Fog, Cold, and Shipping Lanes

Turnagain Blog update August 13th, 2014

Boat time 1:43 pm
Today we should be at Duntze rock by about midnight, then down the strait. We will change our clocks to PDT at Duntze rock as well. So that should be interesting. At least we will not be getting up at 6 am and expecting to see the sun rising (like we have been the past 4 or 5 days), but the local time is closer to 9 and the sun is already way up.

This morning, we were still sailing along nicely, the fog was burning off and it was even sunny after a bit. I decided I should do a bit of driving and took over from Dave at the end of his rotation (the crew switches helms person ever 30-60 minutes depending on the conditions). Shortly after I took the wheel, the winds went from 15 to 25-30 and the seas really kicked up. I had Mac and Dave start by reefing the main in one reef point, but that quickly went to 3 and the jib was rolled in a bunch as well. We continued along at a brisk 8-9kts for about an hour with steady waves coming over the bow and running all the way down the decks into the cockpit. They both knew it was a bit more "extreme" as it was the first time this trip that I clipped in my harness and had my full foul weather gear on. I ended up steering for about 2 hours through the worst of it, then shortly after I gave up the wheel to the next watch, the wind started to die out. We are now motoring towards Duntze rock against what feels like a two knot current. I hope we get some positive current as we enter the strait to speed up this last leg of the trip. Timing looks like we will be heading down the strait through the night with an arrival in Victoria by 10 am or so. I know we are all hoping we make it in by then, as many of us feel the need to get onto the next thing. Some are flying out to see family, others are hoping to enjoy the last few weeks of summer with family right here in BC.

Boat time 4pm
We are now about 40 miles from Duntze rock. The fog has closed right in and the wind is still "off". We are motoring along, against a bit of a current, with the radar on and our eyes and ears on close lookout for boats. If the fog gets too much thicker, it may slow us down a bit as I do not want to steam right into someone after a very successful trip thus far. The fog is making the temperatures feel quite cold and everyone is bundling up and making hot drinks. Night shifts tonight might be a challenge to keep people motivated. Maybe we will have to make the last brownies (if there is still an egg available). The entire boat is hoping that the "dust" settles for the trip down the strait so we can see some land, but we can certainly smell it outside. I should get back on deck and assist with navigation in the fog. Radar can be a fun thing.

Boat time 7 pm
Duntze is 18 miles off now. The weather has been mixed since my last update. There was fog, then it cleared a bit, now we are in heavy rain, mist and reduced visibility. I am manning the radar and electronics with Dave and Mac keeping as good an eye out as possible above decks. It will likely be a really long night for me until we get through the shipping lanes and on to the north side of the channel. I don't anticipate that for 5 or so hours from now.

We just finished dinner, another defrosted pre-made pasta. The group seems to really like it, and on a cold night like this it does go down well. The brownies are made, and the crew is eyeing them up for some snacking shortly I am sure.

Dave just stuck his head down to let me know that it is very cold on the bare feet. We both had a bit of a stand and said no boots…… we will see how long that actually lasts. Going to sign off for tonight, and we hope to be docked in Victoria by about 10 am local time tomorrow morning. There will be more blogs over the next couple of days and videos posted to the YouTube channel as I get some of them edited and some decent internet to upload them.

Until tomorrow
Turnagain

RAIN, whales, tuna. The coast is getting closer...

Boat time 7:30 pm Aug 11
The pacific doesn't want to let us go that easily. At about 5:30, we started getting more frontal clouds forming behind us with a few heavy showers coming overhead. At 6:45, RAIN started. About the heaviest rain I have ever seen. With the rain was wind . first from in front, then beside… then the other side. The guys are doing their best to sail it, and I am up on deck as often as they ask for it. On my last deck foray, I thought I saw lightning somewhere, so I came down to put all our critical electronics into our "faraday cage" (some call it the oven). With one group off watch, hopefully they get informed to not turn on the oven for anything ;).

And because I know you were concerned about our nourishment….. no fish yet…… so we had pasta for dinner. Probably a better meal with the terrible weather outside.

I think I will pretend to do some navigation down here for a little longer and hope that the weather clears up. Maybe 15-20kts on the beam… then I can pop up and take the wheel for a bit… :).

Boat time 1:00 pm
The wind still hasn't materialized. We did have a fantastic morning of motor sailing in the sun. I napped on the front deck, did some stretching.. general laziness. I earned it…… I caught a 35-40lbs tuna this am, cleaned it and packed it. We put half in the freezer and the other half is for two meals (lunch today and dinner today or tomorrow). We have had two others on the line today, one was brought up to the boat, but was much too small to keep, so we let it go. Mac has just finalized making a new lure and has set it out. Motoring puts us at almost the exact speed we need for tuna, so we are expecting great things.

Lunch was served during the 12 pm shift change and consisted of toro sashimi, and tuna nagiri with wasabi and soya sauce. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and are eagerly looking forward to dinner.

With all the motoring, we have had lots of hot water and as much electricity as we need to make water, so everyone is showering again today. So far the water maker has been working really well and seems to work better if we run it everyday, so water use is being encouraged…… this has included fresh water rinsing of the cockpit daily.

Just after lunch, we saw 8-10 minke whales heading straight for our track. We put the boat into neutral and drifted towards them. At about 100 meters, the whales dove. It was great to see them as we have only seen whales very far off in the distance so far.

Boat time 6:50pm
Dinner is now finished. A bbq tuna steak with rice and mashed yams. Everyone approved. I tried to send in this blog report earlier this evening, but it appears there has been some miss communication with the sat phone provider and I have run out of time on it. Maybe it will get added tomorrow, but by tomorrow evening I expect to have cell coverage, so it might be a bit late.

We have been fishing solid today, and have had a number of bites, but are not having too much success in getting the fish to the boat. The captain did not stock enough hooks, and we are on our last hook…. With no barb, and the tip is getting very dull. We might be finished with the fishing in the am.

During dinner the winds started to build. Better late than never. So we have the engine off, and are sailing along in the 7kts range and timing of arrival is very much the topic of conversation. Everyone appears ready to head off rapidly in their own direction to get home to loved ones and start reprogramming for work Monday. This includes me and the boat. I have a quick stop in Vancouver to make, then off to the sunshine coast. If things go really well, I should be on the coast by Thursday night.

Off to bed now, as I am expecting traffic to increase exponentially over the next hours of sailing and I need to try to bank some sleep.

Until tomorrow… or whenever I get better connectivity.
Turnagain

Albert the Albatross

Turnagain Blog update August 11, 2014

Boat time 2am
The boat is still humming along. We reduced sail as expected around dinner time last night to white sails and have been averaging around 7kts since. The last part of the spinnaker sailing yesterday was great with Dave, Mac and I keeping the boat above 9 kts for almost 3 hours straight and many surfs into the 12s for long periods of time. The swell had setup out of the west with a huge period and great lead in time, so we were able to catch almost every one. It was too bad that there were no days like that on the race, it sure chews up the miles. Currently we are at 480 to go to Duntze Rk (another 65 or so after that to Victoria), so that is quite exciting.

Dinner last night was some steak (bbq'd) with steamed potatoes and a bottle of red wine. Quite nice after 12 days at sea. There was a lot left over, so we will have steak with eggs this am for breakfast.
I am just up doing some quick updates on the navigation and checking power levels to see how much autohelm we get to use for the rest of the night (looks like only another 1-2 hours of battery time left with Otto on).

Boat time 2pm
We have had an AWESOME 12 hours with 379 miles to go right now, the morning shift and I have had some serious sailing. The wind went a little forward and we carried full jib and full main (then put one reef in the main) directly on course at 9-12+ kts for almost the entire 6 hour shift. We had a GREAT time sailing in fairly relaxed conditions. About 1 hour ago, there was a front that moved over us… the wind changed direction to directly behind us and dropped to 8-10 kts almost instantly. We changed course but with the left over confused seas, we altered course again and started the motor as we needed charging anyways. So, while we motor NE, we are tidying the boat and other general maintenance items.

Dave and Mackenzie have convinced themselves that a single albatross has been following us for days and have named him Albert. Albert is quite a great flier and rarely seems to flap his wings, instead gliding over the wind and waves, getting vertical lift from the wind rising off the waves Albert soars up into the sky 20-30 ft to "bank" the energy then swoops down again. As great a flier as he is, Albert must be a terrible navigator to be following us. I guess he cannot see the magic 8 ball we are using for our navigation down inside the boat.

Now that we have slowed down, I think I will go put out a fishing line in hopes of some fresh TUNA :).

Boat time 4:15pmWe put the line out with a fresh kit-kat lure on it. Had a bite in the first 5 minutes, but the hook did not set (possibly the design of the lure this time). We checked and reset the lure with no further activity, but are still very hopeful. I am especially hopeful as I have no plans for dinner tonight and a quick sushi meal would solve all that ;)

We have just posted into our last position update for the return trip as the communications boat that is organizing the daily roll-call is expecting to finish tomorrow and will not be onboard to run the schedule. We are still 360 miles from the strait and are currently motoring as the winds are not there to push us at the speeds we want. The morning forcast today, said that we should be seeing increasing north west winds later this evening. Hopefully they materialize. If we can sail another 150-200 miles, then we can increase the speeds for any further motoring required. Currently we only motor at 6-6.5kts (1400 rpm) to conserve fuel.
The "to do" list on the boat is getting longer and longer as I find more and more things that have gone awry over the past month or so, but most are easily delayed until the fall once the weather turns.

I hope to write again tomorrow with great news of our increased speeds sailing in fresh North West winds.
Turnagain

Keepin' on keepin' on...

Turnagain Blog update August 10, 2014
Boat time 9am

After almost 24 hours of relaxing white sail sailing, we hoisted the A4 again at 5 this am today. Speeds went back up over 8 and many in the 9s and 10s and are making a straight line for Duntze rock. We are expecting some light winds Monday night, but will be in desperate need for some charging by then anyways, we will also have more than enough fuel to motor at a higher speed if we want (which I am sure we will). After the light air, we are expecting north west winds to fill in and carry us the rest of the way to the straight. From there, it will just depend on our timing for winds as I expect winds to be light with our likely middle of the night arrival at Duntze.

Tonight we are going to attempt to bbq steaks and have a steak, potatoes and steamed carrot meal, but with the wind in the 20kt range and the boat charging at 9-11kts right now, that might be hard to pull off if it persists. But it seems I have a bit of a standard to keep up, as everyone is commenting this is the best provisioning they have had on an ocean passage before (lucky for me, only two others have done much if any ocean passages). I have been running a few techniques to keep them happy. Lots of stashes of different food that they don't know about… so smoked salmon for lunch every few days is a nice surprise…. Or fresh bread (tomorrows breakfast plan)… or I may try for muffins, but we only have chocolate chips for that….. no bananas. We have not been able to get any tuna as we are mostly moving at a very quick pace to catch them… I think we will slow down tonight so we can get a few on board before we make Victoria.

Looking over the log book for the past few days, it looks like 6:00 pm to 6:00pm ending last night we did 182 miles made good….. many more through the water if you have seen the way this boat gets driven ;). 8:30 yesterday to 9:30 today was 189 miles (take off the hour and it was very similar). We are on track to make about 100 miles in the past 12 hours at our noon log entry as well. It feels great to be making great time like this with not too much work and the crew is getting a ton of learning time trying to keep things under control with the kite up ;) . We will be going down to white sails tonight so everyone can have a bit of down time.

The air is VERY moist. I think it was even foggy inside the boat this am :).

Lunch is done, the afternoon watch is on and driving fast again. Dave just hit an easy 12.1kts for a solid 20 count on the gps. Wheeeeeee!!!!!!

We missed our 100 miles in 12 hours by 1 mile today, but we are really happy with our speeds and expected arrival times. Thoughts are definitely on how and where to get my stuff arranged in town so I don't have to stay there for too long. We have birthday parties and visiting to do late this weekend and through next week. Glad it looks like I might make it. There is always a chance things turn for the worse out here, but we are optimistic : ).

We are looking forward to seeing everyone later this week.
Turnagain

Goose Neck Barnacles and Sweaters....brr!

August 8, 1315

Today…. We are sailing. I woke up at 4:30 this am and the watch crew said "wind seems up… we were thinking of rolling out some jib".  I looked at the winds and the angles…. Brought out the A2. We have had it up since and the wind has filled in. We are currently rolling along in the mid 8s over ground with almost every mile sailed a mile made good to Duntze rock with 954 to go. Hopefully today we start putting a ton of miles in the bag. Time will tell.  For now we are enjoying the winds and the sun.

During yesterday's swim, I noticed that there were some goose neck barnacles on the trailing edge of the prop shaft stuffing box. It is surprising that these were there and the size they were in the short time since our departure, as the boat was clean when we left. But interesting to see how quickly they grow and where they secure themselves to.

August 9, 0900

Last night, I came on deck at 11 and we quickly decided that white sails were not working for us. Up went the A4 and off we went. We spent the night sailing in increasing winds at 8-13kts on the gps. I personally did not get much sleep as I took at least a third of the driving during the really challenging parts, but everyone did a great job. I was joking with the group that it is strange that 9kts in the middle of the night is starting to feel normal. From 6pm until 6 am we had 93 miles made good, which included the white sail time around dinner through till 11 pm.

August 9th, 1500

Otto (the autopilot) steered the boat from 9 am through till 12:30 at a steady 7.5-8.5 kts mostly on course (it was set to a wind angle), while the crew tidied the boat and sat around in the cockpit chatting and eating lunch (there will be video of parts of this posted on your YouTube Channel "Turnagain50" once we get back to real internet). Lunch consisted of a plate of cold cuts, fresh hummus, cheese and some pineapple-pork sausages with crackers and chips.

So we continue to tick off miles towards Dunzte rock, which is our mark at the entrance to Juan De Fuca, with about 755 to go as of now. The afternoon watch had a great sleep through the morning and felt energized after lunch, and have been hand steering since 1230, while the am watch is sleeping and I am switching between napping and general boat chores (making water, checking all lower easily accessible rigging etc, writing this).

The temperature is changing. I have been in pants all day today (the first time since about day 2 of the race), and the ocean is down to 20C….. brrrr…. There is also much more humidity in the air. The boat is dripping with condensation (outside so far) by the am, and there was a marine layer across the entire horizon this am. I am anticipating true fog shortly as we approach the Fogust west coast of the Island. I hold out hope that some real August weather will still be had once I get back so I can enjoy some family boating while the kids are still out of school.

Until later,

Turnagain

BLACK CLOUDS AND LIGHTNING...oh, and by the way we are half way

Fortunately...

We are still making progress despite variable winds.  The wind has shifted very west over the past 24-36 hours (as expected because we are trying to get up to the bottom of a low pressure system to get some down wind sailing back home) and we are currently motor sailing NNE to get into some of this pressure. We hear that boats in front of us have a bunch of this pressure and are eager to get there and turn off the Yanmar. We are not entirely sure how the boats behind us are even moving, the weather files show that it is very light almost everywhere , except the tropical storms below us heading west and the lows up above us. We have been treating this like a true delivery, if we are not on course and making good time, we are using the engine…. Hope there is enough fuel……

Unfortunately...

Mahi Mahi Fest 2014 is officially over.  Time to start scouting out some tuna.  We have pulled in the fishing lines for now…. Seems someone tipped the Mahi off to candy wrappers and they have stopped biting. We are low on hooks, and are now in preservation mode until we get back into tuna territory - likely Friday.

Fortunately...

We are not currently in the path of any hurricanes.

Unfortunately...

Got woken at 3:45 to say there is lightning about 5 miles out port side and a "REALLY BLACK" cloud in front. I came up to WOW a huge cell or cold front of some sort. So we went into instant storm prep (running different sail halyards for the storm sails, stowing everything everywhere, pulling out storm sails and putting them in the cabin. Short story.... we were prepared, but only had 25 kts and no lightning (yet) phew!!!..

Fortunately....

We are still enjoying ourselves.  Looking forward to our half-way party, and here's hoping the second half is quicker than the first!

Turnagain

Hurricanes...by Catharine

Christopher Reeve said: 

"Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean."

Turnagain is still the blue boat in the middle, currently averaging 6-7kts
towards home

Well, these guys are definitely in the ocean.  Day ? and they are making their way slowly across....sailing when the winds are good, and pulling down the sails (so they don't fray too much) when the winds die.  

Today they did some repairs on the main sail, which had frayed when the winds were light and the sail was flopping around like a dead fish...  They had to use a drill to make a small hole in the sail to feed through some heavy duty Spectra twine to fix the frayed bits, and Travis seems happy with the repair so far.  

Travis reports: "It is just about noon here on the great blue sea.  Clouds are on the horizon, and it might get a bit aggressive later today."

Then shortly after: "We just go overtaken by a system or wind change or something...it is raining, and wind is kind of everywhere.  It is like a squall, but with no end in sight and not near enough wind to really be called a squall."

Well, that 'System" is a combination of Hurricanes Iselle and Julio, which should be passing over and just North of Hawaii Thursday and Saturday.  I got word from Julie (our wonderful greeting party coordinator in Maui) that everyone in Hawaii is bracing for the storms, filling their tanks with gas and stocking up on water and other supplies.  Flash floods are predicted, so hopefully everyone stays safe and sound there.  

Hurricanes Iselle (left) and Julio (right) as they approach Hawaii today

Forecast for Sunday, with Hurricane Iselle dissolving at is passes the
Hawaiian chain and Hurricane Julio passing just North of the islands

These systems are forecasted to downgrade to tropical storms, and should weaken in the slightly cooler waters as they head North, and will hopefully mostly pass South of where Turnagain is currently.  I'm sure the guys are watching these closely, and hoping that some of the 'wind' at the edge of these storms helps propel them towards home!

It sounds like the crew is in great spirits, working well together, and enjoying their time out at sea.  I'll keep you posted as always...  

Catharine

August 4-5....Mahi Mahi Fest continues (with gin)...but winds are light

On the down side...

There is not a lot of wind out here.  We fluctuate between sailing and motoring, but at these wind angles the boat is HOT, and the wispy airs are hard on the main sail (it just keeps flopping around) so today we've had to do some repairs.  There's a tropical storm brewing off Hawaii, and we are getting rains but not enough solid wind to push this boat anywhere productive.  

On the upside, Mahi Mahi Fest 2014 is still on, and it turns out that a large bottle of gin is key to getting these fish on board!

It started just before sunrise, I got up and made sure the fishing gear was out, we started catching fish almost immediately. We landed 3 today and lost 2 right at the boat. The hardest part of the whole process is getting the fish onto the boat (after we lost the gaff).  Imagine a 6'4 guy and a 3 ft fish on the transom of the boat in rocking seas, trying to get a clean fillet off of the fish. At one point I was sitting back in the transom enjoying the view. Then, a fish jumped out of the water about 20 ft back, then three more, then another 4. 8 Mahi Mahi in total all charging at our rod and hand line.   It's like we're the only interesting thing our here for them!

At this point, we only had a small scrap of duct tape left on the rod, and a very chewed up hand line lure. The Mahi took them both. The hand line appears to be too stretchy with the bungy as we are having trouble getting the hook to set, but the rod worked perfectly and it was a fight. The current process is to get the fish as close as possible, then I get on transom of the boat. I grab the line by hand and pull the fish to the boat. Sometimes, the fish opens his mouth, ready for the 60# bottle of gin I am about to shove in there to put it out. Other times… not so much and I have to wrestle it around… when this happens, we are about 30% successful in getting the fish landed. We have wasted a bit of gin, but the Mahi is all the better for it!  Once the Mahi has its share of the gin, we put a rope down through its jaw and gills so it can't slip off the transom.

I stepped away for dinner, and just after we finished our mahi tacos, the reel started singing again. Dave drew the straw (and made the lure - first bite on it) and started reeling. The fish had taken a lot of line out by this time, so we didn't mind giving up the job. The fish darted from side to side leaping out of the ocean, going from a blue silver colour combo to green with a bit a blue. Finally Dave had the fish up to the boat, I used the boat hook as a gaff under the gills and was able to get it secure enough to get the gin down (the fish, not me). With the gin portion done, it was time for the rope.

 It was about this time that Dave and I noticed that this fish certainly competed with the one from the previous night for largest fish yet. We won't know for sure, as we don't have a scale, but this fish is up there in weight.

The crew is getting along really well and we all miss home.

See you soon (another 10-14 days depending on if we run out of gas or not - maybe a story for another day).

Turnagain

Mahi Mahi and More Mahi Mahi

I think we have been out for a while now…. All the days are starting to blend together, though some stand out items included some great spinnaker sailing (again), and lots of fishing. We landed 5, including one we guestimated at 30+ pounds and at least 8 got away. I have almost perfected my Mahi filleting skills, but it is not fast as I am crouched over the fish on the swim deck of the boat. It does keep the mess contained, but the space is cramped without a 3+ foot fish on there with you. Hopefully all the pictures the crew has taken turn out.

Dave and i lost a big one about 40 minutes ago, it was at the side of the boat, then the leader broke or the hook snapped, but it was gone. Earlier today, i saw about 8 Mahi charging at our lures. I was looking out the back of the boat, when one jumped coming in at about 90 degrees of the boat, then right behind that 4 more.. then 2 or 3more. They were going super fast. it is a fun fish to catch.

We have spent many hours motoring, and many more sailing. The sailing today was a surprise for me, I expected we would be motoring for many more miles to the next pressure system, but our total motor hours today were about 6 or 8. So far fuel levels are about what I expected, so that is a bit of stress off.
We are just starting to get into the "garbage zone", but so far it feels like there is less than on the way down here. Maybe our route? Maybe someone cleaned up while we rested in Maui?

Turnagain is the blue one in the middle

Dinner today was Mahi, rice, spinach salad with a great pineapple salsa….. no one has had any issues with the food yet : ( I think "yet" is the key word there). The biggest current issue it appears we may run into is freezer space for the fish!!!! Hopefully, that is the biggest issue we will have on the trip. We are hoping to start getting into the albacore tuna range once we hit 39N (about 400 miles north of where we are), so we will keep the Mahi coming and freezing (or eating) that until they stop biting our hooks then try to arrange our freezer space so we can have some tuna as well.

We are missing our loved ones back home, but making the best of a GREAT sail so far.

Turnagain

Sports Day Turnagain Style

August 1st Update    

Today was BEAUTIFUL!!. The temperatures were great, and the wind was only about 10 kts on average all day. While it did not lend to fast sailing, we were able to have the hatches open and keep inside temperatures very reasonable. We made a ton of water, had showers and did some maintenance on the boat.  The furling system is holding together, and the galley faucet that was leaking is now fixed. 

The crew has quickly gelled and is working well together. They have also settled into their respective watches.  Things are great and we are making great time towards home (well… headed to Alaska currently but hopefully the winds will change as forcast and let us curve to the east), even if a few of us need to find our sea legs (hence the short blog today). 

Fishing isn't going great. We have temporarily given up on the Kit-Kat and gone to more traditional store bought lures still with limited success. We had a bite at dinner, but it promptly threw the hook. 

Dave and I are missing "Sports Day" back at home, but have been thinking up some games we might be able to do on board. Dave's kids and mine are the same age, we have traditionally spent sports day being the supporting dad and doing the horse races (being the horse), or the one with the bucket on our head while our kids try to fill it faster than the other kids and their dad's using a sponge (and of course getting Dad totally soaked). So we may do piggy back races up and down the deck tomorrow am, during the traditional land races time frame, and we may try some sort of water event in the afternoon, but have not come up with anything that would be safe at the current speeds we are sailing. 

The winds are expected to start backing tomorrow mid to late day, which will likely allow us to hoist a kite. Then entire crew is excited about that.   

We all miss you
Turnagain

July 31....Drip....Drop...Drip...Drop

Today we had some excitement. There were many squalls, most bigger than the last.  During one of the bigger ones, the crew had reefed everything down and was quite proud of their work. I came on deck and quickly noticed that the headsail furling unit had what appeared to be a serious problem.  The side plates that hold the drum down had become disconnected and the entire foil and furler had slide up the forstay by 3 inches. Luckily we found one of the pieces that held it all together (there were two at the start of the trip) and we have put things back together enough to get us to Vancouver (hopefully).

We had some great sailing today, with speeds above 8kts for what felt like most of the day.

After sunset, we caught a fish as well. It was small and what appeared to be a barracuda, so we returned it to the sea. We will try again first thing in the am. We are thinking we will even get out the hand line and try some different lures, but we will see what the winds are like and our speeds. 

We have some other maintenance items to tend to including the galley sink. The faucet is leaking (a slow drip) and is driving Travis nuts with the water pump kicking on randomly throughout the day. We need to do our best to keep him from going crazy this early in the trip :) 

Until tomorrow,

Turnagain crew