Sydney to Hobart log 2005
02.01.2005 After sad and rather apprehensive farewells at RANSA we let go our lines and motored down harbour in a light NE breeze. Away at last! A 15 knot beam wind which had us moving…
Category Archives: Tainui 1 – Sydney to Canada
The trip down
It was a cold, rough but fast 8 day trip south from Hobart. For 8 hours we ran under bare poles, surfing at up to 17 knots. I did wonder whether we should have slowed…
Snares Images
After a splendid sail up from Enderby Island the Snares came into view mid-afternoon. Eponymously named (like the North and South Traps), in the 18th century the Snares were the bane of sailing vessels in…
09.12.06 – Marlborough Sounds
09.12.06 Marlborough Sounds Ah, the sweet smell of success! We’ve fixed the sailmail modem cable. Sheer bloodymindedness won out in the end – a testament to OCD. We spent 3 hours head down in a…
14.12.06 – Chatham Islands
We had a boisterous, cold trip out to the Chathams from Cook Strait. Strong, icy beam winds and steep seas. Much crashing and banging but the boat flew and it took us barely 3 days.…
16.12.06 – Post Chathams
As expected, the wind increased this afternoon so it’ll be back to lurching and crashing tonight. At least the knickers are clean, the colon metamucilated and the toilet working. We are romping along in 43S.…
17.12.06 – Becalmed
We were becalmed all last night in the Southern Ocean. Seems incredible! It was not peaceful at all, because the sloppy seas had us lurching about like a WC Fields drunk. Extremely frustrating, the absence…
18.12.06 – why?
We’re in the roaring forties about 400 miles east of the Chatham Islands loping along at about 6 knots. It’s been quite rough until now, but today the sun came out for a while and…
19.12.06 – into the Great Emptiness
Our Monday position at 0325UTC is 4326S/16655W. A front has just passed over and the sun has come out. In 20 kts of westerly, 038M is our best course, although the rhumbline is 066M. The…
22.12.06 – music and illusion at sea
22.12.06 I just baked the 2 best loaves of bread in the known world. Photos have been taken. I’ve been sitting in the cockpit, well rugged up, fixing a pair of pliers and watching gadfly…
23.12.06 – fixing the Aries
We had a very near miss last night. A vital steel pin in the Aries came out. This meant that effectively the upper half of the vane gear was dismantled in situ, and suspended 4…
25.12.06 – Xmas Day
Today is Xmas day and 3 wonderful things happened – the sun came out, I stopped vomiting, and we opened Alex’s fruit pudding. What a trinity. What a feast – such unbelievable schmeck. We’ve been crashing…
27.12.06 – slow but sunny
Sunny. The wretched ESE headwind persists and the barometer is rising again. DMG yesterday was 110 miles! This is unbelievable. Still, we’re on course now. I am rediscovering Apollon Musagete. Call me old-fashioned, but I…
28.12.06 – magical moments
Now 17 days out of NZ, we’re and about half way to Chile (3827s/13511w). Tainui is being her generous self – always coddling, forgiving our mistakes. No problems other than a snapped steering cable and…
29.12.06 – a lazy day
The breeze came back today and we’ve been sliding quietly along. A gentle rhythm has been restored. Spirits have soared also, because we this morning we passed the halfway mark. I’m tinkering in the navigatorium…
29.12.06 – no signs of madness yet
18 days at sea and no sign of madness. And today no sign of wind either. The barometer needle has been dabbed with araldite. We’re now between widely spaced isobars, edging up toward the horse…
31.12.06 – a dreadful New Year’s Eve
We did 180 miles yesterday with 1 reef, in a very steady 20 knot NNE breeze. Our best 24 hour run for a while. The wind is still ahead of the beam after 3 weeks.…
31.12.06 – Wagner and Bread
Today I baked bread. By dint of circumstance my last 2 loaves were a success – light and well-risen. Dave on the other hand, had produced an inedible cinder block (my crew mate Dave –…
01.01.07 – over half way
Ribs? – now there’s something other than haemorrhoids to talk about! You can’t cough, laugh or move freely. Sit still and it doesn’t hurt, but just try fluttering an eyelid – blam! Rib ends grate…
03.01.07 – a following breeze at last
The speed with which weather systems roll past is remarkable. Weather comes rushing through, we get tossed about, get wet taking in sails, go below and dry off, take seasick pills, sleep, get up reluctantly…
06.01.07 – only a week to learn Spanish
28 days ex Cook Strait. 1,298 miles to go. The first month was OK, but now it’s getting quite hard. We’re both over it. fresh food’s finished apart from a few spuds. Still, we should…
07.01.07 – Frissants
27 days out from NZ. An essential timelessness prevails, events confronting us in disjointed, oddly isolated fashion. Events familiar, predicted even, but each with no real relation to what went before, what comes after. Oddly,…
09.01.07 – so what do we do?
What do we do? I sleep a lot, read a bit, write some, and make excellent bread. The best alarm clock is a full bladder. Dave sleeps a lot, reads much more, cleans fastidiously (usually…
10.01.07 – Dave thinks it’s Wednesday
10.01.07 Dave thinks it’s Wednesday. We’re about 6 days from our landfall in Chile. 830 miles to go. I’m starting to get little frissants of excitement, like a child with Xmas approaching. It’s the biggest…
11.01.07 – how to write an email in the Southern Ocean
How to write an email in the Southern Ocean? So little is really happening. What is memorable for David and me certainly isn’t, for the readership. And vice versa. Take Chris for example – working…
12.01.07 – musings on Banville
Today I read Banville’s book (“The Sea”) at one sitting. How could I not? After Faulks, he comes like spring after winter. Every page had me thinking of Chris, us, and wishing she were here…
13.01.07 – just another day
In this warm horizontal environment, there is very little motion, but last night at the computer I felt a bit queasy as we rose and fell on a big, lazy southerly swell. As Martin Luther…
14.01.07 – steering problems
It is windy again today. 2 reefs and staysail. The opening paragraph of the Alexandria Quartet comes to mind and I wonder whether Durrell would survive re-reading after all these years. At 6.30 am, bang!…
15.01.07 – Housekeeping
Nothing now can dampen my spirits. Such is the power of our growing anticipation. At 4am I filmed our fast progress into the cloudless sunrise, knowing there is likely only to be one more sleep…
16.01.07 – “a fast wet uncomfortable sail”
We’re 30 miles off Punta Corona. Close reaching in 25-30 kts of SSE breeze on a lumpy sea. The visibility is poor. It is fast, wet and uncomfortable. We’re often over-canvassed and with a beam…
16.01.07 – Chile at Last
A fast, wet and quite uncomfortable arrival at dusk in a 30kt beam wind, awkward seas and dense fog. The landfall was a slightly apprehensive one for timid old me. Looking ghostly, forbidding and quite…
17.01.07 – Puerto Inglese
Deepest coma. Up at 6 to a misty cold morning. Nothing moves, nothing gets spilt; I don’t have to hang on. Around the boat, like an Imax movie, we see green fields, cows, a lovely…
18.01.07 – Puerto Montt at long last
With 4-5 knots of current we roared through Canal Chacao. There were occasional benign whirlpools but none of the terrors I had been led to expect (the Pilot says at springs wind against tide can…
02.02.07 – Poking our way south
I’m now well adjusted to the cruising mode. Dave has gone off trekking with his esposa, and lovely Christine has finally arrived. She is settling in on board – this does not surprise me. We’re here…
Golfo Corcovado
After that endless, grey and windy crossing from NZ I do feel a sort of accomplishment, but is it enough to justify the broken rib, the burn, the damp and the tedium? Now that we’re…
03.02.07 – Puerto Puquetin
We entered this secure little bay after a lovely crossing of Golfo Corcovado. A crisp southwest breeze gave us 7 sunny knots and a fast trip despite having to buck some tide. When blue whales…
04.02.07 – Puerto Delphin
We had a long day traversing Canale Perez Norte. The canales down here are a real contrast to Chiloe’s gentle pasturelands – rainforest to the water’s edge, mists, swirling tide races, craggy peaks and…
06.02.07 – Puerto Americano to Mogotes
We continue down Canale Perez Sur. Narrower, less exposed and more interesting than Canale Moraleda, this channel seemed always to be generating contrary wind and tide. Much motoring. Today’s highlight was the sea lion colony…
07.02.07 – Ensenada los Mogotes
Happy birthday Chris! It is grey and raining, with poor visibility. A snug anchorage in the mountains with Rousseau’s rainforest all around. Breakfast in bed, but the promised glacier gift will be a day or…
08.02.07 – Bahia Sesquelan and San Rafael
This part of Chile is wild, bold and beautiful beyond measure. Tainui is anchored in Bahia Sesquelan, waiting for good weather before going down into Laguna san Rafael. There is thick rainforest right to the…