{"id":1296,"date":"2007-09-11T06:46:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T10:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/logs\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2007-09-13T18:03:39","modified_gmt":"2007-09-13T22:03:39","slug":"day-140-year-2-and-captain-cook-didnt-have-a-gps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/sailing-logs\/sailing-logs-year-2\/day-140-year-2-and-captain-cook-didnt-have-a-gps\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 140, Year 2: . . . and Captain Cook Didn’t Have a GPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 140, Year 2: . . . and Captain Cook Didn’t Have a GPS
\nDate: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
\nWeather: Overcast; Winds Variable ESE to E 15-30+
\nLatitude: 17 degrees 44.859 minutes
\nLongitude: 168 degrees 18.676 minutes
\nLocation: Port Vila, Efate<\/p>\n

It’s always a special feeling to come into an anchorage and meet up with friends you haven’t seen for a very long time. Just after we arrived in Port Vila today, Jamie and Lucy Telfer of Savoir Vivre came over in their dinghy to stay hello. We haven’t seen them since Tonga last year. They are the most upbeat young couple and are always a joy to be around. We agreed to meet at the Waterfront Bar & Grill where we “park” our dinghies for drinks at 5 PM. The title of today’s log came out of that
\nmeeting, but I will get back to that. First, I’ll backtrack to our trip here.<\/p>\n

We left Sema Bay in Havannah Harbor at 7:30 this morning and almost immediately put up a reefed mainsail. Winds were predicted in the upper teens, but we know that can mean half that again, and we have learned the hard way that it is always better to start off with a reef that can easily be released rather than trying to reef a mainsail in heavy winds. I protested a little thinking that we should have up the full main, but Mark reminded me of our “better safe than sorry” rule. We knew we were
\ngoing through a pass, then around the south side of Efate and further around Devil’s Point which is known to be wicked. So I acquiesced and we headed out of Hillard Channel between Efate and the much smaller island of Lelepa with just the reefed mainsail. Almost immediately, the winds increased from the low teens to the upper twenties. We were getting gusts to 33 knots. Once we got through the pass and turned southeast along the coast, we raised a scrap of headsail. We were on a beam reach and
\ncontinued to get winds gusting to 30 knots. We were fine and had a fairly decent ride even though we were heeling at a 20 degree angle. We flew down the coast and then had to make another turn to the East and this put the wind right on our nose. We had to turn on the motor and forge our way from this point on in to Port Vila. Ranger was behind us and little further away from the shore. They had a much rougher ride than we did, but we all reached Port Vila just fine.<\/p>\n

Mid-afternoon Ranger called and asked if we would like to go ashore for an “anchoring beer.” This is an offer we just can’t refuse, so we met them at the Waterfront Bar & Grill at 3:00. We all wanted to check land-based email, so we decided to put off the “anchoring beer” for an hour or so while we went to the internet cafe. Mark and I were so anxious to see pictures of Justin and Jo’s new home in Albuquerque, their puppy Alfie, and their three little kittens. And, of course, we were very anxious
\nto see the latest photos of our grand baby Sam and Heather and Jed’s new home on the Cape in Massachusetts. Both Justin and Heather post their photos on Picasa on the web so we can see them when we have an internet connection. It is not as good as seeing them in person, but it makes us very happy when we come into port to be able to see the latest photos. We also checked email, bank statements, etc. We had finally earned that “anchoring beer” and we settled back and talked about the challenging
\nsail here today. Jamie and Lucy joined us and we caught up on all the news from friends back in Fiji. Jamie and Lucy are from England and I told them that we have a new daughter-in-law from Haselmere. Jamie explained that this is only about 20 minutes from his home and he and Lucy proceeded to teach us about the geography of England.<\/p>\n

We then went on to talk about sailing and our experiences of the past two seasons. What is blue-water sailing really like? Well, it all depends on the boat, how it is equipped, and the way the captain runs the ship. We talked about the fact that our experiences are so very, very different from those who circumnavigated just a few years ago. We all have watermakers, so the value of having a stand alone shower on our boats is highly valued. We all have laptops and use them extensively, whereas
\nbefore email and electronic charting, a computer was just not that useful. Before the advent of reliable auto pilot, world cruisers were at the helm steering 24 hours a day. That is just not the case these days as either “auto” or windvane steering does that job for us. The discussion was fascinating and it made us all realize just how much things have changed just in the past ten to fifteen years. Famous world sailors Eric and Susan Hiscock didn’t have an auto pilot or a water maker or refrigeration
\nwhen they first circumnavigated. The same was true for Hal and Margaret Roth. Lynn and Larry Pardy continue world cruising with no engine. Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger didn’t have refrigeration or a watermaker when they went around the world in the early 1990’s. The list went on and on, and it was then that Paul said, ” . . . and Captain Cook didn’t have a GPS.” All of us have made this journey, but each in his or her own time and own way, but these days we all have a GPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
070911 Day 140 Efate, Vanuatu–Havannah Harbor to Port Villa<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 140, Year 2: . . . and Captain Cook Didn’t Have a GPS Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Weather: Overcast; Winds Variable ESE to E 15-30+ Latitude: 17 degrees 44.859 minutes Longitude: 168 degrees 18.676 minutes Location: Port Vila, Efate It’s always a special feeling to come into an anchorage and meet up with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[27,35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handleysail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}