No Drama - Just Glorious Tradewind Sailing in the South Pacific [Ep. 151] 

That is awesome! You were one of our “influencers” then! Reading the accounts of the Whitbread in the sailing magazines is what set a spark to this adventure long ago! Thank you! BTW…Flyer won it if I recall correctly! That was “real” sailing! #respect

We sure won, finishing really heavy broaching in 25 plus winds with full spinnaker in the solent! I never forgot that.

Great idea!!

Thank you 🙏

We are glad to have you along for the ride!

😀👍

Thanks for the wonderful comment! Always important to stay positive at sea, even on the days when it is rough :-)

Thank you too!

😀

Ha! We enjoy the sailing aspect. Amazing how much excitement a bouy can provide when you haven’t seen anything but blue water in weeks :-)

We are so glad we can take you out on the blue waters of the ocean with us!

Hmm. We are wondering if it is lost fishing gear?

Thank you! Will do!

Awesome, thank you!

Title inspiration!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Can't wait!

Maybe some day when we don't have a dog on board! 🤞

Konnichiwa!!! Maybe if we could catch a few more big ones they would make a tasty dish :-)

Try some of the Japanese preserved foods! Dried overnight, pickled, you can cook it with flying fish! d=(^o^)=b

Fresh or not, chop it, throw it into the chili! A refreshing change from Bologna.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Hi Albert, we are glad you are enjoying. We think of you every time we see a large sea bird!

Haha! 😂

😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀 Thanks Joe! We are glad you enjoyed it! See you next week!!!!

You’re welcome! Thanks for the nice comment!

You’re welcome!

Cheers!

You’re welcome!

OMG! That is amazing! We hear the shrimp often on quiet nights through the hull at anchor, but never thought how a submarine could use all of its acoustic tools to hunt shrimp for a crew dinner!!!! If Forest Gump would have known he would have joined the Navy!! :-)

Thank you!

Glad you enjoyed it

@@SailingSweetRuca had to laugh at FB spelling help spinnaker became stinker

We knew what you meant 🙂😆

You're the best! Haha! 😂 we are surprised you remember “Natasha”!!!

@@SailingSweetRuca Sure I remember. She was standing beside the Geico Caveman.

We appreciate your hard work keeping us fed! Farmers don’t get enough credit these days!!! Glad we could have you aboard digitally for a few moments of your day! Cheers!

Thanks so much!

Thanks! ❤️

Dyneema is really strong despite the small size. We would actually prefer the preventer breaks before the boom does.

@@SailingSweetRuca Agreed. The preventer should be the weakest link. But it needs to be strong enough to do its job. This is actually computable for a given wind speed, sail size, etc. And don’t forget that a knot in the line can reduce its strength by 50% or more (especially for Dyneema).

--The Platino accident was initiated by a hydraulic steering malfunction caused by loss of fluid because of a leaky seal. It was daytime. No watches were stood. The course jumped from 120P to 90S, returning shortly to 90P. The poor preventer had no chance against a flailing 5-700 Kg roller-furling boom, which also took out the traveler car. There is no record/auto-log of disengaging the autopilot. The crew attempted to reduce swinging by lowering the topping lift into the water, but the vang prevented that. Redundant auto-pilot controls were available at the forward steering station. Attempts to lasso the boom were unproductive. People in the salon were unable to go forward because the hatch was covered by the dinghy. Eventually, the back-stay went, the mast fell, a shroud rod was cut with a battery operated grinder/saw to prevent banging against the hull, and the mast apparently left dangling by the fore-stay. --A plane was dispatched to search for the lost crew. Although exact position of the MOB was affected by confusion regarding procedure to save the exact position,. I doubt that would have changed much. --Recovered a few days later, batteries depleted, auto-pilot unpowered, steering was difficult, but manageable. A postmortem suggested the topping lift be pulled through the mast to control the boom. --Although it was determined that no inspection/equipment violations had been violated, it was recommended that those requirements be expanded and applied to clearances for all boats, racing or not, leaving New Zealand. --Twice, n the hours prior, there had two steering aberrations, but insufficient to activate alarms. --Message for Sweet Ruca: One more reason not to visit NZ. It won’t be easy to leave.

PS: The preventer held fine. It ripped the eye from the pad-eye on the toe rail. My information comes from the official report.

@@captainjimolchs It's true that the first failure was the autopilot. But it's often a second failure when the s**t really hits the fan. If the preventer (incl. its attachment points) had held the crew would at least have had a chance to get everything back under control. The third problem (a design issue, not a failure) was the position of the traveler. IIRC, one of the crew was killed by being. hit by the broken traveler car. When the traveler is in the cockpit and something fails now you have a wrecking ball flying around where the crew needs to be to control the boat. Putting it up on an arch forward of the cockpit fixes that (though there may be other issues with that).

Thank you! Cheers!

Thanks! 👍

Pot roast sounds yummy!!!

Thanks!

Thank you!!

👍👍👍😀

Thank you 😊

Have you watched sailing one life ? It's another good channel

@@raylawes8938 The interesting about One Life is that they are learning as they go, getting better every day.

Thank you!

​@@raylawes8938he said "real sailing channel"

The fun thing about OL is that they are learning as they go.

Good comment, wind vane steering would be free too

Compared to refrigeration, water generation, and other creature comforts, power consumption of an autopilot is trivial. Some autopilots can be connected to Navionics and usually include a wind mode. The price of a wind vane system is mind boggling and requires customized installation that might not be readily compatible with a rear swim platform.

I don’t know about superior, but it’s decent. We would love to add hydro generator to offset the AP draw offshore.

Believe it or not they are pretty expensive, and requires major installation. It would be nice to have zero power draw for steering though!

Well said Capt. Jim! You nailed it on pretty much all aspects. The AP power draw does start to add up when on 24/7. Starlink is the new battery hog these days!

👍

A fantastic week!

Good tip!!

Your guess is as good as ours! They just seem to appear mysteriously in the night.

Chasing flying fish?

Thats pretty much all we are thinking while its in the air! 😅🤣

Good question! We could (and probably should) make a whole video series about the intricacies of this topic!Whatever floats your boat and makes you happy enjoy your time on the water is probably the right answer. Every boat is a compromise of something. The J/46 ticks all the right boxes for us :-)

Agreed. Kudos to anyone out there, whether on a Hans Christian, Pogo, catamaran, or home built steel hull.

Not this time, despite trying!

We will let Skip Novak take this one www.pelagic.co.uk/ywpdfs/2014_12_Skip%20col%20YW%20Dec%2014.pdf

Yeah I get that I’m more concerned about the people then putting themselves at risk to search for the man overboard if the crew can’t .

Thanks. It varies of course 160-180 miles per day more or less.

We wash our clothes in a bucket, but never while underway yet. Also, the dog goes on deck with a special tool! ;)

Expedition Navigation Software is what you see on screen. More here: sweetruca.com/what-is-the-best-navigation-solution-for-sailboat-cruising/

Lots and lots of paperwork. It surely makes travel more difficult, but we wouldn’t leave Roxy behind.

Probably a combination of hull design and other factors, sail trim is surely a factor.

And attitude! They've seen larger waves that weren't so salty tasting. No cause for excitement here.

Ha! Noisy winches :-)

Its technical term is a “Snatch Block.” We use it as a “twing line,” mostly to keep the line from chafing on the boom and stack pack offshore, but sometimes also to shape the leech or stabilize the trim on the gennaker for a tad more speed. We have two different ones that we use, one is from Nautos the other from Antal. Thanks for commenting and fair winds!

We have two, one is Antal and one is Nautos. Not sure the model but you can google “snatch block” along with the manufacturers and it will lead you in the right direction.

Thank you very much for your quick response. I'm going to try it because I think it will be very useful. I wish you a great time in Polynesia.

You are about right on the money. We average just a little less than 8 though (we could do that if we pushed a little harder, but it is cruising :-). We were 23 days at sea.

@@SailingSweetRuca - 23 days means that you have been extremely fortunate in having proper wind (and considering that you are extremely capable sailors).

Haha!

A few reasons, maybe one day we will have to do a video on this, as we have been asked this often.

We wholeheartedly disagree, it is a judgement call. We encourage everyone to be safe and operate within their skill and comfort zone.

@@SailingSweetRuca Great Answer.