Ocean sailing from Sri Lanka, heading for Chagos, was not the easy down wind sailing we have become used to...AIS, localized weather, new way to siphon fuel,...

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out there a few miles away the last

we're gonna be ever seeing of Sri Lanka

we're heading out to see over there we

got a ship coming at us Courtney's the

AIS he'll just cross our bow the wind

finally has picked up so we're hard on

the wind martyr sailing will cut that

engine way down see what kind of speed

we can do without the engine now that's

the wind is picking up even more even

though we have lots of diesel if we want

to still conserve it let's go check up

on that ship

yep sailboats have the right away but

that's only in the books not reality

this is on the Vesper

hey is let's see a menu

plotting range

okay let's go down to three miles

okay here he is the inner ring is it a

mile and a half the outer ring is three

miles seize it about four and a half

miles and we can see him here on the

Raymarine chart flatter if we go this

speed looks like he'll pass just right

in front of us

or as he approaches I'm able to make

some slight portside turns towards his

Stern I don't want to turn towards and

bow of course this will give us a safe

passage she passes in front of us with

no worries and we just follow around on

this turn of course it's easier during

the day at night you have to watch these

lights and it's always a little more

exciting because of the lack of depth

perception just how far our way is he

it's hard to tell

close or far I've had ships that I

thought were quite far away and all of a

sudden Holy Family they're right on our

bow and I have to turn hard it's always

good to check your radar for distances I

have the white angle on this lens so it

actually makes him look further away

than what he really is

we're good just another 10 degrees back

to port and we'll be back on course

again silly me I didn't take a picture

of the AIS menu for that ship that just

passed so close by it would have been of

interest so but what I did was we I

waited until we're out at sea and I took

a picture of this AIS menu for energy

sunrise and the four items at the top of

the menu bearing range closest point of

approach time to closest point of the

approach or certainly to me the most

important just below that are four more

items in of those I would say are ot

rate of turn the most important as long

as energy sunrise maintains his course

in speed and we do the same we won't

have a problem but if I CRO t change

that means he's turning and I'll have to

keep a closer eye on him we have seen

ships at night coming straight at us and

the RO T does not change so that means

we have to start thinking very seriously

what we need to do to get out in his way

you'll see on the rest of the menu it's

just general information about this

cargo ship how long he is his draft and

beam and that sort of thing but Vesper

Marine is rather extensive than their

menu items and they include the class of

a is that the ship is using and all

these large freighters they use Class A

as shown here in the menu in Class A is

more powerful than the class and B as in

Bravo

Class A has a much better range of

transmission generally anywhere from

twenty to thirty miles and I would say

25 miles as average but although I have

seen Class AAA is signals come from over

a hundred miles away that's because of

an atmospheric phenomenon called

tunneling which allows the VHF signal to

bend around the Earth's surface

normally VHF signals are straight line

of sight signals also class a AIS will

update the information much more

frequently than what will be done with

the Class B a is although Class A is far

more expensive than the Class B we'll

take a look here the Class B a is screen

ok this is a Class B screen for a man to

Ronni

and you can see that the four items on

the top bearing range closest point of

approach time to closest point of

approach are all the same as for the

Class A and then you start getting a

little more sparse on the information as

you go down and when it gets down to the

information about the vessel itself

there isn't much but I can tell you

right now that 62-foot pleasure craft is

completely wrong I saw this vessel with

my eyes and it's a fishing boat and this

is what happens with a lot of class

being a is in foreign countries these

guys are poor it's they're fortunate

enough just to be able to buy a Class B

a is to put on their fishing boats and

they don't really know how to program

them or there's really no regulation or

if there is regulation it isn't enforced

how they install it on their boats so a

lot of the information is wrong but the

idea is that at least they have a is

they're transmitting their position they

let people know where they are and

they're picking up hopefully our

transmission so Class B is for smaller

boats like sailboats that are crossing

oceans fishing boats

and people it makes it more affordable

although the range isn't nearly as great

as the Class A and the range aren't

Class B is anywhere from 12 to 15 miles

or generally but it's such a great

safety item this is something that every

cruising boat crossing oceans or even

coastal sailing should have we were

about 350 miles out of trincomalee and

150 miles south of the south coast of

Sri Lanka and that leaves another 700

miles that way to try guns we got when

it's supposed to be flat calm out here

and it was until just last night and so

now we're sailing south we'll take

anything we can get at this point you're

doing about four and a half knots but

that's saving on diesel fuel

tonight it's supposed to pick up a

little bit

died off again but one thing that I want

to show you right now is this localized

weather there's a rain shower over there

vertical development so you know where

you might be able to see our friends on

there's Catherine it's just a white

speck of a sail on the horizon right in

the middle of that dark spot that comes

down from the clouds

and they're probably getting better win

then we get here but I would imagine

maybe 2025 knots at the most they're

getting over there if they're right and

there's a ship out there that I've been

tracking on a is but talk about

localized weather take a look at this

towering cube from yesterday morning

when I woke up powering cue even though

Nimbus and you can see on the bottom

right parallel with the water horizon it

was that that long line of dark clouds

that's where I don't want to be and

fortunately you can see the anvil shape

on the very top of those clouds and

that's blowing off the left so these

storms always blow with the direction of

that anvil on the top so that will be

moving off to the left I don't think we

have too much to worry about but I don't

take anything for granted

I'll keep an eye on it if we ever do get

hit with something like that I want most

of my sails down I'll leave a jib up and

sail downwind and go with and hopefully

in the direction that we want to go

otherwise I'll just put up just the

little storm sail and write it out if

it's holding us up so we're going in the

direction that we want to go

sometimes these storms can be useful

hopefully that storm over there will

come her away and blow us that way where

we want to go not salad

okay just took out the old fuel line

with a bulb on it it just kept losing

its Prime in stop flowing so it has a

leak and air leak somewhere around that

bulb so I'm going to try something new

that I saw on YouTube the other day and

this is what I really like about YouTube

they've come up with a lot of good ideas

I took a hose and I put just a fitting

on the end of it just to weight it down

keep it down to the bottom of the

container and so it won't curl back up

we'll take this plastic bag and another

hose we'll try to make a seal and blow

air into the tank and get the siphon

started that way I've sucked enough

diesel into my stomach over my lifetime

it's not pleasant when you could drink

diesel you're always belching up little

diesel fumes for a good at least a day

and a half afterwards nasty tasting

stuff plus all the other health

complications diarrhea diesel breath

okay get a good good breath here

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okay the problem here is that there's

only this much diesel so I've got to

blow a lot of air in here to get the

diesel out if we had a fuller tank I'm

sure it'd be easier we'll see if it's

flowing look that it is flowing oh how

nice how easy beautiful

I kept blowing and blowing as I ran out

of air I put my tongue over the end get

another breath of air we ran over until

filled up the tank with air and got

things flowing I think this will be my

new siphon system

thank you that's okay we have lots I

catch lots of fish

good luck started the Asian because we

never know what these guys are going to

do I mean you know ninety nine out of a

hundred times they're really nice people

they're just earning a living they're

poor and what a tough life living in

these foreign countries just the other

day I was talking to a tuk-tuk driver

and he's telling me how fortunate I was

to have been born and live in America

and I told him I know it and if I lived

in Sri Lanka I wouldn't know what in the

world I would do to make a living it's

so difficult and he said oh you crazy

you need to pray to God every day that

you lived in America so well you know I

don't take anything for granted after

seeing how people live in so many other

countries around the world making ten

twelve fifteen dollars in a day and

that's their lifestyle that's the local

economy

very difficult what we spend on dinner

at one luxury resort for a buffet a lot

of these people don't make that money in

a day

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