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

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Pachuca at Port Lincoln


The photo is of Pachuca at her pen in Port Lincoln. Note the para-anchor hanging from a halyard drying after a fresh water rinse. Note also the setup with the Swarbrick anchor. We motored from Proper Bay into the Marina with the anchor in this position with no problems.


Photos






Two photos are of Pachuca at anchor in Lucky Bay. My favourite of this set is the one of Brenda on the beach at Lucky Bay just after dawn on her way to Esperance to catch a bus back to Perth. Another shows Arnold and Brenda inspecting the facilities at Jim and Christine's vinyard in Condingup. And there is one of Pachuca's cabin early one morning during our crossing of the Australian Bight.

Albany to Port Lincoln Sail

Esperance-Port Lincoln Sail

Summary: The crossing from Esperance to Port Lincoln, South Australia covered approximately 700 nautical miles and took ten days. The first day was an engine run in weak winds to Lucky Bay, 20 miles to the East, for a overnight stay. The first two days after Lucky Bay were upwind beats into NE winds which at times exceeded 40 knots. Later we were becalmed for 27 hours then we were graced by N and NE winds that gave us a 146 mile sail on our last day.


We departed the pen at the Esperance Bay Yacht Club at 0830 on 20 May. This was the third day of predicted light winds that had forced a postponement of our planned departure date. We motored all of the way to Lucky Bay, 20 nm to the East, passing through the tight channel between Ram Island and Cape LeGrand. We dropped anchor in Lucky Bay in 6m of water 200 meters off the beach at 1.30PM. For the first time I deployed the 50 lb Swarbrick anchor in real conditions, complete with trip line, and the system is practical. The next morning Sue, our new sailing friend from EBYC picked up Brenda at 7AM to take her back to Esperance for her bus ride back to Perth. Spending a night at anchor in Lucky Bay was the fulfillment of a long-standing wish.

Arnold and I weighed anchor at 9AM and sailed all night with a partial jib only with 35-40 kn NE winds and high seas. We had decided against trying to make it to Middle Island because the likelihood was that this would require night sailing in the archipelago. We headed SE trying to clear the archipelago by nightfall. It was on this day that a serious crisis developed regarding the amount of water entering the bilge. It was obvious that the drain hose to the stern had not been the problem and Arnold was concerned about the sheer volume of water entering the boat. He was correct. I was being a victim of both familiarity with the overflowing bilge and denial. We discussed going back – but to where? Esperance had not repair facilities, Albany would be a hard beat, and then what? Also, it would mean a year's postponement of our circumnavigation. By then we had eliminated water coming in from the stern so I told Arnold that I would look in the front. This was not easy given the mountain of bedding clothing, sails, etc to be removed, but times were desperate. I looked in an area where I had plugged a hole between the chain locker and the bilge months earlier and saw that water was seeping though it. I opened the inspection hatch between the V-berth area and the chain locker and I was amazed to see that the two holes designed to drain the anchor well were letting water in as well as out. Every time the bow went down there would be a rush of water. The the bow would rise and the water would drain. This explained how water could get into the boat but the partially blocked hole into the bilge area really did not explain the volume of water. We did this work while hove to. The next day under full sail I had a beer then told Arnold that I was going forward to look for a “smoking gun”. I opened the lid to the port sail locker to look at the blocked hole and there it was: the rhythm of the bow pitching up and down was accompanied by a squirt of water the diameter of a pencil with enough force to travel 300 mm through the air into the sail locker then into the bilge. There was a second hole between the anchor well and the inside of the boat and I had missed it. At this point one hole has been plugged up with a 20g screw, and the other hole with a conical piece of wood designed to plug holes, because the diameter of the hole was too big for any screws that I had on hand. I filed the end to give a sharper point then drove it in with a hammer. The area is now bone dry. Now instead of using the Whale Gusher every 20 minutes we use it ever 2 or 3 hours, averaging 10 strokes of water per hour. ... Yes, this means that there is still water coming into the boat, but we are out of peril and will have time to solve the problem. ... This problem is related to the rebuilding of the chain locker area that I did over a year ago. A previous owner had discontinued the use of the main anchor area, plugged up the drain holes to the outside, and bored the two holes drain any water from the anchor chain into the bilge. It appears that he was trying to eliminate that constant movement of water in and out of the anchor well.

On the night of the 22nd we were tired of close to two days of punching against the huge seas of a strong (25 kn)NE wind. We decided to deploy our 18-ft Para Anchor to hold our ground while we got a few hours of rest. We did this successfully and lost less than 1 kn against a 21 kn wind. The next morning we recovered the system with little trouble, though we have found that 100 m of wet thick nylon rope weighs a ton and must be dried out eventually. The Para Anchor performs as advertised and I have total confidence in its ability to save our bacon in a survival storm. However Arnold and I have concluded that the system has too many time and effort overheads to justify causal use as suggested by the provider.

On 24 May we noticed a parted seam on the head sail. The wind died down that night and we decided to sacrifice 2 NM progress by heaving to and getting some much-needed rest. We had the advantage that the wind was from the SW meaning that we were unlikely to lose any ground. We hove to at 8.30 PM and resumed sailing at 12.30 AM. In these four hours we had drifted 3.5 NM to the south.

At this point we were aware of several problems: (1) the tear in the jib mentioned above (2) the Autohelm self steering would not go into “Auto” (i.e. start steering) (3) the Trimble GPS repeater was contaminated internally with water (4) the toilet keeps overflowing (with clean sea water!) and we will have to check how well the less-than-a-year-old stainless steel ball cock is sealing (5) the wind charger has quit working. Arnold did some trouble shooting and concluded that the wind charger's regulator was working OK but that the wind charger was not delivering any power. We looked at the wind charger and discovered that the two screws holding the unit to its mounting were missing and the entire unit had spun around twisting the cabling and eventually severing the connection. We'll have to look at this when we are safely in a pen. Some minor things are a parted reefing line, which means that I will replace both of them probably with Spectra lines. Also, the roller furler line has developed frays in its cover, even though it is less than 1 year old. Oh yes, I almost forgot. The deck light quit working, even though it is less than a year old.

But most things are working well. The boat sails well and is living up to its reputation of being a good sea boat. Arnold and I are very pleased with the wet weather gear. The galley works fine and we can cook good meals when we find the time and energy.

We've been running the engine for about 1 hr per day because the overcast and broken wind generator have prevented charging from the sun or wind.

This is being written at 1PM on 26 May. We are approximately 290 NM from Port Lincoln. The parted seam of the headsail has become a full tear, though the damage is being contained. The boat is steering herself down the rhumb line against a 12 Kn SE wind and the sun is shining. Things don't look so bad.

This is 4.10 PM CST Tuesday 27 May. Today we set all clocks to Central Standard Time. We had a splendid sail last night making over 5 knots against a 15 kn SE breeze. At 3 AM that died and we brought down all sails and lay ahull. We woke up at 8.30 AM still drifting in light airs, so we decided to make the best of it, spending all of the morning tidying up the boat, having our first baths in days and doing minor repairs. For me it was the first wash or shave in 4 days. As before I went for a swim and then washed with salt water soap. It is a strange experience to find yourself swimming freely more than 150 miles from the coast and with more than 1500 meters between you and the bottom. We then had a good brunch of toast, eggs and sausage. Then we exchanged SMS messages and Arnold telephoned his wife in Wisconsin with the satellite telephone. I managed to get two failing head torches working again and figured out that the likely cause of the ingress of water through the toilet is that the rubber joker valve of the toilet got damage when that drain plug passed through it a few days ago. The joker valve is the last valve of the system and acts as a one-way valve. I will put a replacement kit though it as soon as possible. We are now motoring for about an hour to charge up the batteries hoping that the meager 5-knot breeze that we have detected will be enough to keep the boat moving without too much flogging. We are approximately 220 nm from Port Lincoln.

28 May Arnold went on deck at 0600 and discovered that we had a Northerly wind of 6-8 kn after more than 24 hours of being becalmed. At 7.15 AM we were sailing on port reach with an 10-15 kn northerly wind, averaging more than 6 kn. From noon until midnight we covered 73 miles, yielding an average of 6.2 kn.

29 May By midnight the wind was veering to the NE and by 6 AM we were beating close hauled against a 23-kn wind with full main, heavily furled jib, doing 6.6 kn. We also did more investigations and discovered that water is still spurting into the bilge from the front section of the boat. This will be the focus of the next segment of our leak investigtions. At 10 AM we made landfall and our noon-to-noon distance sailed was 146 nm, yielding an average of 6.1 nm over 24 hours, much of it beating to windward. With a failing adverse wind we motored to Proper Bay at Port Lincoln and dropped anchor in 8.3 m of water at about 10 PM. The motoring up to Surfleet point and down into Proper Bay was very difficult because there was no moon and the approach was not well marked. We put our entire trust in the chart plotter, with me calling out subtle heading changes and Arnold at the helm. The chart plotter proved to be unbelievably accurate, and the radar image imposed over the chart proved very consistent and provided good corroboration.

30 May We spent the morning cleaning the boat, drying the wet bedding and clothing, and doing odd maintenance jobs. Acting on Arnold's enthusiastic urging I had another go at removing the bungs from the tops of the 140 liter water tanks and succeeded using a proper ring spanner. The starboard tank, which services the galley, is almost dry. The Starboard tank, which services the wash basin in the head, is about ¾ full. This is after 10 days, 9 of which was just Arnold and myself. Now that we can plumb the tanks we will organize a calibrated stick. (Note that the tanks are selectable when we use pressure water.) We had established telephone contact with Reg the previous night and today he arranged a pen for us at the local marina. We weighed anchor at 4PM and when we arrived at the marina at 5PM Reg was there to guide us to the pen and help us tied up. That night we shouted Reg to some well deserved beers at the pub and an excellent meal at an Indian restaurant. This is 11 PM, it is a clear, windless night at the marina, and all is well.

31 May This is our second day at Port Lincoln and I must say that we are all delighted with the marina, the nearby facilities, and the city (pop about 15000) in general. The marina is a modern one with floating jetties and we are not being charged anything for the stay. It is a delight to see the steady stream of fishing boats moving in and out of the harbour. There must be hundreds of fishing boats here and I’ve heard that Port Lincoln has the biggest Tuna fishing boat fleet in the Southern Hemisphere. Today (Sunday) we visited a boat shop where I got 42 meters of spectra line (don’t ask what it cost) and other urgent bits and pieces for the boat. We hope to have a look at the wind charger this afternoon and it will be in Adelaide where we will deal with the torn sail and other issues, the latest being the failure of the boat’s water pressure pump. Anyway, Reg will spend the night on board and we hope to set sail for Adelaide tomorrow morning.

Team arrive safely................

Sorry there has not been an update recently,

but Robert will post an entry the first chance he gets.

Very very briefly, some interesting news of late concerns equipment falure. For instance, the bolts holding the wind generator came loose, so power could not be generated from that source. Pachuca itself is holding up very well, but other equipment failure includes a ripped jib. As a result Robert has had his hands "completely full" organizing repairs, so has has little time available to devote to the blog. But stay tuned as he has prepared a really good account/log for the blog he will post when convenient. Cheers Stephen

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Like t h e W i n d.........

Pachuca's great progress continues!

Here is the sms;
NOON 29 MAY CST. 35S07 135E36. SAILED 147 NM DURING 24 HR PERIOD AT AVERAGE 6.1 KT THANKS TO GOOD WIND,BOAT,AND CREW.


Here is Pachuca's location, as a green marker at this website;
http://www.iwebtool.com/shortcut/25316



Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Seafood Capital..........

Pachuca's location can be seen here, as the green marker;
http://www.iwebtool.com/shortcut/25300

Port Lincoln, the "Seafood Capital of Australia". With its population of 14 000, Port Lincoln is a major commercial centre for the Eyre Peninsula and a popular destination for visitors. Not only a beautiful township overlooking Boston Bay, Port Lincoln makes an ideal base from where to explore the coast and hinterland of the Lower Eyre Peninsula.

Sourced from this attractive webpage; http://www.visitportlincoln.net/portlincoln.htm




Like the Dolphins.....

Pachuca is making excellent progress towards Port Lincoln. Here is the latest sms;
NOON 28 MAY CST. 35S10 132E37. 142 NM TO PORT LINCOLN. GOOD WIND: SAILING 6+ KN.

All the web links seem to be working now, a relief :)

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Becalmed.........


Hi All,



the crew were becalmed today. Isn't this a top photo?



Photo taken by Brenda, it's Lucky Bay (near Esperance).



Here is today's sms;
NOON 27 MAY CST. 35S02 131E45. 208 NM TO PORT LINCOLN. BECALMED SINCE 0300.

Pachuca's location can be seen at this website; http://www.iwebtool.com/shortcut/25286
as the green marker.

All the links (at tinyurl.com) I have made before don't work, so lets hope they fix their server. I am trying a new link (web page) shortening service www.iwebtool.com

Please download this photo (as a larger picture) to see it in full glory. In the full view you can just make out Pachuca in the background.

Full picture downloadable at; http://www.iwebtool.com/shortcut/25287

Full picture, but Photoshopped available at; http://www.iwebtool.com/shortcut/25288

cheers Stephen.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Swell Progress............

Onwards towards Port Lincoln.

Here is the latest sms;
NOON 26 MAY WST. 34S58 130E16. 290 NM TO PORT LINCOLN,200 NM FROM COAST.

I will plot Pachuca's position tomorrow. Brenda is trying to work out if she needs a US visa or not.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Almost Half Way to Port Lincoln

Hi All,

here is the latest sms I received from the team;
NOON 25 MAY WST. 34S38 128E09. 394 NM TO PORT LINCOLN,144 NM FROM COAST.

Based on the weather, Brenda believes the team may be becalmed for the next few days.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Going Well..........

Here is the sms I received today;
NOON 24 MAY WST. 34S50 126E19. 426 NM FROM P. LINCOLN, 146 NM FROM COAST.GOOD PROGRESS: 118 NM IN 24 HR

Pachuca's location can be seen as the green marker here; http://tinyurl.com/5lcmee

If you have a short sms for the team, you could leave a comment (with the short message). I'll try to send it, but I can't flood the airwaves :) Also you are unlikely to get a reply........but who knows :)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Onwards...............

Hi All,



The latest sms I recieved today is;

NOON 23 MAY WST. 34S58 124E01. 597 NM FROM PORT LINCOLN, 57 NM FROM COAST.IN BIGHT, MAKING GOOD PROGRESS.


Yesterday there was a gale ! Brenda has written; "Robert and Arnold have withstood their first gale with the help of the para-anchor."

For a description of a para-anchor,
go to this website; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anchor

This very attractive photo was taken by Brenda at Oyster Harbour in Albany. You can download the full sized image from this website; http://tinyurl.com/5guzvk






Thursday, May 22, 2008

Bilge Leak Source Discovered........

Hi,

crew are making good progress. Today's sms is as follows;
NOON 22 MAY WST. 34S52 123E33. 616 NM FROM PORT LINCOLN, 55 NM FROM COAST. FINALLY FOUND MAJOR SOURCE OF LEAK INTO BILGE.


Their location can be seen at this web site, (Pachuca represented by green marker) http://tinyurl.com/64l24j

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Well On the Way........

Brenda has returned to Perth for a short stay.

Here is the latest sms from the crew, recieved Wednesday 21st May 2008;
NOON 21 MAY WST. 34S07 122E26. LEFT LUCKY BAY. HEADING SE WITH CLEAR SKY AND GOOD WIND AT 6+ KN.

I will plot Pachuca's location when I get the chance, it is hectic here at the moment. In the meantime, here are a few words from Brenda.


"I left Robert and Arnold near the beach at Lucky Bay at 7.15 am, 21 May. They were to resume the sail with the objective of passing the islands and rocks in daylight; I was driven back to Esperance to catch the bus. Sue of the Esperance sailing club came out that morning to get me and this generous offer made it possible for me to spend that last day experiencing the Cape le Grande coastline and more of the unforgiving Recherche Archipelago up very close. In Lucky Bay the 45 lb fisherman's anchor held firmly and we all slept very soundly despite the nearby rock wall and the surf on the beach. Robert had really wanted to make having his own yacht in Lucky Bay part of the trip so it was very good to be able to share the realisation of that dream."

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Hi All,

the team have departed from Esperance. Here is the official sms I recieved;
NOON 20 MAY WST. 4 NM FROM LUCKY BAY. DEPARTED ESPERANCE 0830. NO USEFUL WIND, SO MOTORING.

The photo opposite shows Brenda making a new friend, on the Esperance Tourist Route. Thanks Chris for the photo.

Tomorrow, Brenda will return to Perth (by bus) for a short stint. I'm hoping to get an exclusive "interview" which describes some aspects of their sailing experience so far. :)

Cheers Stephen

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Preparing for Departure

I am writing this from the small winery belonging to Chris and Jim, here in Condingup. I discovered a year ago that small can indeed be beautiful, when Chris set to Brenda a case of some of the best wine that I have ever tasted. Chis and Jim are extremely creative and innovative in their production of wine and olive products.

Chris picked us up at the boat this morning, took us for some shopping (20 liters of diesel, hosing, wiring, etc) then a tour along the superb scenic road overlooking the ocean. We then came to their vineyard and were treated a superb barbecue meal by Chris. Jim, unfortunately, is away on a bird conservation field trip and I have yet to meet him.

This is Sunday. Tomorrow will be dedicated to last-minute preparations and on Tuesday morning we expect to depart for a night at Lucky Bay, about 20 miles down the coast. There Sue, a fellow yachtie from a ferro cement yacht further down the jetty, will pick up Brenda and take her back to Esperance to catch her bus to Perth. Arnold and I expect to sail on to Middle Island a further 60 miles to the East for hopefully a quiet night at anchor.

After Middle Island we will head for Port Lincoln in one leg.

Although I've been having trouble getting a good weather fax I now have the schedule of HF weather transmissions and feel confident that we will be able to keep a good eye on the weather.

Yesterday Arnold and I added another meter to the electric bilge pump drain hose to yield a high and very healthy loop that will hopefully eliminate the bulk of our bilge water problems. While doing that work we noticed a smaller hose (20mm OD) that also had a short loop. We tracked it down to a shower drain pump that we have not been using. This morning we picked up enough hose to fix that while out at sea.

Yesterday Arnold and I investigated the installation of the "Lifetag" man overboard bracelet system. We think that we have it figured out, thanks to the information provided by Peter Turner. We purchased enough cabling to make that installation the next chance that we get.

We also rearranged the food storage around the flux gate compass so that there are no longer any tin cans within its proximity. The next time we are in a calm sea we will check out the compass and see if it is behaving. If so, we will swing it and should have a working Autohelm self steering again.

Also, two days ago we purchased two plastic 10 liter containers and hand-carried 20 liters of diesel to the boat. That 20 liters represents 8 hours of cruising at 1200 RPM and over 5 knots. Today Chris took is to get another 20 liters. The containers will be stored under the lazarette and we moved the fenders that were there to the space under the cockpit over the batteries, which are not protected with a large garbage bag.

We spent last Friday evening at the Esperance Bay Yacht Club for drinks, a meal, and socialising. We got good advice from Sue (new rule on Pachuca: nobody alone in the cockpit at night will go forward onto the deck - a fellow crewman must be roused to do the job) and Alan (sail through the Recherche Archipelago only in daylight because of the unsurveyed shallows) and others. We also saw the Commodore, John D'Emden, and his wife Adele. The club has been very good to us and we have enjoyed our stay very much.

Notes from Esperance Trip

I wrote the following notes on 15 May:

Yesterday I had the unpleasant job of dismantling the totally blocked marine toilet. The culprit turned out to be the rubber drain plug from the wash basin. Somehow it got into the toilet and got pumped through the "joker" valve and jammed up where the outlet pipe constricts. The result was a monumental compression of toilet paper and other material. I have decided to not provide colour photographs of the task to the blog.

We think that we have tracked down the source of the salt water filling up the bilge while we are sailing. The outlet hose for the electric bilge pump has a very short loop at the lazarette before it bends back down to the outlet on the lower side of the counter stern. We think that the constant slamming of the counter stern into the sea, combined with the effects of heeling over and heavy following seas could lead to the steady ingestion of water over the loop and then straight into the bilge. We have confidence in this diagnosis because believe me, we have eliminated every other possibility.
Yesterday we spoke with Peter Turner at Maritime Electronics regarding four issues:
1. The compass of the Autohelm may be disturbed by stowage of cans and other metallic material within a meter of it. Sure enough our troubles started after we stocked a plastic bin next to the flux gate compass with cans for the trip. When we are out at sea we will clear the compass area and run some tests.
2. A tanker reported that he was getting only our MMSI (i.e. ID number) and location from our AIS transmission. Peter expressed surprise because he had keyed in our boat name, call sign, etc into the system. We have instructions for inserting this information into the AIS transponder via our laptop and we plan to do this while at sea.
3. Peter gave us instructions for interfacing the "Lifetag" man overboard alert bracelet system to the Raymarine "seatalk" system. The instructions simply did not cover the nitty gritty of interfacing to Seatalk on our boat. The instructions were somewhat surprising, involving splicing the Lifetag system to other spliced wires, and taking the power from an independent source. We will attempt to do this while still in Esperance.
4. Arnold got insight on the problem where the radar image did not conform to the chart displayed on the C120 plotter. The system gets its direction from the GPS antenna. But for this to work the boat has to be moving. If the boat isn't moving the GPS location jitters around and the system cannot properly orientate things. So we will run our tests while the boat is moving, not while it is stationary.

Following Photos

1. Samantha waving hello and goodbye to Pachuca as we motored out of Oyster Harbour, past Emu Point.

2. Sunset on the first day of our sail from Albany to Esperance

3. Arnold and Robert investigating Autohelm steering problem

4. Pachuca at anchor in Oyster Harbour

albany-Esperance Photos (3)




Albany-Esperance Photos (2)





- Entrance to Oyster Harbour, Albany, where we anchored

- Scene at Oyster Bay

- Pachuca at anchor in Oyster Harbour, Albany

- Brenda and Robert having morning coffee in Oyster Harbour

Albany-Esperance Photos (1)





Some photos:

- Arnold and Robert trying to track down water leaks into the bilge

- Mount Manypeaks near Albany, on the way to Esperance

- Arnold and Robert sailing the boat

- Brenda at the helm

Esperance Sail Report

A few days ago I composed the following brief account of our sail from Albany to Esperance.

Sail from Oyster Harbour, Albany, to Esperance


The crossing from Albany to Esperance took 3 days. We weighed anchor at Oyster Harbour, Albany at 0830 on 11 May. We motored for the first 30 minutes and found no substantial increase of water in the bilge after having tightened a clamp on a leaky joint in the water cooling system. The sky was clear and we sailed all night with a variable NE wind. The next day at midday we were totally becalmed and Robert took his bath in the Southern Ocean, about 20 miles off the coast. We all tried the new 12-volt shower that plugs into a cigarette lighter socket and pumps water from bucket. It was a great success. The idea is to bath with salt water and rinse with a minimum of fresh water.

On the night of the 12th the wind died early in the evening and we lay ahull (i.e. bare poles). Then the wind picked up and we sailed all night with the jib under a NNW wind. We then had a fair wind for most of the day.

The 13th was a matter of holding course with a jib under a NE wind. We then had an exhilarating final few hours of sail with a strong Southerly accelerated at times by squalls passing through the area. We reduced sail to the point where a tiny triangle of headsail was driving the boat at over 6.5 knots. We found our way to our anchorage just North of the Esperance yacht club in the dark of the early evening. In the final 30 minutes after having escaped serious rain and lightning throughout the entire trip we were hit with an extremely strong shower. In spite of the pelting rain and poor visibility nobody panicked and we dropped anchor at 7.30PM on the 13th of May at 33S51.706 a21E53.923 in 3.5 meters of water.. We had experienced the first challenging weather situation and boat and crew had done well.

In the middle of the night Brenda heard the anchor alarm from the chart plotter, which had been set to go off if more than 30 meters of radius was exceeded. We were in the midst of an extremely strong wind no doubt associated with another squall. The anchor appeared to be holding but we took the precaution of dropping the 50-lb Swarbrick anchor hoping that it would bite if we dragged further. In fact the anchor did not drag again and in the morning we calculated that the anchor had dragged about 80 meters, fortunately slightly away from the shore.

In the morning we made contact with the Esperance yacht club and soon the commodore, John D'Emden, found a free pen for us and along with Sue, another club member, met us at the pen and helped us tie up.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Greetings from Esperance

Hi Folks,

I am writing this from the Esperance library which offers excellent internet facilities, including the ability to upload photographs from a thumb drive. You can expect tomorrow the fresh set of photos that I sent to Stephen yesterday.

At this point I would like to correct a glaring omission which I blame on the frenetic activities during the two weeks prior to our departure from Fremantle.

Stephen Fryc is Brenda's son. It is Stephen who deserves the credit for the quality of this blog. Indeed, it was Stephen who helped set me up with the blog in the first place and has subsequently made significant contributions such as the amazingly useful map facility by which you will be able to track the progress on a map, satellite image, terrain context, etc. The facility has the look and feel to me of Google Earth, with its zoom and pan facilities. Stephen has already given the reference to it, at http://tinyurl.com/5rqcke

Stephen has helped us with many other IT aspects of this voyage, from finding valuable software for weather fax, tide predictions, etc to setting us up with hardware such external disc drive storage, a pre-amp for our movie entertainment system, etc to setting us up with file backup and disaster recovery procedures.

Now that we are cruising Stephen has become the key person in the management of the blog and communication between Pachuca and the rest of the world. He and Arnold have put in a lot of work to establish the procedures for communication between himself and Pachuca via the Iridium satellite telephone. We will send a daily noon report to Stephen via SMS giving our position and one or two short comments on our situation, though this will not necessarily be put on the blog every day.

So Thank You, Stephen, on behalf of the crew of Pachuca and all readers of this blog.

Finally, I would like to note a change in our Esperance departure plan. We were planning to depart Esperance on Sunday morning but the wind report for Sun-Tue for this part of the coast is pretty dismal. The highest wind speed predicted is 9 knots, for an hour or two. Beyond that much of it dips below 5 knots, the absolute minimum for Pachuca. (We'll be able to sail with less than this once we have mastered the use of our spinnakers, whenever that may be.)

So rather than going out on Sunday and spend three miserable days of flogging sails, rattling rigging, and getting nowhere, we've decided to postpone our departure until Wednesday, 5 days from now. We think that we still have a good chance to get to Port Lincoln at the planned time because the speed assumptions in our time calculation (11 days) was a very conservative 80 miles per day. With good winds we can easily exceed that.

For now we are enjoying the comfort and security of a pen at the Esperance Yacht Club and are enjoying our various forays into the town. Today will will get a visit from Chris, our most faithful blog reader and contributor; and tonight we will have dinner at the yacht club to meet some of the members. We spend other evenings on the boat, such as last night when we had a terrific meal over several glasses of red wine, then settled down to watch Forrest Gump which amazingly Brenda had never seen before.

Life can be tough.

Robert

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Communication Update, email and sms.


OK, after I talked to Arnold there has been a clarification on communication.

If you want to communicate with the team when at sea here is the 'simple' guideline;

Firstly, If your message is important please mark it as such and email it to me. My contact email address is available at this web page http://tinyurl.com/6gsxyd and you will need a password which is bender100

If your message is not important you can just email their land-based ordinary email address and wait for them to hit an internet cafe (or library). Alternatively, if your message can be condensed to a short sms (i.e a text message) please email it to me because I can send it (even though it may not be important).

Of course there is a limit on sms's sent per day. So I can't send a flood of sms's. I realize how important communication is and I will make the best effort I can to send your message. Please add a comment to this posting if you are not clear on any issue.
Thanks very much to to Grant P for this lovely photo, taken 01 May 2008.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Esperance Ahoy...........

About 8.30pm Tuesday 13th May (2008) the crew arrived in Esperance and were greeted by a sudden squall. No damage done, but 'rain was felt on their parade'. Apparent Bob and Arnold arrived not too tired. Brenda was soaked by the squall.

For those of you who wish to email or phone the crew, now would be an excellent time. Send email to their ordinary email addresses (while Pachuca is anchored). Don't know exactly how long the stay will be. Thank you all for staying tuned this-far.

Only the Jib.........

At 4.30am recieved this sms from the crew;
34S07 121E28. 27 NM FROM ESPERANCE. CLEAR SKY, HIGHLY VARIABLE WIND. SAILED ALL NIGHT WITH ONLY JIB, WITH NNW WIND.

They should be in Esperance tonight I am guessing. If they are not too exhausted to sail.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Heading to Esperance.........

Another super photo from Samantha above. It shows Pachuca leaving Emu Point, in Albany.

Have Pachuca's current location now, (boat) is well on the way to Esperance. The sms I recieved a short while ago was; 34S32 120E06. 98 NM FROM ESPERANCE,32 NM FROM COAST. CLEAR SKY & VARIABLE WIND.

Pachuca's location can be seen at this website, as a green marker;
http://tinyurl.com/5ndxkb


Sunday, May 11, 2008

The Southern Waters......

Just a quick post that shows a map of the waters the sailing team is sailing in.
I hope to get an actual location sometime today. They are aiming for Esperance.

Map of Sailing Waters at this website;
http://tinyurl.com/5rqcke



Saturday, May 10, 2008

A Kind Soul..........




A (great :) pal Samantha has sent me some photos of the trio leaving Albany.

These were taken on her mobile phone, and Pachuca is a small white dot on the horizon.
I believe these beautiful shots to be Oyster Harbour, please correct me (leave a comment) if they are not.

No Pictures for Now...........

Hi,

The crew should have left Albany this morning, under good sailing conditions. Bob tried very hard to pass some great photos to me, but was unable to because of restrictions imposed at the Internet Cafe he used.

Unfortunately, as flash drives (or thumb drives) were not allowed he will try again in Esperance to send photos. I will phone the Esperance library to see if he has a chance to send photos using their public computers.

He did however pass on a sailing account (or log) which he typed from memory;

Here is an excerpt;
On that basis we decided to head for Cape Bouvard and either go to Bunbury or head straight for Cape Naturaliste depending on the wind. The wind held out and we decided to make directly for the Cape. Getting to Cape Naturaliste and then to Cape Leeuwin became a real challenge because of the weak winds.

You can read the full account from Bob, at this web site; http://tinyurl.com/65q5xu

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Trio in Albany

The sailing trio are now in Albany and will be there for a few days.

Hopefully, everyone will get to catch-up and Bob will probably append the blog while docked.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Communicating with the trio.......

Hi,

I hope this post will answer an important question about communication.

In a recent email the question was asked;
Hi Stephen,
Do they have internet access, ie can they read their email, while they are at sea?

The answer is yes they can read email BUT emails have to be sent to me (Stephen Fryc) first.

If you send an email to (the normal email addresses of) Bob, Arnold or Brenda while they are at sea, they wont read it till they are docked or on dry land.

This process is to save on expensive satellite phone "airtime".

My email address and other contact details are available at this web page;
http://tinyurl.com/6gsxyd and you will need a password which is bender100


- If you have an important message for the trio, then please contact me.

- If you want to send the trio a private message, you can ring Brenda's mobile number and leave a message. She drifts in and out of (standard GSM) mobile range often.






A Breath of Wind

A late night conversation on the phone yesterday has revealed;

  • there is a little wind, so a suitable sail was being hoisted
  • two large ships have been avoided
  • they sail all through the night when possible
  • the amount of remaining fuel is not known (but no-one seemed concerned about it)

In the calm.................

Hi,

no phone calls today, but here is the sms from the trio;
NOON 6MAY WST, 34S08 114E54,CLEAR SKY,LOST GOOD WIND,NOW MOTORING 18NM
AROUND CAPE LEEUWIN.

I have plotted what I believe to be the boat's position, at this website (green marker);
http://tinyurl.com/4ulz25

The boat's engine must be getting a really good workout...............
I will ask about the fuel supply next time I talk on the phone. It would be interesting to find out how much fuel has been used already.

Here is their weather forecast for tomorrow;
Wednesday: N/NE winds 13/18 knots easing to 8/13 knots west of Windy Harbour. Winds throughout shifting NW'ly 10/15 knots in the afternoon, reaching 15/20 knots west of Walpole in the evening. Seas 1.0m to 1.5m. Swell 1.0m


Monday, May 5, 2008

Pachuca's Location Updated

Here is the boat location-sms I recieved from Arnold around 3.00pm Perth (Western Australian) Time; NOON 5MAY WST,325S36 115E19,LIGHT WIND,CLEAR SKY,MOTORING AROUND CAPE NATURALISTE.

I have plotted the location at this website, as a green marker;
http://tinyurl.com/4ulz25

The plotted location is not quite the same as given above (in the sms), but everyone has said "just past" Cape Naturaliste. Also, the mobile phone conversation with the sailing trio I had revealed that:

  • Arnold now has Bob's cold (lucky him) but is getting better.
  • A bilge pump got blocked with a piece of plastic but was thankfully fixed.
  • Currently, the boat's motor is being used a lot, as there is little wind.
  • Brenda has seen many albatrosses, and a pod of 20 dolphins (unusual).
Albany will be a very likely stop for a refuel.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Pachuca 2007 : Old Footage




On the left (above) is some old footage of Pachuca taken in 2007. This video clip has sound.

For anyone interested I have other 2007 footage of inside Pachuca's cabin, narrated by Bob. I plan to post other footage, but let me know if you want to see the footage sooner rather than later :)

Of course since 2007, Pachuca has undergone many changes/repairs. Some of which you can see , using the photo on the top (right) for comparison. The photo was taken on "launch day", May 2nd 2008.

To my knowledge Bob has blogged all details of the repairs/changes as they were completed.

Mothers Day Update

Hi,

I haven't got their exact location, but I heard yesterday the trio are now past Mandurah making steady but slow progress.

I'm interested in the weather for their location, and you can see a forecast by going to this web site; http://tinyurl.com/4b6kng

The weather forecast mentions from "Mandurah to Cape Leeuwin", so this map shows the locations of those two weather stations, available here; http://tinyurl.com/4ulz25 The stations are lilac coloured markers. I expect to get (and report) Pachuca's exact location later today.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Where is Pachuca?

Through a great free website, it is possible to see Pachuca's current location.
Pachuca's location is represented by the green marker at this website;
http://tinyurl.com/5plboq

Launch Day: Today



Hi,


today the crew have left for their trip, Hurrah !

They went (under motor) to Woodman Point.

Earlier in the afternoon, a repaired jib was hoisted with considerable effort. Other final preparations, such as filling a water tank, were also completed.

While onboard, I was shown many of the farewell cards and gifts friends and well-wishers had left, it was very touching. Here is a photo showing Arnold learning the ropes. He's a very fast learner ! As information is sent to me, such as Pachuca's location, it will be posted on this blog.
As I left the jetty I couldn't help feeing a little envious, GOOD LUCK Pachuca !


A Quick Introduction


Hello avid readers,


my name is Stephen Fryc and I have been allowed to contribute to this blog. Luckily, I am not allowed to 'ramble on' (as instructed by Bob). For those that don't know me, one of the sailing trio is my mother. My task is to keep this blog updated, in between the times Bob gets access to a land computer.


Messages to the trio can be passed to me, as I can then pass the message on. My contact details are available at this web page; http://tinyurl.com/6gsxyd You will need the password which is bender100. If you can't reach me please make a comment on this blog and I should see it.
Today was "launch day", the photo shows Bob evaluating the jib rigging.


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