Thursday 9th October 2008

POSITION: 03 54S, 154 08N

HEADING: 193T

SPEED: 7.7kts

SCOTT:

Hi Everyone,

Well today and last night have been the worst conditions so far, we had the first bit of green water over the deck and that is saying something for the mighty Speedbird to dig her nose in.  The seas have risen to 3 to 3.5 meters and the wind is constant at 20kts both sea and wind are on the port beam.  I tried to poach some eggs this morning and they came out scrambled and nicely arranged in all corners of the microwave.  It is a test of the reflexes opening the fridge door you need to be ready for the olives slash can of coke that is just waiting to jump out and hit you in the head.  The crew has been good and is coping well with the sleepless nights, I think after this leg I will be able to sleep tied by my ankles to the back of a roller coaster.  We are seeing alot of Jap fishing boats who are out here for the tuna we just need to be careful and make sure we don't hit their fishing gear, Jack has an instrument here which identifies the light signals and sequences so we can tell the direction they are heading and the type of fishing they are doing it has been helpful.  We are about 700 miles out of Pago Pago now which equates to about four more days.  Even though Pago is a commercial port and is known for its smell that wafts from the tuna processing plants we will be glad to have a rest from this weather.

Hope all is well, we are all missing out friends and loved ones.

Scott and the Boys. 

TUESDAY THE 7TH OCTOBER 2008

TIME: 1000Z

POSITION: 01 45N,  160 43W

SPEED: 6.9 kts

HEADING: 198T

JACK:

We are now 120NM from Fanning, on course 200T for Pago Pago.  I have finally got full control of my sea legs and can make a coffee balancing on one toe.  Sea state reasonable with 2m swells made a little uncomfortable by a 15 knot wind on our port side.  Many thanks to the inventors of stabilizers.  We will probably cross the equator in the early hours of tomorrow morning and it will feel great to be in the southern hemisphere.

Love to all.

Blog Entry 14 – 4th October 2008

JACK:

Hi Folks,

Well we have arrived at Fanning Island (‘Tabuaeran’ in the native tongue) this morning in the republic of Kiribati pronounced (khi-rii-bass) made up of the Gilbert, Line and Phoenix Islands discovered by US explorer Edmund Fanning in 1798 and annexed by Great Britain 1889. 

            Fanning is a little out of our way from the direct route Honolulu to Pago Pago however its isolation is its attraction being 1040 NM from Honolulu and 1250 NM from Pago, boy is this isolated.  So for the Burraneer bay crew mapping our progress we are located 03 51N, 159 22W.

            The lagoon is large and deep in places and reasonably protected although the sand and coral holding ground would require a constant anchor watch even in moderate winds.  Being fair minded we took a vote on this and Scott lost.  This said it’s a nice location to rest a while and being 5pm in the afternoon Roger is preparing his marinated steaks to go with red wine compliments of Erin and Leon so perhaps it will be a fairly relaxed evening and in air conditioned comfort watching some of our 300 movies thanks again Erin, Leon, Danni and Taylor for insisting that we take some entertainment. 

Bruce, thanks for the interesting email and yes there are now two radio masts although neither were of assistance when we attempted to contact the harbour master to confirm entry conditions and pilotage, the entry is narrow with an ebb tidal flow of 8 knots so dodging coral heads etc raised some sweat and my comments about the work ethic of the locals perhaps left something to be desired.

We had a look round this afternoon and I would like to get stuck into this place with a D9 to make way for a 5 star accommodation.  Tomorrow they have some ‘Teachers day celebration’ and the boys promised to attend a tribal get together to eat some pig.  Not seeing too much soap around the place or washing facilities, I am volunteering for anchor watch at this time.  That’s all from me as roger just called out the steaks are done.

All the best,

Jack.

SCOTT:

Hello all,

Today has been very long but also very interesting.  From 3AM we have been awake, negotiating the small and difficult entrance to this atoll with neither of the nav computers being any help because the maps were out by a few degrees which made it look like we were about to mount the reef yet we could see that we were clearly in the right spot.  After sliding through the 50-meter gap unscathed we found it difficult then to moore amongst the wrecked ships and large sections of coral.  All good fun and nice now that we are sitting in a still lagoon in the clearest most turquoise coloured water surrounded completely by coconut trees.  Tomorrow Brian and I are going to grab a couple of large sacks and get some nuts from a place out of the village a bit.  We will compare the colour and size of our nuts then Brian will share his nuts with Jack and I’ll probably give Roger a taste of mine. 

We went for a walk around today and the people are still living like they probably did 100 years ago.  They have pigs and chooks running free around the dirt streets with the young kids who live their lives free from clothes and worries no doubt.  It looks as though white man has had an influence from time to time with the odd brick building and lightweight truck that now have been abandoned and left to decay.  This tells me that they have no need or desire to use modern equipment, even the fish traps being used were made completely from natural materials.  Some of the pictures we have will blow you away…

Until next time.  

 

Blog entry 13 – 1st October 2008

TIME:                        1300Z

POSITION:                         11 18. 126N / 158 48. 400W

SPEED:                         8.3 kts

BEARING:                         177T

 

SCOTT:

Conditions today have deteriorated a little.  We have about 20 knots of breeze and 2M of swell hitting us on the port beam, it makes for very uncomfortable travel, still, it could be much worse and the barometer is steady so we should be ok. 

Speedbird is really enjoying the trip and continues to become part of the environment, or tries to.  The small pigeons that tried to make a nest in our spare anchor were shoved off time and time again along with all the twigs and leaves. We thought they were really nice at first but unfortunately we don’t think the customs in Fanning would agree to the live animals entering their pristine island.  We also had a problem with the flying fish trying to join our crew last night, Brian went around this morning and threw eleven, foot long flying fish back into the water, we would have tried to eat them if we found them a little earlier.

We have estimated that by Friday lunchtime we will have arrived in Fanning and all look forward to hiding out for a few days. 

Hope everything is good back home.

Peace out.

BRIAN:

Ok, this entry is for the Brasilians…  Du me-falou que ninguem está intendendo o blog com tudo escrito in ingles.  Então eu vou TENTAR, e tentar mesmo, escrever em portugues. 

Agente passou 6 dias em Hawaii, na isla da Oahu, que está famoso para as praias da costa norte – ondas enormes para surfing.  Mas não tinha nada de onda enquanto a gente estava la.  Tambem é a isla do Pearl Harbor, mas não fomos.  Du passou quase o tempo todo comigo la, foi otima!  A gente passou dias descobrindo as praias, cada um mais bonita.  Adorei nosso tempo…

Mas agora a gente, eu e os australianos, está no alto mar 3 dias, saiu o Hawaii para o sul.  Neste momento nós estamos na LAT. 12˙00´N  LONG.158˙ 45´ W.  Nós vamos para a isla chamado Fanning Island ou Tabuaeran, perto do Christmas Island.  Os Britanicos tinha uma mina de cobre la 60 anos atrás.  Hoje em dia a mina está fechado, mas ainda existe gente la, e o dono do barco diz que existe um grupo de nativos ainda, e o chefe vem para aceitar tripulacões dos barcos que passam.  Nós temos roupas e chocolates para as crianças. 

Ontem a noite o tempo virou pior, e neste momento e chato.  Eu acho que as correntes do mar estão mudando e criando um confusão no mar, e com este vento, não ajuda.  Mas é isso.  Não pode ser fantastico o tempo todo.  Eu espero que isso deu para voces intender…  Até logo – Beijos e abraços. 

Blog entry Twelve – 29th September 2008

TIME:                1100Z

POSITION:               18 01. 31N, 158 10. 50W

SPEED:                   7.8 kts

COG:                    187T

ROGER:

Hi everyone, once again we are on our way.  After a stop in Honolulu of six days we are now heading south to Fanning island, a distance of approx 1040 miles (6 days).  Fanning island is an atoll where copra was processed from the coconut tree by the company Burns-Philp many years ago.  The island is still inhabited and is one of the line island group lying approximately 4 degrees north and 159 west.  A brief stop at Fanning and then we head south west towards American Samoa and the island of Pago Pago, a distance of about 1300 NM.  Honolulu was interesting and not what I expected, many many Japanese – could you believe that after Pearl Harbour.  Speaking of Pearl Harbour, a visit to that historical and tragic site was very moving.  Our tour to pearl was hosted by a casual stout Hawaiian bus driver who kept us entertained all day with some good jokes and the odd song – he knew his business and the island history.  During our stay we toured the island and dined out at a number of restaurants where the food and service was second to none.  Jack has re-joined the boat and now we make four with Brian coming on to Fiji with us.  One of our few tasks whilst on passage, apart from ships business is eating our way through the enormous amount of food we have on board – we will want for nothing in that regard.  So it’s eat sleep and read and of course attend to ships business.

Cheers for now.

 

SCOTT:

Hello one and all,

Here we are once again pushing toward the horizon in ideal conditions.  It was much easier the second time to settle into the motion.  We all tucked into Erin’s lovely mild chicken curry last night on a bed of rice which she had prepared in the days prior, thanks again Erin and Leon for all your hard work. 

It was really good to spend the time in Hawaii, I never thought the little island of Oahu would be so busy, at one point we found ourselves stuck in traffic on a 10-lane highway! The hoards of tourists made for some good night life even though Danni and I found ourselves talking to Australians and watching Manly vs. Auckland in the NRL on TV when we went out ha-ha.  The best place I found was called ‘Sinor Frog’ which looked like a bunch of Bali style huts on the roof of a big mall.  They ran games and gave out food all night I met some funny blokes from California and we all got layed (ring of flowers that is placed around the neck in thanks for spending money on drinks).

A good few days and a great birthday thank you all for the nice messages.  Keep the comments coming; we all take time to read them even if we can’t reply we love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by.   

Blog entry Eleven – 23 SEPT 2008

We have finally arrived! It was so good to round Diamond Head, at this point any dusty little piece of land would have been fine but to arrive in Honolulu, a beautiful paradise, was a treat.  

It is interesting to note that this island has less than ten percent of the land area of the Hawaiian Islands but has 80 percent of the population.  Honolulu is the state centre for communications transport and business and of course the famous Waikiki Beech which, is a major tourist attraction.  The Ala Wai marina where we ended up berthing the boat happens to be right in the middle of the action, right in front of the Hilton Resort village.  Customs clearance was very easy and done by telephone with advice to give them two days notification for clearance when leaving.  This process was made a lot easier thanks to our 12-month cruising permit valid for entry into all US ports.  Jack flew in this morning and was given a cruising permit to travel the islands for six months.  A few miles to the west of our current position is the entrance to Pearl Harbor, which is closed to civilian traffic, and navigation near the entrance channel is prohibited.  We will visit this area by motor vehicle during the week.  We also have plans to jump in the car and circumnavigate Oahu visiting Pipeline in the north and maybe have a stroll up through the Honolulu national park.

Many thanks for all your kind messages and words.

Bye for now.

Here are a few pictures from recent times.

Blog entry Ten – 21st Sept 2008

CURRENT POSITION:                        22 38N, 154 12W

SPEED:                                                9.0kts

HEADING:                                                242T

 

Hi everyone, well we are running down the track to waypoint five which puts us at the top of the island of Oahu a distance of 230 NM from our current position.  We then have 22.5 NM to run to the harbour of Ala Wai.  Our ETA, on our current performance should be 1400 to 1430 Monday local Hawaiian time.  During last night the wind shifted to the NE and reached about 15 knots the highest reading to date.  It is currently at 10 knots from the same sector and we have a following sea with swell of about 1.5 to 2M.  So the weather patter and our comfort zone has been exceptional with hot meals in the evening, good breakfasts and snacks through out the day.  We are all fit and attentive to our duties and doing three hour watches at night commencing at 9PM in the evening.  During the day we wander about the boat each of us plugged into our own music via iPods, what a contrast to the past.  The boat is big enough for each of us to find our own sanctuary, read and listen to music – its just about my pace.  A bit of R & R in Honolulu, a birthday celebration for our youngest crew member Scott and then the long leg, some 2300NM, to American Samoa across the equator and into home water – the southern pacific.  It all looks good.  When Jack joins us in 
Honolulu we could be four as Brian who initially came for the trip to Honolulu to take us through the complexities of the engine room is seriously thinking of staying on the Fiji.

Cheers for now.

Roger.