Blog from Kinetic

by David Sutcliffe, July 17th, 2012

Last night, the on-watch saw a loom from yellow lights that were over the horizon.  Past experience suggested that this would be one or more deep sea commercial fishing boats.  Generally you want to give these boats a very wide berth, as they maneuver unpredictably and deploy various kinds of fishing gear, and rarely properly display navigation lights.  Typically they make no response to radio calls and do not use AIS.  We left the fishing vessel to our starboard, closer than we would have preferred, and then noticed a flashing white light which passed rapidly  along our port side as we bombed along at 9+ knots.  This light probably marked a buoy at one end of an active fishing net or line!  Luck was with us last night.

We've "seen" commercial ships using the AIS system, as far away as over 120 miles.  This systems shows each vessel's course and speed, and is used primarily as a collision avoidance system.  Just one ship in the past day - this is a fairly empty section of ocean.

There is a boat from another race, the singlehanded Transpac race, somewhere ahead of us.  The skipper was evacuated from the vessel to Honolulu for medical reasons, and the boat was left to continue sailing with self-steering towards Hawaii, with nobody onboard.   We wish the skipper a speedy recovery, and hope not to get too close to his boat!

Today is mostly sunny, but there is some mid level cloud and earlier we did see a few rainbows.  We are hot and sweaty!  Our trusty watermaker has been pumping out fresh water, and showers are available for each crew member every second day.  Making this work is the engine and heavy duty alternators which we use to generate electricity and charge batteries, but not for propulsion, of course.

Vern's friend Rob Tape secretly pre-recorded a short video recalling some of his sailing adventures with Vern, who has done eight Vic-Maui's and eight return deliveries, providing a wide field for stories. We saved the video and played it yesterday, when we told Vern one of his friends had somehow sent Vern a video message over our satphone link (a definite no-no).  Vern was initially aghast and then thoroughly enjoyed both the video and the prank.  Rob is a Royal Victoria Yacht Club member who acts as liaison for the Vic-Maui race and who personally helped with the Vic-Maui pre-start festivities in Victoria this year.

The Vic-Maui fleet communicates with each other once a day during "roll call".  This is a conference call held by long range voice radio, where each boat in turn reports its position, weather and other observations.  One of the boats acts as the coordinator, or "communications vessel", and relays any important information between the competitors and the race committee onshore via email, using either the long range radio or a satellite telephone.  It's a small, connected world now, even on the high seas.

Kinetic is Goin' to Maui!

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