Sunrise

Wauquiez Hood 38 Mark II. 
Average cruising speed 6.5k.  8 k tops.  Average sustained speed in ideal conditions: 7.5 k.
Leaving May 3 up to May 10 depending on your recommendations.
Departing Channel Islands Harbor, CA sailing directly to Atuona, Hiva Oa.
Marquesas to Tuamotus.  Must leave Huahine by 90 days after arrival in French Polynesia – approximately August 30.
Tuamotus to Huahine, to Suvarov (Suwarrow Atoll) to Samoa then Nuie or Tonga to New Zealand.
Our biggest concern is a pool of hot water to the W of Central America.  We know hurricanes form there but we do not know what conditions promote the hurricane formation or how to find that information. Therefore your help would be most needed in determining when to leave California.   We have weather fax and GRIB chart capability aboard.  We are competent in reading weather charts and GRB files.

Answer from Ken Campbell of Commander's Weather:

Yes, water temps are very warm off the west coast of Central America, so the tropical season will start early.

Departing sooner is better than later. Still, the tropicals tend to weaken very quickly west of 110W this time of
year and your route will be well west of that. Basically, you should be fine, departing in early or mid May.

Chantal is the Angel of French.  Here’s why.   In order to get an extension to stay in French Polynesia more than 3 months one must go to a French Consulate with your passport , $, boat’s documentation papers, 3 months of bank statements and a letter from your police department stating that you are a “Good Person” and all this needs to be translated into French.  Chantal very graciously did the tranlation for us.

Bad news:  The 2 Aussie neighbors set sail about a week ago heading for Australia with only 2 scheduled stops.  At 600 miles out they turned around and are headed back.  The son never quit being seasick and they had equipment failure of unknown type.  The name of their boat is Hell Cat.  That explains everything.  Just so you know, we would never turn back after 600 miles.  That is crazy!  Talk about seasick.   

Engine room insulation finished, inmarsat working but not registered with Stratos (service provider).  I changed the  virtual com port 8 to virtual com port 1 even though I think that is man’s work.  Food for 6 months is stowed except for the fresh and frozen.  Ditto paper towels, kleenex, detergent and wash cloths & towels.  Need more TP. 

Sheryl  is coming!!  She is fast, efficient, competent and knowledgable about an incredible number of things.  And she will drive us from Ridgecrest to the boat on the last day.  She is the all around best angel daughter.   

Friday we drive to Ridgecrest for the last time, leave the car, get frozen food from Sientje, take the last bath in a bathtub for 6 months, do the wash, get the tropical clothes, get the mail and then have Sheryl drive us back to Sunrise.   Leave CA for the So Pac Wednesday, May 4.   I will double check with weather router but National Weather Service does not even start their tropical weather reports until May 15.   

Barry found the Black-crowned Night Heron tree right at the head of our dock.  About 10 roost there.  Found out pelicans fish at night in certain conditions. 

Colby called this morning to give a lamb report – 6 so far and they were not due until May 1.  Those rams are tricky.  Boden wanted to discuss his birthday presents.  His birthday is in Oct but he knows we won’t be back by then.  He wanted guns and army stuff and I told him he had the wrong gramma.  Ask someone else.  We are not much into “stuff” but trips as gifts.  They love us anyway.  

Barry is changing oil in the engine room and I am going to do the USB serial adapter com port thing to the new computer, register Stratos and engage Commanders Weather.  Oh . . . and help Barry change the oil. 

A beautiful sunny day in spite of prediction of rain. 

What's Up, What's Done, What's the Plan

Sunday morning, April 22, 2012


Life is good here on Sunrise (except for pillaging gulls).  Channel Islands Harbor has been cold, foggy even misting for the last few days.  Love that fog horn. 


Schedule:                                                                         Bora Bora
When we filled out the immigration form for French Polynesia we stated that we would arrive at Atuona, Hiva Oa on June 1, 2012.  If we leave first week of May that gives us time to lolly-gag after we pass the hurricane alley.  Maybe we will reef at night so Barry can get some sleep.  (He does all the sail handling and trimming.)  We stated on the form that we would leave FP 90 days after our arrival.  Then we will head for Suwarrow, maybe Palmerston, Samoa, Tonga and arrive in New Zealand about the end of October.  Back to CA mid-Nov. For now, we will make one more brief visit to Ridgecrest to put our car in our garage, gather the last minute supplies, tropical clothing and frozen food.  Probably after April 26 but before May 1.


If you are not a boat person just skip the boat stuff in the following list.
Here’s what we have accomplished:
Received NZ$ from Morgan Stanley.  They don’t do French Polynesian francs – that is “exotic currency”.
Got FP francs from American Express Travel Services in Beverly Hills, the only source of exotic currency in this part of the US that I could find.
Joined Pacific Puddle Jump and went through all the hoops to get bond exemption, fuel tax exemption, immigration and an agent in Tahiti.

Made arrangements for Vince’s family to visit us in Rangiroa.  Grandsons are coming!
Inmarsat installed although not functioning because they sent it with software on 2 floppy discs.  Can you believe it?!  Update: Floppy drive purchased and software installed but not functioning yet. 
New EPIRB with built-in GPS registered.
Engine/prop shaft alignment ordered for Monday.
5Mile WiFi Antenna booster functioning.
Latest modification of lazy jacks finished.  This is v 798!  I’m sure it is not the last iteration.
Maximim power point tracking solar panel controll installed and uninstalled to send back for reprogramming so that they don’t fry Barry's new gel cell batteries.  They certainly work!  Notice they are Barry’s batteries.  That is because the electricity and all the wires and cables on the boat are his.
Buy a whisker pole and return it for a stronger one.
Fix stuck switch in salt-water washdown pump used for cleaning the anchor and chain.
Partially disassemble, clean and re-lubricate backstay adjuster.
Cut roll damper in half and make a second bridle.
Replace the fuel transfer pump that moves fuel from  one tank to the other.
Rebuild the fuel pump for the heater.
Get the original GPS working again.
Replace the fenders.
Hull buffed and waxed.  Bottom cleaning to be scheduled.
I think all bills are on autopay. Taxes pd.  Checks written for Vince to send. 
Scanner to Vince for eDepositing checks into the bank. 
Ship’s Pharmacy completed.
Buy a new laptop computer and get all the programs we need installed.
Build a mounting tray for the new computer.
Every sailing & weather App & book Lynne could find installed on iPad.  You can’t believe the number of aps that are available and how many books are not available. Navionics chart program for iPad is great!
Charts for computers, chartplotter, and iPad purchased and installed.
Paper charts complete.
Engine insulation complete except one wee spot that Barry will finish soon.
iPod gizmo installed on our NZ radio which plays US and NZ stations.  We have great speakers and this wired thing is MUCH better than the wireless transmitter that tunes to a radio station.

Sailmail purchased and installed for sending email on single sideband radio.  We need to practice again.

Weatherfax programmed.
Sheets, comforters, bed pads made to fit.  This is a family joke because there are wrinkles on only Barry’s side of the bed.  He designed and sewed cinch straps to go under the mattress to keep the bed pad and bottom sheet tight and flat because he cares about those wrinkles (he must be a princess) and because I have him convinced that sewing machines are for men! 
Life raft inspected and repacked.
SSB frequencies re-programmed into memory.
Air Head composting toilet installed and vent working well.
Genoa sun protection panel re-stitched.
Dodger modified to minimize size of potential water ingress spots.
New covers for the dinghy and windlass.
Hammocks installed on the ceiling for storing light-weight bulky things .

Updated programming on Simrad chartplotter.

Rig inspected (new rigging in NZ last trip) and all is well.  Rigging is what holds the mast up and the boom out.  Ours is very strong.
Replace leaking high pressure switch on frig compressor and recharge with refrigerant.
Inventoried batteries for all items on boat requiring batteries.  We have scores.
I have installed weather programs and check daily for the Central & South Pacific and areas we are sailing.
Daily check sea surface temperature off west coast of Mexico to Panama – scary!  That is hurricane birthplace and that is the only potential danger for us.  If things are at all iffy, we will hire a weather router.
Sientje is busy cooking and freezing healthful plant-based food for us.  She is the Food Angel for sure!  We will have one month of no cooking – just heating up. 
Lothar has completely cleaned and updated both of our boat laptops.  He is the Alpha Computer Angel for sure!
House, mail and yard care arranged.  Martha is surely the Mail Angel.  By the way, our yard is blooming and ever so beautiful. Toni is yard and pool angel.  Birds nesting all over.  Birds migrating through.
Barry has extensively used George Pruitt's excellent machine shop to make and modify parts for the boat.  George & Linda are all around angels.  
Gracie is home with Brenda and Dan.  Boo hoo!  But she loves them.
Tiny scanner purchased and being used. 1.5”x 1.5” by 11”!  Slick.
Wee printer purchased and being used.
New glasses so we have spares. 
Bought and used floppy drive to install software provided on floppy discs and another Microsoft Office Home & Business at Fry’s – on sale including a free wireless mouse.
Our broadband angels down the dock let me use their wi fi router connected to cable. (Our Verizon wi fi hotspot works on the boat, but barely.)  I took my iPad to their boat, sat in their red chair and it was wonderful.  Their cable internet bandwidth is so high that downloading speeds were phenomenal!  Bandwidth heaven!  While sitting there, I saw 2 Eared Grebes courting, Brown Pelicans fishing, an overhead Great Blue Heron and that paddlewheeler go by.  Life is good!
Big big to do for Lynne is to learn how to do this blog. 
Bye for now. 
Love,Lynne and Barry