ALL's WELL - BIG SKY AND BIG WAVES

Blog Entry June 04, 2011
Ships Log
5th day at sea

Lat 45 01.442
Lon 28 56.903

We are running a course of 180 degrees (magnetic) at 5 knots and surfing with the huge waves (approx 3-4 metres!!) and flattened wind waves on top of them. We started with all three sails up (main, jib and staysail) but soon doused the main and jib and spent a number of hours with staysail only and we were still doing 5 knots)! The sky has been clear and blue all day long with bright sun. Wind is 30+ knots (i.e. 40 mph) and seas are building with streaks of foam.

Both co-caps have been healthy despite the messy seas... amazing what good meds do for one! It has been difficult finding a frequency that would answer our Sailmail requests. There are only certain times of the day when the ionosphere works for us and there fore many others are sending an receiving at those times. Oh well, I just keep trying :-)

We are now on the Pacific Seafarers Net, which is a net of ham operators keeping track of boats and even willing to pass on messages for us if we can't get through with Sailmail. Each evening at 8pm (0300 Zulu time) we call into the net through the ham radio and the ham operators who are part of it take details of our location, weather etc. and store that info in their database. Our call sign is VE0 WCN (in international language that reads Victor Echo Zero Whiskey Charlie November)and it's sure nice to know that a number of operators are out there knowing who we are and where we are going and keeping tabs on us.

Now on the topic of sleep - It is amazing how one can fall asleep in almost any position when one has to! Sleeping sitting up in a cold, wet, dark cockpit between watch checks every 15 min where the person on watch needs to check the radar, and watch for ships etc. I didn't believe I could do it but it turns out that both of us are magnificent nappers for 15 minutes at a time!!

Well, must go now and make some supper in this rockin' rollin' galley of ours :-) Videos and photos will be forthcoming about 5-6 weeks when we arrive in the Marquesas and find some wifi networks.

We apologize for not personally answering all emails that we receive but we hope that the info in our blog will be of interest to all and fills in for any questions you may have of this voyage of a lifetime!


Take care

Cathy and Bill

SV Terrwyn