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, January 12, 2008

Circumnavigation Plan V4.3

I will be away 14-29 January visiting our gravely ill Mother in Houston. Arnold has delayed his arrival in Perth until 25 Feb 2008. Because of this we have moved the start of our circumnavigation two weeks from 15 March to 29 March 2008. We've compensated by shortening our stay in Seattle by two weeks, still leaving us with over 4 months in Seattle.

These changes are reflected in V4.3.

Pachuca's Circumnavigation Plan

V4.3 - Jan 2008

From

To

Distance NM

Sailing Days

Stopover

Travel Days

Departure Date

Arrival date

Core Storm Season

Knots

"From" Coords

Fremantle

Albany

325

5

3

8

29-Mar-08

02-Apr-08

2.78

32S04, 115E44

Albany

Esperance

270

4

2

6

05-Apr-08

09-Apr-08

2.78

35S01, 117E54

Esperance

Port Lincoln

707

11

3

14

11-Apr-08

22-Apr-08

2.78

32S52, 121E54

Port Lincoln

Adelaide

129

2

3

5

25-Apr-08

27-Apr-08

2.78

34S43, 135E52

Adelaide

Eden NSW

660

10

1

11

30-Apr-08

10-May-08

Jan-Mar (Nov-May)

2.78

34S47, 138E49

Eden NSW

Sydney

210

3

5

8

11-May-08

14-May-08

Jan-Mar (Nov-May)

2.78

37S04, 149E56

Sydney

Whangarei

1250

15

14

29

19-May-08

03-Jun-08

Jan-Mar (Nov-May)

3.47

33S50, 151E18

Whangarei

Raivavae

2090

25

7

32

17-Jun-08

12-Jul-08

3.47

35S45, 174E20

Raivavae

Papeete Tahiti

393

5

21

26

19-Jul-08

24-Jul-08

3.47

23S54, 147W42

Papeete Tahiti

Palmyra

1587

19

7

26

14-Aug-08

02-Sep-08

3.47

17S34, 149W34

Palmyra

Honolulu

958

11

10

21

09-Sep-08

20-Sep-08

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

3.47

05N53, 162W05

Honolulu

Juan De Fuca

2340

28

124

152

30-Sep-08

28-Oct-08

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

3.47

21N19, 157W50

Juan de Fuca

San Diego

950

14

3

17

01-Mar-09

16-Mar-09

Jul-Sep (May-Nov)

2.78

47N34, 122W23

San Diego

Golfito Costa R

2400

36

100

136

19-Mar-09

24-Apr-09

2.78

32N43, 117W09

Golfito Costa R

Galapagos

757

9

3

12

02-Aug-09

11-Aug-09

3.47

08N38, 083W11

Galapagos

Callao,Peru

1058

13

30

43

14-Aug-09

26-Aug-09

3.47

00N00, 090W00

Callao

Valparaiso, Ch

1292

19

30

49

25-Sep-09

15-Oct-09

2.78

12S05, 077W08

Valparaiso

Cape Horn

1400

21

0

21

14-Nov-09

05-Dec-09

2.78

33S03, 071W38

Cape Horn

Falklands

435

5

3

8

05-Dec-09

10-Dec-09

3.47

55S58, 067W17

Falklands

Cape Town

3356

34

7

41

13-Dec-09

16-Jan-10

4.17

51S42, 057W49

Cape Town

St Paul Is

2840

28

3

31

23-Jan-10

20-Feb-10

4.17

33S55, 018E27

St Paul Is

Fremantle

1894

19

0

19

23-Feb-10

14-Mar-10

4.17

38S50, 077E35

Avg Speed Knots

3.4

Dist Sailed Nm

27301

Days Under Sail

336

Lay Days

379

Days Away

715

Miles Per Day

80

100

120

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Vaccinations Completed

Today I had my final vaccination (Rabies No. 3).

The complete vaccination program was:

- Polio (Sabin) booster
- Tetanus booster
- Whooping Cough
- Diphtheria
- Cholera
- Typhoid
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Meningococcal Meningitis
- Malaria
- Yellow Fever
- Rabies

The entire vaccination program ran from 12 June 2007 until 9 Jan 2008.

Friday, January 4, 2008

HF Weather Fax


After about one week of effort we've finally cracked the mysteries of weather fax via HF radio. Stephen did most of the work. I mentioned one night about having started preliminary investigations on HF weather fax on the Internet and the next night Stephen, Brenda, and I were on the boat having our first attempt, using some free software that Stephen had downloaded and cabling that he had brought. I did a fast review and located a headphone outlet at the front of the HF radio, then figured out how to enter a frequency (which shows how unfamiliar I am with the HF radio). We used the Upper Side Band (USB) as directed. Our first attempts were dismal. Each line was being replicated about 8 times across the screen. We could just make out the tiny outlines of Australia.

The next night Stephen brought some better software. Instead of feeding the signal directly to the laptop he fed it to an external disc store so that he could replay it over and over again to "tweak" the software. The result was better: a full-sized fax but really fuzzy. He got the best result by using AM instead of FM modulation as directed, and by sticking to the published frequency instead of tuning 1.9 KHz lower as directed by various sources.

Last night as we were walking to the jetty for another try I clucked about how the consistent advice was to tune to 1.9KHz below the nominal frequency, and that we should set the software to FM rather than AM modulation. The it struck me that I had probably not tuned the antenna at that frequency. Stephen had assumed that antenna tuning was automatic. I turned on the radio, tuned to the required frequency (minus 1.9KHz), went to USB, then hit the "tune" button. The Kenwood antenna tuner started to clack, indicating that it was changing the length of the antenna. We figured that we were on to something. We started recording the 36-hour MSLP (Mean Sea Level Pressure) forecast at 1200 UTC, 2100 Perth time. We listened to the signal being recorded and even to our inexperienced ears it sounded very, very good; like a fax machine on the telephone. We then passed the signal to the software and the graph of the signal was superb: clear differentiation between the "white" signals at +400 Hz and the "black" signals at -400 Hz. By then we knew enough to recognize the phasing signal at the beginning of the transmission.

The result is in the attached file. If you look closely you will see the outline of Australia, with one High and one Low. There is a High over New Zealand (bottom right). The word "demo" is plastered all over it because we are using the software on a trial basis. I'll be "purchasing" it, although my understanding is that it is essentially freeware with a very nominal fee.

At this point we have the latest transmission schedule of every station around the planet. We will be in a position to get charts of MSLP isobars, wave heights, wind strength, etc from anywhere on the globe. Excuse me for feeling pretty good about this.

The following page of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology presents their services, frequencies, and a reference their schedule of transmission: http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/marine_weather_radio.shtml
Their schedule is at http://www.bom.gov.au/nmoc/rad_sch/
Some technical information is at http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/tech_voice_fax.shtml

On another front, I purchased a short "rubber" radio antenna and mounted it next to the cabinet holding the radio, next to the mast. The FM radio reception is outstanding. The AM radio reception sucks. We ran part of a movie on the laptop using Stephen's small black box that amplifies the weak headphone signal from the laptop before it is passed into the AUX1 input of the Pioneer sound system. The result was outstanding. As far as I am concerned, we now have a floating 12-volt poor man's entertainment centre.

Blog Archive

Contributors

Statistics Click Me