Becalmed.......

Out here today, as it has been for the last few days, not much wind for
us. Strange how a place that can sometimes blow a storm, can at other days,
be totally becalmed. We have been motoring for the last few days. Watched
the moon grow full and casting her magic spell over us. And the days turned
into nights and visa versa. Clouds come and go, and we are patiently
waiting for the wind to pick up a bit. Our lures have not produced any fish
now for days, only our props caught some rope a few nights ago. By some
rope, I mean a huge tangled mess of rope from a fishing trawler.

I just took over watch from Tim, and we were trotting along nicely at about
7kts and 20kts of wind in our sails. At about 21h15 the boat slowed down
drastically, hardly making 3kts. I let our more sail, but no improvement in
our speed. I remembered a similar situation years ago on another crossing.
he boat speed and wind speed not making sense. At the time I looked
backwards and our water bucket was blown overboard, and a line that was
attached to the boat and the bucket, was as tight as a guitar string. It
was also at night, and no ways I could pull the bucket in by hand. Stopped
the boat by going into a hove to position, retrieved the bucket, and
carried on. On Island Home we don't use a water bucket to scoop seawater,
we have a deckwashpump and hose that we use when we need seawater, much
safer than a bucket. From the helming seat I looked back but could not see
anything in the water as it was a fairly dark night. I decided to start a
motor and see if we could make better speed with a motor, and as soon as I
engaged gear, I felt that something was wrong and turned the motor off.
Walked to the back of the boat, peered into the water, and a meter below
the surface I noticed that we have snagged some rope with our props or
rudders. I fetched the boat hook and tried to lift the line, and it was far
too heavy to hook and lift.

I woke Tim and Geoff to assist as we were in a bit of trouble. Trying to
depower the sails I tried to tack through the wind into a hove to position,
but the weight of the rope were were dragging would not allow it. And
neither could we use a motor to assist, as our props were tangled with
rope. We furled in the head sail, which slowed us down a bit more and kept
the main sail as close to the wind as possible. By then Marina, Phil and
Scott were also up and watching us trying to free Island Home from this
mess. Geoff, Tim and myself were pulling together and after a while we must
have pulled over a hundred meters of 20mm thick rope onto the one side of
the boat, here was hardly any space left to stand. We were hoping to bring
all the line aboard to see what was at the end of the line, but eventually
it got so heavy that we decided to cut the rope. The lined we heaved aboard
we also cut loose and left a few meters to work with. The bunch of rope on
deck we tossed back into the ocean. By this time we had our gears locked
into reverse to stop any turning of the props to prevent them from getting
even more entangled. We tied the loose ends of rope on deck, furled out the
genoa, and after about two hours we were on our way again, sailing fast and
free, and it felt good as always.

As it got light the next morning, Geoff, Tim and myself were up and
assessing the situation. We first took some underwater pics on the GoPro
and studied them on the iPhone. Our starboard side have untangled itself
and was free, which was a great relieve. On the port side one of the props
blades had some rope twisted around it, and we first tried to untwist it and
pull it loose from above. It was difficult as the boat was still doing 2kts
after we turned once again into a hove to position. A bit too fast to jump in
and cut the rope loose, ad the water was also fairly cold, 18*C to be exact.
We furled in the head sail, dropped the mainsail, and with our free motor
at idle speed could keep the bow pointing just off the wind which slowed us
down to under a knot. Slow enough to dive in and Geoff was getting dressed
for the freezing operation. While he was still looking for his wetsuit, we
tried the boat hook one more time as there was very little motion through
the water. When we tried previously the momentum of the water would push
the boat hook back, and by sheer luck,we managed to free the prop from the
rope and with great relieve watched it drift away. Just to make sure we
took a few more underwater pics which confirmed that our operation was
successful. Started the motor, engaged gear, and again to our great
relieve, found there was no vibration on the prop, which meant no damage
was incurred. We hoisted the main, unfurled the genoa, set our course, and
sailed away from what could have been a far more serious situation.

We are currently less than 1300nm from Fremantle and are doing a fair speed
under motor. When we sniff a bit of wind, we let the genoa out a bit, which
is just holding. Our weather forecast predicted quite a bit of strong
winds, but it faded out before it got to us. It looks like we might get
sailable winds later today, and we are ready. Fortunately we have more than
enough fuel to run the motors when necessary, and it is quite pleasant
motoring over a smooth sea, sun shining, a few birds around the boat. The
nights are also fairly pleasant, so all in all things are going well on
Island Home. Life at sea, at it's best. Another ten days at most and we will
reach our destination. Although we are all fairly relaxed at the moment, we
still keep a watchful lookout for ships. As we get closer to Australia we
will stay sharp, and only once we are safely tied up at the marina, will we
let our guard down. Hoping that on the next blog I can report about some fish
caught. We have changed hooks on our lures, have changed some lures, and I
have just spotted a flying fish, a good sign. Until then, enjoy the weekend
and the week ahead. Greetings from the big blue.

Alive and well

One of those days today....gentle breeze, sunny skies, long swells rolling
through, up front our big blue genikar sail pulling us along, two lures
trolling for fish behind the boat, and life is great. I have been on watch
from 3 to 6 this morning. Had to drag my feet to get up at first, but as
predicted, the wind started veering to the west, and I had a bit of work to
do. Last night we had very light headwinds, and to squeeze a few extra
miles, we were motor sailing with our headsail only. A the wind came in
from behind, I decided to drop the main sail as she was no longer effective
and furled out the head sail. From just holding on to 4 kts, our speed
increased by a knot or two. I checked the oil and coolant levels in the
motors, and removed the genikar from the locker, ready to raise when Geoff
comes on watch. We were discussing yesterday that we need to get her up so
we can dry her a bit before she gets mouldy, and conditions presented the
perfect opportunity for just that. We rigged all our lines, and before too
long, we had her up and flying. We then enjoyed some Nespresso coffee from
the deLonghi coffee machine .... fabulous stuff. Add a quantity of milk to
the milk frother and heater, insert a coffee pod, place the mug in position
and within a minute or so, the perfect cup of coffee. The small simple
pleasures we enjoy so much out here.

I then decided to boil some eggs, chop them up fine, add some salt, pepper,
garlic and herbs mix, tomato sauce and bbq sauce, a few dollops of
mayonnaise and mixed it all up. Soon everyone was awake and up, and we
enjoyed the egg dish with cream crackers and freshly brewed coffee. In the
freezer we also have bread buns, and soon they were in the oven, and soon
to be enjoyed with sliced cold ham, pastrami, salami and whole grain
mustard and an assortment of cheeses. A load of washing went into the
washing machine, and we are fairly industrious on this Sunday morning. I
sometimes jokingly comment that I rest for six days a week and on the
seventh day I work to pay penance for the my sins. Geoff reckoned that I
will need qute a few Sundays to pay for my sins, I replied more like a
couple of lifetimes :) I also sometimes chirp that if you can't be good, at
least be good at it. Is that bad ? Bwahahahahahaha !!!!!!

So exactly where are we out here. Right now, at 04:00 UTC our position is
29*03.855S/076*18.285E. Somewhere, more than a third of the way, between
Mauritius and Australia. Our heading is more or less south east as we are
after the bit of more steady westerlies further down south. We are still in
the Indian Ocean, but just want to dip a toe in the Southern Ocean. Not to
deep where the roaring 40's roam, but close enough to enjoy the long swells
and the gentle breezes. The roaries 40's is what us mariners call 40* south
and further down down. The winds there sometimes roar, stormy weather in
short.

What makes today extra special is the unexpected good winds. Yesterday when
we looked at our weather grib files, which was sent by our windguru(my mom),
it looked like we may have no wind at all. We made good enough throughout the
night motoring to just slip under this little spell of no winds. When Geoff
took over watch from me I greeted him in the most jovial of greeting that I
love from the French. Bonjoir bonjoir !!! He was for a moment not sure how to
reply, and instead of saying bien et toi, he simply said wee wee. Which is
exactly what he was on his way to go and do, have a wee wee off the side of
the boat :) Wee wee could also be taken as yes yes in French. Being a guy
this is one of the great pleasures of sailing according to me, to stand
outside, day or night, look at the skies, and have a wee wee. On a monohull
boat this is sometimes dangerous, on a catamaran it is much safer. Once again
one of those simple pleasures we enjoy immensely out here. Anyways, instead
of no wind, we have a steady 13-15kts of westeries and sailing silky smoothly
at 7 kts. Marina is our chef on this trip, and us guys can focus mostly on
the business of sailing the ever beautiful Maverick called Island Home. She's
been doing exceedingly well, feeding us all and cooking up a storm, through
the storms and all. I decided to make some spaghetti bolognaise and give her
a bit of a break yesterday.

So what is it like living on a yacht on the open ocean you may wonder. Mostly
bliss as far as I am concerned. Especially on a yacht like Island Home. The
watermaker or desalinator to be more exact, allows us to have a hot shower
every day. Not a long ten minute shower as one would sometimes indulge in on
land, but two three minutes is fabulous when you are used to a quick shower
every three days or so without a watermaker. The little luxuries which one
takes so easily for granted when on land. We can't stop anywhere out here to
buy fresh bread, so we bake our own. Lots of freezing space on board, and
also a nice size fridge which gives extra life to or eggs and fresh veggies.
Eggs are tricky to keep good if you don't have space in the fridge. You mark
all the top sides and then vaseline them. Every two days you turn them over
and they will last for six weeks or so, depending on how fresh they were when
you bought them. Plenty of tricks like this that us yachties share between
each other. On google you will find most of them. And yes, we mostly cook
with gas :) Having inverters and generators on board also allows you to use
microwaves and convection ovens.

Most modern yachts also have great instrumentation. Autopilots,
chartplotters, radars, IAS that tells us where ships are long before radar
can detect them, VHF radios, satellite phones with which we stay in touch,
depth sounders to show us the depth, which is important in shallow waters.
Depth sounders on average will only read up to about 150 mtrs deep. Music
systems, tv's, and of course, a range of Iphones, Ipads, Macs, laptops, tabs,
hard drives with literally thousands of songs and movies and documentaries,
cameras of which the GoPro is quite popular nowadays. So we are not living
spartan lives out here, not even close. Solar panels and wind generators
pumps power into our batteries as do our engines. Fishing gear, tools and
spares to fix whatever may need fixing and so the list can go on and on. Most
obvious though, wide open spaces, without trucks, taxis and cars. A ship here
and there is the only traffic we have to watch out for mostly. Clean
unpolluted air, no insects or other creepy crawlies. So please do not worry
about us or feel sorry for us out here on the ocean. Rather feel sorry and
worry if you don't know what it feels like to really be alive. You can
experience it anywhere, except in front of your tv :)))