Latitude: 07 degrees, 19 minutes S
Longitude: 137 degrees, 29.6 min W
Distance Traveled: 2800 nautical miles
Distance to Marquesas: 115 nautical miles
As we approach land, I find myself struck by a few emotions: of relief to finally finally get onto dry land, but also reflections on the passage that has been as diverse as it has been long … herewith begins Ryan’s first novel, so grab a cup of tea! It is 2am and not a lot happening on this night shift.
Being aboard a small boat crossing the extraordinarily large Pacific Ocean has taught us many things, and introduced us to an echelon of folk who voluntarily donate their time and expertise to supporting people, like us, at sea. Over the past 25 days, we have become acquainted with a few of these people; people who would be relatively unknown to the average land lubber, but at sea are no less than our guardian angels.
As a cruiser at sea, one of the obstacles one has to deal with are the inaccuracies, or dated nature, of weather faxes and other weather information such as Grib files. Beth Leonard, a well published circumnavigator wryly comments that due to time required to compile a weather forecast, added to the infrequent opportunities that cruisers have access to that weather, information is generally 6 to 12 hours old by the time you get it. Often, you will be in the storm before you see it on the forecast. According to her, there is only one way to forecast weather – be your own weatherman: Monitor the barometer, notice any wind shifts, diagnose cloud buildup and changing sea states, and you will know exactly what is coming your way: Cold Front, Warm Front, Low Pressure System, Occluded Front, High Pressure system, Tropical Wave, Convection System etc. As the Skipper and Navigator for this leg, as well as the only one with significant weather experience, I have read Beth’s weather section cover to cover, and then back again – it is uncanny how accurate the predictors are, maybe not for the magnitude of the storm, but definitely for the existence of one! It gives one time to prepare: Charge the batteries, Batten down the hatches, Fill the diesel tanks, get a good meal into the crew, set up lee clothes, install hatchboards against breaking seas etc.
However, while all this may be true, we were lucky enough to have the ultimate in up to date information in the form of Don Anderson, “Summer Passage”, the absolute guru for weather on the west coast of Mexico, and Hurricane Alley.
Through our entire transit of the stormy latitudes we would speak to Don twice daily to get a weather and storm update for our area: Developing systems, Organised systems that were moving toward or away from us, unsettled zones, the latest on the condition of the ITCZ, expected wind shifts etc. I cannot even begin to describe how valuable this contact was for us. Out here we have only a brief window into life ashore – a few text based emails from friends and family, and a couple of vector plots of local weather conditions. Being able to have a full fledged, 15 minute conversation with the local guru weatherman, who would uncannily be able to tell us EXACTLY what wind speed we were experiencing, and from EXACTY what direction, even though he was 1500 miles away from us, was almost an eerie experience. He would say things like: “Those puffy cumulous clouds you see on the southern horizon are due to convection over the ITCZ, whereas the towering cumulous behind you are the remnants of system Four Echo. We would look around you, and there it was. It truly was remarkable. And the most amazing part of all of this? Don does this on an entirely voluntary basis. When you are transiting hurricane alley a little too late in the season, Don is definitely a resource you would like on your side. Don, thank you for everything, I really enjoyed our twice daily conversations, and you assisted the crew of Khulula more than you can imagine.
The Blue Water Cruising Association (of which we are members – I think Hugh and I are “Partners” actually – No Comment!), has a HAM radio guru in the form of Ron Kolody. All three of us spent every Tuesday evening one winter attending his course, learning Morse code, and getting licensed to operate on the HAM radio frequencies. Ron always alluded to setting up a “sched” as soon as we were offshore. Sounded cool we thought.
Well, wow, what an AMAZING resource, and again, totally voluntary. Every evening at 0400 UTC (a time zone), we touch base with Ron (VE7BGK – Victor Echo Seven Bravo Gulf Kilo) in Vancouver, and his good friend Peter (W6DEI – Whiskey Six Delta Echo India ) in Berkeley, California to give our position report to and chat. Our report comprises of such pertinent information such as Latitude, Longitude, Boat Speed, Course (or heading), Barometric Pressure, Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Cloud Cover, Distance Traveled in the previous 24 hours, Distance traveled so far, and Distance to go. Ron and Peter would then compile all this information, as well as any personal messages, into an email and mail them out to a list of our loved ones! This happens every evening! Over the course of the Voyage, Ron has busted out a few other tricks that he has up his sleeve – he has recorded a message from us all, converted it to a sound file, attached it to an email and sent that to all our loved ones. We thought that was very cool. A bit further down the line, he stepped it up a notch and actually phone patched in different people so that we could talk to them on the radio! I have had a great conversation with Thea, Bryson has spoken to Jess, we have both spoken to Mom and Dad, and Hugh has missed his parents by seconds (but has left voicemails). All this from the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Ron and Peter are also filled with other tidbits of great information such as: “Do you guys know that currently you are in one of the parts of the ocean that is further from land than anywhere else on the entire Globe?” …. Uh, yeah, actually we did not know that Ron, and.. er… thanks for letting us know ! (Feeling very isolated? Heck yes!) Ron and Peter, thank for so much for the contact every evening, we look forward to keeping in touch with you for a long as we possible can. Each evening all three of us are clustered around the radio – cooking dinner or washing up, but hanging on every world of our very infrequent audio contact with the outside world. It is definitely the highlight of the evening.
For interest sakes, the three of us have super cool call signs too: I am VA7RJR (Victor Alpha Seven Romeo Juliet Romeo – Yes, I have taken some razzing for that one!), Hugh is VE7HPU (Victor Echo Seven Hotel Pappa Uniform) and Brys is VA7BSN (Victor Alpha Seven Bravo Sierra November). I dare you to try and say those 10 times fast!
I know this is getting wordy, my apologies, but there is one more thank you:
The Pacific Sea Farers Net (PSN) is something that Peter urged us to join. The PSN meets every evening on a specified frequency at a specified time. To join, you contact Net Control (directly or through a relay) during their “warm up”, 15 minutes before the “net” begins. Your boat is now a part of the evening roll call. This net is huge, with high-powered shore stations all tuned into one frequency. In addition there are all the mobile stations (AKA, sailboats) that are spaced out in various locations around the Pacific. It is a rare night indeed where you wont be able to talk to or contact someone from within the net to give your report to, and herein lies the power of the Net. What is the purpose? Camaraderie, Safety and Security. Once a boat is a part of the roll call, the Net will search it out every evening, get a report from the vessel (identical to the Ron and Peter’s above), ask if anyone else on the net would like to contact the vessel, then wish the vessel a pleasant evening and move on to the next vessel. Great. If a vessel does not turn up for roll call, the alarm bells go up. It is like giving your itinerary and estimated return date to someone before you head out on a remote hike into the backcountry. Thus, they have our last known whereabouts and our itinerary as solid starting point for if anything, heaven forbid, should go wrong. In this instance, they can begin to use their vast influence and contacts across the Pacific to try and locate the vessel. Also, if there is a medical emergency on board, let the PSN know in the evening when you check in, and you are well on your way to getting it resolved. Again, this entire network is set up on a voluntary basis.
As an aside, another way to track us is through the PSN website which publishes the position of every boat after roll call each evening…
The value of scope of the voluntary assistance we have received on this passage has floored us – complete strangers giving up their valuable time to assist small boats miles away from anywhere. The great thing about it all is the positive momentum it builds, it makes us want to get involved and help out as much as we can as well, and we will, at our earliest opportunity.
This is exactly the movement we want to create and nurture for OceanGybe. Three average guys on a very average sailboat wanting to make a difference in this world. As we spread our message, we hope that our lifestyle of conservation will rub off on the people we meet and begin a whole new branch of awareness. If you are reading this, try and make a point to tell someone new about OceanGybe and what we are about – urge them to keep our beaches clean, and to urge others to keep their beaches clean.
If you have made it this far, thanks for listening 🙂