Captain's log October 27, 2009

Captain's Log October 27, 2009

As we made our way to Norfolk Island the wind started to blow pretty well and we were able to sail the boat without the engine on. The weather is not suppose to turn bad until after 12 PM. We should have plenty of time to get safely at anchor before the wind and waves start coming at us.

As the sun rises the wind and seas also start to gain in strength and height. As we get closer to the island the winds are now blowing around 25 kts and the seas are building. We need to get to the lee of the island as fast as we can. We turn the engine on and continue to sail making great time. By 9 am we are in the lee of the island and the seas subside and the wind starts dropping . We have made it in time and we are very happy to be in the relative security of the anchorage. We put the anchor down at 10am. By 11 we had cleared customs and back on the boat to get things back in order after the 3 day passage.

All in all it was a very good 3 day trip and we have just 3 days 10 hours left to get to New Zealand. We will stay here in Norfolk Island until we have a good weather window to NZ. We are thinking that will happen in about 4-5 days. My next report will be when we head back out to sea and continue our journey to Opua, New Zealand. This is Destiny at anchor in Cascade Bay, Norfolk Island.

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Captain's Log October 27, 2009

Captain's Log October 26, 2009

Sorry for the delay in getting this update out to everyone. Your probably wondering what happened. In my last update I told you that we stand our watches to watch for boats that might hit us in the night. There is another reason we stand a watch and this is something that we are watchful for all the time and that is equipment failure.

It is Monday morning 2 AM and I have had a completely non eventful watch. I go down and get Barbara up and get ready for a 3 hour sleep. I take one last look around to make sure all was in order and suddenly, out of the blue, the auto pilot went out and started turning the boat in circles. It is pitch black the moon has just set and I am not sure what is going on other than the boat is not going in the right direction. I take the boat out of auto pilot and start hand steering. When you are in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the night you have no visual reference to be able to steer the boat. I could use the compass but as luck would have it the light was out so no good to me at night. Anyway, we did about 3 turns not knowing which way we were headed. We got the idea to turn all the power off to our auto pilot and nav instruments and reboot everything. After we did that everything came up and started working again. Thank goodness! Hand steering the boat for the next 30 hours was not my idea of a lot of fun. We still have no idea what made it do that and makes it even more imperative to keep an eye on everything. So back on course with the auto pilot driving the boat and Barb and I sitting in the cockpit we wonder if it was going to go out again. It is now 3 am and I am still pretty wound up. I lay down to sleep and probably only get about an hour before it is my time to go on watch again.

Monday the sun rose on a beautiful day. The sea was like a lake early the morning without any wave chop. Absolutely flat dead calm. Since we are a sail boat a little wind would be good but that was not going to be in the cards today. We continue to motor sail and are on track for arrival in Norfolk Island the next morning at 9am.

Monday finishes with no more problems and it has been so calm Barbara was able to cook us a great meal with pork filets rice and fresh broccoli. On passages it is unusual to have a cooked meal like that because the boat is pitching and rolling so much you can't cook.

So, after an eventful start to the day we end on a good note and get ready to put the anchor down the next morning. This is Destiny clear and standing by on 1-6.

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Captain's log October 25, 2009

Captain's Log October 25, 2009
We start this day much better than the day before. Seas have calmed down and the winds are from the SE at 15-20 Kts. Wind speed is good but still right on our nose. Instead of motoring directly into the wind and using a whole lot of fuel we elect to bear off to the SW and continue to motor. It really hurts to have to turn the motor on when we have good wind and seas. Oh well those are the cards dealt this trip so we will make the best of it.

We get a weather update in the morning and it appears there is a pretty strong system heading to the north end of New Zealand on Tuesday and another to follow on Thursday. We are not excited about going into heavy seas and gale force winds so we are going to opt out of the passage temporarily and divert to Norfolk Island. This Island is an Australian Territory and lies about half way between New Caledonia and New Zealand. Perfect stopping place for us to duck into and wait out these weather systems. Besides how many people in the world can say they have been to Norfolk Island in the Tasman Sea? I will help you with this one, Not Many. My golf buddy and fellow sailor, in a boat just ahead, is to stopping as well and he thinks there is a golf course on the island. That would really be a bonus. We should make land fall Tuesday morning, tomorrow, around 10 AM. I will get back to you on what Norfolk Island is like.
As the day progresses the winds die even more and the ocean is like a lake. There are no clouds in sight and we anticipate a calm evening as well. As the sun went down it was so clear we were able to see the sun's "green flash" at sun set. Very rare to see even out here. Because it was so clear we really got treated to 2 green flashes. Just as the sun went down and we saw the first flash the boat hit a swell and the boat rose up so we were able to see another flash. How many can say they have seen 2 in one sun set?

Barbara cooked a great meal for supper and off to bed she went while I stood my first watch of the night. For a passage you couldn't ask for much more well maybe a little less motoring and a lot more sailing. This is Destiny clear and standing by on 1-6.

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Captain's Log October 23, 2009

Captain's Log October 23, 2009

It is now time for us to wrap up another sailing season in the islands. We have been to 3 island nations and each one as different as night and day. It was a great summer for us and so now back to New Zealand. I thought I would write this time about our clearing out and start of the journey back to our home for the winter.

It is Friday the 23rd and the day before we head out. I start the day by going to an informal captains meeting to discuss weather and routing to New Zealand. This is a time when everyone only thinks about the weather and if it is a good time to make the crossing. From Nuomea to NZ it is about 900 miles of Open Ocean. The weather systems start down off the east coast of Australia and move eastward through the Tasman Sea to NZ. They seem to appear about every 4-5 days. It is prudent to miss these systems because the weather in them can be quite nasty. Whoever I run into today will want to know what I think of the weather and when I am leaving. You don't take the weather lightly but once you leave port it is anyone's guess as what it will be. If you are very lucky the weather will be as predicted for the first 3 days and then anything could happen.

The weather briefing didn't change my mind Destiny would leave early the next day. The next order of business is clearing out of New Caledonia. This is about the same in every country and is a labor in patience. I start out by walking about 2 miles to the customs office. I hand in a couple of forms to the customs officer and they are checked and rechecked then photo copied. What they do with all this paper is a mystery. The customs official then fills out another form for me to take to the immigration officer which is in the next building down the block. I am lucky because in this port the offices are close by each other. It is not uncommon for these offices to be on opposite ends of the town. I get to immigration and hand in the forms from customs and give him our passports. He makes copies to keep for his files and fills out more paper for me to take to the Port Captain, my next stop. The Port Captain is about a half mile walk and on a hill overlooking the harbor. Very logical place for this office most countries we visit are not that strategic with their Port Captain. He usually occupies an office that is nowhere near the port or the water. OK, the port Captain takes the paper work from the first 2 offices and then fills out another form which is the most important form because it allows me to enter New Zealand and it says that I have officially checked out of New Caledonia. Without that piece of paper Destiny would have to wander the ocean never to put into a port. I am sure you get the picture, and I am now done and this only took about 2 hrs.

I walk back to the Marina and pick up some last minute groceries and then go to the boat. Barbara sometimes goes through the checking out process with me but she was on the boat getting things stowed. We spend the rest of the day cleaning and securing things on the boat. We pretty much have this down to an art form. Barbara works below deck and I get things put away topside. While we go about the job of readying the boat to leave some of our sailing friends stop by to ask us about the weather and are we leaving and how we are going to go , etc,. It is really all anyone can talk about. It is as if this were their first passage. I personally don't have a lot of patience for the same questions over and over so I will hide out on the boat for a while.

At 5 we head in to happy hour to sit at a big table with our sailing friends and, you guessed it, talk about what the weather is going to do and what will our track be. It goes on and on. Last year before the passage to New Zealand we had meetings every day about the weather. Not as bad this year but still pretty tiring. We don't last long at happy hour, we wish everyone safe journey and head to the boat for dinner a movie and a good night's rest. Destiny stand

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Captain's Log October 24, 2009

Captains Log October 24, 2009
We awake early and have some coffee, yogurt and my favorite, cookies. The fuel dock opens at 6am and we want to be ready to leave the dock soon after that to top off the tank and head out by 7. No problem getting fuel. One of the forms I filled out at immigration allows us to get duty free fuel which is about a 20% saving over the regular price. Cost per liter is about $1 (that would make it almost $4 a gallon) which is a very good price sure wish I needed more. We back away from the fuel dock and head to sea at 7am.

On a passage it usually takes us about 3 days to get in a routine of watch standing and adjusting to the movement of the boat. After clearing the pass and moving into Open Ocean the boat starts tossing around in every direction (Jeri Lynn knows what we are talking about). This is not for the squeamish. Even for us after sitting at the dock for a week you need a little something to help get you through the next 24 hours. For Barb and me it is usually one Dramamine before we leave port and we seem to do OK. If the seas are real rough on the first day we might need to take another but usually one does the trick.
We clear the reefs and go on a heading of 167 degrees. The wind is blowing 25-30 kts and the seas are running about 3-6 ft. More wind than we like to see and it is blowing from the SE which is the general direction we are headed. For us to sail the boat we need to change our course more to the south, 180 degrees. Because we are headed too much into the wind and the wind is so strong we need to turn the engine on to maintain our heading. This is pretty much what was expected maybe stronger winds than we thought but should only last about 24 hours. Because the boat is pitching and rolling so much we were not in the mood for meals. We got by on stack food, oranges, apples, potato chips. Crackers and cookies.

This being our first day out, in a while, we have to adjust our body clocks to our watch schedule. Usually during the daylight hours we have no watch schedule. So we each take short cap naps. After 7 pm Barbara went to bed (couch in salon) and I took the watch until 10pm. At 10 I got her up and she was on watch till one then I took it till 4. Barbara came back at 4 and stayed on till 6:30am and was just too tired to keep going so I took over. We don't get too concern with watches during the day because we would be a hard target to miss. At night we are on the watch for other ships so we can get out of their way. Very rare that we ever see one but it is something you always think about.

Our first day back at sea went pretty well. Except for some big wind we had a good day. This is Destiny back to 1-6.

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Captain's log October19, 2009

Captains Log October 19. 2009
I know this is somewhat of a shock to those of you who follow this column but it has only been about 2 months since my last report. If I remember correctly we were on our way to Vanuatu from Fiji. So here we go. This report will take a different twist because I will spend some time telling you about my golfing adventures in Vanuatu.
In my world there are people who play golf or people who sail boats. It is very rare that you find someone who has the time or even cares about doing both. I for one like to do both but finding someone to play golf have been a big challenge. A couple of things stand in your way out here. For one there are not many of the villagers who play. Let me rephrase that: there are no villagers that play golf. I think the last person out here that played golf in the islands was V J Syngh. He got to learn how because his dad was the groundskeeper of golf course in Fiji. So if no one plays what is the use in building courses? Exactly, no reason, so there are very few if any golf courses. The next obstacle is for me to find someone in the sailing community that wants to play if we do happen upon a course. I hate going out and playing by myself (why play if there is no one to bet with?). So in the 2 years we have been doing this I haven't played, until we got to Vanuatu.
We had anchored in a bay outside of the town of Luganville on the Island of Santo and we had hitched a ride into town to pick up some groceries. As we went down the road we went right by a golf course. I couldn't believe it, a real golf course, out in the middle of nowhere. It also looked like it was fairly well taken care of. So when I got back to the boat that afternoon I was on a mission to find another golfer. As luck would have it I found a Kiwi who loved golf and had a 3 handicap. I told him I was a 20 and he could give me a stroke on every hole but one. Let the games begin. A time and date was set. I am probably the only sailor that has carried his clubs with him sailing. So I told him we could share my bag and he would carry the bag for both of us. I was trying to find a way to tire out this 3 handicapper.
To get to the course we took the dinghy. How many people can say they are taking their dinghy to the golf course? Tide was going out so we anchored off shore and waded in to the beach carrying the clubs and our beach sandals. As we approached the pro shop we could tell no one was there. Not sure what to do we teed off. We were the only ones playing that Friday. It was just us and a guy cutting the grass. My first shot was right down the middle about 250 yds. The 3 handicapper needed a mulligan but who cares we were playing golf. My next 3 shots were not very memorable and I ended up with a 7 on a par 4. I am only telling you this because I won the hole. When we got to the 7th hole the guy mowing the grass came over to collect the green fees. The price for golf, this fine day, was $15 US dollars for as many holes as you wanted to play. All in all it was a marvelous day and it was great to be on a golf course again. I ended up losing the bet but a rematch was scheduled for when we arrived in Vila the capital of Vanuatu. There are only 2 courses in the whole country and I get to play both.
When we played at The Port Vila Country Club we were guest of one of the members. We arrived at the club in a taxi no dinghy this time and John, my partner, was able to rent his own clubs. To play this course you have to use one of their caddies. The caddies are all ladies from the local village. They all wear a traditional Mother Hubbard dress that is about 2 sizes too big. Picture, if you will, 4 golfers and
4 caddies, and as we walked down the fairway the caddies dresses blowing in the breeze reminded me of a parade. The ladies were very nice and didn't understand a word of English they were there to carry the clubs and find our errant shots. So for 9 holes of golf and a caddy the price was $15 US. I have died and gone to golf heaven. So I got my golf fix and we will live through another year with some great memories. I have also found someone that likes to play as much as I do and whenever we are in a port that has a golf course we are there. He is also Kiwi so when we get back to New Zealand this year I now have a playing partner and someone that likes to bet on almost every shot just like Scott, Rick, Lee, Top, Larry, Jim, etc., the list is a mile long.
It has been a fun year for us. We have spent most of it on a beach or sitting on the boat looking at a beach. In about 3 weeks we will head back to New Zealand and get ready for next season. For those of you who don't know, we have to leave this area during the cyclone season. We go south and wait for the cyclone season to end and then come back up here next year. There is so much to see and do in these islands that one year is just not enough. Until next time this is Destiny back to 1-6.

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Tsunami NOT a Problem for the Gladneys

Sorry for the mass email, but we have received some troubled inquiries and want to put to rest any concerns for our safety. First of all, Frank, Barbara and Destiny are all A-OK.
Yesterday we arrived in Ouvea, New Caledonia. We have no internet access and therefore do not know who among you heard about the Tsunami that emerged in the South Pacific today. Early this morning we received emergency evacuation orders to get offshore as quickly as possible. An earthquake had occurred in the ocean near Samoa and the resulting Tsunami was headed this way, with an expected landfall in New Caledonia of 9:16 this morning. We immediately made for deep water (4,000 feet) and stood offshore until the officials in Noumea, New Caledonia gave us the all-clear. Other than a little excitement over our morning coffee and a chance to do some deep sea fishing, it was a non-event for us. Sadly, we heard there were lives lost and many unaccounted-for in Samoa.
We hope also that anyone who bore anxiety for us will forgive us for not getting in touch sooner. Also copying our blogs on this message...
Love and best wishes, Frank and Barbara

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