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1st Dec - Fun at the water Park

Conor, Finlay, Jack, Louisa, Emma, and I went to a salt water park. A salt water park is a water park in salt water. When we arrived at the "bus-halte" OceanBreezes and their grandparents were there too.When the bus finally arrived twenty minutes late we were just about to start walking it was soooooo funny.We all climbed on to the bus and it started up the hill.On the bus all the children sat at the back of the bus and talked backwards for fun. When the bus arrived at the water park we all ran down the hill, across the road, through the puddle and in to the shade then we took our clothes of ( we had our swimmers on underneath ) and jumped in.

It was a very colourful water park with lots of wheels to turn the water on and off. We played 'fire,fire' and running around turning all of the wheels off, with one left on to get the best spray to reach the grown ups! After playing all afternoon, we showered and waited for the bus in the rain.

It was such a good park that we went again with 'Jorjia' and 'Nowadays' when they arrived. Ella (12), Casey (11), and Eoin (9), came with us and we spent another afternoon, playing on the slide a million times and 'zombies', where we were dragged by the feet for water torture. Jack says he wants to live there.

By Sophie Hygate (10)

3rd Dec - Jack's first writing

7th Dec- Trying to leave Curacao - Final stocking for San Blas

The New SSB arrived at Curacao on friday, after it was picked up in California, on the monday, 4 days previous. DHL mentioned an overnight delivery to Curacao, but that was too much to hope for. Still 4 days is pretty good. Now its Tuesday and it has sat the same amount of time in customs at the airport. It has been the same story in every country, with every boat, and it is probably the biggest headache of this cruising life. Getting things shipped to your boat is a night mare. You try to make everything easy - use couriers rather than the postal service, mark the package "yacht in Transit", but it still sits on some shelf gathering dust. Do Customs offices do this on purpose? Do they think that if they hold onto it they could squeeze some money out of the desperate, weather-window-effected boaties, or are they just blatently ineffecient and incapable. I just cant believe the latter, so therefore they must be crooked. And to top it all the same thing is happening in Cayman for replacement furniture and building materials for the homes that are trying to be rebuilt. I just dont understand customs holdups.

The weather has been blowing pretty hard for a few days now. Its been sunny and squally with winds blowing 20-25 knots gusting 30, but it has been flat calm with a little chop in Spanish Water. Once the SSB clears customs we are then looking for a break in the weather, and the sea state to calm down so we can push on the 3-4 day trip to San Blas Islands, missing out Aruba and Columbia. The columbian coast is said to be notorius for bad weather with counter east setting currents meeting west going currents around the Columbian peninsular adding to the funnelled winds upto 10 knots more than surrounding areas. The plan is to stay well off shore by more than 200 miles. But we are still apprehensive about the San Blas arrival - where the seas can heap up as they approach the protective reefs and can be quite big and dangerous. We plan to arrive at the eastern end of the Island chain and work our way across in 4 weeks.

We have spent the past week here in Curacao getting final things sorted out.

60 metres of 10mm p30 BBB grade Galvanised Chain. Needed for the 20m anchorages in the Pacific. Spare bulbs for all running lights on the boat. A variety of spare shackles, some pulley blocks, and general bits and pieces. new beach shoes for the kids Christmas presents Meat and Fruit and Veg.

I also spent a whole morning stripping down the Port Engine discovering that the flooding problem had leaked into the Starter motor (it wasnt the soleniod after all). I took the starter motor to bits and it was caked rock solid with rust and salt. But after a few hours meticulously cleaning and sanding every part and testing it with a multimeter. I reassembled it put it back and it worked beautifully. I now need to unseize the throttle cable on the engine and we will have a back up engine (even though the water pump still leaks - but with the automatic bilge pump now installed this will be fine).

I installed the blocking diodes that keith aquired and sent out with Ocean Breezes' visitors- a dual 30A (60A) shottky rectifier into my Solar panel and wind generator circuit. Then I dismantled and stripped down the wind generator motor (generator) and discovered 4 of the static magnets had come unstuck and were of allignment. A dab of 5200 devils glue and some clamps and they were back in place. Reassembling it was more difficult. I had to hold 4 sprung brushes into their holders while I positioned the rotor in place. I tried various ways of trying to hold the brushes in with wedges and cotton, but nothing kept them all in - I needed 5 hands. With Sophie and Emmas help and alot of cursing and giggling we managed to get it done. A hand would hold a screwdriver point on the brush as I carefully placed the cummutator in place. But about 10 times, as we were close to putting it in, one out four springs would pop out at the last moment. It all went back together and plugging it in span nicely. At Noon on a sunny windy day we managed 35 amps being generated. - Nice.

8th Dec - web tracking

Im going to try to update our position reports using SSB and www.yotreps.com (There is a link on the left of our web page - "Where are we now" ) But you might have to download the software if you dont have the a java enabled browser.

Also added 2 panama canal links - our itinery for the transit and also web cams for the locks.

See www.yachtdolphins.com links section

8th Dec - ready to go

After a full day of sitting on the phone (usefully at the bar at Surafundies) to DHL, they cleared customs and then delivered the new SSB. I spent the whole evening installing it and it seems to work great.

We are spending today getting the boat ready to leave, last minute fruit and veg, downlaoding email, phoning Cayman to make sure all is progressing with the house rebuild, filling up petrol storage for the outboard and tidying the decks, dismantling the little dinghy.

We plan to leave after lunch (around 1600GMT) Thursday for the 700 mile journey to San Blas.

8th dec - NEW SSB works - Yeah

Just let you all know that we now have email on the boat again - Great !!!

9th Dec - left Curacao 1500 local time

last minute things this morning while Helen taught school and made pizza for lunch. I headed off to town to check out of customs and get clearance papers for entry into Panama. I extracted US dollars from the cash point machine to see us through the next month or so, and went to the internet cafe to do last minute on-line bank admin and Christmas presents admin.

The back on the bus to the boat to get ready for sea; collecting gas bottle, filling up petrol for the outboard, removing tarp-awning, taking down wind generator, hoisting and lashing the kids wooden dinghy. Then came the time to leave after pizza.

We left at 1500 local time heading to north of Aruba to a point some 30 miles north of the Columbian peninsula. This journey is renowned to be windy and wavy so we are staying outside the 1000 fathoms point.

We had the cruising chute up 'till night fall when the risk of not seeing a squall in the moonless night was greater. Headed north around Aruba on a broad reach with just the jib up, 15 knots over the deck.

Helen and I are on 3 hour watches through the night starting at 9pm finishing at 9am. Helen will attempt to do school in the afternoons depending on sea state.

5am; and I have just turned west around Aruba and have goose winged the twin head sail configuration. works well between about 140 and 180 degrees of wind .

The sun is now attempting to rise over the eastern sky, and Im about to go to bed while Helen starts the "kids breakfast watch" ; 6am-9am.

10th Dec - Stupid towing generator

0700/11 UTC - 12 50 N 71 59 W 190 miles ave speed 5.2knots (boo) wind: E15-20 sea:2.5m

1100/11 UTC 12 43 N 72 13 W wind E 15-20 sea 1.5m

1700/11 UTC 12 28 N 72 48 W Wind E 15-20 sea 2m

What a great sail today. We had wind 15-20knots from the east all day. I put up the cruising chute, but then pulled it down later as one of the repairs from our disaster in Ibiza last year started coming undone. More repair tape and up she went again.

The kids woke up and had toast for breakfast and a sea sickness tablet, only to have all but Louisa throwing up. As soon as they were sick they felt better and they had a morning of lounging around reading books while Helen and Rob took it in turn to snooze.

Late morning Rob attempted to rig the towing generator (the wind generator with a long stiff rope and a propeller on the end). But after 10 seconds it pulled the shaft of the generator through and rammed the windings into the end of the casing. So I run the adapted funnel down the rope so that it blanked out the propeller and hauled the rope in. (If you try to pull the rope in with a spinning propeller on the end the rope tends to twist uncontrollably, with your fingers or hand or something being twisted with it - not nice)

I then spent all afternoon dismantling the generator, discovering the problem (the internal circlip groove was worn or inefficient), and then fixing it by drilling a hole through the shaft behind the bearings and putting a washer on and a split pin through to stop the shaft slipping through the bearing. At sunset I let the prop and rope back out and the thing worked ok. It squeaked like hell, lost us about 1/2 a knot in boat speed and only made us about 1-2 amps - So I was not that happy.

Then during the night I decided to pull the rope in. I attached the funnel and lowered the string drogue into the water (to pull the funnel to the prop). But the string found the end on the spinning generator and like something out of a cartoon, where the goofy gets his tie caught in something spinning, the string winds itself up, pulling the funnel up to the generator. Now the spin has a lot of torque, there was no way I can stop the spin, so the funnel is now spinning around the end of the generator, whacking on the solar panels 2 times a second. So I quickly grab another funnel and cut it and tie it up with another drogue. Now I try to encircle the rope with the new funnel while trying to reach behind the now dangerously spinning old funnel. I manage to tie it around the spinning rope after about 15 minutes, and let the drogue into the water. It slides 10 feet down the rope the string now manages to get caught in the rope and the same thing happens - it winds it self up and starts waggling violently behind the boat in the dark. The whole episode was difficult and potentially nasty, but I still have the problem of getting the rope pulled in.

My mind was weighing up the benefit of another 50 amps a day, over lost speed, excessive load and wear on the generator, dangerous handling and the now pressing need to stop the whirling funnels before they did any damage. There were 2 safe ways of stopping the spinning: Stop the boat by taking down the cruising chute, or cut the rope and loose the prop. I cut the rope. At least I wont be tempted to use the generator now - It was ridiculously dangerous.

Helen managed French and Science lessons for Sophie and Emma in the afternoon, while Jack and Louisa played downstairs.

yotreps position update

seems that the yotreps email dosnet work. If anybody can go to yotreps.com and tell me what the email adress for delivering my position a nd weather reports to is Id appreciate it.

I sent it to yotreps@pangolin.co.nz and it bounces back to me.

last report

AIRMAIL YOTREPS IDENT: vqbc2 TIME: 2004/12/10 10:12 LATITUDE: 12-47.00N LONGITUDE: 070-18.00W COURSE: 270T SPEED: 5.8 COMMENT: heading to eastern san blas MARINE: YES WIND_SPEED: 17 WIND_DIR: E WAVE_HT: 0.5M SWELL_DIR: W SWELL_HT: 2.5M

11th Dec - roaring along the columbian coast

12/1430 UTC 11 45 N 075 00 W speed 4.8 knots Wind 10 knots ENE Sea 1m heading 250 - San Blas - 09 31N 078 42 W

13/1945 UTC 10 29 N 077 22 W speed 5.5 knots Wind 16 knots NE Sea 2m Heading 230 - San Blas.

Louisa is reading so well now and really enjoying sitting and reading a book. A boat called Mahi Mahi had lent us some books - dolphin diaries - a series of children's books.Sophie during the day read 2 books "riding the storm" and "under the stars". Emma read "riding the storm". They are ploughing through the series. We looked for dolphins but only saw flying fish. We have been fishing but haven't caught a thing. Other boats have been catching Tuna and Maui-Maui.

We are in Vhf contact with OB and another boat called Plane Sailing. We have been SSBing a boat called Nowadays who are 80 miles ahead of us.

Christmas spirit is kicking in, the Christmas hats are out, and the Christmas music is on the cd player. Helen did school in the afternoon. It feels so much like the Atlantic crossing with the advent calendar the nativity set and the christmas tree up. Helen fills the little pockets on the advent calendar with 4 sweets during her watch and the kids wake with great excitement to see if she has remembered! The kids are filling their time just like last year - cutting, sticking,making presents, game boy, and this year - playing with licorice. Licorice is wondering what is going on - 'why are these people up all night?' She didn't eat anything for the first day - seasick I think. Helen thinks she is lovely to have on night watch.

The broken sleep patterns are starting to affect Helen and I. Our eyes are heavy and the night watches are getting difficult. I'm doing 8-12 3-6. Helen is doing 6-8 (the kid watch), 12-3 6-9 (the breakfast watch). Helen has been trying to kick an eye infection for the last few weeks. It keeps coming and going. We have used the antibiotics but it is bad at the moment. Looks like it could mean a rest from contacts for a while.

Today the wind steadily picked up all day to 25 knots by the afternoon. We were 12 miles behind Ocean Breezes and another boat called "Plane Sailing". I was determined to catch them up. I had the cruising chute up and pulled the main up to its second reef (so as not to shield the wind from the cruising chute). As the wind picked up our speed picked up and so did the waves. Once we reached the critical sped of 9 knots we found our selves travelling at the same speed as the waves and so we would surf down the waves increasing our peak speed to 11 or 12 knots. Very exhilarating.

But at Sunset the decision came to either leave the chute up or take it down. We were catching the others up fast. The wind had dropped a little to 20 knots, and the sky all around was clear of any sign of any squalls. So I decided to leave it up as I predicted the wind would drop. Unfortunately, which is what it did at midnight. It dropped to 15 knots and this drop in wind allowed the cruising chute to wave about with the rocking motion from the waves and it wrapped itself around the forestay. I had visions of our mid Atlantic wrap of shredded sails, but this time after dancing on the foredeck and bringing the sail down without the sock and lashing it on deck, unravelling the ropes and the knots, I had it under control.

I pulled out the twin headsails and hoisted the main fully, and we managed a respectful 7 knots just as we came up behind OB. we passed them silently in the night and by morning we were 10 miles ahead of them.

255 miles to go - looks like a 14th Dec arrival as long as the wind keeps up and we can keep our speed above 5 knots.