A falling star

As I stopped counting the days, I was told that the Maggie B sailed out of Lunenburg harbor a year ago today. I haven't written into my blog in months as I preferred to think instead. Seeking the permanent in the eternally changing environment, inner growth and the aspiration for a better understanding of the world describes this last year for me. So many things have changed on the surface, we've visited so many lands and crossed paths with beautiful people everywhere but even with this constant change, all had remained the same. The only change seems to be growth.

Yesterday we had the last show of Dream Macons, this wonderful and creative play that Hannah and I played in at the Salamanca Art Center in Hobart. Something special happened during the last minutes of the play. I believe to be the only one having seen it but it does not seem to be a coincidence, neither the fruit of my imagination. I was waiting for my last queue to come out onto the balcony, my face painted white, I stood in a darkened corner of a room on the third floor of the building looking out into the vast sky above the trees blown in the wind, concentrating on a star. In those moments I find it so hard to separate myself from everything around me as I feel that I am melting in. Acting in a play requires coming back to my personality in this life and being in my character as an actor. As I was gathering my forces to act and come back to this reality, a star fell out of the sky, at the exact place I was looking at.

I think I caught it and it is still with me, hidden in my pocket. I don't know what I will do with it yet but I feel its presence. Soon after I lost my watch. Something has started over a year ago and there is no way of going back. I don't know if this will be my last entry into this blog or not. I am planning to sail to New Zealand with the Maggie B and then return home and keep on moving forward, wherever I need to go. Maybe, with a later perspective, I will be able to tell you about these experiences. This year has been amazing and intense, I'll try to write a book about it but I need to be away from the boat. The feelings need to be turned into understanding.

Location: Schooner Maggie B in Hobart
Friday, 03.23.2007

The Schooner Maggie B continues very happily tied up at Elizabeth Street Pier in Hobart as of March 23rd. Tonight is the opening for Dream Masons, the opening show for the Ten Days on the Island Festival. We are proud that Hannah and Bori have significant parts, as theatrical unrollers of the series of banners that frame each scene. Owen and Frank have also been working hard as riggers, helping finish last minute details.

We haven't done too much boat work as our attention is on Dream Masons. Nevertheless, we have replaced two bilge pumps, drained and refilled the hydraulic steering system, ordered new cockpit cushions, ordered new paper charts for the South Pacific, got electronic charts for the same region, replaced some broken electronic systems, etc. One of the big surprises is that our main Danforth steering compass is broken. It had occasionally been sticking on one heading, not great. Some other yachties had said that it was because it was a Northern Latitudes compass and was trying to point upside down here (an error called "dip"), but local adjustors say some piece inside is plumb broken. Fortunately it has a three year warrantee, so perhaps it will be replaced for free.

We are all marvelously happy to be in such a neat town as Hobart. A gem. Some observations: less obesity than in Fremantle -- lots of bush walkers; very boatie/yachtie, a high proportion of people know what they are doing on the water and appreciate wooden boats; in respects to Fremantle, more people have kids and fewer have dogs; warm days, cool nights equals perfect weather; very artsy, hippie, down-to-earth, organic; a great outdoors cafe society where in a block you can both get a perfect Guinness and a perfect macciato, with excellent fresh (organic) food everywhere. Other towns we ended up quickly with favorite restaurants and pubs, here we still have a dozen of each and new ones continue to be discovered.

The Salamanca Saturday market just must be experienced. Yes, there are some silly wooden toys and strange t-shirts, but mostly it is marvelous people who tend sheep, card, spin and knit during the week and sell lovely hats and sweaters each Saturday. This is a lovely time as there are many growers here with their best apples, raspberries or flowers. There are bands and buskers on every corner. We all are quite taken with it.

Our general plans are to work Dream Masons through next Tuesday, then focus on the boat through the end of next week. Then probably a motor tour of inland and a sail back around to the SW coast, then a bit more fun in town, then off to New Zealand sometime towards the middle of April.

All is well.

Schooner Maggie B in Hobart, Tasmania

The Schooner Maggie B is safely docked in Hobart, Tasmania, at Elizabeth Street Pier at 42° 53 S, 147° 20 E. The city looks marvelous and is sure to be our favorite spot (so far). More to come.

All is well.

Location: 43° 26S, 144° 48E
Thursday 12:00, 03.15.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 43° 26S, 144° 48E at noon on March 15. Our wind is petering out and it is overcast and raining lightly. We have come 1739 NM from Fremantle and have 127 to go to Hobart. The computer now says we will arrive at about noon tomorrow (Hobart summer time, which is +11 from UTC). I guess that it has to rain a lot here to make the rain forest....

We will pass Whale Head, which is the Southeast Cape of Tasmania at about dawn tomorrow. Being daylight, we have the confidence to "go inside" on our way to Hobart, taking the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, which runs between Tasmania and the Bruny Islands. It is about 40 miles long and less than a mile wide in some places. One cove is described as "the prettiest anchorage in the Southern Hemisphere." We have seen some fairly pretty ones recently, so it will be interesting to compare.

This Southeast part of Tasmania is the apple and berry growing part of the country. They supposedly grow almost 400 different kinds of apples. As it is just coming into fall here, perhaps we could get jobs as pickers?

Commanders Weather just sent a quick note to say that things should be quiet for the next 24-36 hours. They say that they had to route Ellen MacArthur south to 54-55 South to get clear of a high in the Great Australian Bight. Glad we're not down there!

Regular readers will note how often we have been able to arrive in a new town for Friday Night. Planning, planning, planning.

All is well.

Location: 43° 04S, 140° 42E
Wednesday 12:00, 03.14.2007

The Schooner Maggie B's noon position on March 14th was 43° 04S, 140° 42E. We are motorsailing at 7.1 knots, headed due East for the southern tip of Tasmania. The wind is just beginning to fill in from the North as the high continues its way East. It is a surprise for all of us to be essentially becalmed in the Roaring Forties -- not that we want another gale, just it is unexpected.

We have come 1558 NM from Fremantle, have about 246 to go to the SW corner and 326 to go to Hobart.

We should see Tasmania about dusk tomorrow. Our thoughts are to continue to Hobart, arriving perhaps before noon on the 16th. That will give us time, perhaps, to help our friend with the final preparations for the Festival. We hope that once we have spent some time in Hobart, we will learn all to best spots to visit by land and sea, and then we'll take the opportunity to visit some of the wild areas.

We have regular albatross on patrol around us. We are pretty sure that one is young Black-browed and another (photo already up on the web) is a Yellow Nosed albatross. Our bird guide tells us to differentiate between the Northern and Southern Black-browed by the color of the eye's iris. Good luck!

All is well.

Location: 42° 10S, 136° 58E
Tuesday 12:00, 03.13.2007

The Schooner Maggie B' noon position on March 13th was 42° 10S, 136° 58E. We are motoring towards Tasmania in essentially no wind as the latest high is right over us. We should have some wind from the North tomorrow as the high moves East past us. It is overcast but with good visibility, there is a long swell from the SW but no waves or chop.

We have come 1384 NM from Fremantle and have 414 to go to the SW corner of Tasmania.

One of our most interesting recent failures is with our Danforth steering compass. It locks up from time to time and is no longer dependable. It appears as if the part below the card has come loose in some fashion. This comes as quite a surprise as one would think that it would be just about the last thing on the boat to fail. We'll just have to drink the alcohol in it and rely on the GPS.

Today was rather boring. If you are sailing, you are always working to optimize all the elements, to take advantage of the free energy resource. Motoring, you put the autopilot on and rumble along.

We celebrated the quiet day by first cleaning the boat and then having a movie party. After lunch (ginger and garlic shrimp with rice and salad with basil vinaigrette dressing), we set out a plate of apples, cheeses and chocolate, strapped the computer to the bulkhead, and watched My Fair Lady (Harrison and Helburn version, natch). The nice additional touch was that we were able to connect the computer to the Bose sound system, so it was almost SurroundSound. Yo Ho for the Life of the Sailor!

All is well.

Location: 41° 21S, 133° 27E
Monday 12:00, 03.12.2007

At noon today, the Schooner Maggie B was at 41° 21S, 133° 27E. We are motoring with only the main up to help a little. The wind is 110 degrees magnetic at 7-8 knots and there is a fair sea running, so no chance of sailing, even if the wind wasn't right in our face on our course to Tasmania.

We have come 1221 NM since Fremantle and have 579 to go to the SW corner of Tasmania.

We have tentatively decided to call the Yanmar engine Nane, after the great sea dog we met in Mauritius. Of course, we will seek Didier and Celine's permission. Nane is good in water, hardworking, loyal and only needs a bit of care and feeding. Just like a good engine? The inspiration came to Owen when he was in the engine compartment after we pumped out all the water from the storm, and when I started up the engine, it shook the water off like a wet dog (Owen was standing too close).

We have a primitive seabird identification book, but we have ID'ed an adult Yellow Nosed Albatross (photo up on the website) and a Grey Headed Albatross (photo as soon as it stays in one place for a moment...).

We seem to have finally gotten all the water out of our fuel tanks. It must have forced its way into the tanks during the storm, possibly through the on deck vents. Our latest addition to our boat work in Hobart is that our outhaul pulley is delaminating from the inside of the boom end. We have rigged a strop to decrease the chance of a major failure.

We haven't decided just what to do when we arrive at the SW corner of Tasmania (in about three days). Whether to explore the wild area of Davie Straight or to continue the 100 NM to Hobart and find a good spot on the wharf. We'll take a vote, depending on wind, weather, and attitude, and then after the vote, The Captain will decide....

Lunch was Australian steaks with baked potatoes, steamed cauliflower and peas, with a nice lettuce and tomato salad and King Island cheddar cheese. South African Shiraz washed it down perfectly. Yum!

All is well.

Location: 40° 15S, 130° 35E
Sunday 12:00, 03.11.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 40° 15S, 130° 35E at noon on March 11th. We are out of the bad weather, shaking ourselves off like wet dogs, headed directly for Tasmania at eight knots under all plain sail. The wind is from the SSW at 12-15 knots. We have come 1068 NM from Fremantle and have 716 to go to the SW corner of Tasmania.

The skies have mostly cleared and we have carpets, towels, boots, socks all hung out to dry. We are running the Yanmar to keep it healthy, but also to circulate some heat in the cabin and heat hot water for showers (ladies first!). We had lunch on deck for the first time in a while. Hannah made hamburgers with a mushroom, onion, olive and corn hot chutney dressing. We had fresh steamed celery and cauliflower. Hannah found 100 tiny green worms in the cauliflower when preparing the dish and threw them all overboard. It is awful seeing them wiggling their way after us, squeaking for help, chased by every bird and fish in the ocean.

As regular readers and family will know, chocolate is a regular issue on board. One of Fremantle's many charms is the Chocolate Factory, which is only two blocks from the Fremantle Sailing Club. We definitely stocked up there. We also have gotten lots of lovely chocolate bars stuffed in packages. Today, at lunch, we laid out all our chocolate, just for taste quality control and to inventory. We had: Mango Crush, Dark Chocolate with Rosemary, Macadamian Nut Dark Chocolate medallions, Hazelnut medallions, Chili Chocolate, Raspberries in Dark Chocolate, Ginger crystalized in Dark Chocolate, 55% Dark Chocolate, Lavender Dark Chocolate, Cadbury Thins milk chocolate, Mint Organic Chocolate, Lavender Organic chocolate, Dark Chocolate Ginger, and Dark Chocolate coated plums. So much chocolate, so little time....

We are slowing down a bit, only 197 NM yesterday. There is a new high filling in behind us which will position fairly far south, so we may have light, unfavorable, or no wind tomorrow. We are heading south of the rhumb line to minimize our adverse winds.

All is well.

Location: 39° 06 S, 126° 39 E
Saturday 12:00, 03.10.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 39° 06 S, 126° 39 E at noon on March 10. We are getting thrashed a bit with a proper SW'erly Southern Ocean gale. A bit more than predicted. At noon the wind was at 220 degrees at 30 knots. This is good as there was sustained 40 knots during the night. The barometer is now up to 1008, from a low of 999 last night. The seas have made up quite a bit and are generally about 20 feet, with occasional higher. These Southern Ocean waves seem to have more tricks that theirmore northern colleagues. We are getting water into the boat and into our foul weather gear in all sorts of new places.

We are making 9.3 knots direct for Tasmania. We did 229 NM in the last 24 hours, sailing under jib and double reefed main.We have come 871 NM from Fremantle and have 908 to go to Tasmania.

We have the usual sort of heavy weather boat issues. Every drop of water or gunk in the fuel tanks has headed straight for the Yanmar and Onan Genset. But all has been heroically filtered out by our twin RCI vortex fuel purifiers. These little gems work perfectly, clearing out water and debris without the use of filters, so that when its insistent alarm goes off, all you have to do is drain it and get going again. No need for new filters! We had to drain it seven or eight times since midnight, as well as draining the low point in each fuel tank. We seem to be OK now, with the Yanmar purring along, charging the batteries, heating hot water for showers and circulating warm water through heat registers in the cabin to dry things out.

We got a little water (salt) of unknown origin in the mid section and a fair amount in the engine compartment. Both our mid and engine room bilge pumps are inoperative due to unknown causes. We manually pumped out the mid section and ran our BIG pump (100 gal/minute) to clear out the engine room. We also have another portable bilge pump that can be used anywhere.

Today we had another first! The Sat Phone rang -- our first incoming call ever! I was listening for the RCI filter alarm and heard a different noise. What now? The Iridium Sat Phone was beeping and had "incoming call" on the screen. I picked it up and there was my son, Alden, in Chicago. While thrilled to hear from him, I was perhaps a bit short: "What's up? We're getting a bit thrashed here." He and I had just been emailing about sat phones and I thought he was testing the link. Alden says, "I know you're getting thrashed, I just had a call from the Australian Coast Guard!" Captain/Dad: "????????" (Speechless). Alden: "Your Emergency Locator went off for a second and only gave your ID, but no location, they looked you up and called the house." Captain/Dad "??????" (Speechless). Alden: "What's your position and are you OK, I have to call them back." Captain/Dad says we are OK and gives Lat/Long and asks that the Australians call to check in.

We have our very high tech EPIRB locator in with our life raft and other rescue gear. The EPIRB gives out our unique identifier and can, within 30 seconds, give our position from GPS within 100 feet. If activated. The unit I have is sealed, very watertight and NOT automatically activated when in the water. You have to lift a cover and throw a switch. Then everyone on the planet knows you are in trouble. Somehow a lot of water got in the compartment and jostled the EPIRB just enough that it let out a tiny message, and just that was enough to alert the world. Reassuring, somewhat. The Coast Guard guy who called just after Alden hung up was very understanding.

We had been thinking of exploring the wild SW coast of Tasmania before we go the last 80-100 miles to Hobart. Right now we are rather more eager to meet in a cozy pub in Hobart. Actually, we are up for meeting in a cozy pub anywhere.

But the Maggie B is handling all this with total class. The sails are perfect, the hull is sound, the motion is generally easy, Jorge is doing an excellent job of steering and...

All is well.

Location: 38° 05 S, 122° 00 E
Friday 12:00, 03.09.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 38° 05 S, 122° 00 Eat noon on March 9th. We are headed straight for Davie Sound in SW Tasmania, 110 degrees magnetic at 1136 NM. We have come 642 NM since Fremantle. We are doing 8.5 knots with the wind at 180 at 25 knots. The seas are lumpy, with fair wave chop and swells from both NE and SE. The sky is overcast with promise of more light showers. The barometer is continuing to drop and is at 1002 (999 as I write this at 1700). We have the jib up full, the fore down and furled and the main with two reefs. The boat is comfortable and dry (at least below decks!).

Quote of the day: Future: One of the crew with his/her granddaughter: "Grandfather (grandmother) - how windy was it when you first crossed the Southern Ocean to come to Tasmania?" Answer: " Aaaarggg, Maggie, it was so windy that there were whitecaps in me cocoa!" We are learning Aussie Talk. Some of it rather resembles English, though we do not want to be associated with any Pommie B*****ds. My favorite is "Good Onya" which is "good for you," or "well done!" The everyday greeting is: "How ya gong," as in "How are you going." A basic cup of coffee with milk is a "flat white." "Bugs" on the menu of a top restaurant should not startle too much as they are medium-sized crayfish. So much to learn!

I realize that some of these reports have made it sound as if the systems on the Maggie B are a basket case. Certainly we have had some things to fix. But I wanted to take the time to highlight the systems that have worked great for the last year and 17,500 miles. The first that comes to mind is the Onan diesel Genset. Yes, it did eat one impeller a bit early, but it spat back all the pieces and the change was easy and it shut itself down as soon as it noticed the problem. It has worked 642 hours for us so far with essentially no maintenance other than changing oil. Another is the Spectra Watermaker. It has produced 1800 gallons of fresh water for us with barely a hiccup (one new salinity probe). Bravo! More tomorrow.

We are driving for Tasmania with a careful eye on this one low ahead of us. It is supposed to exit SE fairly fast, so we should have an easy time after it. Perhaps six days to Davie Sound. It should be marvelously wild.

All is well.