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American Spirit II - Day 227; Over the Top of the York Peninsula, Big Tide Currents, Pandora's Box, a Fishing Disaster and Another Whale Sighting; Wednesday, August 20, 2014



At 1:15 AM while on watch I turned left 30 degrees to a passage north of Albany Island and around the top of the York Peninsula in the Torres Straits. Because the wind shifted to behind us when I did this, I had to drop the jib and took the reefs out of the mainsail to maintain adequate speed. The wind was 15 knots and our speed 4.0 knots, with a .4 knot current against us. The speed is fine for the passage we're making. No ships on the AIS. Yeah!

Joel came on watch at 1:30 AM. And during his watch the propane tank ran dry (empty), so he put the other one in. Unfortunately, it leaked. We suspect an O Ring. We can still use it, but we need to turn it off at the tank after we use the oven burner or oven in the galley.

I got up at 6:00 AM to resume watch duties. A short night off watch. The wind was 11 knots and our boat speed only 4.0 knots thru the water, but 6.0 over the ground. A 2 knot helping current. Full main only.

At 6:32 AM I put the jib out. The green or starboard jib sheet was stuck on the port, red running light at the bow pulpit. After disengaging it, I pulled the sail out. We picked up more speed, to 6.8 knots from 6.0 knots. We hit 7.0 occasionally.

The sun rose at about 6:42 AM. Clouds obstructed any chance of seeing a green flash. The sun rise was dead astern. Makes sense as we're heading almost due West.

At 7:20 AM Folie a Deux called us on VHF Channel 16. They had stopped at Seisia for refueling and were getting ready to weigh anchor and proceed with their passage to Darwin.

I continued reading the book 'The Reluctant Messiah' by Hettie Ashwin, an author I met at the marina at Port Douglas. She lives on a boat in the marina. I found a quote she had in the book worth mentioning: "The proof of courage is in facing up to our worst fears." This book is not really a religious book, just a 'feel good' book and a very good read. The main character has the initials JC; his mother and father are named Mary and Joseph; and he lives on Jerusalem Drive in Australia. I'm not sure if the book is sold in America, but I hope to buy a few extra copies if it's not for people who want to read it when I get home. (Jennifer, you're getting one for sure, I hope).

At 8:17 AM we were making 2 knots thru the water but 6.5 knots over the ground; a 4.5 knot helping current. The wind was a dismal 4 knots. The wind increased to 9.0 knots at 8:32 AM and the current was turning us 30 degrees to the left of the heading the boat was pointing towards.

At 8:32 AM a Customs aircraft called Chika-lu and then Sweet Pearl on VHF channel 16, asking their last port of call and next destination. I figured they were at least 12 hours behind us.

At 8:39 AM Gibson Rock was visible on the port bow even though the chart plotter showed it on our starboard bow. I could see waves breaking on the surface, but no land was visible, and it was .8 of a mile ahead. Both 'readings' were correct because the current, again, was moving us right to left 30 degrees. I'm glad we're going thru this area in daylight. The chart even has waves and the words 'tidal steam' on it, meaning it could be wavy or rough during tidal changes. The water temperature was now 82.0 and rising; the wind was 11 knots and our speed over the ground was now 8.8 knots with a helping current of 4 knots. This speed would increase to 9.1, then 9.2 and finally 9.3 knots with a maximum helping current of 4.5 knots.

I turned the engine on at 9:42 AM. And started making water for 3 hours after doing so, filling the water tank with about 22 gallons. Now that we've fixed the hose leak in the water maker system, we're making water at 7.7 GPH (Gallons per Hour) instead of 3.

Breakfast was at 10:05 AM and consisted of scrambled eggs, cut up potato, chilled fruit cocktail and raisin bread. During breakfast I told Jeanine and Joel the story of Pandora's Box, as relayed by one of my cruising books for Australia that I was consulting. Apparently, the British sailing vessel HMS Pandora, in the pursuit of the HMS Bounty mutineers, discovered some in Tahiti and put them in custody in a large cage on the deck of the ship. The cage was called 'Pandora's Box.' The ship unfortunately foundered after hitting a reef and sank with most or all of the mutineers still in the cage. Hence the negative connotation 'Pandora's Box.' I'm not sure that the name Pandora's Box originated with this event, so if anyone wants to do a Google search and investigate to verify or disprove this matter, I'd like to hear. I always thought Pandora's Box was associated with Greek mythology.

Our noon position was 10 degrees, 48 minutes South; and 141 degrees, 56 minutes East.

At 12:15 PM we had popcorn as a special treat. You have to love micro wave ovens on a boat.

I typed up a log at 12:30 PM and transmitted it via SSB radio at 1:03 PM. I got disconnected 3 times before finally getting a station in Australia to not disconnect me.

At 1:40 PM we had 3 simultaneous hits on our fishing lines - 2 poles and 1 handline. The result was disastrous. Two brand new $33.00 lures were lost, along with one $200.00 reel, pole and the mounting bracket holding the rod/reel to the boat. I meant to tie a rope to each pole, but in a moment of laziness or stupidity, I didn't do it. Its quite normal to get multiple hits on your fishing gear when you pass thru a school of fish. We had changed our fishing line from 40 pound breaking to 100 just the last month. I guess that was a mistake. You want the line to break when a fish is too big to land on the boat.

Today was the first day in 2 months that it was finally hot and sweaty on the boat. After freezing all the way along Australia's east coast, we're finally into warmer water and air. The air was 80 degrees in the cabin.

At about 3:30 PM the ship Lars Maersk, 873 feet, passed by starboard to starboard; followed by the Thorco Atlantic, at 430 feet.

Joel napped from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM and I napped from 4:15 PM to 5:30 PM.

At 5:50 PM Joel saw a whale's head 100 yards starboard just aft of abeam. I was in the cabin and as I came up into the cockpit to look, I saw something large stick its head or hump our of the water, and then I saw a porpoise jump in front of and very close to the whale between us and the whale. Joel saw the head stick out of the water 3 times before disappearing. Good eyes Joel! The water is about 150 feet deep.

Dinner was at 6:00 PM and consisted of blackened and grilled chicken breast; baked potatoes and green peas. During dinner a third ship passed by starboard to starboard.

As we are heading to Darwin we first entered the Gulf of Carpentaria, then the Arafura Sea. This will be the 3rd sea we've been in. The other two were the Caribbean Sea and the Coral Sea.

Jeanine and I had a glass of wine to watch the sunset, while Joel had a cup of Columbian coffee. A nice sunset, but no green flash. Close, but clouds at the last moment got in the way.

After dinner Joel showered and shaved and I took a nap. At 8:00 PM I got up because I couldn't sleep and took a shower myself. We take more showers when it's hot and sweaty.

At 8:30 PM we passed a marker to starboard about 5 miles away (who knew that was there?). A flashing light gave away its location. Its hard sometimes to find these 'aids to navigation' sometimes on your electronic charts because you have to 'drill down' to find them.

I started watch at 8:30 PM and five minutes later saw a 2 second shooting star zoom out of the Milky Way forward and down. You never get tired seeing shooting stars!

At 8:45 PM Joel was trying to order up a weather GRIB file on the computer and SSB radio.

Tonight is the first time in almost a month that I can read at night on watch. Before tonight, we were sailing amongst too many reefs, islands and had ships passing by left and right all night long. Its great to be in the open ocean again. Navigating inside of the Great Barrier Reef was very tiring and required a lot of attention, all the time.

At 9:07 PM the wind was 8 knots and our boat speed 5.9 knots. The wind is light and on the port bow, so we can't sail. We're motoring at 1,600 RPM's with the mainsail up.

The stars disappeared at 10:00 PM as we entered a cloud area.

At 11:02 PM I rolled out the jib and picked up a half knot, increasing our speed from 6.2 to 6.7 knots. Not bad with a wind blowing at 6 knots.

At 11:19 PM I turned the engine off. With a steady wind of 9/10 knots we were making 5.4 knots on a reach or broad reach. A lume over the horizon on the starboard bow indicated a large fishing vessel.

Earlier today we made a mistake in that when we were rounding the York Peninsula we were in telephone range and could have called people on our Australian cell phones. When you're tired or exhausted you make stupid and simple mistakes. This is one of them.

Brian Fox

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