This is another test to post to Changabang’s blog using satellite email. I’m trying html tags as the other attempt didn’t handle the headings correctly.

Oops

I went for a run yesterday. After 20 minutes or so I fell a sharp pain in my right calf. I still had a long way to walk back home. It’s still hurting, and it’s swollen as well. I think it’s a muscle tear, so I need to lay low, ice, and rest. Not what I needed at this time but I’ll have to make do with it. Sir Chichester left with a banged up arm so I’m good to go 😉
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As shared a few weeks earlier, here’s now the official news release: https://news.oceancruisingclub.org/home/index/1372

Really grateful for the Ocean Cruising Club’s generosity.

It was a wild ride coming back from my LongPag turnaround. Winds were mostly steady in the 24-28 kts range, and our speed often in the low tens. Considering that I turned around just a little before 2PM yesterday, it must have taken us about 22 hours to get back into port with the dock lines secured. And that was with a slow end of the ride when I exited the offshore winds, ghosting along at 5 kts.

A little tired, I’m not going to say much that more than it was a good exercise. There is now a list of things to do, including what appears to be a failing hydrogenerator. I plan for more next week and hope for a good sleep tonight.

We hit our 126 40′ West turn around point. We’re on our way back home. It was not without a bit of drama.

First I decided to shake the third reef. As usual the lazy backstay was in the wrong post. In an effort to release I ended up tacking Changabang. And so I had to sort that out too. All was well, and a little later I went to the first reef.

I also lifted out the hydrogenerator as it was doing the rumbling noise that indicates that the batteries are full.

Then, when I tacked at the turn around point, I forgot to empty the ballast to port. A couple tacks later we were on our way. Less banging but still some, less wet but still some. We have about 16 kts on the beam. I’m still a little queasy and in my berth.

We’re a little slow as I should have another sail up forward. Maybe later …

Bye for now.

Well, the email to blog feature of my website provider doesn’t seem to work all the time. The text below was supposed to be first in line. Things may make more sense now 🙂

Shakedown cruise, version 1

It is time to spend time offshore for several days. Wednesday morning I left the marina mentally prepared to sail upwind in 15-25 kts, with the starboard ballast loaded. But it was not to be. It was blowing a mere 3-6 kts. I motored for a while trying to catch the offshore winds but ultimately abandoned the idea as I did not have much fuel. In the sloppy swell we were barely doing 3 kts with the genoa and full mainsail, not quite going West. Arguably I could have used a bigger headsail, such as the gennaker but I was still expecting a stronger breeze so decided against. It was a long morning.
For the first time, I moved weight around the boat, trying to get the weight of the sails above the keel. I think the French refer to this as “matossage”.
By noon I started seeing small and rare white caps on the horizon. All the while a couple of flies hitched a ride. Five minutes later we saw our first steady 10 kts of wind, and a sunfish. I don’t like knowing they’re around.
Last Sunday, sailing back from an overnight in San Francisco Bay, we hit one of these. It almost stopped us: we went from doing 8 kts to 2. We stayed like that for a few minutes, not sure what was going on. I decided to lift the hydrogenerator out of the water and that’s when we saw it drifting away. We only caught sight of its tail. The keel probably did not like the hit, and I’m sure so did the fish.
We came across a big cargo ship. My plan for this cruise is to sail past the shipping lane, then sail up North. After a few days I will turn around and sail back home.
By 1pm we were firmly in the offshore winds, seeing 13-17 kts now. Two more ships passed astern.
My ballast system is a little leaky, so I had to bail water out a few times. And I’m now in my salopette.
At 1:45 pm I decided to put one reef in the mainsail, still carrying the genoa, as we started seeing wind at at 18 kts. If it climbs above 20 it’ll probably be time to switch to the staysail.
We’re about 60 degrees off true wind, doing 7.9 kts. As usual the polars say that I should be doing a little more than 9 kts. I wonder if that’s because of sail choice, or things like sail trim, sail quality (the mainsail is old).
At 2:08pm batteries show 12.43 V (autopilot, AIS/VHF are on).
With the wind reaching into 20 kts I decided to drop the genoa. I turned downwind, dropped the sail, zipped itin the bag, and hoisted the staysail. Then came back to the wind. Of course the wind was only teasing me, and it remains under 20 kts. And so we’re down to 7+ kts of boat speed. The sea is much more choppy, and we’re banging quite a bit. The cockpit is getting wet every so often too.
I started feeling a little queasy. Wind continued to increase. We’re now in 30 kts, and I dropped to the third reef and staysail.
That’s it for now. Dinner time soon.

It’s almost 7am. After a long night spent tossing around in my”bed”, it was time for a morning chocolate croissant. Not quite the way I like them but it’ll do just fine out here. Maybe I should fit an oven? Warm cookies? Nah …

I’m back in my berth, writing this. Throughout the night the situation remained stable, which means we were sailing in 25-30+ kts, mostly going West, banging waves and with the occasional drenching of the cockpit. Around 2am I got out of my foulies and into my sleeping bag as I was getting a little cold.

A fish did land on deck, flapping madly to return to his element. So I got out to check on him. He wasn’t much successful so I helped him back in the water, getting sprayed myself in the process.

Seeing that we were bending our course a little North I eased 10 degrees off the wind, also hoping for a more comfortable ride. But it’s pretty much the same. Bang bang, drench, drench ..

It’s cloudy; it’s cold; it’s wet; I’ve seen nothing on AIS … Reminds me of the SHTP. Moving about inside requires care as it’d be easy to get knocked off!

I will have to think about organizing the living space so it’s easier to do day to day tasks. With that I’m back to waiting for my LongPac turnaround point at 126 40′ West. What I’ll do then I’m not sure yet. Tack and go North? Carry on to Hanalei?

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Last Friday was a day with light winds off the coast of Half Moon Bay. It was a good opportunity to finally try the big spinnaker. And try we did, and more!

The last time the big spinnaker was on deck, it went (partially mind you) in the water: the foot of the sail spilled overboard and caught loads of water. Well, I didn’t learn my lesson. It happened again. I did recall what I did to fix it so recovery was a little faster. Once that was sorted out then, finally, the big white spinnaker went up without a hitch. Here’s a small video about that:

Before the big guy went up I also got the gennaker out. Like this:

And I ended the day with a run with the code 0’ish.

So that’s two days of practice where I went through the sails. I think these two days had something in common: lighter winds and smaller seas. It remains to be seen if I’ll be this bold/strong when the winds/sea build up.

I think I have my sailing buddy NB to thank, as well as the monkey on my back, and maybe a bit of lackadaisical fitness work I’m doing.

Now there is a catch: I am well below the boat’s capability. I have actual polars for the boat (see here for a quick explanation) so I can easily compare. The instruments may need calibration but still that’s a bummer. I’m not sure how I’ll harvest those last 10-20% of boat speed.

Keel work

I have started discussion around the keel and some of the concerns I have about that. I tried filming the keel like I was with Double Espresso, and the result is not really useful. That’s all for this blog post …

One of the tough things with a Class40 boat for me is that sail evolutions (changing sail) are hard work. It is one of the big obstacles to make a fast boat go fast. So I’m happy to report that yesterday was a busy day: mainsail up, staysail up, reefed spinnaker up, staysail down, spinnaker down, reef removed, spinnaker up, spinnaker down, staysail up, back upwind to HMB, another run downwind, staysail down, spinnaker up, spinnaker down, spinnaker up, spinnaker down, staysail up, one reef, two reefs, three reefs, shake one reef, staysail down, mainsail down. How’s that!

I only saw one whale, no fishing boat, no crab pot, some weird signal, but ocean sunfishes are now the problem. There’s nothing I can do to avoid them. They show up at last minute. I had a large one hit the keel then the starboard rudder, and another one hit the port rudder, all while I was doing 9-10 kts under spinnaker. It can’t be a fun event for these guys. I’m sorry.

Stray currents

They eat away at my stuff!

And more

I’m hopeful that next week I’ll have the hydrogenerator brackets installed. Once these and the hydrogenerators are in place the plan is to venture a little further offshore and see how they perform.

That’s all for now … One last video for the road …