If you are an armchair adventurer, who is interested in seeing what we look at to figure out how to get a sailboat across an Ocean and from point A to Point B (unfortunately, sometimes this can only be done by going from point D to W first), then here are some ways you can join in on our experience from the comfort of your cozy, fridge-filled, water-abundant, non-moving, homes :)....
You can check out the weather and wind forecasting thing that we sailors do by looking at Predict Wind or Passage Weather. If you are super-keen you can even order "grib files" and use our positions-which is how we do it out here at sea, over the SSB radio, when there is no internet or VHF or marine broadcast to let us know what's brewing in this neck of the woods.
The Grib files are sent to us twice a day.
We also get weather forecasts from NOAA in Hawaii, alerting us to all the warnings and watches pertaining to the North Pacific. You will need to get your atlas out to read these ones because everything is given in Lat/Long and it takes some getting used to!
If the gribs look like gobbly-gook to you and seem confusing....welcome to the club.
It does help to know a few basics in order for it to make sense, though:
If you are looking at wind "grib" files, there are lots of confusing straight lines with little feathery bits on that kind of look like "arrows"...
These are a "quick look" for wind speeds.
For example, 1 feather=light winds
Lots of feathers-heavy winds.
Same goes for the color-scheme thing...
Pale colors= light air.
Hot pinks or worse, purples=Yikes!
When you read the grib you look at the direction the arrow is coming from and that is how you name your wind direction;
a light green line with one feathery bit that starts closest to North and the straight end of the line slants TOWARDS the West...would be called a "light, North West wind". You name the wind form the direction it originates in-not where its headed. Make sense?
Weather sure is tricky to read and navigating without using your engine and only sails to push you along on it-and factoring in all the currents, cross-currents, lows and squalls that push things every-which-way makes it even harder! When you sail on the wind, you can only hold your boat at a certain angle to the wind-this means constantly changing your course- it is Kind of like a really hard chess game, where there are rules but they can change or just simply not apply sometimes!
As far as weather and crew morale go, today was a WAY better day out here in wonderland.
I started dawn watch under a clear night sky, with a good wind (though still an annoyingly Northerly wind) and relatively calm seas. I spent the sunrise on the aft deck, tying a new lure to our fishing rod and watching the sun come up on one side of us while the full moon set on the other.
If that sun had only been coming up in front of us, instead of to our starboard, aft, quarter, everything would have been perfect!
(Hey, home-school kids at home... can you figure out where I want to be heading from that last riddle?)
The wind IS cooperating bit by bit and by this afternoon it began to work its way ever-so-slightly more North/East and we could hold a better course. At this point, we are happy to hold our line towards Hilo, Hawaii-instead of Christmas island, where we have been pointed for the past few days!
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If you take our position and look at a map, you will see the "Line islands" of Kiribati just below Hawaii.
"Why don't you sail over there and then straight up to Hawaii?", the sensible, arm chair adventurer might ask...
Good question.
Kiribati sounds fascinating and I would really love to see Fanning Island and the protected atoll famous for the world's largest population of coconut crabs...but there are two reasons that while this is not impossible to do, it is not the choice for most sailors returning from French Polynesia;
1)They don't have Dairy Queen anywhere in the island nation of Kiribati.
2) The winds are not favorable for sailing to Hawaii from there.
We sailors use those North East trade winds to make Hilo comfortably from 140 degrees or so Longitude but Fanning is slightly east of Hawaii, making it virtually impossible for a boat like ours, and besides, ending up anywhere near the Southern tip of the big island has an added issue, created by the stunning, 13,000 foot mountains of the Kona coast that create massive Katabatic winds and the effects of these babies can extend 100 miles out to sea!
On a map (or the NAV X, program that we use on the ipad for our navigation) draw a line from Hilo to our current position and you will see why this is a better way to go.
You will also see why we had hoped to make more Easting than where we are currently headed (it would have given us a better cushion in case we got pushed off course again), but we are hoping we can make this up before we make that turn to Hawaii.
The squalls of the past few days have (thankfully) left us for the moment, and we find ourselves in a sublime patch of ocean with moderate/light seas (which for us, is like 8-10 foot waves) and 15-17 knot winds and perfect, warm, clear skies.
Hunter spent the day making paper bats to decorate the boat for Halloween. Kai kept his nose firmly pressed in a book other than when he helped me furl the jib or put a reef in the mainsail (having a big kid is a total joy for poor old mom because he takes over all my winching jobs when he's awake!) and Jon puzzled over our routing and re-stitched our canvas sea-bucket for the millionth time (this is how we bring sea water aboard for wash-up jobs) and I happily traded the foulies for my bikini and put on some of Grandma Sara's awesome mixes of music that she gave us before we left and we all danced and fully enjoyed the incredible fantasy that sailing the Southern Pacific can become some days.
Ahhh...if only it could stay like this for 1600 more miles !
Lat: 05*49.77S
Long: 145*19.16W
(shown above on the map)
Course: 355T
Speed: 15 knots
Like I always said, 'If you're losing it, get a grib!'
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