Utah photographer Jeff McGrath recently published a remarkable lightning capture: A lightning bolt touches down on the South West side of the Prison at Point of the Mountain in Utah.
Jeff is a software guy, showing a real talent for photography.
We will never forget our experience with breaching humpback whales in Alaska. We just hoped that the whale knew where we were and didn’t want to hit us. The yacht Intrepid was not so fortunate.
A whale leapt out of the water and crash-landed on the deck of a boat off the coast of South Africa July 21, 2010. Sailing near Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, Paloma Werner, 50, of the Cape Town Sailing Academy, and her partner Ralph Mothes watched the whale move toward their 10-meter vessel and breached 20 meters away. The whale disappeared under the water, before reappearing in the air. “Then I just saw this huge whale crash onto our yacht,” Werner said. Fortunately, no one was injured, though the boat suffered damage. (Paloma Werner)
We just discovered this very nice Google Maps lashup by Tom VE3II. Tom uses the Yotreps database – up to 365 days, so you will only find our track from San Francisco across the Pacific 2009, 2010.
On 6 July we were anchored in Kuto Bay, Ile des Pins. That evening we hosted a very fun potluck aboard ADAGIO with fellow cat cruisers from TE HARINUI (New Zealand) and AHU (Austria).
It looked like the Southwesterly front had about blown itself out, with light-moderate SE trades expected to build on the 7th. We had been looking for an opportunity to sail up to the Loyalty Islands so we decided to take advantage of the change.
The morning of 7 July we sailed for the Loyalties, expecting we could make Ouvea in an overnight passage of roughly 24 hours. By 1250 we made our way around the south end of Ile des Pins through Passe Ndjua (which can be absolutely horrible if you attempt it with wind-against the 4kn tidal currents). Our timing was good, so it was just moderately bumpy in the 13kn SE’ly and about 2M swell left from the last frontal system.
By 1300 we had cleared Passe Ndjua and set our favorite downwind sails: reacher and Solent Jib as twin headsails. Our log entry said
“Gybe onto port. Beautiful, puffy cumulus clouds all around. Isle of Pines Oro Bay to port. Pic Nga in the distance”. (Pic Nga is the highest peak on the island)”
The run to Ouvea was happily uneventful, though we were wishing for more wind. Before nightfall we were motorsailing with reacher and the port engine at 2250rpm. At 0243 Dorothy logged:
“A quiet night. Watching for ships. The golden crescent moon just rose in the east, looking like the Cheshire cat’s smile. 48.8 nm and 8 hours to Ouvea.”
At 1144 on 8 July we entered the Ouvea Lagoon via Passe Du Coetlogon, and by lunch time had dropped the hook near the Hotel Paradis d’Ouvea by the village of Lekiny. We joined two other catamarans, SEA TRAIL and REHAB, both of which had sailed on by sunrise the next morning.
ADAGIO and ALLEGRO were quite photogenic, floating in the crystal clear waters of the very blue lagoon. Our obectives were to see the sea turtles and spotted rays that hang out under the bridge to Mouly Island, and to visit the Lekiny Cliffs on the southeast corner of the atoll. Our map showed a route from the lagoon, across the bridge, and along a beach bordering the Hnymek, a vast, shallow channel between the lagoon of the atoll and the open ocean to the southeast. The walk must be made at low tide, when the sand flats are exposed. We were fortunate that the low tide was in the morning, which was calm for best underwater viewing. The spotted rays were out in force, “flying” in formation under the bridge, noses pointed into the outgoing tidal stream. A local fisherman cast his net into the vast school of small fish which were schooling in a long formation along the white sand spit.
In the Ouvea photo gallery take note of the crowds of people on the Lekiny beaches. When we returned to ADAGIO for lunch we noticed that the only footprints on the beach were ours.
We are extremely impressed by the way BMW Oracle is running the defense. It truly is being run for the benefit of all contenders. A good example is the process of selecting the next A/C design — in particular whether a 72-ft multihull or monohull. Our design team of Morrelli & Melvin is responsible for developing and presenting the multihull option. The next America’s Cup is going to very cool!
(…) “We’ve always said that the new design will be for the America’s Cup community. The result with be a ‘non-partisan yacht’ rather than a ‘defender’s yacht’,” said Ian Burns, Design Coordinator for BMW ORACLE Racing. “A great deal of input was sought from the America’s Cup community and the concept briefs given to the rule writers reflect that feedback.”
In a twin-track process, US SAILING will author a multihull rule and the RORC’s Seahorse Rating a canting-keel monohull rule.
“It would be premature to rule either a monohull or multihull in and the other out at this stage,” commented Russell Coutts, CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing. “Which type of boat is best for racing and media impact is one of many evaluations we will be testing over the coming months.”
The choice between monohull and multihull will be made after the conclusion of these trials, the first round of which is scheduled for Valencia in late July.
(…) Download the concept papers for AC 34 Monohull and Multihull design
AC 34 Class Rule Monohull Concept (updated 19 July 2010) (1925)
I spilled a full Cafe Mocha into the Macbook Pro 15″ enroute from New Zealand to New Caledonia. Yikes – we love that laptop – this is definitely not a Good Thing! That is the first time that has happened — Adagio got hit hard enough by a beam sea that it just blasted my coffee cup straight up, it turned over at the top of the arc, then fell straight down in the middle of the keyboard. Mocha splattered over about a 2 meter radius of the saloon. It was such a mess I didn’t even make a log entry of the incident, but rushed straight into the task of minimizing damage.
Key priorities for a laptop keyboard spill: cut the power so you don’t fry any delicate innards; get the contamination out without doing more damage; be sure all is completely dry before reinstalling the battery — again to avoid electrons traveling unplanned paths.
I turned the MBP upside down – removed the battery, washed externally with fresh water whilst maintaining the MBP inverted position (messy!). Then I sprayed all the crevices with contact cleaner to drive out as much of the water as I could. I left the laptop out to dry for 3 days, then reinserted the battery and restarted. The Macbook Pro booted up normally with its happy sound. After some brief testing I noted at least 3 keys were not working, so we connected a spare keyboard and mouse. The MBP seemed to run fine for about 3 days.
Then we noticed that the menu bar charge status showed “charging” but battery state = 0%. The next day the magsafe connector green light was dark, and the MBP would not boot. Wanting to enjoy NC for a while (instead of pretending to be an Apple service center), we then switched to Backup Number Two, our trusty old iBook G4.
Which iBook I had been using happily just a few months ago — for our very-outdated CAD software which will not run on the modern CPU and OS. Dang — after a few hours we start getting hard drive errors! I did some directory repair, no joy; erased the drive; then installed a diet-clone of the Mac Pro boot drive; that worked for a day; then more drive errors. OK — I already had a 150GB Firewire portable drive running an older clone of the Mac Pro — I booted the iBook from the portable drive. That worked – so we hauled the iBook + external drive to Kou Bugny for one brief internet session. Inconvenient trying to balance laptop on lap + external drive + cable which must be firmly connected at all times, etc.
Over the next few days we found that the iBook booting off the external wasn’t reliable – possibly because the Firewire connections aren’t absolutely 100%.
So, on to Backup Number Three — the Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop. It doesn’t have internal wifi, so I inserted the EnGenius 200mW wifi PCMCIA card, wrestled the Windows configuration “Lizard” until it finally said “Uncle – OK, I’ll connect”. Then I downloaded and installed the latest Google Chrome browser so Dorothy would not have to fight with Internet Explorer. Hmm… Google is so smart, that noting our IP address in France it insisted on installing the French Chrome. More practice for Dorothy 🙂
But after a couple of hours, the Dell wouldn’t recognize the wifi card. Sigh… So we have decided to focus on Newcal and just use Adagio-accessible wifi, which means iNet around Noumea or the Hotel Coral Palms wifi at Ilot Maitre. We’re looking forward to Telstra NextG wireless broadband when we get to Australia.
So in the space of a couple of weeks we have had more computer problems than the total of nine years since 2001. 2001 was the year of the Windows infestation with the “cursor from hell” which caused a fruitless month on the phone with Dell “support” in Malaysia. I finally figured out that Windows Professional was doing a logical OR of the GPS NMEA stream with the mouse. That is a Windows feature (not a bug according to MS$).
Latitude 38 is our favorite cruising/sailing magazine, so we were pleased to discover that Richard Spindler included ADAGIO in the ‘Changes…’ section for August 2009 and February 2010
The above inferior-mirage flash image sequence is hosted by Wikipedia , captured by photographer Mila Zinkova at Santa Cruz, CA. The large, top image is the final last glimpse. See Andy Young’s detailed explanation on the Wikipedia image page.
UPDATE: Paul Kamen’s inferior mirage green flash video is excellent — very short, a lovely view of a yacht sailing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. This video is authentic – most of the others we found were fakes.
We are still trying to see a green flash and of course to capture a decent photograph. Since we have internet access here at Ilot Maitre in New Caledonia we’ve done a bit of elementary re-searching on the subject. It turns out that:
** there are several types of atmospheric phenomena that produce different “green flash” effects;
** the green flash effect can occur at sunrise as well as sunset, and over low-flat land as well as over the ocean.
A very clear explanation can be found at Paul Doherty’s excellent Scientific Explorations and Adventures. Paul’s illustration at left shows the basic differential refraction which very slightly separates the long from the short wavelengths. Paul wrote:
The highest blue image of the sun and lowest red image combine with the central green image to create a white sun with a blue top rim and a red bottom rim.
(…) The same temperature gradients that produce mirages can strongly influence the shape of the sun at sunset and the shape and duration of green flashes.
A sunset through an atmospheric temperature gradient which would produce an inferior mirage causes the bottom of the sun to stretch down toward the horizon and broaden out. This occurs when cold air is over a warm ocean. These flashes are common over tropical oceans. They also happen over temperate oceans when cold air masses move south over warmer water. Most common green flashes are produced by inferior mirage enhancement. The average length of these green flashes in the tropics is 2 seconds.
A word on Paul Doherty: he is an MIT-trained physicist (Ph.D. in solid-state physics). Perhaps more important to us lay folk, Paul has been since 1986 a prime-mover at San Francisco’s famous Exploratorium.
In 1986, I came to the Exploratorium Teacher Institute and began my exhibit-based explorations in science. I became the co-director of the Teacher Institute in 1990 and the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in 1992. Since 1997 I have been a senior staff scientist at the Exploratorium. I am also a visiting scientist at Tom Tits Experiment in Sweden and an adjunct professor of physics at San Francisco State University. In 1999 I received the “Administrator of the Year” award from the California Science Education Advisory Council for my work directing teaching programs at the Exploratorium. In 2002 I was awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award by the American Association of Physics teachers, Northern California Section. In 2003 I was given the NSTA’s Faraday Award for excellence as a science communicator.
So, not only is Paul a physicist, he is a very cool guy (including all sorts of adventuring).
Astronomer Andy Young of San Diego State University is an authority on the green flash. I think you can find everything else you might want to know at Andrew’s Green Flash homepage.
To monitor our position reports to YOTREPS please click here).
This is the second NZ to Newcal run for ADAGIO. The first was our maiden voyage in September 2000 with David and Susan aboard. The 2000 passage was peaceful. The 2010 passage, while not exactly peaceful, was enhanced because Vanessa McKay was able to join us. And potential dramas were avoided thanks to the typically adroit routing advice from Rick Shema. Rick has advised us for ten years now, and we continue to feel that professional weather expertise is a very high-return investment. Especially Rick’s enroute oversight, which on this passage rewarded us with a comfortable trip and, unlike some less fortunate boats on this run, no serious gear breakage.
For fellow cruisers who would like to know more about how we work with Rick Shema enroute, you can review our passage email traffic here [PDF]. For brevity I have omitted most of our Yotreps position reports. We transmit these reports both to Rick and to Yotreps — that is why you will read Rick commenting on our course and speed when it appears we did not send him anything. Yotreps is also why Rick didn’t receive our first position report out of NZ — there are some oddities about addressing a Yotreps report to multiple email addresses.
Before departure we had estimated about a 4.5 day passage from Opua to Noumea. We expected a LOW pressure system to form east of New Caledonia, which was projected to track far enough southeast so that our NZ to Newcal rhumb line was OK. On Monday 14 June we were the first yacht to clear out of Opua, NZ, collecting our “duty free” and straightaway dropping our docklines. As it turned out, the 4.5 days became a seven day passage because we elected to sail west and clockwise around the approaching LOW. So ADAGIO made landfall at the Amadee entrance to New Caledonia’s southern lagoon around 0800 on 21 June.
Day 1: just before sunset the jib head shackle exploded, so we had to get the jib lashed down pronto. Steve and Vanessa took advantage of the Reef-Rite jib furler “Kiwi Slides” which keep the luff captive in the foil (similar to traditional headsail hanks). The foil captures the luff, so we could fold and lash the jib to the trampoline perimeter rope. We will retrieve the jib halyard in daylight and hopefully easier seas.
Day 2: around 0700 15 June we received an enroute update from Rick Shema indicating that the New Caledonia LOW was likely to track further west than we had hoped:
(…) You mentioned a slow SOG and that is of concern due to the low pressure system forming just east of New Cal, south of 20S (it may be tropical) and heading just to the east of your route, which is too close for comfort.
Therefore, I would adjust your route to head for an aim-point (AP1) near 30 00S 165 00E. You may not need to head that far west, but for now we don’t know and better safe than sorry.
The radio propagation gods were pro-ADAGIO that morning, allowing us to successfully download via Sailmail an updated GFS model. We ran a revised MaxSea weather “optimal routing” using the new GFS model + ADAGIO’s “cruising performance polars” (which are about 80% of the Morrelli and Melvin design polars).
MaxSea routing table
Above is a tabulation of our 0500NZT 16 June routing calculated by Maxsea [full size PDF]. From such projections we can assess a number of issues — e.g., given the expected sea state, do we think we can keep up the projected pace on the planned route in order to “stay ahead of the LOW”.
A movie is an easy way to visualize the combination of the modeled winds, sea state and ADAGIO’s projected performance. See here {requires Adobe Flash} for an animation of the estimated ADAGIO course vs. the progress of the LOW system.
The Maxsea animation has a small Date-Time clock displayed at bottom-center. The frame at left (click the thumbnail for the full size image) is for 6/18/10 7:53 where we judge we can safely turn north for New Caledonia. The color shading encodes the projected sea state in terms of Significant Wave Height. The color key at lower left shows the numeric values. E.g., the seas SE of the LOW center are 7 to 8 meters with winds in the 35-40 kn. range. For ADAGIO we expect to be sailing into 3 to 4 meter seas on western edge of the LOW system. That is about what happened in the real world. Following are a sample of our log entries for the rest of the passage.
Day 3: Log entries “00:24: Wind has been ranging 16 to 20 knots TWS, seas more comfortable. Time to set the reacher when Steve gets up.
15:44: Vanessa volunteered to go up the mast to attach a messenger line to the jib halyard. We furled all sails, then turned downwind to about 165 TWA to stabilize the boat for Vanessa’s ascent. We used the topper for a safety line, main halyard for the hoist — a fairly quick round trip — but definitely not an easy one. Vanessa has some new bruises but no serious injuries.
17:22: The starboard reacher tweaker line suffered a cover failure where it comes out of the jammer, so Steve and Vanessa replaced the line with a new Dacron 12mm double-braid. This is a good reminder of how much load the reacher tweakers take.”
Day 4: Log entries “3:01: Vanessa surfed at 13 knots. We are rocketing along in comfortable seas, averaging 7 to 9 knots boat speed, making good time. We are 140 nm se of Norfolk Island, and 202 nm from our AP1 waypoint. Our little refugee finch is still perched on the jackline by the back door, feathers puffed up for warmth. Perhaps it would like some of our sesame seeds for breakfast. Baro is down a point.”
05:43: Wind up to 20 kts at times, boat speed hit 11.3 kts. AWS still below 16 kts. Wonderful sailing in comfortable seas. 182 nm to AP1 ETA 20 hours?
12:49: Excellent boat speed between 8 and 13 knots. Steve tightened the leech and foot lines on the reacher. A rollicking good ride under a cloudy sky with blue skies ahead and sun trying to appear. Showers all around. ETA at AP1 is in 20 hours plus or minus. Shearwaters and one albatross today. The finch was gone from its perch by morning. Perhaps he is “boat hopping” to Australia.
Click the thumbnail at left for a new gallery of Dorothy’s albatross photos.
14:41: Up 10 to AWA 120. I’m steering up in the lulls, down in the puffs. 203 nm travelled in past 24 hrs.
20:54: Rick forecasts increased seas between midnight and 0600 tomorrow morning. Sailing towards the lovely crescent moon. TWS is decreasing so boat speed between 6.4 and 7.5 kts. Crescent moon, a few clouds around, stars, peaceful but slower. 10 hrs to AP2 at this speed.
22:38 The wind has returned to 18kn TWS so boat speed is back up to 5 min average of 9.2kn”
Day 5: Log entries “00:00 Continuing to nibble as much northing as possible/comfortable. Try up 5 degrees to AWA 110, trim reacher. OK, works. Speed 8.6 kn avg. Adverse current down from 1kn to .4kn
02:04: Try up 5 degrees to 95 awa. Ease reacher tweaker, trim sheet. Trim main. Ride bumpier for sure. Speed 9.5kn.
02:25 We are rocketing along; wave slams not very frequent. Milky Way is amazing, like a Hubble image. We are averaging 9.4kn in 17kn TWS 133 TWA on reacher and 2nd reef.
5:16: Reached our layline north of AP1; furled reacher, set jib, turned to AWA 60 for Noumea.
9:36: Reef-rite boom furler pin is not engaged so furling line is oscillating in-out at the entry fairlead. Cover of the line is in bad shape, Spectra core looks OK. Furl the main. Timing is not bad, as it looks like we are going to be a motorboat the rest of this passage.”
Day 6: Log entries “0:03: Smoother seas now, very bright crescent moon just setting. Radar is clear. 297 nm and 52 hours to Amadee light. ETA 0500 hrs on Monday 21 June
09:54 There are two primary seas running = 73mg and 110mg, can’t judge the wave period well. Speed 6.3kn at 2500 port engine.
00:07: Still motoring in a more gentle swell. Beautiful sunset that we photographed hoping to see a green flash. 188 nm and 33 hours to Amadee Light.”
Day 7: Log entries “13:07 Rain showers washed the salt off of the boat. Nice. Swell is still with us, wind has increased a bit. 94 nm from Amadee Light, 17 hrs at this speed. Beautiful clouds all around.”
Day 8: Log entries “08:00 Landfall New Caledonia at Amadee, ADAGIO has cleared the entrance.”
Day 13: So here we are moored at Ilot Maitre: sea temp about 23C, wind about 20kn SE trades, water = clean, internet = fast/free, green flash at sunset = check. What’s not to like?
We have used the Hivelogic email address encoder successfully for years. It requires javascript support on the page where your mailto: link will appear.
Another option is Syronex, also javascript based, and possibly more secure than Hivelogic encoder. Example:
Adagio Journal 