Oct 25, 2010-More Photos Posted

We've also posted some images Pierre took in Sumatra.

wingssail images-pierre yves hadamar
Wings

Click here for some photos of Wings in Sumatra.

Click here for other Indonesia shots from Pierre.

We'll post a link to his photo albums when he has all the images up.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius

Oct. 24, 2010-Resting In Mauritius

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Yachts In Mauritius

I’m watching the parade of yachts coming in from the sea and those heading back out. They don’t stay here long.

Mauritius has long been a stopover on the Indian Ocean sailing route and sees a lot of traffic. This welcoming harbor in the middle a vast ocean offers a respite from the sea where ships and yachts crossing the Indian Ocean can rest up and get decent provisions before going on. They all stop here but they usually don’t stay long. The long haul vessels discharge or take on cargo and then are in a hurry to be off to the next port of call and the westbound yachts just take a breather before Africa beckons and they quietly set sail towards Reunion, the next stop and the last one before they make the jump to the dark continent.

In some ways I long to be moving on with them but I know it will be best for us if we stay in Mauritius for a while.

We’ve been here five days and we’ve pretty much caught up on our rest and, yes, we’re still waiting for parts to come in from overseas, but even after they arrive we’re decided that we don’t want to head out of here this season.

It’s not about crew, we could get someone. We could also get the parts and install them, (or even leave without them) and we still have plenty of time before cyclone season shuts the door.

It’s that we just aren’t in any hurry to face that next crossing yet, the one to Africa, and maybe never will be.

We don’t have to right now. Mauritius is an interesting and beautiful place. There are some advantages. We already know that wine is cheap and the market is excellent, plus there is a racing scene here.

So Wings is on a different agenda from the rest of the fleet and that’s OK. We’re cruisers. We stop and see places. We live there for a while. Now we’re going to hang around here, live here a while, and get to know the place.

We can leave next season if we want to.

Tomorrow we’ll go to the immigration office and see about a visa extension.

Then we’ll go check out the Grand Bay Yacht Club and see how friendly it is.

And if there are no show stoppers we’ll stay.

And if the itch to join with the departing flock gets too strong, well, Africa will still be there next year.

Click here to see the first shots from Mauritius.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius

Oct.24, 2010-Photo Updates Now Posted

It's been nearly a month since September when we dropped off the grid back in Indonesia. Now, here in Mauritius, we've got an Internet connection again and though it is expensive to use it seems to work good enough.

We thought we'd catch you up up on all the photos we've been taking.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
In the Mentawai's

Click here for more photos of the Mentawai Islands where we visited just before leaving Sumatra.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
ITCZ Sailing

Next we sailed south looking for the SE Trades. We had miserable and stormy conditions before finding SE Trades and some blue skies eight days later.

(Every other yacht coming across the Southern Indian Ocean this season has reported similar, or worse, conditions.)

Click here for more shots of the rough conditions we found in the ITCZ.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Boisteous Trade Wind Sailing

Even when the sky cleared, the wind didn't drop much, the seas stayed big, and we rocked on Westward.

Click here for more shots of trade wind sailing.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Tied up In Mauritius

Eighteen and a half days after leaving Sumatra we tied up Wings along side the sea wall in Mauritius. 2700 miles: a momentous crossing for us.

Click here for more shots of our arrival at Mauritius

So that's the crossing in a nutshell. We've said we are sailing westward until we stop.

For now, we've stopped.

wingssail images-pierre yves hadamar
Westward

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius

Oct. 22, 2010-Sega Dancing in Mauritius

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Sega Dancer

The culture in Mauritius is a mix of French, Indian, and African/Creole. One Creole contribution is this unique sega dancing which was a form of relaxation of the African workers after a hard day working in the sugar fields. Now it is an erotic dance enjoyed for the fun of it and particularly enjoyed by tourists.

The ARC Around the World Rally organized this performance at La Caudan Marina as entertainment during their departure party in Port Louis.

Click here for more sega dancing shots.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius

Oct 19, 2020-Arrival in Mauritius

Just to let you know we made a safe landfall in Mauritius on Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 17:00 and are tucked into a marina in the main harbor of Port Louis. We are fine and the boat is fine.

We sailed 2772 miles in 18.5 days, an average of about 150 miles/day.

We'll send more information and put some photos on the blog soon. Right now we are trying to get established here and start fixing the few things which are broken.

Our crew member, Pierre, has to fly back to Singapore in order to look for a job. He didn't quite realize how long this whole crossing to Africa would take. So now we have no crew member to sail with us to Africa and we probably won't go this year. Mauritius looks nice anyhow.

Click here to see the log book pages of our passage from Sumatra to Mauritius.


Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius

Oct 19, 2010-Dispatch #9 from Indian Ocean-

Day 19; 19.45.093S 58.26.080E

A very quiet morning on our last morning at sea. At 07:00 AM the sun is up and glorious, the sea is up a bit, the wind is 22 knots and building, Pierre & Judy are still sleep on the settees and Wings rocks on silently, racing ever westward.

After 17 days on port this morning we jibed onto starboard to set up our approach to the north end of Mauritius. At 08:30 we will jibe back. It might not be the last jibe and that depends on the anticipated wind shift as the trades deflect around Mauritius.

Mauritius is sixty miles out now, not yet visible but I am watchful. The mountains of Mauritius should soon appear on the horizon; landfall after 19 days at sea. It will be a welcome sight.

Fred & Judy & Pierre, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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Click here to see the log book pages of our passage from Sumatra to Mauritius.

Oct 17, 2010-Dispatch #8 from Indian Ocean-

Day 17; 18.46.124S 63.48.821E

17 days at sea is something of an endurance test. Of course other sailors, many others, have done longer passages by far, but for the three sailors on Wings this test is a mix of good and bad.

The sailing itself is glorious, that is true. We have had days on end of fresh, now cooling, breezes from a steady SE direction. Twenty knots of wind, or more, which push us ever westward fleeing from the rising sun each morning, pursuing the setting moon each night, seven knots of speed and upward, hour after hour, day after day, sheets tight, sails flat and firm, the windvane at the back constantly adjusting, pulling the tiller left and right, so that we keep on our westward course, and the water continually roaring past our hull. Who could ask for more?

But we also have the endless motion. Big waves, rollers up from deep in the Southern Ocean, are added to significant wind waves from the SE trades and the result is extreme motion which is constantly with us, a powerful opponent to any normal activity. No item in the boat stays in its place unless constrained, including ourselves. If you put something down, anywhere, as soon as it is released it lifts directly from where you put it and flies away. Try cooking a meal, doing the dishes or even poring a glass of fruit juice; nearly impossible. It takes two hands to do it and then there is no hand left to secure yourself, so you and whatever you are holding fly away only to crash into the next solid thing. You learn new skills of working one handed and planning every slightest operation. The surface of the stove, which, being gimbaled, is not motion free but its movement does not cause items to fly off of it, and it becomes your only ally. You can place things there, however briefly, and they rest. So you use the stove even when not cooking. The sink can hold a few things, so you use it too. You learn these new skills by necessity.

When working on the computer the mouse becomes a missile on a leash. You have to put it way after each click. To type you lean on the computer keyboard to preempt the motion which wants to fly you there anyway. Even that is risky; I was thrown onto my beloved new Dell Studio laptop computer and my elbow broke the glass on the LCD screen and it is slowly degrading. Right now there is magenta and red blood dripping from the crack. Its demise is imminent which saddens me because I love this computer; it is my joy and my tool and my entertainment. I am so sorry I broke it.

Even sleeping is difficult because your body is thrown up and down and from side to side in the bed. We wake up with sore arms, backs, shoulders, and necks from fighting the motion in our sleep.

On deck you have the same issues of motion but added the constant wind and spray. Try to read a book and the pages flutter like bird's wings unless you hold them both in place. The spray flecks the pages with water spots until the book is soggy. The motion carries away the cookie you took with you. Going to the foredeck or aft you need to walk like a cat with at least one hand grabbed onto something solid at all times, even then you get thrown around. Your fear is being thrown off the boat so you wear a harness which gets tangled in your feet and everything else.

But we cope with all of this. We eat, sail, cook, read, work on the computer, work on the boat, clean things, pump things; all of it. Sometimes life seems really good. This afternoon Judy is on the settee reading and drinking wine, Pierre is on deck, standing his watch with a camera and a good Grisham novel and I am sprawled in the aft cabin reading a religion textbook in a pool of warm sunlight coming in through the open hatch. We are sitting around reading, listening to music, and standing our lazy daytime watches while the boat rocks, rolls, and sails itself onward. It is the life on the sea.

But, we are two days away from being in port.

That arrival will be a happy moment; things will be still for a change.

Fred & Judy & Pierre, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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Oct 15, 2010-Dispatch #7 from Indian Ocean-

Day 15; 17.57.098S 68.47.467E

Sent from African Radio Connection; we're now close enough to Africa to connect with them.

Heading WSW at 7.5 knots reaching on port jibe with a #2 genoa and a second reef in the main. The wind is from 123 degrees at 19-20kts. Sun is shining and sky and ocean are blue. Sailing is good and very fast. A positive current is helping.

The wind came back and we're flying along. 182 miles in the last 24 hours and we have a good chance of getting in on Tuesday.

Fred & Judy & Pierre, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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Oct 14, 2010-Dispatch #6 from Indian Ocean-

Day 14; 17.27.891S 73.24.459E

Heading WSW at 6.6 knots reaching on port jibe with a #2 genoa and a full main. The wind is from 133 degrees at 15-16kts. Sun is shining and sky and ocean are blue. Sailing is good.

Two days of lighter winds have both slowed our westward progress and given us a rest from the motion which always results from being on a speeding boat on a big ocean of angry waves in which category we definitely fell the week previously.

There are some spectacular photos of those flying days sitting on memory cards aboard this vessel which, due to the connection limitations of HF radio, we cannot share with you now but you'll see them later.

The lighter winds and smaller seas don't make for such photo opportunities; however it makes cooking and sleeping easier. We are well rested and well fed.

The sun has also dried us out. All the laundry and linens have been on the line over the last two days and even cushions have been on deck drying out. The hatches are open and the breeze flows through so we have a fresher smell down below.

We enjoy the respite from the motion and the damp but miss the speed.

Yesterday we had a celebratory drink as we passed the 1000 mile point from our destination, Mauritius. Now as I write this the distance to go is 921 miles. We'll be there on next Wednesday even in the lighter conditions we have now, and they are forecast to increase a little.

So it is a happy ship.

Fred & Judy & Pierre, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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Oct 10, 2010-Dispatch #5 from Indian Ocean-

Day 11; 15.21.585S 79.15.368E

Heading WSW at 7 knots running with a poled out #4 jib and a full main. The wind is from 80 degrees at 15-16kts. Sun is shining and sky and ocean are blue. Sailing is good.

Sailors know all voyages will eventually end and so will this one but for me this voyage is taking a while.

I realize that we will still be seeing this same vista of vast blue ocean filled with waves which seemingly go on forever, as far as we can see in every direction, for ten more days and have for eleven already.

The ocean is big.

The crossing is also seemingly going to go on forever and so we have a lot of time on our hands.

Time for reading, for music, for talking, for fishing. Time for anything we want as long as we can do it on this boat out here at sea.

But me, I'm restless and I want to get there, get going on stuff that I can only do in port and get on with things like fixing and planning and arranging; the things of action that I do.

Instead, if I am going to keep my sanity, I need to chill out and relax and enjoy some of those things that I have all this time for.

But it isn't easy. This morning I went to the foredeck with my ipod to listen to the latest Wilco and Arcade Fire and enjoy the roar of the ocean as we surfed at 10 knots down the big ones. But an hour was all I could do.

Then I read my Stephen Hawking book for about 30 mins, got bored.

So, I need to find a zen or a zone or something, because, like I said, we've still got ten more days of this. Maybe tomorrow I can make it longer on the foredeck or read a few more pages of Stephen Hawking.

But I am working on it and like I said, all voyages eventually come to an end.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Indian OceanFred & Judy, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

If you see this posting then we haven't lost comms yet, but due to distance, we expect to soon.

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Oct 10, 2010-Dispatch #4 from Indian Ocean-

Day 10; 14.42.56S-82.16.4E

Heading WSW at 6 knots running with a poled out #4 jib and a reefed main. About to shake the reef. The wind is from 97 degrees at 15-16kts. Sun is shining and sky and ocean are blue. Sailing is good but...

We are diverting to Mauritius to be better able to repair the boat. Failures so far are not so serious although they are bad for the morale but who knows what will fail next. Stopping at Rodriguez would not be fun when we are worried about the boat. So the focus now is to get to a safe port with facilities. Also, Pierre realizes that he must leave the boat in Mauritius to get back to Singapore and look for a job. We go there directly now. 1447 miles from this position. ETA Oct 20th depending on wind. Forecast is for less wind. We'll crowd on more canvass.

The leg to Africa is now in doubt this season. Win some lose some.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

If you see this posting then we haven't lost comms yet, but due to distance, we expect to soon.

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Oct 10, 2010-Losing Radio Contact

At the halfway point we are losing digital radio contact. This will be the last transmission for several days. All is well except today the freezer/refer failed. Shit!

Fred & Judy & Pierre, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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Oct.9, 2010-Dispatch #3 From Indian Ocean

Day 9; 14.01.81S 85.14.9E Wind: 25kt E, Partial overcast, Seas: moderate, Speed: 7-8, Hdg: 265deg

We've finally turned the corner and are running down the latitude wing on wing headed directly for Rodriguez rolling along under blue or less grey skies on a sometimes blue ocean.

Despite that less than glowing report it is really better now than before on this passage. Now we have steady winds and have had no rain for 36 hours.

Yesterday after a particularly wet and dirty night it dawned bright and clearing. By mid day we had those ideal conditions we had been longing for and, also finally, "Fish On". Pierre caught a nice, small, Mahi Mahi which we cooked for lunch.

Today there is less sunshine but it is still good.

The boat is fine, most systems normal. The inverter is still marginal but we're using back-ups. The AIS system's GPS keeps going offline after we use the SSB radio and we've tried turning it off and shielding it with tin foil but no change. Today it looks to be hard down. We can still receive other ship's transmissions however. After cruising for 20+ years without AIS this is a small loss now. The SSB RF radiations at the frequencies we're now using seem to be tough on electronics and probably contributed to the AIS failure. It is also playing up with the Pactor Modem communications we use for sailmail as well as these postings. I'm looking at some ways to improve that.

Otherwise we're good. Water, fuel, and cooking gas, all OK. We get showers each third day.
Sailing is fine. We now have a full watch on chafe since we have about 9 days more solid sailing like this before we get to Rodriguez.

All is well.

Tomorrow should mark the midpoint of this passage and we're looking forward to it.

Fred & Judy & Pierre, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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Oct.6, 2010-Dispatch #2 From Indian Ocean

Day six; 10.18.252S-92.27.096E

Sky overcast and heavy rain. Wind SE @ 28.8. Sailing on a broad reach with three reefs and small jib. Speed 8-9. Could carry a bit more main but this combination leaves us better prepared for the 38 knot gusts which have come in some of the squalls.

This is day six and we've had three days of these strong SE winds, angry waves, and heavy rain following three days of the same from the NW. The wind is now from a good direction but it's been a bit high for comfort and There's no respite from the squalls and rain. If anything the squalls are coming more frequently; about one an hour. Last night we just got cleaned up and settled from one and the next one came before I could eat my dinner. I had to gulp down my food and get on deck. Hard to savor a glass of white wine when you havew to gulp it down. We decided to leave the third reef in for the night and it was the right call. We had 30's most of the night and higher often and were doing 8's and 9's with that and a #4. We're making good progress but it isn't any pleasure cruise.

We thought this is the ITCZ bothering us but why is it so far south? We've come 400 miles south and we are yet to see more than a glimpse blue sky. Today we got a fix on a low pressure system to the west of us which is giving us this and we'll probably have it for a few days more.

Pierre and Judy are beginning to have doubts about me since I promised them a nice trade wind sail once we left Sumatra, which was 6 days ago, and it hasn't happened. We're doing OK but we damp and tired of the weather.

Yesterday during a lull we horsed the mainsail down and I did some sewing to changes the way the top batten is installed. It was a full batten with an end cap bolted to the sail at the bolt rope. This was tearing up the bolt rope and sail, damaging the mast where it rubbed, and making it difficult to pull the sail up or down for reefing. I made a new batten pocket end and removed the offending plastic batten end. It's an obvious improvement but some of the damage is already done.

We had to use the spare inverter for the sewing machine since the main inverter has been playing up, shutting off every 6 seconds with a bogus error message. It's all we can do to get it to run the coffee grinder in the morning. (I run back and forth across the cabin to restart the inverter every six seconds)

When we put the main back up after that and there was still a lull so in a fit of wishfull thinking we put up the full main then got caught in 38 knot blow for 30 minutes. I hand steered and that was fun, holding that much power in my hands.

Fun? Give me a break. I want sunshine and mellow conditions.

Fred & Judy & Pierre, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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Oct. 3, 2010-Dispatch #1 from the Indian Ocean

Day three; 5,09 deg S-98,24 deg E

Heading SW at 7-8 knots on a broad reach with #4 jib and a reefed main. The wind is from 97 degrees at 18-26 knot. Sun is peeking out for the first time this passage. Judy and Pierre are sleeping. Wet weather gear swings dripping circles in the forepeak. Everything is damp.

By dawn the third day we have covered 194 nautical miles and until this morning there has been very little fun in it. It was slow going with contrary winds (on the nose), torrential downpours which defeated the best rain gear, and lumpy waves which tossed us like a cork. Welcome to the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. The worst of it was yesterday afternoon when we had the rain but no wind and waves which flogged the sails unmercifully. We just took the sails down and motored.

We'd been heading due south, well east of our line headed as quick as we could towards 10 degrees south, below the ITCZ, where the trades should be solid and dependable and we could say good bye to the rain and these rotten NW winds. The forecasts kept showing easterlies where we were but we hadn't seen them.

They first showed up at 4 degrees south Yesterday on Judy's watch, hooray, when the wind switched within five minutes and blew from the SE, but it didn't last. In an hour they disappeared again.

This morning it changed once more, this time gradually swinging around and it has been solid 15-20 knots from the ESE for five hours. We have turned towards Rodriguez.

I'm not calling them the trade winds but like they say, if it talks like a duck and walks like a duck, well…

The rain stopped and we're sailing well.

I've opened the hatches for some ventilation and put out the fishing line again.

Our spirits have been down but now I hope people will perk up a bit.

Now we just need to work our way around a little low system which looks to be in front of us which we are tracking closely. I've worked out a route to get south of it and we will try to follow that

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Indian Ocean

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