Mum Meeting Bob

Bruce, Suzanne and I met with Bob McDavitt (Jessica's weather adviser) on Monday in Auckland, New Zealand. There he was, all nestled into his office right in the middle of Boatbooks...bit like heaven really. Well certainly Jessica's version of heaven, if she wasn't out there.

It was great to meet Bob, we have worked with him when he did Jessica's weather routing across the Tasman in January. (Wow January just seems so very long ago).

We went over in detail, the forecast for the next week and also what he expected for the next month. He has various sites he looks at and also some computer modeling programs. If you were into weather, you really need to become rather good on the computer, seems the two go hand in hand! Weather and Bob seem to be synonymous. He had a remarkable way of making it all sound quite simple and understandable...although his statement about weather being a mix of pattern and chaos, reminds us that it really is a difficult thing to predict.

We went through some of Bob's charts looking at some specific areas Jessica will go through. He showed us some typical weather patterns in these areas and the currents (if any) she will expect.

Jessica called in while we were there for her regular sked and spoke to Bob about the weather she had right there and then. She had spoken to him at length whilst planning her route prior to her departure. In that preparation time, Jessica prepared some information for Bob about the yachts 'Polars' so that he would know what speeds Ella's Pink Lady can do at particular angles to the wind. This makes his forecasting more accurate.

It is a pleasure to be working with you Bob, thanks for being on the team!

Julie (Mum)

Pic: Bruce Arms, Bob McDavitt and Julie Watson.

Fish, First Aid, 'Parker' and Bread

My resolve to catch a fish was strengthened again yesterday when I called in to have a nice long chat to all the family as they were having Friday night fish and chips. I've got it all worked out now. First there will be sashimi with soy source, then steaks lightly fried, maybe with a light batter and lemon juice (not fresh of course) and possibly some kind of fish curry. All depending on the size and type of fish. Sadly it seems to take more than resolve to catch a fish, still nothing!

With all this talk of food I've noticed that a few people have been commenting about having to watch my figure. Not to worry I do! I'm actually proud to report that after years of struggling, in the last few weeks, I've actually put on just a little weight. You must be thinking that really is the strangest thing for a 16 year old girl to be saying but I've spent years being told by all the old salts that I need to bulk up a little and have a little in reserve, as it could be helpful as Ella's Pink Lady heads south and around Cape Horn.

No squalls at all today so I've been able to get plenty of uninterrupted catnaps. Really has been lovely sailing, 'Parker' the windvane has been doing his job amazingly and nothing much has needed attention. (Sorry I don't think I ever properly explained Parkers name for those people who weren't able to guess. Parker is the name of a character out of the TV series Thunderbirds. He drives a transforming pink Rolls Royce for a Lady Penelope!). So a few of you guessed it right.

Last night was something special with so many stars that I could swear that the air felt thicker for them. Also there's been a bit of phosphoresce in the water lately so the wash around Ella's Pink Lady is speckled with glowing lights. I got my first minor injury for the trip today, nothing at all serious just a little burn from the stove on my thumb. Treatment involved sitting out in the cockpit with my hand in a cup of water enjoying the sunset then a little cream and of course, the all helpful Band-Aid! Not exactly anything to write home about and believe me I'm about to regret it because as soon as this blog gets published, the phone's going to start ringing and I'm going to be subjected to several full medical interrogations. Talk about being wrapped in cotton wool! Well actually while today's little mishap really wasn't anything serious, the chance of me giving myself a real injury out here is quite serious. Thanks to Mum, a local Pharmacist and sailor Susie, Mark White and the St John Cadets from Dromona Secondary College and my doctor, Margaret Williams (who sailed solo round Australia a few years back) Pink Lady has a first aid kit to rival any hospital. I've also completed my marine medical course, know the kit inside out and as I mentioned, have plenty of advice ready at hand.

I just baked some lovely fresh bread (see pic below) so I'm off to go nibble at the crusty bits before they cool down. Of course covered with jam and cream, then bread and soup for dinner.

Just one more thing, with all this talk of me being mature, I have to say I had a bit of a giggle as I looked down at my bright pink toe nails!

Now just over 500 nm till the equator!

Jesse

Pic: Covered in flower, kneading bread in my open air galley at sunset.

Squally Sailing

Sorry it's been a little while without an update.

I was told that this has become the most watched blog in Australia and stage fright has left me a bit speechless! No just kidding it's all good. Well actually it's pretty amazing and more than a little hard for me to comprehend out here all alone. Well, physically alone. It really is amazing to be able to share the voyage with so many wonderful people. To me, it is just sharing my journey with you, in what is sometimes a not very exciting life. Plodding along out here, taking whatever is thrown at us, just feels completely normal. I know I'm going to get a million cries of disagreement. But think about it. How strange would it feel to you to be describing to the world all the ins and outs of your everyday life? It is all a bit surreal. That said, thank you all for your support!

And talking of those little ins and outs, Ella's Pink Lady and I have been making good progress for the last few days. The latitude read out now puts us in the single digits - wow!

Conditions have mostly been lovely (steady breeze form the east or south east, sunshine and very gentle sea) but have also been frequently interrupted by squalls. Still nothing too severe but just enough to keep me working hard pulling a sail in and out and constantly keeping a lookout for any partially nasty black clouds. Last night a squall with a lot of lightning passed pretty close. Sitting there waiting for it to pass with all the electrics turned off got a little boring, so I made chocolate cookies in the torch light to pass the time. I suppose I should have been a little scared about all the lightning, but after doing everything I could, I figured there wasn't much point in worrying.

I'm finding it hard to believe how the days are flying. In between getting enough sleep, keeping up with the day to day maintenance and chores, checking that fishing line, feeding myself and keeping in touch with everyone back home, time just flies and I'm constantly wondering what happened to the day.

Even though Ella's Pink Lady is built and set up for strength, endurance and easy handling when the weather is nice, I've really been enjoying playing around, tweaking the sails for a little extra speed. Of course as soon the weather is up it's all about being totally conservative!

Lastly, I've only just heard the news from back home about the proposed Traveston Dam project being aborted. I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone on the Sunshine Coast who worked so hard to prevent the Mary Valley from being flooded. It is a good result for my local community.

600nm till the equator!

Jesse

Robbed of Dinner!

Exciting news to report today. I pulled the fishing line in to discover that I finally caught a fish! I'd love to tell you what it was, how big it was and how yummy it tasted, only someone (with rather big teeth!) got to it before me. Apart from a few bits of flesh left hanging on the lure, my beautiful fish had been gobbled up by something bigger. I can only keep trying!

Not much sleep last night because I was keeping an eye on a few nasty looking squalls, nothing much came of them though and we spent the first part of the night drifting backward a little, ouch! There were a few jokes about that when I called in this morning.

Steady progress today though, I've been catching up on a little sleep and enjoying the nice sailing. The Southern Ocean certainly isn't going to be like this.

For all those having a guess at when we cross the line, the latest weather forecast from Bob gives us an eta (estimated time of arrival) at the equator of the 18th, in about 7 days time!

Jesse

Pic: Me and what was left of dinner! Can you make out the teeth marks on the lure?

Slowly But Surely getting to the Equator!

Not much in the way of wind today, so I spent the morning hand steering and tacking to make the most of the few little puffs of wind we did get. All covered up from the sun in a big dorky straw hat, sunscreen (Ella Bache of course!), sunnys and a sarong, sitting at the tiller was the nicest place to be with a light breeze keeping me cool.

The Fleming Windvane 'Parker' does an amazing job steering, much better than me most of the time, but when the wind drops out to under 5knots, even poor old Parker calls it quits. This afternoon the wind dropped right off to the point where I've just aborted the tiller, as there isn't much point in steering a boat that isn't going anywhere!

It's overcast again now with rain squalls (see pic below) sweeping across the ocean and marching along the horizon. I think I'd be finding the lack of progress pretty frustrating if it wasn't for all the moody greys and blues looking so amazing on the glassed out water.

Despite this afternoon's poor progress, we've still only got 950nm until the equator (that is to the actual point where I'm hoping to cross the equator) and I can't wait for that!

Jesse

Pic: Calm and interrupted by towering rain squalls, it's been a pretty typical day for ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone or 'doldrums'). Lucky for me the ITCZ is pretty weak at the moment, so it shouldn't be too long until we pick up a bit more a breeze to take us to the equator.

Busy Day and Water

I've just come back into the cabin after pulling the fishing line in for the day. No fish but the lures are covered in huge big teeth marks, so looks like I've been getting some nibbles! Well maybe nibbles isn't the right word? I've decided not to think too hard about exactly what left the great big teeth marks, but I'm sure it wasn't anything nearly as dramatic as my imagination would like me to think.

Looks like it’s going to be another dark night out here and warmer than ever, but I'm a happy girl after a busy and productive day. The sea and wind finally dropped off (and the sun came out!) this morning so I was out of my bunk bright and early ready to launch into a few jobs on
deck that I'd been putting off due to the bouncy conditions. I got through my little list of maintenance and gave Ella's Pink Lady a really good check over for chafe and wear. Then the wind dropped off even more, to the point where we were left to roll a bit un-comfortably, not making any progress. But before it started getting too frustrating, a great big rain cloud came along and gave us a soaking in fresh water. Rain might not sound like something to get too excited about but I was just about in heaven!

Using the mainsail and the little gutters we strategically built into the dodger, I was able to collect enough water to top the water tanks up, fill a few empty containers and give myself a lovely fresh water scrub down. In fact I ended up with more water than I knew what to do with - even after washing all my clothes. So I decided to get right into it and ended up giving every surface in the cabin a wipe down. With the music up and the air temperature down for a while with the rain, I was really enjoying myself and I never thought I hear myself saying that! I've never exactly been one to enjoy cleaning and washing so maybe I am going a little crazy out here after all? It provided me with some great exercise as well.

Anyway this brings us to one of the questions that I still haven't answered for you all – water.

What am I doing for fresh water? Believe it or not along with all the food, Ella's Pink Lady is pretty much carrying all the fresh water I'll need. It might sound a bit hard to believe but I'm only using fresh water for drinking and cooking and there's only one of me. Also, I'm relying on being able to top up the tanks again in squalls a few times before leaving the tropics and heading south. As an emergency backup Pink Lady's also carrying a little hand desalinater, but judging by the amount of water I was so easily able to collect today, I don't think that I'll ever need it.

Another squall came through this evening, dumping a whole lot more rain and keeping my life interesting with a few grumbles of thunder, a pretty strong gust of wind and some random changes of wind direction. Ella's Pink lady took it all in her stride. Compared to some of the more severe tropical squalls I'm sure we'll soon be getting, this little puff will just look a lot like a fluffy white cloud.

There's not a heap of wind at the moment, just a gentle 13knots. But thanks to the quiet conditions this morning the sea has pretty much flatted right out leaving Pink Lady to fly along on a reach, unstopped by any of those wet, bouncy things - waves!

Just glanced at the speedo and we're doing a very healthy 7knots! I wouldn't say no to more of this, but the wind is predicted to drop off again soon, so I expect the next few days will be hard work trying to keep us moving along.

That's me for today. I'm now off to open a tin of mandarin pieces with a double
dose of cream for dessert!

Jesse

Sunday Blog a little late!

Sunday has been much the same out here. Just had a nice ducking of cool salt water and am running my little fans to try and chase away that sticky humid feeling but I think it's just something I'm going to have to learn to live with.

My sleeping bag has been safely stowed away and I think a singlet and sarong have become my uniform for the next while. Sailing in the tropics!

My breakfasts now have become cereal rather than porridge (still with my extra large helping of cream, dried fruit and honey!).
The wind peaked at 30knots last night so life's still a little bouncy out here as we're sailing upwind. It's a little frustrating every time something goes flying across the cabin or when I discover that something else has somehow become wet and salty, but it only takes a glance at the log ticking away at the miles to keep me more than happy. Only a little over 1200nm till the
equator!

I was talking to my brother Tom who's spent the weekend tramping with some friends and it made me realize how much I'd love to stretch my own legs with a long walk right now. I hadn't realized how much I miss being able to take a walk or jog up the beach. The stretches and few exercises I do most days just aren't the same. It's funny how I never even thought to appreciate something like being able to go for a walk until now when I can't. Made me think of all you lucky people back on land. Hope you're all making the most of your Sunday afternoons to take nice long walks!

Jesse

Trade Wind Sailing

Really loving the way Ella's been chewing away the miles over the last few days. With the wind sitting on 20-25knots from the south east its good trade wind sailing, even if the sun hasn't been doing too much of that shining business lately.
We're also really starting to make some good progress north. The GPS readout now puts our latitude well into the teens.
The temperature is just starting to get a little warm in the cabin, but with so much water over the deck, having the hatches open is completely out of the question. But I'm sure this is nothing compared to how warm it will get over the over the next few weeks!
With a bit of a headache, plenty of sea room and Ella's Pink Lady not needing much attention from me today, I pretty much just spent the day wedged into a comfy position working away at a book and staying dry. Apart from the odd flying fish and bird there's not really been a lot of wild life around lately and still no luck catching any fish. Then again we have just passed over the Tongan Trench one of the deepest places on earth. I'm not much of a fisherman but maybe it hasn't exactly been the greatest place to catch fish? I'll just have to keep trying!The overcast skies have been making for some dark nights out here.
The sky and sea are completely black with no way of telling them apart. It's completely pot luck whether or not I get a face full of spray when I stick my head out above the dodger for a look around. But even if I do get un-lucky and cop a wave, I can't say it really bothers me. Normally I'll just laugh or squeal, even if I'm half asleep!
So it's all going well and at this pace, we'll be passing Samoa in the next few days and from there it really is a clear run to the equator.

Jesse

A Picture Blog!

Pic: Me and Ella's Pink Lady on another overcast day

Pic: Looking out into the cockpit at sunset

Pic: Ella's Pink Lady getting along nicely with the sun setting and the moon rising