March 12, 2013-Finding Falmouth

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Superyacht "A" in Falmouth Harbor.

It is unusual weather in Antigua when the north wind blows and the northwest swell rolls in and the normally calm lee side becomes as angry as Neptune can make it short of a hurricane.

Under these conditions we departed Jolly Harbor bound for Falmouth and as we left the inner harbor we found the outer harbor empty except for a few diehards in denial who hung on and rolled to their beam ends while the swells rose up at random over the flats and crashed over the leading marks.

This was no place to be in a north wind and big swell.

The safety lies in blue water and we sheeted in and held our westing ‘till the last of the breakers were behind us before we turned south towards Falmouth. Once we got away from the flats of the west side things got better; it turned into a nice sail.

Outside of the reefs off of Johnson’s Point we picked up the “On Deck” sail training fleet in their way home and we raced with them until they peeled off for Carlisle Bay.

wingssail images-judy jensen
Fred Steers to Falmouth Harbor.

One stayed out heading further east and I worked on him for a couple of miles up the coast. That was the best part of the day’s sail, when I was matching my helming skill and our boat speed against that other, unknown, guy. I had my total concentration on the two boats, on the wind, the waves, and on trying to eke out a few feet whenever I could, until when it was time for us to peel off for Falmouth Harbor, and by that time I had him beaten and it felt good.

With the wind in the north Deep Bay looked inviting and we turned in and dropped the hook in eighteen feet of water the lee of Brake Island. Up to the east the crowd of Falmouth seemed intimidating to us; who needs to anchor with 200 other boats?

Later I sat out in the cockpit drinking red wine and listening to the Who’s Quadrophenia while Judy played one handed scrabble and I watched some late arrivals come in. First a schooner tacked in and dropped anchor under sail the then a tall sloop with four sets of spreader lights dropped their hook right in the entrance.

Tomorrow, if you believe the forecasters, the wind will shift back to the east, and we’ll have to move up into the harbor.

We’ve come a long way in the last few years. Once upon a time we were immersed in China. I read a story today, “Nothing Good Comes from a Dead-Pig Tide” and in some ways I’m glad that China is a long way behind us. I‘m glad we’ve found Falmouth.

Click here for more photos from our trip to Falmouth.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Falmouth Harbor

Nov. 5, 2010-Repair Status

wingssail images-judy jensen
Paul & Fred finish the refer repair

For those who are paying attention to such details you will be happy to know that repair projects are progressing nicely, if slowly. The new ColdMachine cooling unit for the refrigerator arrived and is installed and finally, thanks to the help and creativity (and R134a and gauges) of ace local repairman Paul Sungalle, seems to be leak free and working after some drama with the new pipe connections which didn’t match the existing evaporator. The new inverter from Everett based Magnum Energy fired off immediately and is apparently working flawlessly. The AIS problem is still under investigation by West Marine but Cliff Mull says they will send us a new GPS antenna for it if needed. A new screen for the Dell laptop is on order from the local authorized Dell Service Center (which Dell Customer Support seems to know nothing about, we had to discover it for ourselves).

Of course we still have a list with new items every day.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius

June 22, 2010-Africa Planning

wingssail images-judy jensen
Making Flags

Long months of indecision seem to be behind us; we're going to Africa. South Africa to be exact. After that into the Atlantic Ocean and eventually to Europe the long way.

I know it seems a bit out of the way compared to going directly across the Northern Indian Ocean to the Red Sea but there are reasons (including pirate activity in the Northern Indian Ocean) and compensations (we get to visit a lot of islands in the south like Cocos Keeling and Mauritius which we'd miss otherwise) plus Africa itself is an attraction.

And it should be some good sailing; the Southeast Trades blow steady in the South Indian Ocean.

We'll leave within a month. The itinerary includes: Sumatra, Cocos Keeling, Chagos, Rodrigues Island, Mauritiua, Reunion, and Richard's Bay, South Africa. At least that is the plan. We're excited. We're making flags for all these places.

But this is not cast in concrete; things can change. We'll keep you posted.

AIS

On June 11 computer screens around the area lit up with a new symbol: Wings. We installed a new charting system, OpenCPN, with AIS (Automatic Indentification System) which shows our position to ships (and shows ship's positions on our own computer screens).

It works well as far as we can tell here at the dock with little traffic around. I turn it on a couple of times a day just to look around and in the example below there are three other vessels showing, including two right here in the marina. Nothing dramatic about it yet, but it is really an advance for cruising yachts. Ships will see our name, position, speed and heading (look at the example at the right of the image). We can kill the transmission of our information with a "Silent" button at any time if we want to be sneaky.

OpenCPN Electronic Navigation with AIS

Other than that the boat projects are coming along fine and the list is getting short. Today we pick up our refurbished stove and that will complete the rebuild of the entire propane system from tanks to hot water heater: everything but the gas piping will have been replaced or rebuilt. In a few days the canvas dodger will be rebuilt and all the other minor sewing projects (like flags for Africa) will be finished.

Provisioning remains the big item, plus repacking the boat to make room for the food and drink we need for a three month trip. Actually, we will probably only be away from stores for about 5 weeks at the longest time, so it shouldn't be a hardship. Still, we'll take everything we can carry and the wine locker will definately be full.

So it looks like we'll be in Africa in November.

When we get to Europe is anybody's guess.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Phuket, Thailand

Feb. 10, 2010-Reaching to Rebak

Wings stood out from Tanjung Heads into a fresh NE breeze on a crisp Thursday morning and spread full sail to the following wind.

Shortly after the main filled they hoisted the asymmetrical kite which opened with a crack and they bore off to the west on a blue ocean under a clear sky leaving a straight white wake to the east behind them.

The port jibe would take them into the north shore of Langkawi so they sailed on starboard toward Thailand’s Taratao Island, watching over their left shoulder for the proper time to jibe on a good line back to clear Chinchin, the NW cape of Langkawi.

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Reaching for Rebak

When they drew close to Taratao and were a mile off and it appeared that they would soon be calling unannounced into Thailand they jibed the kite and turned back toward Malaysia and still needing to sail lower they set and pulled back the pole.

The wind built and a swell rolled in from behind. A puff hit and the boat threatened to round up. The helmsman pulled hard on the tiller and the boat slid down the face of the wave and surged forward.

The knotmeter showed low nines; it was fun.

They sailed around the leeward side of Langkawi, staying off by 2 and a half miles, and kept their wind while boats in closer to the island would have been stalled, if there were any, which there were not; they were sailing alone.

As expected the wind then came around the island from the other side of the mountain and it went forward. Dropping the kite and setting the #2 they sheeted in on port tack for Rebak Island and sailed close to the wind.

At the Rebak harbor entrance they dropped the sails and motored into the channel. Wings had sped over the 24 miles from Tanjung Ruh to Rebak in a short time and pulled into port before lunch; a good run.

Click here to see the other shots of our sail back to Rebak.

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

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Langkawai

Feb. 05, 2010-Hermit Crab Beach

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Going Exploring

The seashells were walking!

We explored an isolated beach near Datai Bay in the Zodiac and we were surprised to see that all the seashells on the sands ahead of us were scurrying away from us; hundreds of them.

When we got close to one it simply plopped down on the sand and remained motionless, looking like any ordinary seashell.

I picked one up and it looked like a snail. I dropped it back onto the sand, perplexed. It just lay there.

Then another one caught my eye as it moved with surprising speed and then just as suddenly stopped.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Crab INSIDE!

I picked it up too and saw legs tucked in on the bottom side. I saw that it was not a snail but a crab inside a snail’s shell. A Hermit Crab! This whole place was overrun by Hermit Crabs.

We named this place Hermit Crab Beach, and we had fun looking at these creatures. One got so flustered that I had picked him up that he crawled right out of his house and jumped off my hand into the water and ran away abandoning his home. Judy picked up two others with pretty houses and introduced them to each other. She though she would like to keep at least one of the shells and maybe she could entice these two to move in together but instead they got into a bit if a scuffle and neither was rash enough to flee without his house.

Both were returned to the beach.

Watching the Hermit Crabs made this little day trip in the dingy into a real treat, and a surprising one at that but we should not have been too surprised; You never know what to expect when you land on an empty beach in a remote place.

Click here for more shots from Hermit Crab Beach

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Langkawi