Squash Anyone?

We've been getting bashed around for a couple of days now, largely due to a weather phenomenon known as a "squash zone" (and we, apparently, are the ball). This occurs when the pressure contours (isobars) around a high get pushed closer together on one side by an adjacent low pressure system. Since the winds are driven by the pressure gradients, the intense gradient found in a squash zone can dramatically increase wind strength, which in turn drive wave height. You get the picture.

The low in question (see the south pacific weather maps at metservice.co.nz for details), however, is slipping to the SW, bending the high's isobars. As a rough guide, wind travels parallel to the isobars. So, while the low delivered a squash zone for a few days, it'll make up for it by giving us some northerly winds with which we can make some much needed easting. Of the 5 boats that we know of which left from NZ for French Polynesia, we are the only ones that still have a chance of sailing directly there. The others are now trying for Raratonga in the Cook Islands. Some may not even make that landfall without motoring up wind. We're keeping our fingers crossed that winds will be favourable over the next week.

A Curve Ball

Well, our week-long run of making progress due east, our intended course, came to an end yesterday (23 Apr). The winds veered from NE to E, pushing our course down too far south. Not wanting to go to the Antarctic, we tacked to the N, and are now sailing a course of 030 degrees true. With the wind and bumpy seas just off our bow, the joyride appears to be officially over. It was good while it lasted. Now, take out your map and plot a course of 030 from 38S, 165W and see where that takes you...not to French Polynesia! Hopefully we'll get some wind from the N, S or W to help us scratch out some more easting or we'll be saying au revoir to FP and hello to the Cook Islands. We'll know over the next few days as the high pressure system we've been riding is predicted to weaken. We'll keep you posted.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny came today, even out here at sea. Instead of chocolate eggs, the bunny brought mini Cadbury's chocolates (that don't roll) and hid them around the deck and cockpit for an Easter Mini-Chocolates Hunt. We had a beautiful blue sky day with light winds and calm seas, finally pointing Demelza's bow East as the wind has shifted to the NNE. Another highlight today was the spotting of a Black-Browed Albatross, a huge white bird with brown/greyish wings and a yellow bill. These birds soar over the waves with the greatest amount of grace imaginable. Happy Easter everyone.

Fr... Fr.... French Polynesia Bound!

Well, it took a couple of false starts, but we're finally off and bound for sunny warm French Polynesia. The weather has been very gentle for us, which has been great to help us get our sea legs. Unfortunately, we've been beating into a light wind for the last couple of days, so forward progress has been slow. The wind is backing as I write, however, which should allow us to point more east along our intended route to the Austral Islands.

Notwithstanding the gentle seas, both of us are spending much of the day either on watch or asleep, trying to get as much rest as possible to ease into the shift work of sailing a boat across the ocean. The constant movement is a bit draining, which makes us apathetic and even the simplest of tasks seem Herculean. Our priority has been (and will be) keeping the boat moving in the right direction at a good speed. Sleeping comes next, followed by drinking and eating. The conundrum is that we have a boat load of fresh produce (that was already 3 days old when we left thanks to our delayed departure) and no energy to whip up any gourmet meals. That should change soon as we get used to life back on board.

While we have a long way to go, we are getting excited about home. Apart from brief stops in French Polynesia and Hawaii, we're on the "approach" home to family and friends. The lure of exotic ports of call kept us going across the Pacific last year, now it's the call of everyone we've missed back home (well, okay, there are still some cool places to hit on the way back, so there's still some adventure left).

For those of you who wish to follow our travels, we have been checking in again with the Pacific Seafarers Net, a ham-based radio net that records our vital stats every day and posts the information to the internet. I've listed some email sites below that you should be able to track us (if anyone finds a better site or way to do this, please add a comment to this entry). Our ham call sign is ve0dlz (that's a zero, not a letter "o").

Bye for now, Gary and Lo

http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
- A great map system, and daily log info.

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=VE0DLZ
- A chart showing Demelza's daily progress along with course and speed.
Check out the download link below to have the same software on your own
computer.

http://www.shoutcast.com/
- Sometimes audio from YOTREPS check-ins are rebroadcast here around
20:30-21:00 PST. Check the bitwrangler link above for details when
available.

http://www.aprs.net/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?VE0DLZ
- Comments are fun, but the map is not so good.

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/list_manager.php
- If you like the YOTREPS report on the bitwrangler site, you can sign up
to receive it in a daily e-mail here.

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/downloads/voyg_su.exe
- DOWNLOAD - A direct link to download software so you can track Gary &
Lo's progress on your very own map!

At Long Last...the UPDATE! (now we can leave NZ)

Your patience has been greatly appreciated as our blog has struggled through a bit of a drought (okay, our drought makes East Africa look like a rainforest). Well, we have now made up for the drought with a torrential downpour of entries covering our trip right back through September (i.e., check out everything after Bora Bora). We have back-dated all the entries to correspond to when we should have been writing them. As usual, please use the comment feature (not the email feature) in the blog to tell us what you think (we love the feedback!). This site will ultimately be a record of our trip for us to look back on and seeing the comments from friends and family is always fun.

This has been an incredible experience for the two of us so far and we hope that this gives you a little taste of the fun we’ve had. We may not have an opportunity to do full entries (with photos) again until we reach Hawaii, but we’ll try to send frequent text updates to the site on our passages (via the HAM radio).

Homeward Bound - The Plan - Are We Nuts?

Anyway you slice it, unless you keep going around the world to the west, Vancouver is an uphill sail from NZ.

Our routing options to get home are two-fold:

(1) NORTH THEN EAST: NZ to Fiji to Samoa to Phoenix Islands to Hawaii to Vancouver - which includes possibly a lot of upwind sailing between the Phoenix Islands and Hawaii in the predominant NE trades, or

(2) EAST THEN NORTH: NZ to Australs to Tuamotus to Marquesas to Hawaii to Vancouver - which involves colder weather straddling the Roaring 40s on the way to the Australs with possibly a greater incidence of storms, but hopefully, consistent downwind sailing.

When Lo read that John Neal, a famous American professional charter boat skipper/instructor for offshore cruising hosts his Heavy Weather Course on this passage, has completed this passage nine times and has encountered 50 kt winds or more nine out of nine times, she thought that beating upwind from the Phoenix Islands to Hawaii sounded pretty good! This route is longer and likely tougher, but we've chosen it anyways as it should be better, faster sailing and hence easier on the boat...and hopefully us.

This next passage will likely be over 30 days long, likely the longest on our return trip. We're targeting the end of July to get home (Gary's sabbatical at Azimuth ends mid-August), to give Gary a short break before returning to work (yah, yah, we know he's just had two years off...). Anyone who wants to be a fly on the wall at Gary's first day back at work, sign up below. 8:31am..."So, you guys ready for a coffee break yet?"