This blog began in late 2006 with the planning and preparation for a circumnavigation of the world in my 39-foot sail boat Pachuca. It then covered a successful 5-year circumnavigation that ended in April 2013. The blog now covers life with Pachuca back home in Australia.

Pachuca

Pachuca
Pachuca in Port Angeles, WA USA

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Circumnavigation Plan V3.0

After some discussions it has been agreed to make a major revision to the plan: extend the circumnavigation time by about 9 months.

The previous plan had two drawbacks:

1. It did not give enough stopover times in places like New Zealand and Hawaii.
2. There was no slack in the system. Of particularly worry was that any serious delay would push us closer to a mid-winter rounding of the Horn

The attached plan gives generous notional stopover times at key places which really translates into spare time to explore interesting places in the area. So for example, the 28 days stopover in Tahiti really means 28 days in which to explore French Polynesia. Thus the plan is only a framework subject to two overarching constraints: (1) avoid storm areas (2) round the Horn at a propitious time.

It is likely that I will fly to Perth for a visit during the stopover in the Seattle area (Juan de Fuca).

Note that we've notionally plotted a path to the Horn via Callao, Peru and Valparaiso, Chile. I've received conflicting opinions on how the approach the Horn. Ocean Passages advises to stand off several hundred miles to avoid the north-set Peru current. An experienced sailor has advised a circuit all the way West to at least Pitcairn Island to avoid the Horse latitudes. Another very, very experienced sailor, Peter Maxwell says that hopping along the Chilean coast worked fine for him and Geraldine aboard their boat Mithril. This plan will give us plenty of flexibility to make our decisions as we go along.

A big advantage of the revised plan is that it puts us round the Horn and at the Falklands in December, the optimal time.

I've made some changes to the Excel spreadsheet:

1. I've added the coordinates of the "from" destinations. This was the basis of establishing the straight-line distances between the successive points.
2. I've set up a choice of 3 notional speeds: B26 contains the estimated number of miles per day in coastal sailing or adverse conditions (currently 80 nm), C26 contains the estimate for the ordinary long passages (100 nm), D26 is the estimate (conservative, I think) for the fast rides to Cape Town and Fremantle in or near the roaring 40's (120 nm). These are factors are used to calculate the "Sailing Days" cells.

Below is a copy 'n paste of the spreadheet.

Robert



Pachuca's Circumnavigation Plan

V3.0

From

To

Distance Nm

Sailing Days

Stopover

Travel Days

Departure Date

Arrival date

Core Storm Season

Knots

"From" Coords

Fremantle

Adelaide

1360

20

7

27

01-Mar-08

21-Mar-08

2.78

32S04, 115E44

Adelaide

Port Phillip

540

8

7

15

28-Mar-08

05-Apr-08

2.78

34S55, 115E36

Port Phillip

Whangarei NZ

1600

19

14

33

12-Apr-08

01-May-08

Jan-Mar (Nov-May)

3.47

38S03, `144W54

Whangarei

Tahiti

2200

26

28

54

15-May-08

11-Jun-08

3.47

35S45, 174E20

Tahiti

Palmyra

1587

19

7

26

09-Jul-08

28-Jul-08

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

3.47

17S52, 149W56

Palmyra

Honolulu

958

11

10

21

04-Aug-08

15-Aug-08

3.47

05N53, 162W05

Honolulu

Juan De Fuca

2300

28

160

188

25-Aug-08

22-Sep-08

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

3.47

21N19, 157W50

Juan de Fuca

San Diego

950

14

3

17

01-Mar-09

15-Mar-09

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

2.78

47N34, 122W23

San Diego

Golfito Costa R

2400

36

100

136

18-Mar-09

23-Apr-09

2.78

32N43, 117W03

Golfito Costa R

Galapagos

750

9

3

12

01-Aug-09

10-Aug-09

3.47

08N38, 083W11

Galapagos

Callao,Peru

1058

13

30

43

13-Aug-09

26-Aug-09

3.47

00N00, 090W00

Callao

Valparaiso, Ch

1292

19

30

49

25-Sep-09

14-Oct-09

2.78

12S05, 077W08

Valparaiso

Cape Horn

1453

22

0

22

13-Nov-09

05-Dec-09

2.78

33S02, 071W08

Cape Horn

Falklands

435

5

3

8

05-Dec-09

10-Dec-09

3.47

56S58, 067W17

Falklands

Cape Town

4320

43

7

50

13-Dec-09

25-Jan-10

4.17

51S45, 059W00

Cape Town

Fremantle

4870

49

0

49

01-Feb-10

22-Mar-10

4.17

33S55, 018E27

Avg Speed Knots

3.4

Dist Sailed Nm

28073

Days Under Sail

342

Lay Days

409

Days Away

751

Assumed Miles

80

100

120

Swarbrick Anchor




The two photos directly above are of the Swarbrick 16 kg (35 lb) anchor, disassembled and assembled. The dumpy 16 kg plow anchor at the right has been replaced by a New Zealand-made 20.5 kg (45 lb) Manson shown in the top photo.

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