Month: August 2016

Zip Code Change (Lifou, New Caledonia)

August 29, 2016

(Actually, I’m not really sure they even have zip codes here, but we moved!) We made the overnight, 100 mile trip to Lifou, one of New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands.  We’re here…

An amazing rainbow as we headed to the Havannah Pass and out of the Grand Terre waters.
An amazing rainbow as we headed to the Havannah Pass and out of the Grand Terre waters.
Wé Marina, Lifou, New Caledonia
Wé Marina, Lifou, New Caledonia
Legacy at Wé Marina, Lifou, New Caleconia.
Legacy at Wé Marina, Lifou, New Caleconia.

And while Cyndi was walking around our new marina, taking these pictures, she spotted humpback whales just offshore. What a treat!

Humpback whales just outside the marina.
Humpback whales just outside the marina.

Nice pictures Cyndi! -Rich

The Rocket Guide, New Caledonia, Explained

August 27, 2016

We’ve used the Rocket Guide now during our three stops in New Caledonia and we love it. We’ve told others about it and usually one of two things happens: either they say, “Oh yea, I have that. I got it from another cruiser” (No they didn’t – it’s not the same as the interactive guide that’s getting passed around) or they aren’t all that impressed with it (because they haven’t found all the information it contains).

Here’s a short video that I hope will help with both those issues…

The rocket guide can be found here.

–Rich

This, I Believe

August 25, 2016

speed-discomfort-and-energy

I was thinking about our most recent passage – we put up our double reefed main when we left New Zealand and didn’t touch it until we took it down when we arrived in New Caledonia. All in all, it was a very comfortable passage.

We haven’t used our full mainsail in quite some time. Legacy is easily driven. If the wind is light, the extra sail just flops around and doesn’t really help anything (maybe that wouldn’t be the case in flat water, but flat water is just an urban legend!).

More importantly to us, it seems that as you apply energy to the boat (wind on sails), after a point somewhere around hull speed, the boat speed increases very little but the discomfort shoots way up. I’m pretty sure that all the extra energy that isn’t used for speed is converted directly to misery and suffering. -Rich

Compass Calibration

August 24, 2016 in New Caledonia

Doing circles to calibrate our flux gate electronic compass.
Doing circles to calibrate our fluxgate electronic compass.

If you ever see us out on the water, doing donuts, there are at least two possible reasons:

1. We started our sundowner at sunrise, or
2. We’re calibrating our compass. This was the case today.

Why?

OK, good question. I think it’s necessary because of the change in magnetic deviation as you change latitudes. There’s quite a difference between New Zealand (about 20° declination) and New Caledonia (about 12.5° declination).

Animated GIF showing radar overlaid on the chart, before and after calibration.
Animated GIF showing radar overlaid on the chart, before and after calibration.

Yea, but what difference does that make?

For us, the most obvious difference is in how the radar images align with the chart. Notice on the before and after animation how much the alignment changes.

I used to think this was just some kind of drifting alignment issue with the chartplotter or radar. I’d change the settings in the radar setup to adjust for this. The nice folks at Navico explained that it was probably due to magnetic variation as we traveled north and south each season.

Now, after each leap up or down the globe, we do a donut to calibrate the electronic fluxgate compass.