Where Is The Far Reach—Part II

[Sea Hunt Video]

John:

Your photos of sea life are, to me, both exciting and very sad.

The photo of the blade fire coral is very sad. You documented a blade fire coral being destroyed by coral bleaching. That is all of the "white stuff" in your photo. Coral bleaching has destroyed most of the Florida Keys coral reefs. I have vivid recollections of diving the Keys in the early 1970s and the reef colors were a kaleidoscope of colors. There were so many reef fish that you at times had to "push" them out of the way. Not much of an exaggeration. Today, the reefs are mostly dead, brown, no coral life, very few fish. Heartbreaking.

The scientific experts have various causes for coral bleaching - sewer runoff, warmer water, building construction, over saturation of divers/snorkelers, etc. Who knows. All I know is that over the past approximate 50 years of diving the Florida reefs have, in the past 10 years, taken a real beating from coral bleaching. They have also suffered much damage from a string of hurricanes in and around the Florida Straits, reef sanctuaries, etc.

If you save the specific location where you took this photo of the blade fire coral and then come back to that location in 1 year you will sadly observe the probable full destruction of that section of coral.

If I had any tears left I'd be crying.

[John Stone]

Roberto
Copy all. I first dove in the keys in 1972. It was fantastic then. Just incredible. It’s so sad now. My sister Rae Stone is a marine mammal veterinarian and her son, my nephew, Austin Stone Allen is a marine environmental management PhD student at Duke. He just got a research paper published on corals and plastics. It got a lot of airplay and he was interviewed by NPR and the BBC. https://nicholas.duke.edu/about/news/ta ... t-plastics. So, the health of the Seas, or lack there of, is a reoccurring topic of discussion in our family. Yes, it’s bad...just as you say.

But, I recently became friends with a marine biologist at the University of the Virgin Islands. A big part of her job is reef research and she is constantly diving here and gathering data. She of course confirmed all you said, but she told me the deep sea coral reefs here (which she has been diving for years with mixed gas) and in many places around the world are in very good shape. She talked to me about them of which, I must confess, I knew very little. You certainly know more about it than I do but here is a link for those that may not know much about deep sea coral.
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/ ... lcome.html

Having said all that, I avert my eyes as best I can and focus on what is alive...small jewels in the desert. I still marvel at isolated colorful tropical reef fish and sponges and coral. If I didn’t do that I couldn’t get in the water. Today, for example, I swam south along the cove and out to the rocky point that presses into the Caribbean. While I was swimming along the mostly dead coral, in about 6-10’ of water, there appeared a single blue runner, about 16-18” long finning along next to me. He paralleled me 3’-5’ away for maybe 200 yards. When I slowed down, he slowed down. When I sped up he sped up. Then, I stopped and hovered and he stopped and hovered. It was fantastic. Was he curious? What did he think I was? His stoic expression betrayed no hint of what was on his mind. Maybe he wasn’t thinking at all. Eventually, I angled away from the shore and swam out over the ledge and into deeper water where he broke off for the shallows. But I enjoyed his company. For a brief time he was my little wingman. He made me smile and once I laughed so hard my mask flooded.

I don’t know what will become of the coral...or Mother Earth. But until I take my last breath, I’m focusing on the beauty, however small it may be, whenever and wherever I can find it.

[John Stone]

This is ridiculous. Below screen capture of windy. Pretty much looks like this all next week.

I’m pretty quick to point out to skeptics of heavy displacement boats what a great light air sailor the FR is with her big rig. I may have to put her to a serious test. Discussed same with Chris Parker the other day. Problem is there is a significant north swell running. So that would be a bad combination. Let’s wait a bit more. If the swell drops off and the wind remains light and variable we may head off towards the NW horizon. I should start practicing my whistling....

[Sea Hunt Video]

John:

I am sure this guy "Parker" thinks he know his weather predictions but several days ago I seem to recall someone saying:

"Roberto's "weather guidance" is that you remain in the islands for several more days enjoying seafood, beers and pleasant weather. It will be time enough to begin your return sail once an "Atlantic weather ridge system" (highly technical term) forms and pushes Andrea and her remnants out into the far Atlantic".

I think that guy Roberto stands by his forecast which has been consistently accurate and has, so far, allowed you to continue to enjoy all of the bounties of sea and land that the islands have to offer a man of your erudite persona, not to mention some excellent stills of Southern Rays, juvenile damsels, etc.

[John Stone]

Aye aye Roberto. Well, I haven’t left yet....

Tremendous lightning and rain storm last night. Most rain I have seen since I arrived this past mid December. Sadly, I don’t have a good rain catchment system set up yet. I’ve just kind of cobbled some things together which only works OK. I’ll get it refined after I get back home. I could easily have collected 75-100 gallons.

[wikakaru]

Looks like you have breeze along the way through the Bahamas to south Florida. You could always head that way. From that point if you wanted to carry on and the wind hadn't filled in you could always sit in the Gulf Stream and drift towards Hatteras with a 2.5 kt (+/-) favorable current, or hug the coast and work the sea breeze by day and land breeze by night. Slow going, but you'd be sailing...sort of.

[Steve Laume]

I find it is always hard to wait, long enough, even when you know you should, Steve.

[John Stone]

Looks like you have breeze along the way through the Bahamas to south Florida. You could always head that way. From that point if you wanted to carry on and the wind hadn't filled in you could always sit in the Gulf Stream and drift towards Hatteras with a 2.5 kt (+/-) favorable current, or hug the coast and work the sea breeze by day and land breeze by night. Slow going, but you'd be sailing...sort of.

Option A. Sail through Bahamas. Don’t want to sail through the Bahamas. You have to stop at night. Way to much coral and shallow water. Too much risk/“Danger Will Robinson!”

Option B. The old Bahama Channel is too close to land when singlehanding plus there is a lot of ship traffic. So that’s no good, though it could work if I had crew. And the GS between FL and the Bahamas also has a lot of high density ship traffic.

Option C. I could work my way along the east (Atlantic Ocean) side of the Bahamas staying offshore 75-100nm. Basically stay south of the rumb line. But there is also a lot of ship traffic along the east side of the Bahamas. Could work. I’m considering it. Probably my fall back plan.

Option D. The safest route is well offshore—away from land and the shipping lanes. Also, if a tropical system formed (God between us and evil) I would have some sea room. But, no wind right now. So continue to wait...

I find it is always hard to wait, long enough, even when you know you should, Steve.

Steve, as usual, has sage advice. Be patient. Always easy to say, often hard to do.

I’m planning on sailing about 10nm tomorrow up to Waterlemon Cay on St John. Hang out a couple days. Do some free diving. Then head back to St Thomas and reprovision for the trip home.

[Jim Walsh]

I like Steve’s advice and option “D”. Sea room is your best friend.....in my opinion.

[John Stone]

I like Steve’s advice and option “D”. Sea room is your best friend.....in my opinion.

Concur. I’m leaning heavily on option D right now. Will see what the next couple days brings.

I decided yesterday morning, as much as I wanted to go, to abort the plan to sail up to Waterlemon Cay in St John National Park. It’s Memorial Day weekend. I reasoned there was a high probability I could get up there and all the moorings in Waterlemon would be taken. There is no anchoring permitted in the park.

Three days ago I weighed anchor and moved over to pick up a free mooring. Very nice moorings...all recently installed. But I dove it anyway and checked it carefully. A big charter cat anchored right next to me in the general area I had been anchored. Hard to resist as there is a great sand bottom there.

That night the wind went very light. I awoke at 0330. Some 6th sense I think—we’ve all experienced it. I went up on deck. The big cat was three feet away! I quickly got my air horn and boat pole and spot light. But within a minute we had drifted another 15’ apart. So, I stayed up till 0530 watching when the wind began to fill and the boats realigned themselves. That morning another mooring opened up and I moved over to it. I’m less likely to get crowded here since there is seagrasss around the mooring and anchoring is not permitted in the grass.

This morning I was having coffee and lounging in the cockpit chatting on the phone with Gayle. I could see the rain coming. I signed off and sure enough it was a gullywasher. I loosened up the cool-a-roo mesh panels and slacked the 5x5 sunbrella sun awning so it would sag in the middle. I caught some water by pulling the edge of the tarp down and letting the water run into a bucket. But I needed a better system. So, I slacked one side of the tarp a bit more than the other and tied off a funnel under the low spot then tied the line to a PVC pipe and placed it through the bucket handles. It worked very well. Water was pouring into the bucket at a rapid rate. In a short time I had topped off the water tanks, filled the solar shower, and filled two five gallon collapsible jugs. Probably 30-35 gallons. Of course, since my rain collection “system” is just cobbled together I lost as least as much as I caught.

There is plenty of room for improving our rain collection system. I have sketched out a few ideas as I have thought over the last few years about the best way to capture pure clean rainwater. Sure, adding an integrated udder, either canvas or a through hull to which a hose can be attached would help a great deal but there are some other mods I can also make to really capture a lot of water quickly and efficiently. But, further improvements will have to wait till I return home. In the meantime “General Jack Ripper” would be pleased with our success capturing rain water and protecting our “precious bodily fluids.”

PS. There is apparently some discussion in the blogosphere that sunbrella is not a good choice for rain water collection as the chemical treatment used to make it water resistant can contaminate the water. If true, I will have to find a more suitable material. I don’t think a dedicated rain-collection tarp is the solution as if it’s not already up when it starts raining it’s unlikely I would go to the trouble to dig it out and set it up. Often the showers are so brief you only have time for the first minute of rain to wash the tarp off then collect what you can before the rain stops.

If you’re interested in how the celestial is coming along click here to read about the latest star shots.
https://farreachvoyages.wordpress.com/2 ... #more-1661

[Tod Mills]

I wonder if a velcro hook flange attached to the top of the funnel and a matching loop ring centered on a grommet in the center of a sunbrella panel wouldn't make a quick and easy way to attach a funnel under the canvas? A piece of hose permanently clamped onto the funnel discharge would allow filling jugs quickly and surely.

[John Stone]

Tod, yes I think that would be a good addition, especially for the current awning. The center of the awning, at the grommet, needs an attachment for a lanyard and a place to tie it down else the wind will whip the awning up and the water will be thrown out. But that’s simple enough to do. The PVC pipe tower to the right in the photo has a 3 micron felt filter bag in it. I run a 3/4 ID hose from a hose barb on the bottom of the tower to my water tanks in the bilge. I normall pour water into the top of the tower and it’s filtered before it runs down the hose to the tanks. There is no delay—the water moves through the filter bag as quick as I can pour it in. The hose is 14’ long and I store it inside the boom which is open on the aft end.

With a better funnel system I could, as you suggest, have a short length of hose to the funnel and just run it into the tower. That way, I use my normal water fill system as much as possible. The most common way I have seen it done is to simply install a plastic 3/4” OD through hull into the awning at the center and connect the hose directly to it, etc. I could do that but then I would always have a plastic through hull sticking down through my awning. Practical, yes. Elegant, not so much.

But there are some additional mods we can make in our next iteration with flaps sewn on the lower edge of the awning that act as a gutter and run to two funnels one on either side of the awning. We just have to think through how big and how supported and how attached, etc. We could easily have an awning that would catch three to four times as much water.

[John Stone]

The wind in the SW North Atlantic north of the Caribbean remains elusive. Spent time on the phone with Chris Parker today and basically there is: Option A go now and have wind with some squalls and thunderstorms for two days but wind for 4-5 days...then little to no wind for up to a week. Or option B, wait a week and see if it’s better or option C, just wait till the ridge forms which could be mid to late June and have a great down wind sail provided I don’t get smashed by a early season pop-up tropical system. I’m thinking Option B right now. I’m anxious to get going but I can be patient a bit longer.

I sailed back to Elephant Bay today, down wind and wing with working jib poled out. About 8 nm. Wind maybe 8-10 kts. I made maybe 4-4.5 knots. Offshore i would have had the main at full hoist and the 670sqft drifter poled out.

Got a few small projects to work on. But not much. Plan to be ready to sail on short notice.

TTFN.

[John Stone]

More rain this morning. Cruisers are mostly gone now. There are boats in the mooring field but the majority are local live aboards, transients working ashore a bit longer, or folks waiting on repairs. There is wind up through the Turks and Caicos for next few days then it is forecasted to vanish for awhile. Local squalls forecasted for remainder of week makes local winds light and variable.

Making bread this morning. Finding small projects to do.

Not so patiently waiting....

[John Stone]

I spent the mid afternoon practicing downloading wx faxes from NOAA and the NWS. There are dozens of faxes you can download from weather stations located all around the world. I have had the best success from one in New Orleans, LA.

I’m getting better results all the time as I learn the nuances of tuning the frequency just right. I need to get a direct data feed input from the SW radio to the iPad so I can eliminate unwanted external noise from mucking up the fax picture. The dark bands across the otherwise very good image are from jets taking off nearby and climbing out almost directly over the Far Reach.

I use my small Sony SW7600GR with earbuds set next to the mic on my iPad mini. I have an external antenna I made that improves the HF reception dramatically.

I purchased the Black Cat HF Wx App from iTunes and installed it on my iPad mini. The app has the software that interprets the fax data signals. It’s essential to tune your HF receiver to upper SSB and the freq down 1.5khz lower than the freq listed for the broadcast.

I plan to try downloading the faxes on the way home and along with my improved celestial navigation skills see if I can pull some of my decision making input from outside of the boat to inside of the boat.

Does not mean anything really...it’s a just personal challenge to see what I can do on my own and to see what it’s like to operate as independently as possible.