The Steering is Fixed

Well this is a fingers crossed type of thing.  Basically we replumbed everything and there are no links.  We won't know for sure until we get out there and put some pressure on it.  We intend to do that starting tomorrow.  Thanks to the people at HyDrive who walked s through some of the troubleshooting of the system.  And found a flaw with the original installation.

We are heading northish toward Kyushu.   There are lots of stops on the way before we hit Nagasaki so not sure when the updates will happen.  It all depends on the internet.  We noticed our position tracking page didn't follow us so well on the last trip but we think we discovered what we were doing wrong there so hopefully that will work.  Otherwise we may see if my sister Chris is up to do some more remote posting.

Cheers to All

Okinawa Brewing Company

Most of our time in Okinawa seems to have been spent working on the steering for Sari Timur.  But our good friend Chris, who is all knowing on things beer, suggested we go look up Mark Reynolds at the Okinawa Brewing Taproom.  So Friday off we went.  Mark is supposedly another Michiganian but he wasn't there this weekend but his mate Tony stood in for a pic and the beer and pizzas were great.  We also discovered it was the birthday of another friend of ours from Guam so we ordered one more for the road!  Anyway a great night out and we recommend this place.

Autopilot and steering

Well we have had a couple of days in Okinawa.  I forgot how miserable spring can be.  Pretty nice weather one minute and then freezing (to us anyway) temperatures the next.  Anyway we are getting used to sleeping under a quilt!  Would have been nice to try out our new heater but it has still not arrived nor been installed.

Anyway our biggest concern once we got here was to sort out our steering issues and talking with the manufacturers it seems the problems stem from my replumbing the system using hydraulic hose instead of copper pipe.  I did this many years ago when the second copper fitting burst on the system. Anyway we are going to go back to copper pipe and give that a try. Hopefully I will do a better job with my fittings than the original installer!

Anyway we applied for our cruising permit yesterday to get us as far as Nagasaki.  We go back Friday to check on it and hopefully receive it.  If all goes well we should leave next week Wednesday heading North.  Keep your fingers crossed that I get the steering replumbed correctly!

Okinawa

We arrived Ginowan Marina 19 April at 11:00 Japan Time.  Which was yesterday.  Spent most of the rest of the day getting checked in and meeting up with some people here.  This is the biggest marina I have seen and full of some pretty interesting boats.  Internet access isn't quite so easy yet but hopefully we will sort that out in the next few days.  A boat just down from us caught a pretty good size black marlin and were cutting it up on the dock as we got back from immigration.  Seems like all kinds of activities going on here.  We definitely do need to begin getting some Japanese into our brains as English is not that widely spoken.  But we did figure on that.  We have just been too lazy so far.

Anyway all for now I have to go back and start putting the boat together, or have a nap which ever comes first!!!

Getting Excited

Position 25 d 10 m N 128 d 50 E We are about 100 hundred miles away so we should be in Okinawa just before lunch time.  Just called Okinawa Coast Guard with expected eta.  Bit of a drama there as they didn't seem to have our paperwork.  but we did fax to them twice before departure so I am sure they will find it before tomorrow.  Anyway our first sat phone call where we actually spoke to someone was quite long!!! When you are counting the fact it is 2 dollars a minute you think of all the beer you now have to sacrifice to pay for the call!

Anyway our next post should be from shore.

Cheers
11:30 Japan Time

Getting There!

 (I guess the sailing must be pretty good because today's blog from Mark and Pauline is pretty boring-Chris)

well we are under 200 miles left to go.  It looks like we will be in late Saturday.  Position is 23 d 13m N 130 d 21 m E

Cheers

What a Difference a Day Makes

Position 22 d 41.0m N 131 d 24.0 m E.  Wow today we have probably the nicest conditions of the trip so far.  Yesterday we were complaining about everything until I got on the radio sched with Brad and found out he had to hove to for two days while the storm passed over him.  They lost their transmission and are heading into Osaka to get a new one or this one fixed.  But they are several days late already and still have over 400 miles to go.  The low has passed us over and we have a little slop left but mostly smooth seas.   but Sari Timur is showing us her graces again.  We have all four sails drawing wind again.  Pretty heavily reefed, we are a bit gun shy right now.  But all is good.

Cheers

17:00 Chamorro Time

One Week

position 21 d 22.2 N 133 d 17.98 m E.  Time 14:30 one week ago exactly we dropped the mooring in MYC and headed out to sea.  We still have about 450 nm to go, so hopefully we will be in sometime Saturday.  Yesterday day was gorgeous and gave some time to recuperate before running into what we have had for the last 12 hours.  The good news was our delays probably meant we didn't get deeper into this low when it hit.  Bad thing is we are on the fringe of it with confused seas and winds.  One minute they are blowing 25-30 from one direction then they shift about 20 degrees.  It is hard to read the wind because the boat is bobbing a bit like a cork.  The good news is the grib files show us the wind will be veering with in a few hours and lessoning in about 18.  We just gotta hang in here and keep steering.  UUGH!  Oh well still a better day than in the office.

5h1+ Happens!

Position  20 d 35.5 m N 135 d 08.1 m E  Well yesterday started with the rope.  if you remember that entitled getting in the water and fighting for awhile.  It also warned us to watch the bilges because the packing gland had screwed up.  Well I no longer finished this blog post and Pauline sent a quick text to her family and I went down to try and get some sleep.  I smelled smoke.  Every sailors dread.  It smelt slight electrical but also like burning candles.  I quickly checked all of the amp gauges and nothing seemed bad.  Opened the engine room all is ok, then started ripping open everything I could think of to gain access to electrics or hot spots.  Finally I looked in the toilet.  Yes it was the toilet.  This should have registered earlier in the brain cells but I was a bit sleep deprived.  We installed a new composting toilet years ago (yes we are a bit green) and so far like the benefits over the drawbacks.  It is a simple device and other than one small little circulating fan is pretty low tech.  It has a deck vent that you are supposed to close in heavy seas.  (Remember Post of 2 and 3 days ago) anyway we didn't get to it quick enough and some salt water got down the vent line.  Probably while we were dead in the water tossing and rolling while I fixed the prop rope problem water got in and shorted out the fan. It also melted down the wire going to it.  There is supposed to be a 3 amp fuse in there for protection.  When I checked it the fuse said F3 fuse 35A.  Some idiot had read the 3 not the 35 (FINGER POINTS TO SELF!) anyway time to tear up the toilet rerun wires and replace the fan.  And while at it change the compost.  Three hours and we are back in business. Time for a very late lunch and back to the nap.  Wait I hear water in the bilge.  Packing gland seems dry!  Oh well drain it eat and skip nap and do my turn on the wheel.

I come down and find the bilges full again.  Not the packing gland.  I best get looking.  Rip up all of the floor boards and see the water is coming from under the galley sink.  Oh no our fresh water supply?  No, worse, the seacock for the drain is leaking badly.  This means we could sink!  Down again with the sails and over the side with the bung.  I pound the bung in which slows the leak to a manageable state.  Now I take off the seacock and realise it is not the seacock but the thru hull. The threads have worn through.  We carry some great stuff called Splash Zone which is a two part underwater epoxy  I mix up a glob and press into the thru hull from the inside and hold it in place with a plastic bag for 2 hours while it cures.  This stops the leak but I am worried about the bung popping out and sudden pressure might start the leak again.  So now over the side with another blob of epoxy, pull out the bung and insert some epoxy from the outside while Pauline holds and watches from the inside, wait another couple of hours, every thing is good.  Mix up some more epoxy for good measure wrap again and place a large hose over and clamp to hold everything in place and plug hose.  Another couple of hours, check everything and we are off motoring slowly and watching and praying.  Also asking the big guy what we did to deserve all of this!  Well it is Palm Sunday and we are out here instead of back in Hagatna listening to the bishop give his sermon.  Now we start to thank the big guy instead.  We are much happier out here doing this with each other than back there, even with all the problems it all ended well and that means a great day!  So thanks Big Guy, sorry we missed your service and sorrier still what our forefathers did to your kid this coming Friday so long ago you remember let his blood be on us and our children and children's children.  But thanks for letting us do this dream, come trough it with each other and having the resource and know how to fix what you throw at us.  And thanks for each other we wouldn't want to do this with anyone else.  And finally Big Guy can you reward those people that make Splash Zone!

Tropics No More

Position 19 d 44.75 m N 136 d 16.75 m E  Actually the tropics don't disappear until 22.5 degrees North but for us we hit a cold line at 19 degrees.  Both of us were bundled up tightly last night.  This morning the weather is breaking a little the winds are reasonable the waves are still 4-6 feet with the occasional big one still swooping through to wet us down.

Anyway today we are 11 miles from our half way point.  That doesn't necessarily mean we will get there in the same time from now but maybe?  There is another depression just north west of us so we are sort of threading the needle.

The other big event today is in this vast big ocean we had to be the ones to snag a rope.  It was a piece of one inch about 50 foot long and we snagged it some time during the night while we were running the engine to charge the batteries.  Luckily it snagged between the prop and the rudder.  Our first indication was when we shut the engine down the packing gland was leaking very badly and filling the bilges.  I ripped up the floor to look at the packing gland and once I massaged it back into place (we have a dripless submarine seal that needs replacing)it seemed to stop and the prop quit spinning.  After another few minutes the prop began spinning again.  This usually indicates its fouled and that means jumping overboard with a knife.  I already mentioned we were cold right!  Anyway with the closest land over 4000 metres away and straight down jump I did.  The water was actually only a little cold and the visibility was great.  But don't forget those waves after about a half hour of cutting and slashing and dodging a boat trying to hammer me to death we got it free.  we kept the part that melted around the prop zinc to take a picture of later.  The rest I am sad to say was just cut away hopefully no one else picks it up.  but we had no way to retrieve it.  

Cheers

9:30 Chamorro Standard Time

Weather

Position 18 d 20.4 N 138 d 19.75 E Well it had to happen!  Those of you watching weather you see that system building just to the south west of us.  We had been checking this out with all the long range models we had available to us and they predicted almost what is happening.  In hind sight we should have stayed a bit more north instead of trying to close our rhumb line,but that is always 20:20.  Anyways we are missing the storm but getting crapped on by the feeder winds and seas.  They actually aren't bad, except we have/want to beam reach across them rather than broad reach with them.  Makes the ride a bit more uncomfortable but it puts us across the winds faster and closer to our destination rather than closer to the storm.  So we will be uncomfortable for about another day or so but hopefully good weather after that.  We are still making good progress.

9:00 Chamorro Standard Time

Day Three

Postion 17 d 04.5 m N 140 d 24.7 m E  The wind is back!  Not too strong and from the right direction.  Sari Timur is loving this and we are making progress toward Okinawa and our rhumb line.  We had been several miles north of our rhumb line as we didn't want to sail straight downwind the first couple of days.  We prefer broad reaching.  For those of you who do not know the rhunb line is the straight line on the chart between two points on a flat map.  our rhumb line is really a great circle line which is the shortest point between two points on a sphere.  The difference between these two lines in this case is 5.1 nautical miles and only deviates the course by a total of a couple degrees over four steps.  Pauline redid some macrame basket hangers yesterday. The original string chaffed threw after about ten years and all the contents went flying.  We are using better string this time.  So hopefully 20 years!  Anyway all is well on board.

Cheers

The Second Day

Position 15 d 58.71 N  142 d 03.10 E  Well we are over two hundred and twenty miles closer to Okinawa. The weather is pretty calm.  We are motorsailing now for the next couple of hours.  As the wind and waves were making the boat toss more than she needed to do.  We are hand steering as the hydraulic valve the controls the back flow into the wheel etc kept sticking and would stick with the autopilot turning us hard to starboard.   I believe I have a spare on board as this valve has gone before nad i refurbished the old one, but hey seem to be undersized for big seas and full sails as that is how both went.  I think we will just hand steer to Japan and figure out how to get bigger ones there or else go for a beefier autopilot.  we certainly do not want to hand steer to Alaska.  Good news is Sari Timur is a good boat to hand steer.  Note the font on this is pretty small and Chris has informed me she won't correct grammer so doing this outside with a converted Jap-anese keyboard where only half of the keys are where they are supposed to be is a challenge. So if this is hard to read imagine how it is to type and send.  Plus I have always been grammatically challanged

Cheers 0800 Chamorro Standard Time

The First Day

 I want you to be forewarned.  All spelling and grammar errors are to be credited to my brother.....mine would be worse.
Chris

Position 14 d 30.00 min N  143 d 32.5 min E

We left yesterday 8th of April at 14:30.  Seas and wind were light at first.  But as we broke away from Guam and the CMNI islands the seas are a bit sloppy and the wind is up.

We Are Off!

Well we will be in about three hours.  Just doing some last minute stowing of things and we will get going.  Got a reasonable nights sleep so it's out to feel the motion of the ocean once again.  The three boats that left before us are making pretty good progress.  But they do have some lumpy weather.  Anyway we will post some remote post while under way thanks to Chris.  So keeping checking in.

St Elmo

Well we have been having a few going away dinners etc.  Yesterday was supposed to be just a normal club day with a drink or so before an early night.  Well our friends decided different.  They wanted to get us a small token that wouldn't take much space for us to remember them by.  And since we are in the land of statues they thought a St Elmo who is the patron saint for sailors would be nice.  But no Elmos in the stores, undaunted they tried a different tack and cannonised the famed Seseme St character .  This turned out to be great and of course then the champagne, rum, and tequila came out.  Needless to say a little slow today but what great friends.  We will truly make sure St Elmo has a good place on the boat.

Notice the Halo and Cross

Temporary Home for now

Our Satphone is registered!

We have now activated the Satphone and given the number to Chris.  We have now sent a test text and taught her how to send us one.  The next is setting up the email.  For those of you wishing to call us be careful we have heard calling is US$14/ minute.  Best keep sending emails or be sweet to my sister!

You would think it would be more impressive for $14/min!  (picture rotation and comment by Chris)
 

Out of the Harbor of Refuge

Well we are now out of the Harbour of Refuge and out on the club moorings.  Diesel tanks are topped off and the dreaded Japanese "Paperwork" has been sent off.  This paperwork is always daunting for first timers as it is not clear, and if done incorrectly could close ports to us.  But luckily we have heard that the ever polite Japanese officials will help us once we get there.