I guess I am ready! Always wanted to do this, to single hand a passage offshore. So now I am going to. The first week of May I will leave Bali in Conversations II and sail her to Langkawi in Malaysia all by myself! Its a small step and a big step at the same time. I know the boat, and she is well equipped for this kind of passage. We have already sailed over 8000 miles together and I know she will be fast and safe. Besides its a trans-equatorial passage, tradewinds, doldrums, monsoons. Pretty gentle almost always.
On the other hand, it is 2300 miles, about 20 days. That's not a short passage. And its a big powerful boat, with just one hand to manager her - I will have to be thoughtful and careful.
With 10 berths on board, I wonder where I'll sleep? Probably in the cockpit. This is related to the first question most people ask "When will you sleep?" I'll sleep whenever I need to if it's safe to do so. I will have a working autopilot and a the Hydrovane wind steering will so the helming I will have radar to keep watch and AIS to pick the broadcast positions and heading of nearby ships, so I will be able to avoid being run down by a large vessel. And I have all the tunes in the world to keep me company.
Stay tuned, I'll be posting here everyday, starting with the last weeks of April when I head down to Bali to start the preparations.
Join Me!
Cresswell
This blog is dedicated to the adventurer in all of us. Join us as we sail, travel, learn, contemplate, work and play. Cress and Irena
Hey Cress,
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear about the next installment! Will you be checking in with YOTREPs?
Have you considered a backup to the autopilot? That is, electrical autopilot redundancy not reliant on wind but capable of stepping up to the plate if Boris gives up the ghost or gets fried again?
Glad to hear of the acquisition of your AIS. What make? The only downside I've heard was too many returning signals from yachts as opposed to ocean-going freighters which can otherwise be lost in the "clutter" of images. This I read about from a guy in San Francisco bay where he couldn't easily spot converging traffic due to "rush hour" in the Bay! Not that most of your voyage will have to endure that kind of overcrowding.
Cheers!
-Paul