-----Original
Message-----
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 8:39 AM
Subject: Estrela on the move again -- watch us live on
www.theheads.co.za as we depart Knysna at approx 7 to
7:15 am local time (5 am GMT and midnight EST) Sunday, February 15, bound for
Simons Town Harbor, Cape Town
We should
sail out Knysna Heads sometime from about 7 am to
7:15 am local time (5 to 5:15 am GMT, and midnight to 12:15 am North American
Eastern Standard Time). We aim to depart just before high slack tide,
which is 7:21 am. Watch www.theheads.co.za to try to catch a
glimpse of us on the way out. It refreshes with a real-time still shot of
the narrow pass between the East and West Knysna
Heads every 60 seconds.
We hope to
sail uneventfully around Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point in Africa, and
re-enter the
It is very
sad for all four of us to be saying goodbye to so many wonderful friends here
in Knysna. But Estrela and her crew are finally
100% ready and it’s way past time to be going.
-- Doug
The
S/V Estrela
-----Original
Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:17 PM
Subject: Estrela tied up 10:50 am at False Bay Yacht Club, Simon's Town
Harbor, Cape Town -- escorted in by seals, a whale, seabirds, dolphins, and
penguins
We exited
the Knysna Heads at 7:12 am local time (0512 GMT)
Sunday morning, February 15, tears flowing. And the first eight hours
were pretty miserable. No wind and confused, lumpy seas left half of us
pretty seasick. Kyle had her worst bout ever. I leave the details
to your imagination. But then the seas became more regular and the wind
filled in gradually. Estrela flew around
Love,
Doug
The
S/V Estrela
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 3:24 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Thurs, March 12, 2009 (Day 1 of passage to St
Helena from
2200 local time Thurs, March 12, 2009 (2000 GMT); Lat/Lon: 33º51.410'S, 017º47.239'E; Location: 33 nautical miles (NM) WNW of Cape Town, South Africa and 1670 NM SE of St. Helena; Course and speed over ground: 300ºT at 5.2 kts; Wind: SW 7 kts; Sea: small regular swell; Sky: 3/8, some foggy patches; Air temp: 62ºF; Water temp: 59ºF; Humidity: 65%; Current: nil; Sail/engine combination and tack: motorsailing with engine at 1400 RPM and full main and staysail, close reach on port tack; Fishing: not; Last 24 hour run (through 0800): Zero (we just began the passage today); Forecast: A 2-3 day gale is expected in a wide area within hundreds of miles of the Cape of Good Hope, beginning Sunday or Monday and blowing through Tuesday -- so we are trying to get quickly as far north and west as we can; Thoughts: Because of this forecast we have opted to burn diesel -- to motorsail -- so we can maintain at least 5 knots of speed.
Sailing away from
-- Doug
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 2:16 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Friday, March 13, 2009 (Day 2 of passage to St
Helena from
2130 local time Friday, March 13, 2009 (1930 GMT). Lat/Lon: 32º49.851'S, 015º41.807'E. Location: 150 nautical miles (NM) WNW of Cape
Town, South Africa and 1540 NM SE of St. Helena. Course and speed over ground: 298ºT at 5.4 kts. Wind: SSW 12-15
kts. Sea:
small regular waves and gentle swell.
Sky: 1/8, bright, nearly full moon.
Air temp: 69ºF. Water temp:
70ºF. Humidity: 60%. Current: nil.
Sail/engine combination and tack: full main, genoa
and staysail, broad reach on port tack.
Fishing: not. Last 24 hour run
(through 0730): 115 NM. Forecast: still
a SE gale forecast for Mon, Tues and Weds; meantime the light northwest wind
has slowly backed to west and southwest and increased. Thoughts: What a gorgeous night at sea; able
to stop motorsailing around midday since sails alone
could maintain over 5 kts average, on our course to
These first two days at sea have been lovely, and not for the typical reasons that can make a passage a pleasure, like manageable seas, calm tummies, and just the right amount of wind--not too much, not too little. It is because our two young passengers have blossomed into essential crew members. Even before we cast off, the girls, Eliza 14 and Abigail 10, participated in or took over pre-departure boat projects that are usually Doug's or my jobs. For the first time, they serviced winches, three of the seven on board. One of Doug's regular tasks, doing the winches is mechanically complicated. They are taken apart, cleaned, greased and oiled, and put back together. Sound easy? Nope! But the girls did a great job with them before we left Knysna; the proof is that the winches have been running smoothly. Newly certified Open Water Diver, Eliza also donned a full wet suit, weight belt, mask, and snorkel and plunged into the cold water to clean the sea-life-encrusted propeller and to check the boat's three zinc anodes. Abby stayed on the dock as her assistant, handing over tools and making sure Eliza returned to the surface. The owner of a big sailboat docked nearby watched the girls at work and hired them to clean his weedy waterline. Just two days before we departed Simon's Town, Abigail took over the galley and made a pile of goodies--peanut butter cookies, baking powder biscuits, and nectarine/plum muffins--ready to eat underway. Finally she's tall enough to reach the stove! And now that we are on passage, Eliza has taken over the helm during much of the day, eagerly putting into practice the lessons she learned in the Knysna Yacht Club junior sailing program, where she and Abby took dinghy sailing and racing lessons. Estrela's sails have never been trimmed so attentively. We had to remind Eliza that we are a cruising boat, not a racing machine! Besides added speed, the bonus is that Doug and I are getting more rest during the day. I like it!
--Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 12:55 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Saturday, March 14, 2009 (Day 3 of passage to St
Helena from
2300 local time Saturday, March 14, 2009 (2100 GMT). Lat/Lon: 31º40.945'S, 013º33.066'E. Location: 280 nautical miles (NM) NW of Cape
Town, South Africa and 1420 NM SE of St. Helena. Course and speed over ground: 295ºT at 6.6 kts. Wind: SSE 15-20
kts. Sea:
small regular waves and gentle southerly swell.
Sky: 2/8, bright, big moon. Air
temp: 76ºF. Water temp: 70ºF. Humidity: 63%. Current: nil, as far as we can tell, and
because the water is so much (11 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than it was near
Cape Town, we believe we are well west of the cold, north-setting Benguela Current.
Sail/engine combination and tack: broad reach on port tack with full
main and 2/3 genoa poled out to starboard to keep it
from collapsing as we roll. Fishing:
Caught a small dorado or mahi-mahi about 4:30 pm -- perfect for dinner, fillet
pieces pan-fried in olive oil and garlic, and no leftovers. Last 24 hour run (through 0730): 120 NM. Forecast: still a strong SE blow forecast for
Mon, Tues and Weds along our path, but now the higher winds are projected to
occur further north and closer to us; this is because the small low pressure
area which is creating the wind is now forecast to stay further north, on the
Namibian coast, instead of sliding south along the South African coast; at
least we'll have some fast sailing wind!
Let's see if the forecast changes again over the next couple days. The movements of these small southern
With settled, downwind sailing conditions, today was great
for Kyle and me to catch up a little on sleep and for all of us to do some
reading and enjoy a fantastic fish feast for dinner. We must be the ideal customers for electronic
books. With two on board now, a Kindle
and a Sony Reader, we are able to keep a small library of classics and avoid
too many fights for access. This was the
technology we had been hunting for six years ago when we were first getting
ready to set sail. Nothing very
user-friendly or affordable existed.
Well it does now and boy has it transformed life on Estrela. We are already overflowing (or rather
sinking) under the weight of too many books for a little boat. School textbooks, school reference books and
workbooks, boat reference books, travel guides, atlases, pleasure reading
books, both read and unread, even cookbooks -- they pile up, weigh a lot and
require dry space, lots of it. As the
girls have grown and begun reading more books and thicker books we've reached a
crisis point. In port after port we have
found ourselves drifting into second-hand book vendors, coming home with stacks
of bargains and delusions of stowability, and have
soon ended up giving away or mailing home (financially ridiculous, yes we know)
just as many books, many still unread.
But now . . . with an electronic book reader, not only are zillions of
classics free (well almost . . . we still have to get them off the internet,
which incurs download costs unless you have friends who offer you a free
connection) but new books don't require any precious stowage space. Many books still under copyright are also
available to download at prices that compete with new paperbacks. All this is probably old news to most of our
land-dwelling friends, at least to those within a few days drive of
-- Doug
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 4:29 PM
Subject: Finally at sea again
Dear Kay, Tony, Roy, and Betsy,
We miss you all and so enjoyed reading aloud your loving emails this morning, Kay and Gogs. Ironically, we usually feel more closely connected to the four of you when we are at sea, alone on a long passage, than when we are in port and surrounded by all the attractions, friends, and distractions of a land life far, far away from New England.
We are joyful and relieved to be crossing an ocean again
-- finally! -- and to be sailing north. But we are also pretty disappointed, and we
are guessing you probably are too. We
never could have predicted a year ago that we would have had so much trouble
leaving
Had we known in September that the deep-cycle AGM batteries we really wanted (ones essentially identical to our original 2003 batteries and to the replacements we bought in New Zealand in 2005) wouldn't reach us until mid-January, we would have bought an alternative AGM deep-cycle type that were immediately available in South Africa but which had very different dimensions. We would have done some time-consuming and messy but inexpensive surgery on our engine room with saw and fiberglass to make them fit safely. Instead, we ended up as the proverbial frog in the pot of water on the stove -- we didn't realize until it was too late that we were slowly boiling alive.
We are left with a few options. For example, one would be to sail directly to
Trinidad and leave the boat there on the hard, fly back to the
The cost of living in Brazil is supposedly even lower
than in South Africa, which has itself been quite a bargain, especially now
with the strengthened dollar. We do not
anticipate having anywhere near the kind of land life in Brazil that we enjoyed
in South Africa, where we incurred many extra expenses by maintaining a car for
ten months, doing our long car trip, and buying bikes and a bike rack. This will be more like our time in
As we have consulted with friends and former colleagues
and investigated options for our future life in the
We are most sad that we will not begin seeing you
regularly again in just a few months, as we have so long anticipated. We know this must be bitter news for you
too. This is a terrible time
economically for you to be thinking about long airplane flights. But please don't rule out yet the possibility
of rendezvous'ing with us somewhere. Maybe Tobago or another
We love you all so much and hope you understand our dilemma and can forgive us for the disappointment we know we will be causing you through this change in our itinerary.
Love, Doug and Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 2:10 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Sunday, March 15, 2009 (Day 4 of passage to St
Helena from
2330 local time Sunday, March 15, 2009 (2130 GMT). Lat/Lon: 30º14.295'S, 011º28.674'E. Location: 420 nautical miles (NM) NW of Cape Town, South Africa and 1280 NM SE of St. Helena. Course and speed over ground: 292ºT at 6.0 kts. Wind: S 19-24 kts. Sea: increasing S and SW swell; Estrela's motion getting quicker and jerkier. Sky: 7/8, nearly completely overcast but luminous, backlit by waning gibbous moon. Air temp: 70ºF outside and 78ºF inside. Water temp: 70ºF. Humidity: 62%. Current: still non-existent, as far as we can tell. Sail/engine combination and tack: broad reach on port tack with staysail and double-reefed main. Fishing: not. Last 24 hour run (through 0730): 135 NM. Forecast: The projected center of the low has shifted a little in the latest forecast, as has that of the high pressure area which will work with the low to create a pressure "squash zone" (an area where isobars -- or lines of constant atmospheric pressure -- are closer together); this squash zone phenomenon causes higher winds -- the closer the isobars, the higher the wind. The net result is that we are now forecast to have 25 to 30 kts of wind by this time tomorrow night, and to experience high winds for about three days. Thoughts: Anticipating the stronger wind and bigger seas definitely raises our anxiety level. We know that everything aboard will become a little more difficult and uncomfortable as the wind speed rises.
Doug's mom asked us several questions in an email she sent regarding yesterday's (Saturday's) log entry. I'll try to answer them.
1) "How big was the fish?" We didn't measure the mahi-mahi, but it
looked small, only about 2 feet long. It
had the characteristic shimmering yellows and greens that quickly fade as the
fish dies. We usually kill fish quickly and (we think) humanely by pouring
rubbing alcohol through its gills, but because we had run out, we used cheap
rum from
And what a relief not to have to deal with a huge fish
this time. It takes a lot of effort to
land, clean, and prepare a fish. And the
bigger the fish, the more strain on the crew.
Remember that this whole time we are still sailing, which means we have
to stay on course, look for other ships, maintain radio schedules with other
boats, feed the crew, receive weather info, either by fax or email or voice
contact all via the SSB (hf) radio, and don't forget
-- take our naps! If we see a huge fish
on the line, the first thing we have to do is to try to slow down so that we
can pull it in hand over hand on the yo yo. We troll (or
drag) a lure on a 200lb test monofilament handline
which is literally just tied around a cleat on the starboard quarter. While the boat slows, one of the girls,
usually Abby, runs around Estrela and gets out all the equipment: gaff, alcohol
squirt bottle, gloves, knife, bucket, sometimes whetstone, and, of course,
camera. In
2) "Did you eat the whole thing at that one sitting?" Yes we did. If it had been bigger we would have either cut the raw leftovers in strips for air drying to make fish jerky, or chunked them for a fish stew cooked right away in the pressure cooker and set aside to reheat the next day. Sometimes it feels like the ocean is our own personal grocery store. What should we have for dinner tonight? Hmmm, not lentils again. How about fish! Doug, honey, could you just throw out the line and catch me good one? Yup, it's pretty much like that!
3) "Do you see other boats?" On very rare occasions have we ever seen
other sailing boats at sea, away from the coast. The biggest exception was when we were part
of the SailIndonesia Rally in 2006. There were 100 boats participating in the
four-day
4) "Do you know anyone else going in the same
direction?" Absolutely! We know three South African and five French
boats that are at sea right now within a few hundred miles of us and each
other. Most of them have kids aboard,
too! We left at different times and from
different ports, but are all going to
5) "Are you likely to see people you know on
If anyone has any questions for us about life at sea, or the places we've been, or anything else, please email your questions directly to us or else to my brother, George -- our generous volunteer Webmaster (thank you George), who can pass them on to us.
--Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:24 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Monday, March 16, 2009 (Day 5 of passage to St
Helena from
2130 local time Monday, March 16, 2009 (1930 GMT). Lat/Lon: 29º14.495'S, 009º22.167'E. Location: 540 nautical miles (NM) NW of Cape
Town, South Africa and 1160 NM SE of St. Helena. Course and speed over ground: 298ºT at 6.0 kts. Wind: S-SSE
30-35 kts; highest gust 50 kts. Sea: getting bigger and occasionally
breaking under us; Estrela's motion beginning to get violent. Sky: 7/8, very overcast but a few stars
peaking through. Air temp: 69ºF outside
and 80ºF inside. Water temp: 70ºF. Humidity: 62%. Current: apparently nil. Sail/engine combination and tack: running on
port tack with staysail alone, poled to starboard. Fishing: not today. Last 24 hour run (through 0730): 135 NM
(again!). Forecast: We are now officially
in the squash zone and have the big wind and seas to prove it. We've learned the hard way that wind in
reality always seems to end up higher than the grib
file forecasts. So we are not surprised
to have wind tonight in the 30's with gusts to the mid-40's. And given when we left
* * * *
Well with the wind picking up and the boat motion getting more violent -- lots of waves slamming against the hull, pushing the boat over and then starting an incessant rocking from gunwale to gunwale (side to side) -- the mood of the crew grew more serious by the minute. "Change the music!! If I hear another serious solo violin piece in a minor key, I'm going to strangle myself," said I, while strapped into the galley, trying to pour hot water onto the expectant, desiccated potato flakes without scalding myself. "Eliza, quick, take the iPod and DO SOMETHING!" Eliza's choice saved crew morale: Eileen Quinn. Never heard of her? Neither had we until we became "cruisers" or "yachties". She writes and sings about this life on the water. With songs like, "Tomorrow I'll go cruising" (which, she confesses, actually takes years, because the To Do List never seems to get any smaller), "The Hard" (which is about an important aspect of cruising life, fixing your boat "on the hard." Translated into landlubber-English, "in the boat yard"), "If I Killed the Captain" (need I say more?), and our morale saving song "Three Days Out, Forty-Five Knot Wind Blues." Just hearing her sing about "tossing up my cookies and my body's one big bruise", "surfing down a wave on a bob-sled ride from hell", and "I swear never again, if I live to tell the tale," made us laugh and think that we weren't doing so badly after all. Thanks, Eliza!
--Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 2:01 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Tuesday, March 17, 2009 (Day 6 of passage to St
Helena from
2200 local time Tuesday, March 17, 2009 (2000 GMT). Lat/Lon: 28º01.96'S, 007º15.99'E. Location: 670 nautical miles (NM) NW of Cape
Town, South Africa and 1030 NM SE of St. Helena. Course and speed over ground: 314ºT at 5.2 kts. Wind: SE 28-33 kts. Sea: increasing swell (approximately 3 meters) and
some larger breaking waves, from both the SE and the SW. Sky: 8/8, pitch dark. Air temp: 69ºF outside and 78ºF inside. Water temp: 70ºF. Humidity: 57%. Current: none. Sail/engine combination and tack: still on a
run on port tack with only the staysail, which is held out to starboard by the
whisker pole. Fishing: not today! Last 24 hour run (through 0730): 137 NM. Forecast: The coastal low centered now north
of Luderitz, the Namibian port WNW of us, is teaming
up with the
* * * *
It seems (knock on wood) that the strongest winds in this
gale may be behind us.*
The wind had moderated during the day. Though we never put up any more sail we
enjoyed a few hours of gentler motion.
The wind is back up now, but not as strong as last night. The seas have really built, though. Estrela is slewing around a lot, scooping
water with alternating gunwales and taking shuddering full body slams every few
minutes. The good news is that we are
doing a better job of keeping the salty water outside of the cabin than we have
in similar conditions on previous passages.
Nevertheless, a few times blue water has squirted around scuttle (aka
porthole) gaskets. Initially this seemed
just because the scuttles' wingnuts hadn't all been
screwed down tightly. So we fixed that
oversight. When it happened again we
realized water was also forcing through the little gaps where the two gasket
ends meet at the top of the circle -- not a big deal, just something to plan
for, as in, get ready to soak up any water that gets in. We're also now taking numerous waves over
both sides, repeatedly turning the cockpit well into a little bathtub. The gasket on the hatch cover in the cockpit
floor isn't quite doing its job, though, resulting in salt water dripping onto
the engine. Hmmmm
. . . Guess it'll be time to give the engine a warm soapy sponge bath when
we're at anchor in
Abby read a book of British history all day and Eliza read Brave New World. And we all have been studying "Teach Yourself Brazilian Portuguese" language tapes, a gift from our South African friends John and Lynne on s/v Interlude. It was too bumpy for a normal school day.
-- Doug
*The winds yes, but not quite the seas. After finishing this entry but before we
could connect with Sailmail to send it off, we were whumped by a freak breaking wave which tossed us way over
on our port side. Things in the cabin
that haven't budged for 5 1/2 years went flying. A trusted drawer shot out and dumped its
contents. Above, the wave spun us up
into the wind, back-winded the poled staysail, and stopped us long enough for
the towed hydro-generator line to droop down and slip behind the Aries
self-steering vane servo-rudder. It was
12:30 AM. The girls and I woke when the
wave hit; and all wriggled out of our bunks, a little stunned, but keen to help
Kyle sort out the mess. Eliza and Abby
did a great job right away of assessing the damage below (surprisingly little)
and organizing the cleanup. When I
finally found my pants and shirt and life vest/harness and joined Kyle in the
cockpit she was hand-steering Estrela back onto course and getting the sail
sorted out, accompanying herself with some colorful mutterings. I focused on the hydro-line, which got tight
as we picked up speed again. We needed a
boathook to push the line below the long, narrow servo-rudder, but the boathook
was stowed deep in the forepeak. One of
the dinghy oars, lashed on deck, did the trick, though it seemed to take
forever because it slipped off the taut line so many times as I shoved down
against it. The Aries is very tough
though, and because it has an aluminum break-away
coupling in the stainless steel servo-rudder shaft I knew the hydro line
couldn't cause any permanent damage. But if the coupling had snapped we would
have had quite a few miles of hand-steering ahead of us en route to
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:17 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Wednesday, March 18, 2009 (Day 6 of passage to St
Helena from
2200 local time Tuesday, March 18, 2009 (2000 GMT). Lat/Lon: 26º39.97'S, 005º40.83'E. Location: 800 NM NW of Cape Town, South Africa and 900 NM SE of St. Helena (we'll pass the 1/2 mark tomorrow!). Course and speed over ground: 309ºT at 5.8 kts. Wind: SE 22-28 kts. Sea: manageable, though still awkward below, with competing SE and SW swell/wave, some very large (3+ meters?) . Sky: 5/8, many blue patches today and stars peeking out tonight. Air temp: 70ºF outside and 79ºF inside. Water temp: 72ºF. Humidity: 60%. Current: still none. Sail/engine combination and tack: still on a run, port tack, with double-reefed main and poled out staysail. Fishing: not. Last 24 hour run (through 0730): 119 NM. Forecast: Winds and seas to diminish (very) gradually over next 36 hours, settling in at about 10-15 knots. Basically no change in the forecast. Thoughts: This gale has been uncomfortable, like any gale is in a small boat. But we could still function, and (mostly) kept our senses of humor.
* * * *
Ola! O meu nome
e Eliza. (Hello! My name is Eliza.) We're learning Portuguese, so we can be ready
for
Today Dad and I looked at charts of
-- Eliza
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 6:20 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Thursday, March 19, 2009 (Day 7 of passage to St
Helena from
2100 local time Thursday, March 19, 2009 (2000 GMT). Lat/Lon: 25º24.3'S, 003º59.2'E. Location: 920 NM NW of Cape Town, South Africa and 780 NM SE of St. Helena (we passed 1/2 way today and turned our "local time" watches back one hour to GMT+1; first light has been arriving later and later in the morning, so it seemed time to change our clocks. Course and speed over ground: 315ºT at 5.0 kts. Wind: SE 15 to 20 kts. Sea: This is more like it -- seas diminished and not quite as confused. Sky: 4/8, lots of sun today, though still getting occasional light rain tonight. Air temp: 71ºF outside and 80ºF inside. Barometer: 1021mb. Water temp: 71ºF. Humidity: 57%. Current: Nil. Sail/engine combination and tack: still on a run, starboard tack wing-and-wing, with single-reefed main and poled out staysail. Fishing: Skunked, despite trolling all afternoon. Last 24 hour run (through 0730): 126 NM. Forecast: Several days of SE winds 10-15 kts and modest seas ahead. Thoughts: These mild, settled conditions are what this passage to St. Helena is known for; it's supposed to be one of the most pleasant legs of any circumnavigation that goes south around Africa.
* * * * *
I have the coziest and the craziest place to sleep on Estrela. It's on top of the ditch or grab bags under the dinette table. These are the bags of gear and food we keep packed and all ready to take with us if we have to go suddenly into the liferaft. My head is pointing aft or toward the stern (back of the boat) and my feet toward the bow (front of the boat). Dad and I put one of the dinette seat cushions on top of the ditch bags so that the bed would be more comfortable. The space is only one foot two inches high, three feet five inches long, and one foot eight inches wide. We've even velcro'ed a reading light to the underside of the table and I've stuck a few pictures up there too, to make it more homey. I can lie in my little sanctuary all day reading books for school and pleasure books. The only hard part is when I have to squirm out to go to the head (bathroom) or to eat. I'm not allowed to eat in my nest.
You may be wondering why I'm sleeping under the table. Well the reasons are, 1) the forepeak, where Eliza and I sleep when we're not at sea, is full of stuff that cannot be stowed in the main cabin when we are on a long sailing passage; 2) I can't sleep with Eliza toe-to-toe on her bunk, where we used to sleep when we were just starting our trip, because we've both grown; 3) I can't sleep on the floor because it gets wet when we are in rough seas and plus I roll around too much there because I can't brace myself; and 4) I can't sleep with Mom or Dad toe-to-toe in their sea berth because I'm too wiggly and none of us gets a decent sleep. So that just leaves under the table. Well, I've always loved cozy, small spaces!
-- Abigail C.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:55 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Friday, March 20, 2009 (Day 8 of passage to St
Helena from
2200 local time Friday, March 20, 2009 (2100 GMT). Lat/Lon: 23º57.6'S, 002º19.9'E. Location: 1040 NM NW of
* * * *
Just a few memories from today:
-- Eliza and Abby both "apprenticed" night watch last night. Eliza stayed up with Doug for the 0200-0430 watch and marveled at his voluminous chocolate consumption. "It's to keep me going," explains the Captain. Abby got up for dawn watch with me and as the sky started to brighten, we went on a flying-fish hunt on deck: four fish and one tiny squid. Too bad we don't have a cat aboard.
-- We celebrated a belated St. Patrick's Day. We organized a "virtual" party with
my mom, who, even though half Irish, also missed St. Paddy's Day this
year. At 1600 GMT the party began on
both sides of the
-- Opening session of the
-- The First Mate was thankful for the improved conditions. Her "lake of patience and tranquility", which had drained early to the muddy bottom, was starting to be replenished. (The crew is thankful as well!)
--Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 4:05 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Saturday, March 21, 2009 (Day 9 of passage to St
Helena from
2200 local time Saturday, March 21, 2009 (2100 GMT). Lat/Lon: 22º47.3'S, 001º07.1'E. Location: 1140 NM NW of
* * * *
Last night I did my first solo night watch!!!!!!!! And tonight I have my second. Now I really feel like a (useful) part of the crew, giving Mom and Dad a few extra hours of coveted sleep. My watch is from 0200 to 0430, so now the nighttime watch schedule looks like this (in local time):
2000 to 2230 -- Doug on watch; Kyle, Eliza, and Abby asleep
2230 to 2300 -- change watch
2300 to 0130 -- Kyle on watch; Doug, Eliza, and Abby asleep
0130 to 0200 -- change watch
0200 to 0430 -- ELIZA on watch (!!!!!); Kyle, Doug and Abby asleep
0430 to 0500 -- change watch
0500 to 0730 -- Kyle on watch with Abby as apprentice; Doug and Eliza asleep
I know it looks sort of unfair to Mom because she has two of the four watches, but it all works out because she usually has a longer nap during the day. And anyway, it's the same schedule as before; I just took one of Dad's watches so he could be able to face any problems that might come up with more brain power and attention since he wouldn't be as utterly exhausted as he normally is on a passage. I like that watch, too.
Two nights ago I did an apprentice watch with Dad. Basically I was on watch, but he was there to be a consultant and teacher. All we did, though, was track down and lubricate a few squeaky blocks, make a log entry, scan the dark horizon for ship lights, and munch on chocolate. I was actually quite shocked by how much chocolate Dad consumed during just one two and a half hour watch: possibly as much as half a Cadbury slab. Oh, and we read. But that was it. The key to standing a good watch is simple: STAY AWAKE. And do anything you can to stay awake, even if it does mean eating all of the sugary things on board. (Once Dad ate the rest of Abby's birthday cake on watch. But it wasn't really a bilateral agreement . . . "Dad, what have you done?!?")
Last night was so dark, the sky almost completely overcast, the stars covered by low, black clouds. Thankfully it didn't rain while I was up, though. I read my book mostly, an historical fiction about Alfred the Great, "The Last Kingdom" (we're studying medieval history). Every fifteen minutes I dutifully clipped in with two tethers before going into the cockpit to stare into the blackness, searching for that place where the blue horizon is in the daytime, feeling the weight of the responsibility of being the only awake crewmember and the sole protector of Estrela, feeling the gravity of it pressing on my skull. Night watch, I find, is a time for profound thoughts, a time for wondering what the real meaning of life is and are we alone in the universe and what would I do if I saw another ship and do I think it's worth the trouble to make myself another cup of cocoa. Partly it's because the darkness and solitude have a strong effect on us diurnal, social beings, and partly it's because you're so dreamy and exhausted that your mind wanders all over the place (ok, at least mine does). Anyway, I was so afraid of getting something wrong on my first watch, and that Mom and Dad wouldn't let me do my watch anymore. But I made it! Abby made a batch of muffins to celebrate the breakthrough while she was on the dawn watch with Mom. Abby's baking creations are always the best, and the muffins were delicious. This afternoon she even made frosting to put on them. Mom NEVER makes frosting.
I still can't believe it. I'VE DONE MY OWN NIGHT WATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-- Eliza the crewmember
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 2:48 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Sunday, March 22, 2009 (Day 10 of passage to St
Helena from
2046 local time Sunday, March 22, 2009 (1946 GMT). Lat/Lon: 21º43.822'S, 000º00.0'E (the Prime
Meridian!). Location: 1230 NM NW of
* * * *
Yaaayyyyy! We had a Prime Meridian crossing party tonight after dinner. The girls and I danced on the cockpit seats, holding onto the dodger frame for balance, while Kyle stood at the nav table below, spinning disks (changing songs on the iPod) of our favorite Bluegrass and Latin music, and shouting out the diminishing number of minutes of East Longitude, until the BIG MOMENT (which I caught on the camera), when we passed 000º00.0'E, at exactly 7:46:10 PM GMT. Then the girls began tearing open a box of goodies -- a taped-up plastic ice cream carton marked "St. Helena Party Pack." Our Knysna friends John and Lynne Coates on S/V Interlude had given us the box just before we left, with instructions to open it at the Prime Meridian. Well we opened and sampled heavily its contents, four large bags of candy -- containing chocolate malt balls, skittles, these sort of flat gumdrop squares, and the consensus favorite, caramel-covered popcorn.
The weird end to the evening was not the part when
everyone began moaning sheepishly of stomach aches from too much candy. It was
when Abigail emerged from brushing her teeth in the head complaining of a hurty tooth and asked me to look at it; so I grabbed the
brightest flashlght and had her open wide. Well by gum if I didn't find a large cavity
in one of her baby teeth molars, an obvious hole. Abby was pretty upset by the news and we
talked over options. Getting it filled
in
-- Doug
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 4:07 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Monday, March 23, 2009 (Day 11 of passage to St
Helena from
2030 local time Monday, March 23, 2009 (1930 GMT). Lat/Lon: 20º22.482'S, 001º21.134'W. Location: 1340 NM NW of
* * * *
This was the kind of day at sea that becomes memorable
because it wasn't memorable. It becomes
part of the lore of our journey, "remember those pleasant days crossing
the
(sung to the tune of Summertime)
Tradewind run --
And the living is easy.
Flying fish are jumping,
And the waves are not high.
Your Dad's got out tools,
And you mama is napping.
So hush little girlies,
Get back to school.
One of these evenings --
You might touch the tiller.
Then you'll gybe the sails,
And look up to the sky.
Not a ship in sight,
Just the Orion above you.
So hush little girlies,
Kissing you goodnight.
--Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 3:56 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Tuesday, March 24, 2009 (Day 13 of passage to St
Helena from
2100 local time Tuesday, March 24, 2009 (2100 GMT). Lat/Lon: 18º57.978'S, 002º44.576'W. Location: 1455 NM NW of
* * * *
I saw it in the middle of my watch last night, this morning rather. It was at about 0315 and, again, the sky was black with clouds. I was standing just outside the companionway with my back pressed against the edge of the dodger, gazing, almost bored, at the dull, barely visible horizon. Then I saw it. A light to starboard, shining in the darkness. Another ship. An icy iron hand snatched at my heart and mashed it in its fist, then pulled the mangled remains through the bottom of my stomach. My mind froze and I felt empty. I stared in disbelief at the light. We hadn't seen a ship in days. Was it Venus? I'd heard so many stories of Mom and Dad mistaking the bright glow of Venus for a ship on the horizon. I glanced around. No, Venus was already overhead, so the light was a ship. With a forced calm, I finished my look-around, in case there were any other ships traveling in convoy with this one, and then ran to wake up Dad.
The first thing we did was to turn on the radar and the computer, and while they were booting up, Dad showed me how to take a bearing on the light with the hand bearing compass so we could check if its angle to us changed over time (meaning it would pass safely ahead or behind us) or stayed the same (meaning we're on a collision course). Thankfully it began to change after a few minutes. He also told me how to read the ship's navigation lights to see which direction the ship was traveling. Before we'd even looked at the electronics we had a pretty good idea that the ship was heading about the same direction as Estrela, about parallel to us, so we weren't going to run into each other. We were safe. The AIS image and data on the computer and the radar blips just confirmed that, but with the comfortable reassurance only a picture on a screen can give.
AIS is a system of identification used by ships, mostly tankers and cargo ships, to "see" each other so they don't crash. Every ship with an AIS transponder sends out a special VHF radio signal that tells any other ship with an AIS receiver its position, course, speed, the ship's dimensions, its name and radio call sign, and some other things. We can't transmit a signal because we don't have a transponder, just a small receiver, which is a bit bigger than a single cassette tape box. But we can receive the signals given by other ships. Our receiver then sends the information to our computer. Our computer calculates the closest we will get to the other ship unless one of us changes course, and the time remaining until that closest point is reached. It is truly a wonderful thing, AIS, and if the computer is on, we often see we are picking up signals from ships when they are twenty or thirty miles away, and sometimes as many as a hundred miles. [* I asked Dad for help editing this paragraph explaining AIS.]
"Our" ship was only ten miles away, but that was close enough. As it slid by us, Dad reminded me again what the routine was if a ship was spotted. First you turn on the radar and AIS, and while they're turning on, you take a bearing on the ship and another one in five minutes to tell roughly where it's headed. Then try to puzzle out the lights. And then watch the radar to find the ship's distance from you and the direction it's traveling. Finally, use AIS to confirm all of these estimates, and hopefully they all match up. If not, well, do it all over again! But in the first place, keep a sharp look-out, looking around every fifteen minutes, so you can spot a ship early before it's too late to do anything.
This was certainly a learning experience for me, and I don't think I'll forget to scramble up the companionway ladder to scan the horizon every fifteen minutes when my watch beeps. I don't think I'll forget the icy leap of my heart or the sudden rush of adrenaline when seeing those ship lights, either.
-- Eliza, ship-spotter
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:43 AM
Subject: 2nd CORRECTED VERSION: Estrela Log Entry -- Wednesday, March 25, 2009
(Day 14 of passage to St Helena from
2100 local time Wednesday, March 25, 2009 (2100
GMT). Lat/Lon: 17º39.245'S,
003º54.006'W. Location: 1560 NM NW of
* * * *
After breakfast this morning we lay around the cockpit
enjoying Estrela's gentle, steady progress and reading aloud from Patrick
O'Brian's historical sea novel, Fortune of War.
For those of you who have never read the O'Brian stories about Captain
Jack Aubrey and his best friend, ship's surgeon, naturalist and spy, Dr.
Stephen Maturin, you are really missing out.
The action-packed film, Master and Commander, captured well the great
story-telling and characters, but only a fraction of O'Brian's opus, which
traces the British Navy careers of these men over several decades during the
early nineteenth century. The
Aubrey/Maturin novels number seventeen in all, of which Fortune of War is
number six. It has been a special thrill
to read these over the last couple years because the last three all are set for
the most part in and around the Indian Ocean and
This morning we read of Aubrey and Maturin making
virtually the same passage as we're on now, setting out from Simon's Town and
sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, and heading north and then west around
the South Atlantic High and over to Brazil, where they ran into trouble. When their ship caught fire they took to an
eighteen foot boat, nearly died of thirst, and were rescued by another British
warship, the ill-fated Java, which was bound for Simon's Town en route to
In 1828 the USS Constitution was nearly dismantled by the
US Navy as too old and unseaworthy, but her life was spared by one Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Sr., father of the famous jurist and himself a Harvard
physician and poet. His popular poem,
"Old Ironsides" (which we found aboard Estrela and read at lunch),
was a key element of the campaign Holmes led to spare the Constitution and have
her restored as an important piece of American history. This began her second career as a living
museum. During the early 1930's, after a
four-year refit, she called at 90 US ports and ended in
-- Doug
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 3:11 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Thursday, March 26, 2009 (Day 15 of passage to St
Helena from
2130 local time Thursday, March 26, 2009 (2130 GMT). Lat/Lon: 16º19.700'S, 005º03.508'W. Location: 1660 NM NW of
* * * *
Happy 11th Birthday, Abigail!
The Big Day started early, with the opening of the First
Present, which, according to strict instructions, was to have been placed at
the foot of Abby's bed during the night so that she could wake up with a prezzie at her feet.
Well, she doesn't have a bed, as you all know, so I put her First
Present on the table, next to her life jacket and The Birthday Helm, a plastic
Viking helmet from the
The Galley Chef begged for a rain-check on the proposed
Birthday Breakfast menu of sauteed onions, omelettes and bannock, because of Estrela's incessant
rocking back and forth. Granted. So we had the usual, muesli with homemade
yogurt and canned fruit for the parents, and dinner left-over's for the
kids. So Abigail's 11-year old Birthday
Breakfast consisted of cold rice and barley with many splashes of
Then the Captain announced that it was his prerogative to
attack and wrestle the Birthday Girl on his command. Surprise ambushes, sneaky tickles, and paper
airplane bombings were all part of the Get-The-Birthday-Girl Campaign. I started making the cake in the DMZ while
the fighting ensued. Meanwhile, Eliza
was still sleeping in her bunk. Talk
about Neutral
Then it was time to open The Big One. It was a real, but kid-sized, Timex IronMan watch. Now the whole Estrela crew have the same type of watch, which is good for diving up to 100 meters (as if!), and most importantly, has an alarm (to help remember radio schedules), stop-watch (for timing math facts tests), and a repeating count-down timer (for reminding sailors to carefully scan the horizon for ships). We immediately all synchronized our nearly identical watches to go off every fifteen minutes for the "look around" on deck. We are now a chirping, beeping chorus of four, every fifteen minutes. It's a little crazy, but hey, we've been at sea for fifteen days . . . .
After lunch (left-over vegetarian chili) Abigail opened another present. This was a cd-rom computer game called Pony Luv. Abby is nuts about horses and satisfies her yearnings with virtual animal husbandry. Out came the computer and hours later, we peeled her away from the screen to frost the cake -- Betty Crocker frosting scooped from a canister stowed in the bilge in Malaysia, of all places.
A few more presents opened and then The Birthday Movie Event. For once, Abby got to pick the movie, Fellowship of the Ring. She had just finished reading The Hobbit last night and was keen to continue the adventure. She and Eliza watched with head phones while sitting at the table while I cooked a spaghetti dinner (fresh sauce, not a morphed left-over . . . very special) and Doug stood watch in the cockpit, having set Estrela to heave-to, to improve the boat's motion for the last few hours of the birthday party. Dinner was served just after the girls finished watching one of Abigail's favorite scenes, which involved horses, of course. Arwen, on horseback with an injured Frodo on her lap, narrowly escapes the chase of the Ring Wraiths.
Candle lighting, singing, and wishing while gathered all around the lovely, lopsided cake.
Happy Birthday, my dear 11-year-old daughter.
-- Mom
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 8:51 AM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Friday, March 27, 2009 (Day 16 of passage to St
Helena from
1115 local time Friday, March 27,
2009 (1115 GMT). Lat/Lon: 15º55.140'S,
005º43.143'W. Location:
* * * *
Making landfall is thrilling. It doesn't matter if this is your first time
or one hundred first time. There is nothing like the pang in your heart
when you can see that thin black line just above the horizon. You may notice clouds gathering on the
horizon and an abundance of sea birds flying over head long before the you can discern the thin black line. But you know that it is there. Your chart tells you that it is there. Even in the dark, with the binoculars, you
know that you will be able to see it.
Sometimes you are aided by the lights of civilization, a faint glow on
the horizon. Even so, you keep looking
for that thin black line.
Eliza was the first to spot the
faint glow of St. Helena's one town called
Making landfall is also
nerve-wracking. This is when mistakes
happen. Shoals, rocks, and reefs abound
near land. Maybe the chart is off by
several degrees, as in
I will stop here with this landfall
story and continue. We are having
trouble with propagation and it is hard to send and receive email here. So I want to cut this longer story into
shorter bites. Stay tuned!
--Kyle
PS:
Monday March 30, 2009 12:50 pm (1250 GMT).
We have no ability to connect to Sailmail via SSB here in
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 8:56
AM
Subject: Astrella
news
Hi George,
We are friends of Doug & family
also crossing the
Luki & Elmari
SV Skebenga
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 1:29 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Monday, April 27, 2009 (Day 1 of passage to
2230 local time Monday, April 27, 2009 (2230 GMT). Lat/Lon: 15º55'S, 006º30'W. Location: 46 NM W of
* * * *
We have to arrive in
-- Doug
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 1:29 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Tuesday, April 28, 2009 (Day 2 of passage to
2230 local time Tuesday, April 28, 2009 (2230 GMT). Lat/Lon: 15º39'S, 007º40'W. Location: 115 NM WNW of
* * * *
We couldn't have asked for a more gentle return to the
high seas. The recent light air had left
the surface nearly flat and we have been gliding along. While drinking our morning coffee and tea
(even with calm conditions, my stomach doesn't take to coffee at sea) and
eating freshly baked oatmeal raisin muffins, Doug and I marveled at the beauty
of the day. I realized that we haven't
been this relaxed at sea since our crossing from
-- Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 1:29 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Wednesday, April 29, 2009 (Day 3 of passage to
2300 local time Wednesday, April 29, 2009 (2300
GMT). Lat/Lon: 15º00'S, 009º35'W. Location: approximately 2050 NM ENE of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil and 230 NM WNW of
* * * *
This email blackout is getting frustrating. It has been years since we were unable send or
receive email for more than a day or so during an ocean passage. We hope that Luki
and Elmar were able to get a message out to George
for us and that our parents/grandparents are not worrying too much. It has become so easy to connect via Sailmail that we have come to take it for granted. At least we have HF voice contact daily with
several other boats. And I have listened
in to a couple of the the Ham Radio maritime mobile
nets active in the
-- Doug
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 1:03 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Thursday, April 30, 2009 (Day 4 of passage to Rio
de Janeiro from St Helena)
2300 local time Thursday, April 30, 2009 (2300 GMT). Lat/Lon: 14º22'S, 011º13'W. Location: approximately 1950 NM ENE of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil and 335 NM WNW of
* * * *
Still ideal conditions.
There's just enough wind to keep us moving along. Still no Sailmail
connectivity. So our only outside
contact with people is through the HF (SSB) radio, during our three scheduled
radio nets in the morning. The settled
and mild weather conditions coupled with the radio propagation dead zone has
had a positive effect on the Estrela crew.
It feels as if we are on a vacation in a remote place! The girls are reading like monsters, tearing
through books. And we are back to our
family reading aloud in the cockpit.
We're on to the next novel of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey / Stephen
Maturin series, The Surgeon's Mate. The
year is 1813, right in the Napoleonic Wars.
Talk about making history come alive, having just immersed ourselves in
Food note: Day four of stew . . . now a Tuscan bean soup. I sauteed Italian sausage and fennel seed in a separate frying pan and then added the aromatic mixture to the pressure cooker, along with a can of chick peas and another of green beans. Served over a bed of rice, it was delicious.
--Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 1:03 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Friday, May 1, 2009 (Day 5 of passage to
2300 local time Friday, May 1, 2009 (2300 GMT). Lat/Lon: 14º04'S, 012º54'W. Location: approximately 1850 NM ENE of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil and 435 NM WNW of
* * * *
Now that we've become celestial navigators, our star gazing has taken on a sharp purpose. Especially after the waxing moon has set, the recent, relatively cloudless nights have been dark and bursting with heavenly bodies. Armed with red-lighted head lamps and two excellent star books, H.A. Rey's, "Stars, A New Way to See Them," and the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky" (a valued present from our friend Kate Levin), we have worked hard on identifying constellations, with particular attention to those with bright stars that could be used for dawn navigational fixes.
In the early evening we can see these beauties: Orion, forward (west); Southern Cross, port (or should I say in 1813 terminology, the "larboard") beam; and the Big Dipper, across the sky on starboard (finally, as we have approached the equator, this old friend is back in full view for at least part of each night). Later, as Orion is setting, the enormous Scorpion rises aft of Estrela (east). So these constellations, among the easiest to identify, are our cornerstones. Now the work begins. What lies in between? I was working on the Herdsman (aka Bootes), the Lion (aka Leo), and the Centaur and the Wolf combination. During Eliza's watch, she identified several, including her new favorite, the Peacock.
We also had another Royal Navy day on deck. This time, Captain Doug and his midshipmen hoisted the spinnaker. And then the two young lasses took the helm from our robotic coxswain -- Otto the autohelm -- and hand-steered for two hours to keep the spinnaker filled in this light air! I was off-watch during all the excitement, sleeping like a baby in my bunk.
Food note: Day five of the stew . . . now a spaghetti sauce! I added canned tomato paste and diced tomatoes as well as lots of oregano. I served it with grated fresh Parmesan cheese and a salad of fresh cabbage and cucumbers with a balsamic vinaigrette.
--Kyle
PS -- Sorry for the use of quotation marks where underlining is called for. Sailmail's formatting options are basic and underlining is not one of the options.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 1:03 PM
Subject: All well on board Estrela May 7th @ 1815 GMT (14 deg 44' S; 22 deg 00'
W) . . . still terrible radio propagation
Current position: 14 deg 44' S; 22 deg 00' W
1350 NM to go to
We're hopeful that radio propagation will improve.
Lots of Love,
KDEA
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 2:39 PM
Subject: All well on board Estrela May 8th @ 1830 GMT (14 deg 51' S; 23 deg 37'
W)
Current position: 14 deg 51' S; 23 deg 37' W
Course 250 deg T, Speed 4 kts
Love,
KDEA
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 3:06 PM
Subject: All well on board Estrela May 11th @ 0900 GMT (16 deg 25' S; 26 deg
51' W); HAPPY MOTHER's DAY (yesterday)!!!
Current Position: 16 deg 56' S; 27 deg 53' W
Course and Speed: 242 deg True, 4.0 kts.
950 NM to go to
Happy Mothers' Day!!
Love, KDEA
(PS -- Still bad radio propagation; we keep trying, hoping for improvement. Will always try to send a very simple up-to-date message, like this one, in case something opens up even briefly to get our signal out. We are building up a backlog of regular log entries to send to George when the propagation becomes normal.)
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 3:54 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Saturday, May 2, 2009 (Day 6 of passage to
2300 local time Saturday, May 2, 2009 (2300 GMT). Lat/Lon: 13º55'S, 014º16'W. Location: approximately 1770 NM ENE of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil and 515 NM WNW of
* * * *
It's been another day in
Doug made his first contact ever with a
ham radio weather net today. Now
that he (finally) has a general ham radio license, he can speak with other hams
around the world. You may be wondering
how Doug got a ham radio license in the middle of the
Food note: Day 6 of stew . . well, we were all basically getting sick of Mediterranean style stew, so I re-pressurized it for tomorrow and made Chinese fried rice instead.
--Kyle
HAM
RADIO NOTE (written with technical guidance from my hunk-of-a-ham husband):
Back in
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 3:54 PM
Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Sunday, May 3, 2009 (Day 7 of passage to
2130 local time Sunday, May 3, 2009 (2300 GMT). Lat/Lon: 13º51'S, 015º16'W. Location: approximately 1715 NM ENE of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil and 565 NM WNW of
* * * *
Still no propagation. Still light wind. Still one happy boat.
We started the next Aubrey/Maturin adventure in book 8, The Ionian Mission. We read while eating Sunday brunch in the sun-shaded cockpit/porch. I had gotten up early to make American (as opposed to Norwegian, British, or French) pancakes with fresh banana chunks. The biggest treat was the syrup. I had found a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's syrup in the grocery store in Knysna! Usually, we have had to slather our pancakes with a very poor imitation of an American imitation syrup. So this was liquid gold. (Of course we are yearning for the real thing that my brother makes every year in his sugar shack, but we can't be too picky.)
The afternoon was all about celestial navigation: taking the noonsight and calculating the numbers.
Food note: Day 7 of stew . . pasta sauce and spaghetti. That's it. No more. Finito. Phew!
--Kyle
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:39 PM
Subject: All well on board Estrela May 13th @ 1700 GMT (18 deg 53' S; 31 deg
32' W); HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAY!!!
Current Position: 18 deg 53' S; 31 deg 32' W
Course and Speed: 245 deg True, 3.8 kts.
720 NM to go to
Happy Birthday, Kay!! (early wishes in case we can't get a msg out then)
Love, KDEA
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 2:18 PM
Subject: All (still) well on board Estrela May 15 @ 1800 GMT (20 deg 42' S; 35
deg 39' W)
Current Position: 20 deg 42' S; 35 deg 39' W
Course and Speed: 232 deg True, 6.0 kts.
Sky getting brighter; just passed through dark, rainy frontal system.
450 NM to go to
Love, KDEA
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 5:29 PM
Subject: All well on board Estrela May 17th @ 2130 GMT (21 deg 45' S; 37 deg
44' W)
Current Position: 21 deg 45' S; 37 deg 44' W
Course and Speed: 245 deg True, 5.0 kts.
320 NM to go to
Love, KDEA
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 2:28 PM
Subject: All well on board Estrela May 19th @ 1820 GMT (4:20 PM local tme) (23 deg 04' S; 41 deg 04' W) -- 120 NM to go to
Current Position: 23 deg 04' S; 41 deg 04' W
Course and Speed: 260 deg True, 5.2 kts.
120 NM to go to
Love, KDEA
PS -- Sailmail propagation still nearly impossible.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 7:20 PM
Subject: Estrela arrives in Rio de
Janeiro, Brasil and ties up at Clube Naval Charitas, Niteroi, at 1525 GMT (1225
local time) on May 21, 2009! All well on board, 3/4 checked into the country,
and now catching up on sleep and trying to learn Portuguese.
We made it!! We were welcomed into the
We safely are tied up to the dock at
the Clube Naval Charitas
yacht club, which is across the harbor from Rio proper, in the town of
-- Kyle and Eliza
Copyright © 2003-2009 Doug and Kyle
Hopkins. All rights reserved.