Send us an email at peter.forsythe@itracvms.com (no attachments). We'd appreciate hearing from you, as we make our way back to Hong Kong on the delivery of Xena from the China Sea Race.
We're on our way back to Hong Kong on Xena, at 18 43 North and 117 00 East. That's pretty much smack bang in the middle of the South China Sea, just a little past half-way from Subic to Hong Kong.
Five other boats are going back at the same time and we're maintaining a radio sked at 19:03 each day. For the record, they are: Ambush, Darling, Diamond Queen, Kam Loong, Talking Head and Ambush coordinating the skeds.
We've been motoring for most of the way: no winds, glassy seas, hot sun. Doing 7 knots. And taking turns steering, because the autopilot's on the blink yet again -- we've been in email touch with the Raymarine guys in Hong Kong by email, but all the things they said to test came out ok, so there's nothing more we can do. Ditto air conditioning is not working , so it's stifling in here at the chart table. Other minor issues: the roller furler not working, got stuck half way and had to send Noel up the mast who reports that the jib foil is broken at the top: so that's now the bottom and now the top of the foil that have failed in recent months. And the generator, as usual, playing up, needing impeller replacing.
But enough of that...
We had a "flip-flop" overboard (FOB) situation, TC's going over the side as he was checking the jib stowage,, so we made that our swim stop just now. The water a beautiful blue and warm, 2,100 m depth. All the lads went in, cooled off and showered.
TC and I have been talking about everything under the sun.. and stars: the universe, rockets, satellites, code-breaking, books, religion, atheism, (read Anne Druyan, the late Carl Sagan's wife on atheism and the universe) Hong Kong, US & UK politics, boats planes & helicopters, man overboard (MOB) procedures and... wine women and song. Stars have been the best and most I've seen, not just all the main ones, but also the myriad tiny pinpricks between: what Sagan called the "billions and billions"....
We're a touch short of food. And maybe we'll run short of subjects to discuss. So before we wistfully turn to conversations on cannibalism, do write, to divert us....
Cheers from the boyz on Xena.
(TC, Noel, Lony and me, PF)
We're on our way back to Hong Kong on Xena, at 18 43 North and 117 00 East. That's pretty much smack bang in the middle of the South China Sea, just a little past half-way from Subic to Hong Kong.
Five other boats are going back at the same time and we're maintaining a radio sked at 19:03 each day. For the record, they are: Ambush, Darling, Diamond Queen, Kam Loong, Talking Head and Ambush coordinating the skeds.
We've been motoring for most of the way: no winds, glassy seas, hot sun. Doing 7 knots. And taking turns steering, because the autopilot's on the blink yet again -- we've been in email touch with the Raymarine guys in Hong Kong by email, but all the things they said to test came out ok, so there's nothing more we can do. Ditto air conditioning is not working , so it's stifling in here at the chart table. Other minor issues: the roller furler not working, got stuck half way and had to send Noel up the mast who reports that the jib foil is broken at the top: so that's now the bottom and now the top of the foil that have failed in recent months. And the generator, as usual, playing up, needing impeller replacing.
But enough of that...
We had a "flip-flop" overboard (FOB) situation, TC's going over the side as he was checking the jib stowage,, so we made that our swim stop just now. The water a beautiful blue and warm, 2,100 m depth. All the lads went in, cooled off and showered.
TC and I have been talking about everything under the sun.. and stars: the universe, rockets, satellites, code-breaking, books, religion, atheism, (read Anne Druyan, the late Carl Sagan's wife on atheism and the universe) Hong Kong, US & UK politics, boats planes & helicopters, man overboard (MOB) procedures and... wine women and song. Stars have been the best and most I've seen, not just all the main ones, but also the myriad tiny pinpricks between: what Sagan called the "billions and billions"....
We're a touch short of food. And maybe we'll run short of subjects to discuss. So before we wistfully turn to conversations on cannibalism, do write, to divert us....
Cheers from the boyz on Xena.
(TC, Noel, Lony and me, PF)
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