I apologize for the long delay between posts. I was out of the country for a month to attend my son Chris' wedding in Germany and to do some geneology research in Poland for my wife's side of the family.
This post will pick up from the last one on 28 August 2013 and get you the rest of the way to the Galapagos Islands. Since my last post, I've received several messages asking for more details on the sailing characteristics of Escape under a variety of conditions so I uploaded several movies to YouTube that covers the days in Part 2 as well as the period covered in this post. Here are the links:
http://youtu.be/UboIggjoF6U Sailing Down Wind in 26 kt Winds 6:23:2013 In this movie you can hear the engine running, but we're not using it for propulsion, we're just charging the
batteries with it.
http://youtu.be/vBncr3GpDzY Sailing Downwind at 10 kts 6:23:2013
http://youtu.be/qKhMl8eMcUQ View from Aft Deck
When we first left Valdivia, the conditions were pretty good once we got out to sea although we had to motor at first to maintain the 7 knot average speed we were trying to keep in order to out run a huge storm that was coming in from the west. Most of the sailing during this period was downwind so we were either sailing wing-on-wing using both of the jibs or one of the jibs and the screecher sail. In most of the movies I include a shot of the speed sensor and the wind direction/wind speed sensor. The speed sensor is reporting speed over ground from the GPS and the wind speed sensor is reporting true wind speed (TWS) and apparent wind speed (AWS) in knots as observed from the top of the forward mast. As we moved north we were influenced by the winds on the outside of the storm and it moved eastward a little faster than the weather forecasts predicted. On the 26th the winds were pretty light so we motor sailed part of the day to try to maintain our speed. By about noon on the 27th the wind picked up quickly and in a very short time we were seeing strong gusty winds up to 25 knots and choppy seas with 4-6 foot waves with very short period making for a rough ride. In the late afternoon we motored for one hour with port engine to charge batteries and make water. By 6 PM we had two reefs in both sails but kept both mast foils engaged. By 8:30 PM we were seeing 25+ kt winds with gusts into the mid to high 30s, so we put 2 deep reefs in the jibs and trimmed the mast foils. We were moving at 11-12kts COG during gusts and the ride was pretty rough so we furled the mizzen jib to <25% of its normal area and weather cocked the mizzen mastfoil to reduce speed. We stayed in that configuration until about 8 AM on the 28th when the winds died significantly to around 14 knots so we let out the sails and resumed our normal speed of 6-8 knots. During the high winds the wind shifted more westerly, but now it was from the northwest. We had gotten considerably off course during the night and we needed to head more to the west to get back on course, but with the wind coming from the northwest, we couldn't crab too much into the wind and still keep up good speed. The sun even came out in the afternoon and we picked up a little speed. We were regularly doing 8 - 10 knots. I went down to my shower and looked out the portal at the other bow slicing through the water to see what it looked like to be going that fast at the water level. Here's a movie that I posted on YouTube so you can see too.
http://youtu.be/UboIggjoF6U Sailing Down Wind in 26 kt Winds 6:23:2013
http://youtu.be/vMkSBp8QhCo Sailing Broad Reach in 12 kt Winds 6:26:2013
http://youtu.be/gSUkXU7BHg4 Sailing Broad Reach After The Storm 6:27:2013
http://youtu.be/ghyyLB5_kbs Wing on Wing 1a 28 Jun
http://youtu.be/-uRbxAG4_eE View from the Starboard Portal 28 Jun 2013
At approximately 2 AM on the 28th, the wind shifted to SE, i.e., it was coming from the SE, which is the direction we wanted it, but it was very light so we were only able to sail at 3-4 knots. We started the port engine at 3 AM and motor sailed until the wind picked up again around 5:15 AM to around 12 knots. We let out sails again and shut off the port engine. About the same time we saw steaming lights from another boat at about 110˚ M. We could not pick it up on radar and we could only see it when we were up on the crest of a wave. It was probably another sail boat going the other way. That was the first boat we had seen since we left Valdivia. We estimated the range to the other boat to be about 6-10 nm. By mid morning the sun came out and it remained clear all day. The winds steadily rose until they reached 18 to 20 knots directly from behind us and stayed that way the rest of the day. We consistently sailed at speeds between 8 and 10 knots. The seas were calm and the ride was smooth, a welcome change from the days before. We sailed all day wing on wing with the front MF deployed and aft MF feathered. When sailing wing on wing with the wind from directly behind the boat, the aft MF causes more back and forth movement and disrupts air flow to the mizzen sail so it's best to feather it. We also attached the mizzen boom preventor lines to a snap shackle tied to the center cleat to get a better angle on holding the boom forward and down. This gave the sail a better shape and didn't let it flap or backwind if the boat rocked with the waves. Here are a couple pictures of Escape in the wing-on-wing configuration. The first one is using the foresail jib and mizzen jib and the bottom picture is using the screecher and foresail.
The winds steadily increased during the night until by 8 AM on the 29th we had 25-30 knot winds accompanied by 15 - 20 foot waves from the aft port quarter causing considerable meandering. We stayed in the wing on wing configuration with the foresail fully deployed but put one reef in mizzen sail. We kept the forward MF engaged and feathered the aft MF. We pretty much sailed like this all day on the same heading of about 335˚ M at 8 - 10 knots. I put a couple of movies on You Tube of us sailing in this configuration and one of them is of us surfing on some of the waves. You can find them at:
http://youtu.be/xmf8mKR4xTA Wing on Wing After the Storm 29 Jun 2013
http://youtu.be/kmXDMdm31oA Surfing the Waves 29 Jun 2013
Here's a shot of the speedometer as we surfed one of the waves. It was up to 20 knots, but before I could take the picture it was down to 17.2.
The winds stayed pretty steady at 23-27 knots during the night on the 29th but were shifting more southeasterly. This caused our main jib to start flapping as we went over some of the waves and we were having a hard time holding our course. We tried bringing it over to the port side, but it still flogged a lot even with considerable direction adjustments. So, we brought it back to starboard into the wing on wing configuration again. The strategy was to go slightly west of our planned route to keep the sail from flapping and then, as the wind moved more SE, we would bring the forward jib over and go into a deep reach to get back on track. Even though the winds were high and the ride was a bit bumpy, Jay managed to mix a batch of his delicious naan bread and I teamed up with him to fry the naan for dinner. Here are a couple pictures of the naan bread making process:
In the morning of the 30th Sven found a storm petrel on the deck. It probably had run into one of the sails or windows during the night and was partially stunned. He picked it up and held it in his hands for a while to warm it and to comfort the bird and eventually it was able to fly off. I put a couple pictures of the storm petrel below. The wind continued shifting farther eastward and we continued to sail wing on wing until our starboard preventor line chaffed through the sheath. We quickly moved the forward jib over to port to a deep reach configuration so the starboard preventor line was slack and Sven mended it by puling one end of the broken sheath over the other and sewing it in place. We were still maintaining a speed over ground (SOG) of 9 knots or better. Throughout the night we continued to sail on a starboard tack and the winds gained strength with gusts up to 32 knots. We put two reefs in the mizzen jib and one in the foresail. With those reefs it was a pretty good ride and we were still making around 9 or 10 knots.
On the morning of the 1st of July, our luck went from bad to worse. At about 7 AM our autopilot stopped working and the boat just took off in whatever direction it pleased with the sails flapping. Once we got back on coarse we took the sails down for about 1/2 hour and tried to get the autopilot working again, but were unsuccessful. We wrote an e-mail to Navico and Alwoplast over the SSB radio to see if they could shed any light on what might be the problem. Throughout the rest of the day and night we manually steered the boat in three-hour shifts. By the morning of 2 July, we were exhausted, but we had an e-mail from Brian Gifford (Warranty Rep for Navico) and he had some suggestions that led us to the solution for fixing the autopilot. It turned out that the failure was caused by a corroded and loose wire back by the autopilot motor that engages the clutch. I determined that the large following waves were splashing water through the hole around the shaft from the autopilot to the rudder so I dried it all out and stuffed the hole around the shaft with rags to prevent a future occurrence. Remember that Escape is the first boat of this design off the assembly line so some things like this were bound to happen. Around 4 PM, Sven caught about a 25 lb yellow fin tuna, so between getting the autopilot fixed and catching a tuna, this was a very good day. The winds have slowed to about 12 knots and our speed decreased to 6-7 knots. Here's a couple pictures of Sven catching his fish and cleaning it. 
I also posted a movie of him reeling it in on YouTube at:
http://youtu.be/b2rAYjSCRvM Sven Catches a Tuna 2 Jul 2013
Obviously sushi and grilled tuna followed and we put the rest in the refrigerator for meals over the next few days. Here are pictures of the sushi and tuna steaks that Jay made from Sven's catch:
The winds were light and variable throughout the night making it very difficult to keep the sails trimmed, but by early morning the winds were steady around 12 knots TWS so we put up the screecher sail, furled the mizzen sail, and put the mainsail to starboard in wing on wing with the screecher, which was to port. This will give us a chance to evaluate the repair of the bowsprit and the chaffing of the screecher halyard. We sailed with the screecher all day at 7-8 knots in 13 to 15 knot winds. We took the screecher down around 1600 to look at the halyard. It had modest chaffing, but not bad. We put the screecher back up and sailed with it until just before dark. We took the screecher down at 2000 hours because we didn't want to take a chance on it failing during the night. There was no additional chaffing on the halyard. We rolled the screecher up without moving the mainsail in front of it to block the wind and it rolled up easily. We put the screecher in it's bag and tied it to the trampoline. We used the mainsail and mizzen sail in the wing on wing configuration for the rest of the night. Both mast foils were engaged as the wind was light and the sea calm. The port shower pump switch failed today. I took it apart and it was full of water. Eric Burton who is coming to help crew from the Galapagos to Baja said he would pick one up at West Marine today and bring it with him.
We motor sailed through much of the night because the winds were so light, but by 0600 on the 4th of July the winds had picked up to around 16 knots and were directly behind us. We furled the mizzen jib and put up the screecher and foresail in a wing-on-wing configuration with the foresail to starboard. We were maintaining about 8.5 knots. The wind continued to shift to the East as the day went on so we furled the foresail and let out the mizzen jib to port so we were sailing with the screecher and mizzen jib in a deep starboard reach. We wanted to do something to celebrate Independence Day so Jay put a few really nice Chilean sausages on the BBQ grill. Here's the before and after shots of the brats. Notice the naan bread and beer off to the side—yum yum!
≈
After the meal, Jay laid down on the trampoline for a rest while the rest of us did the dishes and cleaned up. Other than the flying fish I picked up on the 5th, the 5th and 6th were fairly uneventful. Here's a picture of the fish. Sometimes we just sat on the front deck like in the picture below contemplating the good life.
The winds got lighter and lighter until eventually we had to motor in to the Galapagos. We began picking up blips on Santa Maria Island around 0515 on the 7th with the radar on the 35 nm range setting and we saw the running lights on one boat leaving the islands earlier in the morning. Gardner Island gave the first good returns because it sticks up pretty high. We'd been watching the stars throughout the night. Ursla Minor (the Big Dipper) was prominent just off our starboard bow. We had Land Ho about 0830 in the morning and could see Isla Santa Maria and Isla Santa Fe off in the distance about 20 nm away and just the feint outline of Santa Cruz dead ahead about 22 nm away. What a great feeling for that island to show up exactly where we were expecting it after 2583.7 nm of sailing from Valdivia. We dropped anchor in Puerto Ayora at 1245 hours and it was a great sense of accomplishment for us to have made the first big leg of our journey. Here are a few movies of the approach and the anchorage at Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz, a picture of me and Jay celebrating and me with my laundry while waiting for the authorities to come aboard to inspect Escape.
http://youtu.be/tc2AEXzbyeM Sailing w:Screecher in Broad Reach 4 Jul 2013 http://youtu.be/zN4eSegmaW4 Approaching Santa Cruz Island 7 Jul 2013 http://youtu.be/h6nfZICJrDA Anchorage at Puerto Ayora 7 Jul 2013 |
nice post. you haven't mentioned what you like and don't like about the boat.
ReplyDeleteLove all the pictures and videos. Looks awesome!
ReplyDelete