Fiji – Yasawas
Carl Strange Aug 10, 2020
Fiji – Yasawas
17o11S / 177o11E Yep, the blue “jerry cans” are diesel fuel. Proper fuel docks are few and far between out here and you need jerry cans to fuel up in most places. Also, fuel was outrageously expensive in French Polynesia and clean fuel will be hard to find in the more remote islands of the Marshall’s and Gilberts. We’ll replace these two-year-old “temporary” jugs picked up for a song in Panama with nice new ones when we’re back in NZ. Then we’ll cover them with Sunbrella so the sun doesn’t ruin the plastic. With 200 liters in jugs and 500 liters in our main tank we’ll have a motoring range of around 1200 nm in light air.
Sitting in a rolly anchorage in southern Yasawas. Went for a quick snorkel with Rebecca when we arrived. Dead coral in the shallow areas but there lots of drinking coconuts on the beach! There might be decent diving on the outer reef that protects the anchorage but the winds are forecasted to pick up tomorrow and we’re moving north this morning to find a more protected anchorage.
Our radio propagation has been so terrible lately we’ve been lucky to just get simple messages through. Because of solar activity really screwing up the HF bands, there has been stiff competition during the few hours the window is open to the states. Of course, I’ve gotten lazy about checking for other periods of good signal and was in the routine of 4-6PM emails just like everyone else. Oh well, increased solar activity is fairly rare (assuming that was the problem) and only lasts a few days. We’re back in business with long emails and weather data downloads.
Navigation – Continued
We are currently using MaxSea Navigator, version 7.7 to be more specific. I know their website shows a much later version but this is what was available at the time. I don’t think the user interface is as nice as Cap’n Voyager but the charts cover the world, are accurate and the program understands the 180E/180W dateline.
We’ve resisted the trend towards integrating all of the navigation devices into one big network. Even if we could ignore the cost of upgrading a bunch of equipment to a common baseline we probably still wouldn’t bother. What we want are rugged units that are simple to operate.
At our Navigation Station, we have:
An old, reliable Garmin 128 GPS with an external antenna.
A Datamarine Log that records nautical miles sailed – both total mileage and a re-settable trip log. The total mileage reads 26,971 since we sailed out of Houston in ’94.
A Datamarine Depth Sounder – the serious Offshore Model that reads down to 1000 feet rather than the more typical 300-foot units. Reefs and atolls seem to come straight up from the depths, particularly in the Pacific, by the time your 300-foot depth sounder sees the bottom you’re very close. While our friends stand well offshore moving along a coast we can come in closer and run just outside the 100-meter contour line catching Mahi Mahi and Yellow Fin Tuna that hang out there.
An ICom IC-706MKII Ham Transceiver and SCS PTC-IIe combination that’s used for all our voice and digital communications – daily boat nets, email, and weather downloads.
An Elecraft K2 Transceiver that’s a homebuilt, ham transceiver. It was built for fun and meant to be used in playing with Morse code. Still, with both voice and morse capability, it’s an able backup to the Icom ham radio.
Yet another ICom radio. This time an IC-M800 SSB transceiver came with the boat. It isn’t even hooked to an antenna since I like the Ham radios. A third backup might be excessive but I thank the previous owner of Enchante’ for buying such a nice radio.
A JVC AM/FM/CD player with a nice set of bookshelf speakers down below and a waterproof set in the cockpit. Rock and Roll is an important part of the 02-0400 watch!
There are a few other odds and ends like the critical Hella fan, the brilliant Alpenglow florescent light (absolutely the best light made for boats!), clock, barometer and a 7-day recording barometer.
When running near shore a Dell laptop is strapped down and turned towards the companionway to the cockpit. It takes GPS input and displays our course and track as we move along a coastline. Paper charts for the area are always at hand in the chart table. Offshore we put the computers away and use paper charts and a written position log to track our progress. This watch log is kept on sheets of yellow legal pad that are thrown away at the end of a trip. To us, keeping a formal log would be much like our land-based friends recording the details of their trips to the office or grocery store!
Cockpit Instrumentation is very straightforward:
A Garmin 152 GPS (with an external antenna) presents all the navigation information the helmsman could need without having to go below. It also backs up the GPS at the Nav. Station and displays an all-important clock so I know just how many minutes are left before I can wake up Karen and get to bed!
A depth display repeats the Datamarine Depth Sounder.
Two very simple Datamarine instruments display Apparent Wind and Boat Speed.
A traditional Ritchie magnetic compass, balanced for equator latitudes.
A Ritchie Fluxgate compass.
A brand new Fruno 1833 Navnet Radar with a green CRT and a 32-mile range. It uses CMap cartridges and it can interface with a fish finder and chart plotters; it has all sorts of bells and whistles – even a remote control. We bought this unit because if we wanted a powerful radar not one of the cheaper, low-powered units. However, we use it simply as a radar with no CMap or other toys. Okay, we have connected the cockpit GPS (Garmin 152) so the radar displays our Lat/Long, Course over Ground, and Speed.
We’re delighted with our old Neco Autopilot that Amel put in his boats. This is a very strong, simple unit that just keeps on working. It was Built when autopilots simply steered the boat to a heading and it doesn’t have a clue what a GPS unit is much less how to talk to one. We turn the heading knob to a bearing, sometimes adjust sensitivity for sea conditions, and “Max” steers on that heading turning the wheel with a big electric motor hooked to the wheel with a chain drive. Everything is installed below and stays nice and dry. We have a complete second system onboard as a backup. The autopilot steers 99% of the time. We touch the wheel when anchoring, getting underway, pulling into a slip, etc. Other than those times we’re simply not interested in the tyranny of the wheel.
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.
