Daily updates describing the voyage of the yacht Aldebaran
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- “ Bye Niue. Best country Id never heard of!
13 September The yacht is sailing today but only just as the wind is down to about 6 knots so their boat speed is only 4 knots. If the wind drops anymore they will have to turn the motor on, but that was expected anyway. The seas are also very light at 2 feet. The wind and the sea are from the south east and the east respectively. It is still super hot and only 10% cloud cover so it is not that pleasant. They are currently at position 16º 32’S, 166º 41W and the position, distance covered, etc is up to date on the web at http://angnz.com/aldebaran/
There has been an interesting discussion on the radio yesterday and today on the Seafarers Net, as they obviously check occasionally that users have the proper license (General) to operate on the long distance Ham bands, and Andrew was queried as to whether he had a full license as the license database only showed his callsign as Technical which does not permit operating on the band we are using. Andrew came up with all the right info, so today the Net operator contacted the powers that be in the States and discovered that Andrew’s General licence had been issued and was up to date but with a different callsign, so has two grades of license both active, which is a slip up on their part. It will be corrected, but the outcome is (for the Hams in the group) his callsign is now KD0NJH, not KD0NGE as we have all been using!!!! That’s it for today 14 September Short chat with Andrew today as there wasn’t much info to pass over, either way. They have been motoring for nearly the last 24 hours as there is no wind at all and the seas are less than 1 foot, becalmed on a flat sea except for the motor! They are at position 17 45S, 168 10W, details are shown on the web as usual at http://angnz.com/aldebaran/ They hope to reach Niue about 2 hours before sunset tomorrow, so they will be in sight of land when we talk tomorrow. They are looking forward to seeing whales as a lot are being reported close to shore currently. All are well 15 September At 0330 UTC (that’s 4.30 pm yacht time) this afternoon, the yacht was about 20 miles north of Alofi where they will arrive at Niue Island, and they expect to get there just after dark tonight. They can see the island and their location was 18 51S, 169 46W and as usual the maps showing their location are on the web at http://angnz.com/aldebaran/ The wind and the sea are both from the SW so are virtually head on to them and have been for the past 20 hours or so, but both are quite light; wind is 12 knots and the sea 3 feet.
They had what they call a ‘Special moment’ last night and nervous parents (and aunts) should not read the rest of this paragraph! Late yesterday they were flying their large gennaker in light winds but took it down at dusk and put up a lighter sail for nighttime. About 3am Andrew (I think he said it was him) woke to a funny noise and unusual motion of the boat, and they discovered that they had carelessly left the gennaker lying loose on deck and the wind had got up and blown it into the water, so it was acting as a huge sea anchor. They spent the next 3 hours solving the problem, with Don and Andy in the water most of the time and Carl hanging on to the ropes on board. The sail managed to tangle itself on the rudder as well and eventually they had to cut a large part out of the sail to get it back on board – the cutout bit was lost. They now have a gennaker with a large hole in it which they may consider sewing a patch into. Don and Andy both wore life vests and harnesses tethered to the yacht for safety during the recovery activity. They also have underwater torches which helped a lot. They both suffered little effect except that Andy got stung by a jellyfish. The outcome was good and everyone is fine today although they are all a bit tired so some have managed to get some extra sleep during today. They lost quite a bit of time as they had to slow the yacht down to a crawl while they sorted out the problem, and that is why they are a bit late getting to Niue. We talked about coffee as we have some in the post to them. They have run out of roasted coffee beans but have some green ones that they were given in Mexico, so Andrew has been experimenting with roasting them in a cast iron frypan with great success I gather.
That’s all today and they will be moored at Alofi tomorrow so it will be interesting to see how they like Niue. 16 September Now to the yacht. They made landfall about 8.30 their time last night - 0730 UTC as they are now only 1 hour ahead of New Zealand – still a day behind though. On the next short trip to Tonga they will cross the International Date Line, and effectively lose a whole day and be the same time as New Zealand. They came in about 30 minutes after dark, and picked up a mooring buoy easily (someone came out and told them which one to pick up) and are moored quite close to shore. I asked Andrew a couple of days ago to try SPOT as it should be nearly in range, but we had no luck, however today Carl turned it on again and it has registered this time. You can go on line and see it at http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0oe5zP6fXfqGGRpRHxtCJgqtJvWlUZzuv It is apparently quite a rolly anchorage as it is a bit exposed to the west, but they are reasonably comfortable. This morning they went snorkeling to view the anchor point and say it is very secure. There about a dozen yachts in the harbour. They went ashore and visited Customs instead of waiting to be visited and that all went well. They are very close to shore and the town and have been told that is good coffee available in town, so they are keen to see if it really is. They find some things are cheap in Niue but others are quite dear.
The island is beautiful and the water really clear. Tonight they are going to the Golf Club bar where they have been told they can watch tonight’s rugby game between New Zealand and Japan. They may also hire a car in the next couple of days to have a look around the island, and currently are looking at leaving on Monday or thereabouts. If they leave it till Wednesday the seas will turn easterly which will be beneficial, but unfortunately the wind is due to drop to almost nothing by then, so they will probably put up with a SW swell as the wind will be advantageous earlier in the week. We discussed the gennaker and asked what state it is in. They have two pieces each about a third the size of the original and lost the other third. They are not sure whether they will attempt a repair at this stage but haven’t really decided. They do have a spinnaker of similar size that they can use but that is a bit harder to use as it requires the use of a pole to stabilize it.
Everyone is fine, although Andy has a good welt on his leg where the jellyfish got him the night before last Till tomorrow 19 September I didn’t have any contact with the yacht yesterday or the day before, but that’s not unusual when they get to land as they are too busy exploring!
Good chat with Andrew today with loud strong signals. They are really enjoying Niue, it is really peaceful, no crime, and the locals are all very friendly. Since the hurricane that did a lot of damage a few years ago, the island population has diminished noticeable and there are a lot of deserted houses (I believe there are twice as many Niue people living in New Zealand now as there are on the island). Internet access is almost non existent, and although Leslie managed a small entry on Facebook some days ago, Andrew said he spent a long time yesterday trying to email me, and eventually gave up. Last Thursday evening they watched the rugby (NZ vs Japan) at the local golf club. It was an interesting evening with a number of islanders present as well as ex-pats, NZ, Australian and others. Two days ago, Friday, was Andrew’s birthday, so they had pancakes for breakfast and Lisa made a birthday cake which they shared with friends at dinner time. They also had a swim in some local pools that day. There are a lot of pools around the island, especially at low tide, as the atoll forms a shelf around much of the island very close to the land and close to water level, so it floods at high tide but leaves a lot of pools at low tide.
Saturday they hired a car and drove around the island which was very interesting. In addition to all the pools on the coast there are a lot of caves and caverns and vertical type pancake rocks with fissures into them to explore. They enjoyed jumping of rocks into the pools below. They didn’t do any but said that diving would be amazing there. Today they have not done very much as it is Sunday and the island closes down, absolutely nothing is open and nothing happens
This time of the year a lot of whales come in close to shore and there is a whale research group on the island. They don’t have their own boat but use visiting yachts where available to view the whales, so tomorrow Aldebaran is taking the research group out to find some whales. The research group provide lunch and also pay for the fuel used, so it should be an interesting day. They will pack things up in the afternoon and leave for Tonga late tomorrow or early Tuesday morning. The trip will take 1½ to 2 days but they cross the International Date Line on the way so will get in on Thursday in all probability Because they will be busy late afternoon, getting shipshape, our radio sked is not till the evening, so I won’t get tomorrow’s report out till very late, North American time.
They returned to the yacht and took the 4 whale watchers back with them. The group consisted of 4 people, all volunteers, the leader was an Australian woman and the other 3 were an Australian guy, a New Zealand woman, and a local Niuean girl. The saw one whale and lowered a microphone into the water but didn’t hear any singing so assumed it was a female, as only males sing apparently. The visitors provided lunch, which was sandwiches, really nice Andrew said, and the group were all vegetarian which suited the yachties. The sea was quite calm but they did get quite a number of rain showers, in fact they have had a lot of rain over the past 24 hours. Leslie managed to get on the internet this afternoon and posted two entries on Facebook and Andrew got enough internet time also to check his emails
They are nearly ready to leave but it is almost dark so they are going to wait and leave in the morning. There is a market on shore at 6am and Carl and Lisa will probably go to that, just to see what is on sale. Dinner tonight is an Indian Dahl, which everyone likes. 21 September Hi all,
The yacht left Niue at about 8 am local time this morning and have made good progress but no wind and virtually no swell so they are using the motor. Their location this afternoon was 18 57S, 170 38W, see map at http://angnz.com/aldebaran/ Lisa and Andrew got up early and went to the market but there wasn’t a lot on sale. The other day when they went they assumed they were a bit late, but apparently quite a lot of the stall-holders turn up mid morning. Anyway they got a bag of nice tomatoes that were a lot cheaper than in the supermarket. Getting away early in the morning feels good as everyone is awake and fresh and raring to go. Leslie put an interesting comment on Facebook late yesterday; “Bye Niue. Best country I'd never heard of! They have had a number of wet days so today with little wind and a clear sky they have their washing on the line. The wind is only about 4 knots from behind them and they are doing about 4 knots with the motor, so the washing won’t blow away!
They watched the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean IV’ last night but Andrew said that he fell asleep halfway through it so didn’t see a lot. We discussed some of the rugby today and Andrew is keen to get to Tonga to watch the New Zealand vs France game on Saturday evening. Today is September the 20th, boat time, but tonight they will cross the International Date Line, so tomorrow will be the 22nd of September. They are not going to get a 21st!
Till tomorrow 22 September The yachties have made good progress today but haven’t really enjoyed it, in fact Andrew said that the weather has been awful and is the worst passage they have had so far. There is no wind most of the time so they are still motoring (read noise and fumes) and although there is little swell they don’t have the advantage of a sail to stabilise the boat so it is bouncing around a lot. And then they have had a number of squalls come through with winds up to 30 knots and they last for about 20 minutes. It has also rained for most of the day so they are not that comfortable. There position at 0330 UTC was 18 53S, 172 44W. They will get into Vava’u soon after dawn tomorrow at the current rate, but may have to slow down a bit as the entrance through the reef into the island is rather tricky so they need to do it in daylight. The rest of the discussion was on rugby from memory!
Till tomorrow 23 September The yacht anchored close to shore at Neiafu, the main town on Vava’u early this afternoon. They reached land after dawn this morning and entered the reef via the eastern passage which is rather more difficult that the western side. The weather was awful with rain and low cloud, so they did a blind entry on instruments and then had a slow trip up the island into a head wind. They anchored about 12.40 local time this afternoon. It is still raining but the weather is due to be clear tomorrow. They had some difficulty finding a suitable anchor point as there are a lot of yachts in the harbour, more than 50, and they needed a spot on the town side so that they don’t have to row across the harbour everytime the want to go ashore. They are close to shore as the bottom drops away rapidly from the shore. They did turn SPOT on when they anchored so you can see where they are by clicking here http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0oe5zP6fXfqGGRpRHxtCJgqtJvWlUZzuv and then click on ‘satellite’ in the top right of the picture. I have also updated the web page http://angnz.com/aldebaran/
Radio contact was ok but Andrew reported a lot of radio noise in their location. By the time they got everything closed down and tidied up it was too late to contact Customs so they will have to wait till Monday to do so. They have not gone ashore yet so are uncertain what internet access they will be able to find. They will go on shore tomorrow to find a place to watch the rugby tomorrow night. Till tomorrow 28 September As usual we have had spasmodic contact with the yachties for the past 5 days or so as they are in port and have good internet access, however they plan to move this afternoon to another anchorage somewhere around the Vava’u Island group. So we will start radio contacts again tomorrow to monitor their movements. They may not be daily as we miss sometimes when they are onshore.
Andrew says that they have been really enjoying the main town of Neiafu and there have been a lot of yachts coming and going over the week. There are good fruit and vege markets but the supermarket is a real disappointment with very little in stock. I gather Lisa is getting frustrated with the lack of available ingredients and can’t even get decent flour, so they are still using a lot of their stored provisions. Attached is a map showing their anchorage over the past week
They enjoyed Neiafu and had a lot of fun there. Leslie had a birthday a couple of days ago and I remember here request for a mango cake (or something similar) but she got a night out instead. A group of them (about 10) went to Beer Bingo where apparently one wins beer at bingo. They did not win anything at the bingo but apparently there were also music competitions (identify songs and artists) at the same time and I gather Lisa and Don won quite a lot of those. They also met up with other yachties there and had a good meal – a great night out I gather. Everyone is fit and well and having fun, even Raleigh has got some exercise on land and they always take him swimming to keep him fit as well.
They plan to move to another location tomorrow. 30 September The yacht was moved today to an anchorage not far from yesterday, see attached map. Their current location is 18º 42.31’S, 174º 04.337’W. Tomorrow they want to see if they can walk across the island (Nuapapu Island) to explore Mariners Cave. If they can’t easily get there by foot then they will take the yacht around. Mariners cave is a large limestone cave that has no entrance above water. The entrance at low tide is a few feet below the waterline and is a relatively easy dive to enter. Inside is apparently spectacular as the only light is from the underwater entrance and the pressure from each wave on the outside causes the atmosphere to instantly fog up and then clear just as rapidly. It will be interesting to see how they get on tomorrow.
Today they visited friends on another yacht, had a swim and then it was cleaning day, so the yacht got a clean. Last night the rain continued for a few hours after the thunderstorm so it was very humid and when it rains they have to keep the ports closed so it is unpleasant inside. For that reason Lisa didn’t turn the stove on and they had tuna sandwiches for dinner. Lunch today was the normal sandwiches and as I was talking to them Lisa had just made some vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate ganache on the top (that is a real chocolate topping rather than chocolate icing). I wish she hadn’t told me that as I was dreaming of them all the way home afterwards! 1 October Had a long talk with Andrew today. I have had a problem finding suitable maps of Vava’u to show where they have been anchored and when. The one I’ve used to date has been fine but I have now had to change the map as tomorrow they are planning on moving further south of where my map covers. The new one of the whole island is a bit crude, but I have added another map of a smaller area which more accurately shows the area they are in currently. They were at anchorage No 8 for 28-30 September; they are currently at anchorage No 15, and tomorrow plan on moving to Anchorage No 16. I hope all that makes sense.
They spent most of the day today visiting Mariners Cave (see the map). They got up early this morning to go to the cave over land with some friends from another yacht. Just north of where they are anchored is a small village and as usual when they arrive at any village all the children come out to talk and some adults, and when they asked directions to the cave one of the locals offered to take them (this is quite normal but you are expected to pay a small amount for the service of course). They climbed over the island through the bush with no tracks in it (bush-bashing) for about an hour and a half to reach the northern coast where the cave is. The hardest thing then was finding a suitable point to enter the water – it is easy to just jump in but they needed a spot where they could get out again afterwards as it is limestone country and the sea has undermined the waters edge in most places. They found a suitable spot, all got in the water and all entered the cave. It is a bit daunting as one needs to dive down a couple of metres and then swim under the cliff for 3 or 4 metres into the dark, hoping that you are in the right place. Everyone got into the cave, I gather Lisa freaked out a bit initially, but the cave was very beautiful with a number of stalactites hanging down from the ceiling. The freakiest part is when the cave suddenly fogs over completely when a wave on the outside causes the pressure to rise and the air instantly saturates and fogs over. It apparently clears just as rapidly after the wave goes down again. Getting out of the cave and onto land again was relatively easy, but Lisa had to laugh as she had to sit on Andrew’s head in the water to be able to reach the bank. They then explored the coast a little. They were in and around the cave for about 3 hours and it took about 1 hour to walk back to the yacht. Naturally everyone is a bit tired tonight so it will be early to bed after a pumpkin curry with naan bread that Lisa was preparing as we were talking. The crew of the other yacht are joining them for dinner too. The weather has been calm and very pleasant today and the sea calm with little swell – the yacht was hardly moving. Apparently most of the islands in the Vava’u group are very protected by a reef and a line of outer islands. When they got back many of the other yachts had departed and this is what happens – everyone stays one or two nights and then moves on to another location. The villages in the islands are very basic (apart from Neiafu) with dirt tracks and no vehicles – the main mode of transport is horses. The locals are very friendly and always approach when you appear, and Andrew says that surprisingly Tongans are reasonably slim, not fat as we expect of islanders in general. Carl has been swimming a lot with Raleigh to keep him exercised and Raleigh gets in the water without coaxing now as he loves swimming and retrieving his ball. Both Leslie and Carl spend quite a bit of time hunting and collecting shells and have quite a collection now I gather. Leslie even found a really old bottle recently which she has cleaned up. The chocolate cup cakes went down very well last night (and I dreamed about them all night), Andrew ate all his on the spot, but Carl likes to ration his chocolate and I gathered still had one saved from last night! The chocolate ganache icing was just melted dark chocolate spread over the cupcakes and allowed to solidify again – just made me more envious!
We talked about the availability of fruit and veges and apparently they got a good supply from the market in Neiafu before they left. Great supplies of cucumber, peppers, onions, spring onions, potatoes, taro, pumpkin etc, and watermelon, mango and other fruits are available. It is a good open air market that appears to provide all the separate little islands with a place to sell their produce. They all seem to arrive separately and at different times and the market is still going at midnight. Well that’s a long update tonight – I hope someone still reads these? Yüklə 436,53 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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