Author: Pam
Well after the excitement on Monday I am happy to report we don't have any big news. Actually, the biggest news is the lack of wind we have had for the past two days and the currents that are running against us, all making progress a bit slow. Starship's little red engine has been working overtime the past two days, we have motored 18 hours out of the past 24, which is great to be able to, but a bummer when you have to. At the moment we have 8 knots of wind and a 1.9 knot of current against us putting our SOG (speed over ground) at 3.7 knots (slow). It looks like more of the same for tonight and tomorrow. We really are not complaining, not while crossing the sea that is reportedly the most gale strewn body of water in recorded history.
With little wind and calm seas, all is mostly flat and calm aboard Starship. Of course until a little diesel overflows, then you find out how not flat the boat really is. We are still trying to figure out the fuel tank system set-up that left our mechanic in NZ just shaking his head. We are getting there and of course with a little learning the hard way. One of the tanks overflowed slightly while being filled by the other tank sending diesel under the cockpit floor and throughout the boat on the bottom of bare feet. The cockpit has a teak grating which Scott held up while I cleaned under it and then I washed all of the floors, which turned out to be my exercise for the day. Otherwise the day was spent on computer tasks, radio nets and radio check-ins with our friends Jane and Roger on Wings & Strings (they are still in Opua waiting for Roger's back to heal) and of course cooking and eating. So far, we are not on the Jenny Craig sailing diet, that usually happens in rough seas and when the pots are looking at me while on the stove.
One small mechanical problem arose last night and had Scott routing around the engine room in the middle of the night. The alternator that charges our house batteries started to scream. I am sure it goes without saying that is not a good thing, nor pleasant to the ear. It was immediately disappointing; this alternator has been to the shop twice and participated in the high voltage overload that recently fried our stereo and DVD player. Hence it had a lot of attention right before leaving NZ and should not be screaming. Also, not being able to charge our batteries was a box we hope we have already checked. The alternator was too hot to further investigate last night, so Scott was back at this morning. He discovered that the bracket that mounts the alternator appears to have stripped the two bolts holding it to the engine due to vibration. Apparently this was not noticed during the recent problem solving. The good news is there is nothing wrong with the alternator; the bad news is we can not use it until a mechanic can re-tap the screw holes, this is not something we can do at sea, but there is more good news. We have a second alternator that can charge all of the batteries instead of only the one for the engine. We should have no problem getting to Sydney without power issues,
Wednesday (day 7) has been a lot about cooking. I made chocolate chip cookies; before you get too impressed I only had to add milk. I actually made them to test the temperature accuracy of the oven; so far we haven't cooked anything in the oven that needed accurate temps. I've only roasted veggies and baked potatoes and things like that. I just cook until they are done. We don't have a thermometer in the oven (too difficult to see) and I was hoping we didn't have only two settings, on and off. The cookies came out ok, perhaps a little undercooked (Scott ate them anyway; you can always count on him). It was a good test; we'll see how it goes when I make cheeseburger pie tomorrow. Scott made yogurt with our nifty yogurt maker that we bought in New Zealand. You just add water to a packaged mix (no yeast cultures needed), put the container in the yogurt maker (it looks like a thermos) in hot water and 8-10 hours later voila you have a quart of yogurt. Lastly we are planning to BBQ chicken for dinner, that is how calm it is out here.
We have not seen any boats or anything else for that matter since the second day when a convoy of three freighters passed on our port side. One is bad enough; we can definitely live without three at a time in the neighborhood. Well, actually we did see two birds on the third and fourth day; it is always strange to see them hundreds of miles off of the coast. They can be known to hitchhike on your boat (as well as do other unmentionable things), but thank goodness they must not have been tired or full.
For those of you who are following our course on the internet, (you can access this on the "Where Are We?" link on our website) you may be wondering why we have gone so far north when Sydney is west. We are hopefully setting ourselves up to work with the N and NW winds that are expected in a couple of days and when we get close to the coast of Australia we will jump into the East Australian Current (EAC) and ride down to Sydney. If we don't go north now and get pushed more south and go below Sydney it will be very difficult to get back up the coast with the wind and the EAC against us. Incidentally, the movie "Finding Nemo" may have put the EAC on the map, however apparently it is not a veritable highway as portrayed in the movie. We are looking forward to a current that is our friend and at 2 to 3 knots if we are going in the right direction the EAC will be very welcomed.
Did you know Australia is the only nation which is also a continent? It is a land of few rivers, a vast desert plateau in the center, with a chain of mountains (The Great Dividing Range) to the east and narrow coastal plains to the south east. Also, Tasmania and the Torres Straight Islands are part of Australia and there are the overseas territories of Norfolk Island, Cocos Keeling and Christmas Island. The population of Australia is 17.8 million, 4 million of which live in Sydney. Sydney's population alone is equivalent to the entire country of New Zealand. The aboriginal peoples of Australia probably arrived from Asia 60,000 years ago, but today they make up only one percent of the population. Australia will be the seventh country we visit and we are looking forward to learning more about the culture and services provided to people with visual impairments.
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