By David.Tyler - 1 Dec 2012
Tystie has been in Hilo, Hawai 'i, for just over a week now - see http://my.yb.tl/tystie34/
Moving on up the chain of islands soon.
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By David.Tyler - 4 Jun 2013
After a 22 day passage from Nawiliwili, Kaua 'i, Hawai 'i, Tystie is now in Kodiak, Alaska.
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By simoncurrin - 4 Jun 2013
[quote="David Tyler" post=977]After a 22 day passage from Nawiliwili, Kaua 'i, Hawai 'i, Tystie is now in Kodiak, Alaska.[/quote]
Well done David. Just how strong did those winds get a week ago?
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By David.Tyler - 4 Jun 2013
[quote="simoncurrin" post=978][quote="David Tyler" post=977]After a 22 day passage from Nawiliwili, Kaua 'i, Hawai 'i, Tystie is now in Kodiak, Alaska.[/quote]
Well done David. Just how strong did those winds get a week ago?[/quote]
Actually, only to gale force, 35knots or so. The thing was, I 'd broken a batten, probably in a gybe, and although with junk rig you can just tie a broken batten to the one above or below it, thus taking a sail panel out of play, I felt vulnerable with a slightly damaged rig to winds above gale force, and wanted to make sure I knew what was coming and what my options were. It felt like it was brewing up for something more than a gale, but in the event, that didn 't happen, so all was well.
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By linandy - 1 Jul 2013
Hi David
I 've just seen the photo of you and Fran in the 2013/1 Flying Fish. We are currently in Horta, considering our options for the rest of 2013 and 2014, and it looks as though we may be following you to Alaska!
Love and hugs
Linda and Andy XXX
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By David.Tyler - 3 Jul 2013
Hi Linda and Andy,
Well, you might find a small problem there - America is in the way! I guess you 'll be coming through the Canal again.
I 'm now in Seldovia, and will be cruising along via the fiords of Kenai to Seward for the next few weeks. Then Prince William Sound, and then I 'll have to get across to SE Alaska and into Canada before the autumn weather gets too bad.
I 'm intending to over-winter somewhere in BC, but no firm plans yet.
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By David.Tyler - 27 Aug 2013
So here I am in Pelican, a very isolated little community on the Lisianski Inlet, where everything has to come in by float plane, and the cannery has closed down, so they are now relying on bringing in sport-fishermen for the salmon and halibut. So they 're struggling a bit to hold things together, and yet I feel that this is the way it has always been in Alaska - struggling against the odds to stay here, because you want to live here, because despite the difficulties, there are commensurate rewards.
And yet I can talk to anyone from here, via the internet, which I couldn 't have done a few years ago. Will this be the means of saving such isolated communities, by decreasing the sense of isolation? I hope so.
And by the way, I chose to stay clear of the "infamous" (it says in the pilot book) Rosie 's Bar - it was so full of tobacco smoke that I wouldn 't have enjoyed the beer I 'd been looking forward to.
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By simoncurrin - 27 Aug 2013
David, We have enjoyed watching your wanderings around Alaska on Yellow Brick. You must have had a great summer.
Simon
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By David.Tyler - 4 Sep 2013
No complaints - but apparently this was an exceptional summer. I was very lucky to get four dry weeks together. No complaints except lack of wind, that is.
I 've just had two warm sunny days together, but I think I 'm going to get rain and fog tomorrow. There 's a definite feeling that summer is waning fast.
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By David.Tyler - 4 Sep 2013
A highlight of the section between Prince William Sound and Cross Sound was being able to get into Lituya Bay, where La Perouse lost two boats full of men and erected a cenotaph on the central island - no longer there. There are standing waves on the ebb, and the narrow entrance must be taken at slack water. This is the site of the world 's largest wave, 1720 ft., when in 1958 an earthquake caused a whole mountainside to slide into the bay. Awesome. Have a look at Http://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtm. And there is still a lot of change in the bay. My up to date chart and pilot say that the two inlets at the head of the bay are shoaling. Understatement. They are completely blocked off by terminal moraines, with the glaciers close up behind them, acting as giant earth-moving machines. This is nature in the raw.
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By linandy - 5 Sep 2013
Hi David
Lovely to hear of your exploits, which make ours sound so pedestrian! After a 2000 mile bash from Sint Maarten, we spent three months in the Azores and have now moved on to Graciosa in the Islas Canarias. Plans are flexible, but the tropics beckon.
Love
Linda and Andy XXX :)
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By David.Tyler - 13 Nov 2013
I 've been at Ben Gartside Marine Engineers in Sidney BC for five days, whilst the Beta diesel was taken out for a very much needed overhaul and refit, after 13 years, 80,000 miles, 3700 engine hours.
My part in the exercise was limited to supplying the unskilled labour (eg, cleaning 13 years worth of carbon, grime and sludge out of the engine bay, after the engine had been lifted - what fun!); I 've no knowledge of the kind of mechanic-ry that 's needed to:
Get a totally corroded exhaust elbow off the manifold and replace it - the old one crumbled in my hands as I took the hose off! A disaster waiting to happen.
Fit a new 2.6:1 gearbox that will be a better match to my Kiwiprop. (having taken off the bellhousing, the drive plate splines were found to be very worn, so that was another disaster waiting to happen).
Fit a 70A alternator with a poly-V drive belt, which will last a lot longer than the plain V-belt I 've had up to now.
Fit a new salt-water pump.
Find corrosion in the sump pan and heat exchanger, and repair or replace.
And so on, and so on. The dollars are flowing like water, but with it all done, the engine should see me out. Or at least, last the rest of my cruising days.
The work took longer than estimated, as the engine jobs expanded and multiplied, but now the little crittur is in much better condition. New flexible mounts, exhaust elbow, gearbox, air filter and much else. They didn 't have the bigger alternator I wanted, so that will have to wait. Then I went onto the sandy beach at Sidney Spit to increase the pitch on the Kiwi prop to match the change in gear ratio from 2:1 to 2:6:1. The tides are awkward at this time of year, so I had to do it in the dark.
Yesterday I sailed and motored (there was a strong wind warning on the wx radio, so of course the wind was light and fitful, but still, a warmish day) down to Victoria, and now I 'm moored right outside the Empress Hotel. I intend to stay for two or three weeks, as my US cruising permit expires on the 21st, and I 'll need to leave a decent interval before going over to Friday Harbor and asking for a new one. I have Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island in mind as the place to stop until the end of March at least. I 've met several cruisers who have given it a good report - a small town, a reasonably priced marina, and some trails to walk. I hope there will be somewhere where I can give my junk sail a 10,000 mile service, as well.
My Yellowbrick tracker is misbehaving again. It 's completely dead. If I can 't bring it back to life, I 'll give up on it; it causes me more grief than it 's worth. I can put no more positions on the map for the time being.
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By David.Tyler - 29 May 2015
After a year around the Vancouver Island area, it 's time to head in a generally southwesterly direction again. Tystie is in Tofino, storing up ready to head out in a day or two. Looks like I 'll be treading a fine line between the tropical storms beginning to form in the Mexico area, to port, and the N Pacific High, to starboard. Keep an eye on http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Tystie and https://twitter.com/tystie to see how I get on.
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By linandy - 9 Jun 2015
All the best, David. We arrived in Flores yesterday after taking 22 days on passage from St Martin - no wind, then too much. Hey ho!
Linda and Andy, SV Coromandel
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By David.Tyler - 18 Jun 2015
I got into Hilo yesterday afternoon, and anchored at 1540. Unfortunately, there is only one CBP officer on duty this summer (Officer Foss, a very jovial chap and a pleasure to do business with), and I had to wait until this morning for clearance. Had to shift anchorage to Reeds Bay as well, as I didn 't get away with anchoring off the black sand beach nearer town, where all the outrigger canoe clubs are.
The statistics: 2397 miles in 18.25 days, 130 miles a day on average. This must be one of the easier faster passages I 've made, but certainly not the fastest, in terms of big daily runs. I must be getting old, as I was holding the speed down to 6 knots instead of 6 1/2. I made one tack, after I 'd got an offing from Tofino, and then got a gradually freeing wind, from SW, through NW to NE, where I made one gybe, about halfway through. Apart from that, I had nothing to do but take a reef or two and shake them out, as the wind varied between 8 - 18 knots or so. Having PredictWind to help with GRIB files allowed me to skirt the Pacific High closer than I would have risked otherwise. The high aspect ratio junk rig was very easy to handle, but the passage wasn 't really much of a test of it, anything would have done.
So to pass the time, having not much else to do, I read War and Peace, and two other big novels.
Right now, I 'm tucking into a big burrito for my first lunch ashore, and a local IPA, "Big Swell" - recommended.
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By simoncurrin - 19 Jun 2015
Sounds like a great passage.
Simon
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By David.Tyler - 24 Jun 2015
I 'll be leaving Hilo tomorrow morning, bound for points south. A very good friend of mine will be sixty years young on August 5th, and so there 's a big "carrot" to draw me towards North Island, NZ by that date. The "stick" is that it 's really too hot for me here, with the sun right overhead at the solstice.
Keep watching http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Tystie
and https://twitter.com/tystie
to see whether I 'm going to make it in time, or whether I decide to stop somewhere nice, such as Suwarrow, on the way.
As the SE Trades are rather feeble right now,the smart move seems to be to head due S from Hawai 'i, passing close to Tabuaeran and Kiritimati, so that I should get the SE Trades on the beam after I 've passed through the ITCZ.
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By David.Tyler - 24 Jul 2015
... so there I was, making good progress south, after a a slow and unpleasant passage through the ITCZ, when the wind came to the SE at up to 30 knots, and I was inside the washing machine, with confused big seas. I decided to break the passage at Apia. At least the rig is holding up to being shaken around a lot. The skipper, however, is in need of a rest.
A lot has changed since I was here in 2009. The marina has gone; I think it was carried away by the tsunami soon after I was here. The old and famous hotel, Aggie Grey 's, has gone, carried away by a cyclone and flood, and great big concrete monstrosity is being built in its place. The cops are wearing regular trousers and boots, not lava-lavas and flipflops. There seems to have been a big influx of money - the taxis and buses all seem quite new, and downtown Apia is looking quite prosperous. It seems I just missed the rugby World Cup or something, which is a shame.
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By linandy - 25 Jul 2015
Well done, David. Have a good rest before pushing on - whrer 's the next stop? Niuetoputapu? Neiafau? We 're in Velas in Sao Jorge, pushing on to Terceira tomorrow, we think.
Kind regards
Linda and Andy, SV Coromandel
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By David.Tyler - 26 Jul 2015
[quote="linandy" post=2253]Well done, David. Have a good rest before pushing on - whrer 's the next stop? Niuetoputapu? Neiafau? We 're in Velas in Sao Jorge, pushing on to Terceira tomorrow, we think.
Kind regards
Linda and Andy, SV Coromandel
[/quote]Sounds like you 're heading for Europe, as I seem to remember that Terceira is the easternmost island. Bon voyage, if you are.
I 'm trying to make NZ as quickly as possible, so I 'll miss out Tonga this time. I 'd have stopped at Niuatoputapu instead of Apia, if the weather hadn 't turned against me, as all I really needed was a little fruit and veg. I 'm thinking of leaving on Wednesday, as the trades get to be a bit more easterly (but there are lies, there are damn lies, and then there are weather forecasts, so I 'll have to take my chances.
David.
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By David.Tyler - 17 Aug 2015
Tystie is now in Whangarei, after a fifteen day passage from Apia. There was a mixed bag of weather, everything from an occasional warm, sunny, calm day to northerly gales and strong SW 'lies.
Overall, we made the 6886 miles over the ground from Canada in 57 days of sailing, an average of 120.8 miles a day, or 5 knots.
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