or so.

Concur. Got a detailed email from Steve L about an hour ago who laid out the hassle and expenses of going from here to Bahamas and clearing in there. So that idea is now dead. I'm going back to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

[John Stone]

HF propagation was poor this morning. Mostly garbled. Sometimes that happens. My long wire antenna run up the backstay has, over the years, performed pretty well. But morning comms can sometimes be less than ideal. The ionosphere is rapidly thickening from the sun and thus lower frequencies don't bounce as well and higher frequencies can still pass through. Even when I have C Parker's transmissions clear I have to tune a little as the ionosphere changes over the 2 hour report (West Indies, fillowed by the Bahamas, then US east Coast, and finally the wester Caribbean). Afternoons tend to work best for me at these ranges because there is less static at higher freqs and 12.350 seems to propagate well during the short 1800 wx report window, especially as we get closer to summer. I think I'll play with the antenna a little more when I get home. Maybe a long wire that runs all the way to the top of the mast. There is no need for a counterpoise when you are only receiving signals and not transmitting them.

A sailor that has become a good friend insisted to me the other day I take one of his cruising guides back to the boat to read through. I took one look at the title and said "No." but he was relentless and so I gave in. Wow, what a book! Cruising Guide to Tahiti and the French Society Islands by Marcia Davock. My friend circumnavigated in the late 1980s. So this book is dated. Printed in 1985. But what a fascinating book. Incredible charts and details. I look at those charts and man I feel the pull of the western horizon. Things have change since 1990 I'm sure but he insists you don't have to get far off the well worn west about coconut milk run to find unspoiled islands and anchorages. Bali H'ai anyone?

[John Stone]

A few more photos. Gorgeous charts. Not a bit of advertising like most modern guide books.

[Jim Walsh]

Love the fine detail in those older charts. The notation “Too corally to anchor” caught my eye.

[John Stone]

Concur. A chart plotter with vector charts can't produce an image like that. There is almost no data of what's ashore. Also, on a chart plotter you can't make notes and draw lines etc. you can do other things like leave breadcrumb trails and make waypoints with notes etc. But electronic charts just feel cold and sterile to me. No romance. There is, it seems, essentially no going back though. Sad.

I went out for a long row this afternoon. I passed this double ended gaffer with a British flag flying. No one there. I have seen it for a few days. The crew must be gone. I estimate it at least 40' LOD. Very clean. Authentically rigged. But there is something about the hull that seems off. It does not look like wood. I got to about 10' away. I guess it could be glass over wood? But it seems a little more rough. Could it be ferro cement? Seems unlikely as it is such an old design and so authentically rigged.

Thoughts from the brain trust?

[Jim Walsh]

I’ve never seen a ferro boat that wasn’t bleeding some rust after a few months, especially one that’s crossed the North Atlantic. It may just have been painted at one of the stops along the way or it’s been sheathed in glass. If that’s the case, it has an exceptionally flat sheerline for a wooden boat. You may get a hint from the hardware, if it’s primarily galvanized steel it strengthens the argument that it’s an old woody sheathed in glass.

[John Stone]

I inspected the rig this morning. Found a couple things. Black Box Theory. I posted it on a separate thread.

http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic ... 34#p218534

[John Stone]

I have been listening to Chris Parker every morning and evening on our little Sony shortwave SW7600GR receiver and homemade 40' long-wire antenna. Very crisp clear reception in the evenings.

It sounds like the east coast from New England to the Carolinas is going to get hammered by a nor'easter this weekend. There is also a band of thunderstorms and squalls a couple hundred miles wide forecasted to extend from the Turks and Caicos to Bermuda about mid week. These squalls lay right across my path. So probably not able to depart here till mid week at least.

Went for a row this evening. Everything has quieted down here.

[John Stone]

Certainly not something I want to tangle with. Serious north wind against the Gulf Stream along the entire east coast. This is why I did not leave last week. They are calling for 11'-12' seas north of the Bahamas. When waves synchronize they get twice as high!

[wikakaru]

Certainly not something I want to tangle with. Serious north wind against the Gulf Stream along the entire east coast. This is why I did not leave last week. They are calling for 11'-12' seas north of the Bahamas. When waves synchronize they get twice as high!

It seems to me that the cold fronts have been packed closer together than usual this winter and spring, and quite a few have been stronger and extended farther south than usual. I noticed that I haven't been able to sail nearly as much over the winter as I have in previous years.

Hoping the weather pattern breaks and you get a nice window soon!

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[John Stone]

I have not run the engine in almost a month. So I gave it a good look over. Then I fired it up and brought it up to operation temperature. Shifted transmission F-N-R. All good.

I climbed the mast again a couple days ago to reverse the clevis pin holding up the head stay so the end drilled for the cotter pin faces downward and aft as it should. I had reversed it a long time ago when we were trying to determine why the jib halyard was chafing.

All good now.

[John Stone]

I woke up about 0430 this morning due to a noise. Turned out it was nothing. But while on deck I could see in the eastern sky Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. All rising and traveling along a diagonal line across the heavens called the solar elliptical. All the planets essentially travel on this line. Of course each planet's elliptical is bigger the further away from the sun. And it just so happens they are all grouped together right now.

Anyway, I took a series of photos with my iPhone over the next 30 min as the sky began to lighten in the east. In the photos you can easily see from left climbing to the right Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. Mars is a little orange. I don't think you can see Saturn in the photos. All I have is my iPhone so hard enough to see it as it is. But I could easily see it with my eye. All are brilliantly bright with the binoculars. And you can see why Venus is such a sought after target for celestial navigators. It always rises just before the sun and in the same place as the sun. So you can shoot it at dawn when you can make out the horizon line then turn 90° to the north, and if not obscured by clouds, shoot Polaris for a perfect fix. I would like to accomplish that on the way home. That would be neat.

The iPhone does not do justice to this mornings celestial display. But, it was a powerful majestic moment reflecting the beauty of the natural world.

[wikakaru]

Those shots are really good considering they are from an iPhone on a moving boat!

--Jim