June 3, 2017-Sailing is an Outdoor Activity

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Nikon Selfie

Sailing is an outdoor activity. We love that part of it; we love being outside.

When we can sail on the open ocean in the sunshine under a clear blue sky with the wind in our face and with salt spray flying...we love that most of all.

Like today
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The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, the ocean is gorgeous, its warm but not hot. It's fantastic. Judy is off watch. She is sleeping on the settee. I think Judy is missing out by being below deck.

But me, I'm having a great sail.

The wind vane is steering. I am sitting in the companionway. I scan my instruments which are right in front of me. I look around, I have 360degrees of unobstructed visibility. The boat is going fast (we're going 6.4 knots upwind in 14 knots of breeze) and the windvane is locked onto a great 15 degree lift. We are already sailing a beautiful course up the Mexican coast and the wind looks to be lifting more. Most of all, I am outside, on the water, on a wonderful day and it is great to be alive. This is the kind of sailing I love.

Not every cruising sailor feels this way. In fact apparently few do. Most boats have complete canvas covers over their cockpits. They are walled in on all sides from the wind and the sun, from all the elements really. I don't get it. I wonder how much to trust a sailor who is OK with never feeling the wind in his face. As far as wind goes, many sailors are as good at avoiding wind as we are about finding it. Yesterday two boats arrived in Chemela from Barra after motoring the whole way even though there was a nice SW wind blowing which would have been a beam reach for them. They both left today before daylight headed for Banderas Bay, the same destination as we have. I heard them discussing it on the radio.

"If we leave before daylight maybe we can get past Corrientes before the wind comes up, and anyhow, Banderas Bay will be calm by then too."

So why have a sailboat?

We left at 1:00 in the afternoon. It had been blowing all morning at about 12 to 13 knots, and we usually leave when the wind comes up, but we want to arrive tomorrow in the daylight, so we delayed our departure a couple of hours.

The wind was westerly and our course made for long tacks up the coast on port and short tacks out on starboard. We expected the wind to shift to the right and so we stayed on the right side of the rumb line and played the beach. Close some times. Once Judy took us in to 60 feet, just outside of the surf line before she called me on deck to tack. That was unusual for her, she usually sails more conservatively than that.

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Making Speed

This afternoon the wind has been building. From 13 knots of true wind speed it has increased to the 18-20 knot range. That means up to 26 knots over the deck; quite enough I think. The boat speed is up too, to 6.6. I check the chart plotter and on the last 60 second average we have been sailing at 7.2 knots over the bottom. (Later I see 7.8, maybe we have some positive current.)

To deal with the stronger wind I've changed gears. By adjusting the sail trim, flattening the jib, flattening the main (but not too much, we need the power to drive through these waves) I've reduced power of the sails. I also cranked on more backstay and eased the runner. We've already been carrying the mainsheet traveler below centerline and now I ease it way down. At this point the boat is optimized for the heavier breeze and bigger waves. If the wind goes up much more we'll put a reef in the mainsail but right now we are fine. It is only the waves which are bothersome. They are bouncing us around quite a lot; we are in constant motion. It's hard to hang on even below decks. There is the danger of a fall down below; we try to be careful. Sometimes we hit a big wave and the boat pounds pretty good. It's not a good sound.

We are expecting conditions to ease off after dark. We are hoping the wind will drop and the waves will flatten but so far the wind stays in the same range, or at least it is staying over 16.

We are again approaching the shoreline. I shudder as I think about what would happen if I fell asleep on watch. The boat would sail right on relentlessly until it hit the beach. I am not confident that the depth alarm would wake us up. There are some risks in this type of sailing.

I watch the land as we draw closer. In the late sunlight the long sandy shoreline and the brilliant dunes in front of the dark green low hills is quite beautiful.

I can't tell how far off we are; the charts show us on land already and the breakers are pretty close. There are no rocks or reefs on the charts but these charts are notoriously inaccurate. The bottom is coming up steadily it's now under 78 feet.

It's time to tack out again.

I put my head down and peer into the companionway.

"Judy", I say softly.

Judy opens her eyes and asks what time it is.

"7:00 O'clock" I say. "It's time to tack out".

Judy comes up and she surely wants to tack out, the shore looks too close to her.

She sets up for the tack and calls, "Ready".

We tack. I release the windvane and turn the boat. Judy throws off the jib sheet, puts on the new runner, then turns to the other side of the cockpit as the boat rolls to the new angle and her arms flail as she tails in the new sheet. I release the old runner and reset the wind vane. She finishes off grinding the jib with the big double winch handle. It is smoothly done. We're good at it, but I guess after thirty years we should be.

On the new tack the solar panels need to be changed to face the low sun now on the other side of the boat. I adjust the windward one then swing across back of the boat, hanging on the backstay like a monkey, thinking about what happens if my hand slips, will I fall off? Maybe. I hold tight and rotate the other panel. This will keep the voltage on the batteries up for another hour.

This will be a short tack, just enough to clear Cabo Correintes up ahead and then we will tack back. By midnight we should be around the cape and into Banderas Bay. If we do we will have averaged 6.75 knots along the course we actually sailed (longer than the straight line due to our tacks) and a VMG of 5.25 up the rumb line, which is very good.

It has been a great sail and we're close to the end of it now, but there will be more.

Click here to go to wingssail images for more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, on passage

Feb 26, 2015-New Blog Postings-Adventures in Paradise

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Fred & Judy

Well, we've been here in Puerto Vallarta (La Cruz, to be exact) for a couple of months and nothing big has happened.

But lots of small things have.

So, instead of waiting for the big story we've decided to write about some of the small things.

Since we think this place is truly "Paradise" , we'll title these " Adventures in Paradise".

Won't be as exciting as sailing across a wild ocean, but at least you won't think we died.

Yet.

We'll have the first "Adventure" up soon.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz

December 20, 2013-Christmas in Colombia

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Merry Christmas

I’ve been scanning old log book pages and saving them on the blog and while doing that I end up reading and reliving each one. This week I have been working on 1989, when Judy and I were still in Seattle sailing Wings and living aboard, and I enjoyed remembering those old days.

Then, as I saved the page I was reading, my screen saver popped back into view and it showed a beautiful shot of Judy from 2013, on Wings, laughing with some of our crew, and it was from a race here in Cartagena.

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Then and Now

And it struck me that we are so lucky to have had this life. We started out doing something we loved more than 27 years ago and here we are, still at it, still enjoying it.

And my Judy, so young and beautiful back then, and so in love with life and with our life, here she is 24 years later, still racing on our Wings, still lovely and still in love with the life we live.

This makes me very emotional.

Now it is Christmas and we are in Colombia; another new country, another holiday season away from home, and it won’t be the last.

We, like the other cruisers, try to fill the void we feel from being away from family and friends at these times: we have pot-luck dinners on occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving, we gather at some marina common area or on a beach in some bit of paradise somewhere, and we laugh and talk and heap our paper plates with food that never quite seems like the dishes we remember from family gatherings we had back home, and we make the best of it.

But honestly, we’d rather be with you all.

This week we went into Old Town with some friends we’ve met here, Geoff and Omar, from the yacht Un Mundo, and we had a nice dinner and drinks at one of our favorite spots in Cartagena: Plaza Trinidad, and we took the photos you can see in our wingssail-images pages, as well as the one we used in our card this year.

We really love our friends here, and we will miss Geoff and Omar when we leave. They are headed towards Cuba and then Miami and we are headed west through the Panama Canal so we will part company with them, maybe for good, as we have with so many cruisers we’ve met who became dear friends; that is the way of a sailor.

But at Christmas…it seems a little tougher.

Click here for more photos of Cartagena at Christmas time.

Click here for another photo of Fred & Judy back then.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Cartagena

October 12. 2013-Lunch at the Blue Lagoon

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“The ceviche es fantastica”.

And so is the companionship in La Laguna Azul (the Blue Lagoon), the small a restaurant under the steps to the old Getsemani Central Commercial Mall in Cartagena. There are just two tables here and a slanted ceiling over the kitchen and movie posters hang on the wall with photos of a young and tender Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins and it serves the best, freshest ceviche (marinated fish) we’ve ever had, anywhere, bar none, plus really cold beer and good wine.

With only two tables there is a good chance you won’t get one so when we arrived on Saturday they planted us outside, nice enough for an ice-cold Aquila Beer, but we said we’d wait for a table inside where the air-conditioning keeps things frigid, before ordering lunch. Apparently my Spanish was undecipherable but after several English-Spanish language consultations with various bystanders the waitress finally got the idea and promptly kicked out the group of four who had been nursing their cervasas for an hour or so, and ushered us inside. Sometimes it pays to be a gringo tourist.

And, we found a party going on!

The other table was littered with empty beer bottles and plates formerly filled with fish and prawns and other piscatorial delights and surrounded by a gaggle of slightly boisterous Colombianos enjoying a long Saturday afternoon get-together. The small eatery was a bit noisy but never mind, it was cool inside after the heat of our morning shopping spree and the food, we knew from a previous visit, was great, so we ordered more beer and wine and a couple of large plates of the delicious marinated fish with red onion salsa and piles of plantain chips.

Before long we were happily enjoying our meal and had become part of the party, it seemed, and one great fellow, Nelson, leaned over and told us the story of how he and his comrades, all from San Juan Nepomuceno, in the mountains far to the south of Cartagena, meet here regularly to keep alive their long friendship.

Then the beauty contestants started coming in.

Several tall and lean and gorgeous young women, smiling and friendly, all wearing satin sashes with their names on them, came in one by one for hugs and kisses, more hugs, more kisses, and photo ops. It seems that the national beauty pageant, which happens in Cartagena in November, is a popularity contest and these girls were out getting the vote. It made my head spin, that and all the Sauvignon Blanc I was drinking with my langoustino cerviche.

Two hours later we finally bid our goodbyes to our new friends and meandered our way back through the streets of old town to Club Nautico and Wings, where we collapsed for a long nap.

I wonder what we’ll do next Saturday?

Click here for more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Cartagena

March 12, 2012-Photos Posted of Atlantic Sailing

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Sailing to Brazil

Click here to see photos of the sailing to Brazil from Saint Helena

As you will see it was an easy trip.

Fred & Judy (& Randy & Laura), SV Wings, Fernando de Naronha, Brazil

August 12, 2011-Sailing out of Richard's Bay

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Sailor Girl

The mast has been up a month, the rig is tuned, the mainsail repaired, the hydraulics all fixed; we’re ready to go sailing.

So today we took Wings out for a little test sail. The weather was perfect: blue African skies, blue Indian Ocean, big east coast waves, and 20 fresh knots of true cool wind with plenty of punch.

Wings loved it, we loved it.

We set the full mainsail, a bit flat, and a #4 jib and headed out into the fresh NE wind close hauled and doing 6.8 knots. We got a few splashes of salt water in our faces to keep it real, and we took turns steering. I went forward on port tack and checked the rig; the mast was perfectly straight and the shrouds felt good. Oh, I could take a couple of turns on the lowers and the D-2’s but nothing critical. Tacked over and checked again in starboard. Same result. Job done we settled in and just let everything work for a few hours. We smoked on upwind in the big waves and enjoyed life.

At 2:00PM we cracked off and the speeds climbed. We jibed over and headed back on a beam reach and started to surf: 8’s and 9’s; Judy saw 10+ a couple of times. Good sailing.

We surfed into the Richard’s Bay channel and Judy went forward to drop the jib. Behind Naval Island we took down and folded the main.

We were back in the slip at 3:30 PM.

Life is good when you can go sailing in the ocean in conditions like this.

Click here for more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Richard’s Bay, South Africa

Dec. 21, 2010-A Good Sail Today

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Judy steers with the big sails up

You go,
you go out,
out to sea,
out to the blue sea,
out to the ocean.

You go out for
the sailing,
the fix,
the sailing fix,
the fix you need.

Out there on
the flat horizon,
the blue flat horizon,
where the wind blows,
where the sailing is good,
real good.

You put up the sails,
the big sails,
the really big sails.
and sheet them in,
sheet them in hard,
really hard.

You go up on the wind,
get right on the wind,
get really right onto the wind,
and then you’re sailing. Really sailing.

We sailed to Port Louis from Black River on Tuesday after a week anchored in that beautiful inlet on the SW side of Mauritius.

It was good to get out in the breeze and sheet the sails in hard. The power which comes on when the wind is up and the sails are in and we head up into the wind…that’s what gives me the sailing fix I’m talking about. It’s a great feeling and I need it once in a while.

The wind strength and angle surprised us though. The previous day a Beneteau 49 headed out and we watched as they found a light easterly outside the reef and took a good angle on starboard tack right up the coast.

We set sail today and when we got out the pass we found a northerly wind blowing instead of an easterly which meant a beat but we hoisted the big genoa and enjoyed the good sailing conditions for a while as we started upwind laying long tacks in the ocean towards Port Louis.

The wind was building and the genoa soon proved to be too much and we dropped it and while it was down we decided to put in a reef in the main. Sometimes you know what is going to feel right and what isn’t. Something told us that the small jib and a reef was going to be a better combination and it was.

We also set the baby stay due to the increasing chop.

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Sailing Past Mauritius

Then for the next four hours, with everything ship shape and set for the conditions, we had a great sail in twenty knots of wind at 6.6kts boat speed and 40 degrees to the wind with sun, strong breeze, lots of spray flying and not too much pounding; it was true blue water sailing at its best. But it was tiring and after 18 miles and we were glad to crack off at the entrance to Port Louis and reach into the harbor.

By 16:00 we were tied up to the quay in La Caudan and ready for a cool drink and a shower.

But we’ll be ready for another sailing fix in a week or so.

Click here for more sailing shots.

Click here for photos of the fishing contest at Black River

Click here to see the log book pages of our sailing trips in December 2010

Fred and Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius

Dec 20, 2010-Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas

August 10, 2010-A Quiet Place to Sort Things Out (Revision)

I decided I didn't like the tone of this posting as I originally wrote it. This is a revised version.

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Telaga Harbor, Langkawi

We needed a quiet place and some time to begin to sort things out. The realization that we had to stop crossing oceans, that joint decision that came out of nowhere and put all of our plans and dreams to rest with the suddenness and finality of lightning strike, left us lost with no solid footing or direction, somewhat despondent and perplexed as to what new path forward we would find.

We needed a new star to steer by. The westward star, which was our true guide, suddenly blinked out… and, well, when that rug was pulled we just needed a place where we could think about things and move pieces of the puzzle around until some sort of picture started to appear.

That quiet place is Langkawi, Malaysia. We’ve been here a week and there is no sound but the birds and nothing moves here; even the cows haven’t looked up from their green grass to see what is going on because even they realize that nothing is.

Perfect for thinking about things.

We are not alone here; at Rebak Marina there are others in this limbo where we can’t go ahead and we don’t know how to go back and we’re all thinking about what we want to do. Some of these folks were the same people who were here in January, still living here on their boats and not saying much about their plans. We might have fallen in with this group. In fact we did for a while.

But, it’s all a bit too depressing so we know we need to get out of this space and out of this place.

We know that if the ocean can’t be crossed there must be other options and we’ve got a few figured out, such as shipping the boat to the USA and then going to Mexico to live on it there. There are some other options too. They aren’t all bad.

The positive attitude is sneaking back and new dreams are starting to materialize out of the funk.

The quiet time is starting to bore us. That is a good sign.

Stay tuned.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Langkawi, Malaysia

Click here for other pictures from Langkawi

August 1, 2010-Deciding Not to Continue

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Sailing back from Sumatra, contemplating the future

We arrived back at Telaga Harbor on Langkawi Island at noon on Sunday, August 1. It was a benign 2 ½ day passage crossing from Sumatra, Indonesia and should have been a joyous occasion, but it was not. For unlike our forced return from the western Solomon Islands to Australia in 2003 to fix an engine problem, when we went on to continue our cruise to Hong Kong, this time we will not continue with our cruising plans.

Returning to Langkawi and deciding not to continue represents the end of a dream.

It’s the dream Fred and I have had and lived for the last 24 years; the dream of living aboard our boat, sailing the oceans, experiencing the geography of lands, people and culture that we have only read about in books. Stopping now is the end of all of that.

We never said we had a goal of ‘sailing around the world’. We just wanted to keep heading west. And our dream was to continue.

But plans change: Sometimes due to situations beyond one’s control; sometimes because one consciously chooses a different direction. In our case it is a combination of both: I chose because of things I feel that are beyond my control; Fred chooses because he chooses me; both of us do so with a heavy heart at giving up a goal we have held on to for so long. The good thing about this is that there is only one heavy heart because over the years the two of us have truly melded into one.

Why end the dream?

The passage from Thailand to Sumatra was very tough on both my body and my psyche. Fred gave an accurate description of the passage in the previous post. We had expectations of head winds in the mid-20’s, but we can handle that and I did not object as we set sail out from Thailand. After all, we have sailed in those conditions more times than I can count. (For an accurate account I would have to go though the 25 years of logs books we still carry aboard.) I sort of looked at it as a ‘shakedown cruise’ for testing my physical stamina after good results from a back surgery in February. In reality, it was a ‘shakedown’ of my psyche and it was an exposure of my fear of bad weather.

Over the years people have asked me, “Aren’t you afraid?” Usually they are referring to ocean sailing. I answer them, “Yes, I am afraid, but I want to sail on my boat to different lands and to do that means confronting those fears and trying to be as prepared as possible.” We’ve sailed over 26,000 miles since leaving Seattle in 1998 and we have encountered storms which have frightened me. Each of those experiences I was able to concentrate on what I could and would do during the duration of bad weather, and after the fact was able to join with my husband with a toast “We made it through that one, no problems.”

This time was different: I couldn’t concentrate on what I could and would do to solve problems. This time I felt incapacitated. This time, in addition to suffering a bit from seasickness (a normal occurrence during the first two days of a passage), I felt a lack of confidence in my physical abilities. Mainly, however, I felt overwhelmed with the fear that, “If it is this rough here, what the heck is the passage from Reunion to Richards Bay, South Africa going to be like?” “If something happens to Fred how am I going to deal with this?” And the anxiety built from there.

I was not only fighting my fear of the storm at hand, but my anticipation of the bigger one in November.

When we arrived in Sumatra we didn’t toast with, “We made it safe and sound, no problems.” We knew we were safe, but we also knew that I was still obsessing about the passage to South Africa and other passages; all of them. I am no longer prepared and able to face the oceans and the fear.

So I chose not to continue. Fred chose to be with me. Here we are in Langkawi. Where to next? What will the next dream be? We are working on it.

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Facing a new future, together

Click here for more photos from our trip back from Sumatra.

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

Judy and Fred, SV Wings, Langkawi, Malaysia