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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