Efraim sailing stories

This is where we have all of Aliza’s Skipper’s stories.  They cover our 2001-2003 sailing and I hope to add more and more as I have time to gather my thoughts and memories of this great adventure that spans 24 years, three generations of Schwartz family sailors, and one (+ ?) circumnavigation.

 

 

 

Efraim at the helm on the way from Funafuti to Papua New Guinea (March 2003)

 

 

 

USA East to West coast cruising (thru Panama Canal)

We left Florida on February 6th late at night. We had some delays as the engine refrigeration compressor failed just as we were leaving the day before. We manage to purchase and install a new compressor.  We also installed the second RADAR set I bought for redundancy (Furuno 1622, 2KW 16NM LCD unit).  All the prep work and the food purchase caused the delay in leaving Florida.  We had a nice sail through the Gulf Stream.  Wind from the NE at 15 to 20 kt did cause some big waves against the direction of the Gulf Stream and it was both interesting and challenging. We rolled a lot and some crewmembers did not feel so good.  Due to an autopilot error and a slow response from the crew we lost the Asymmetrical one night (only the head ripped and was fixed in Mexico for $100) and had a lot of excitement recovering 2308sqf of wet nylon in the middle of the night.  We arrived at Isla. Mujeres Mexico on Saturday the 10th in the evening just as the sun went down.  We went in and got stuck as we hit ground. (Just a few inches short) the next morning the ferry passed close by and her wake bumped us free to go to the official anchorage.  Later as we found out the GPS and the PC navigation charts we had were not exactly on the spot.  There was a difference of about 1/3 mile between really as we saw it and the charts!

We will learn to do a better job and make sure we follow our own rules of the road? Do not enter a new port when the lighting conditions are not good.  We stayed in the island for the next two weeks as we took care of crew (Problems were aggravated as two crew members were doing drugs and alcohol so I had to get them off Aliza), my father who flew to NJ for a medical reason (no problem just an infection treatable with anti-biotic) my own three stitches from kicking the dingy anchor. And the asymmetrical sail we needed to fix.

We left for Panama Canal on February 25th and made a great time next Saturday at about 1 PM for 840 nm distances in 6 days. We anchored at Swan Island (Honduras) on the way for an afternoon of fishing and dining (two 15lb tuna). Later we got a 25 lb Mahi-Mahi (Dorado) and we arrived with a lot of fish to Colon, Panama.  After lots of administrative paperwork we crossed 2/3 of the canal and tied Aliza in Pedro Miguel Boat Club where she is now for the next 5/6 weeks, we have just one set of locks down! The only set of locks still to go are the Miraflores locks (2 chambers) and Aliza is in the Pacific!!!  Now, as far as my opinion of canal crossing; First thing is that it was very smooth and un-eventful.  We crossed with another 65 footer next to us and together with a cruise ship.  All of the people we had to deal with were very helpful and the process was great.  Our pilot (Jimmy) was very nice and it was all a pleasant experience.  Also base on our stay in Pedro Miguel Boat Club, I would highly recommend a pause in the crossing and a stay at PMBC for a better look at Panama and some fellow sailor/cruiser input for your cruising plans.

I just got back from Aliza, and she is now at Acapulco bay after completing the ~ 1600 NM trip from Panama Canal to Acapulco with a visit in Puntarenas Costa Rica.  It was a very intense three-week trip.  We had good crew this time and this makes for a much better trip then before, Sheldon (Shelly) a good friend and fellow sailor from NJ and Rick a lawyer and a new sailor from Colorado joined my father and me in Pedro Miguel boat club for the trip. We had the schedule to cross the Miraflora Locks at 1PM and had verified it 3 timed the day before (at 2pm 7 pm and 11pm). We wanted to use the morning hours to fix the remote control cable for the gear, as we had some problems shifting gears before.  I was the one to fix the remote, Dad and Shelly were to take a taxi to Panama City and obtain some last items needed for the trip. At 8:30 am as Dad is going to the taxi, a man approaches him and asked about the whereabouts of Aliza.   When asked who he was, he informed Dad that he is the pilot and we are schedule to go right there and then! There was no time to spend and we were really lucky that Dad did not get to the taxi for Panama City.

We crossed, dropped our line handlers at the Balboa yacht club and proceeded to drop anchor at Flamingo anchorage.  Dad and Shelly went by taxi to do the paperwork for clearing out of Panama and Rick and I were fixing the bilge pumps. We wanted to pick up some fuel however Balboa yacht club was not answering the VHF calls so at about 10 pm we lifted anchor and left.

We sailed to Bahia Honda which is a very large cove where we spend one night.  We then continued on the way visiting small islands and coves on our way to Costa Rica.  We arrived in Puntarenas on Sunday the 22nd and started the clearing in and out of Costa Rica.  Next day I finished the paperwork and we set sail out to Mexico. Shelly had left us in Costa Rica and Dad, Rick and myself continued to Mexico.

We have taken the direct route and crossed the gulf of Tehuantepeck far from shore.  As it happened we hit a Tehuantepecker, which happened when a Texas high pressure is funneled through the mountains into the gulf area to a low system in the pacific.  Results were seas of 20-25 feet top wind at 32 kt and very fast waves at about 5-6 sec wave period.  This lasted over 24 hours and proved fatal to our transmission as it freewheeled at about 6-7 kt.  The transmission overheated and we below an oil retainer between the trany and the engine.  Results – We do not have prop motion and needed to sail to Acapulco (against the wind) without the benefit of an engine!!!

It took a lot of work however we found some work around and managed to get to Acapulco 3 days after the target date.  Using our INMERSAT M we ordered the parts needed for a repair which came to Acapulco with Warren who is a new member of our crew with his daughter Karen.  Dad and I changed the parts and hopefully solved the problem.

A few additional mechanical problems and they went sailing to Puerto Vallerta.  At PV Dad stayed with Aliza and waited for me to come with some crew for the last leg of this trip to California. Â  I have made contact with an Israeli skipper who wanted to join us for the trip. Unfortunately he could not get on a flight in time. It was Dad and me for the 1100nm trip to Los Angeles.

After a 2 day prep in PV Dad and I set sail to LA.  On the way 6 temporary passengers were added. 1 bird stayed overnight after landing half frozen on deck. She recovered by morning and happily flew away. The other five temps were not that happy however they stayed longer (The reported 5 delicious tunas were caught along the way. Partly consumed by the crew, partly made it to NJ to the Schwartz family tuna hotel/freezer). The trip was tough and challenging however went smooth and safe.  We continued to have transmission problems (Overheating) and solved it with an external cooling of the Trany.  We opened a sea water line and provided a study stream of cold water to the gearbox.  This cooled the transmission very nicely and allowed us to continue on our way safely.  The excess water dripped to the bilge and was pumped out by the bilge pump.  I our sail plan tried to take advantage of Hurricane Adulf.

Aliza is now at north Los Angeles Marina in California USA.  We have completed over 6000 miles trip from NY City started just a day after Christmas and ended about seven month later.  Next leg is 2200 NM is to Hawaii in May 2002.

Pacific Crossing: California to Hawaii (Nov 2002)

December 24th 2002 at 11 AM, Aliza sailed passed Diamond Head and Waikiki slowly into the channel leading to Ala-Wai Marina. This was the official end of our leg from Ventura CA to the Hawaiian Islands. Yes, the real crossing ended when we entered Hilo port on the big island of Hawaii on the 15th of December 2002. The reason I know that is because the smile that every crew member had on their face is something I cannot really describe. (You will have to look at the picture page and find the pictures with the BIG smiles and the green background of Hawaii.) On the 15th after 14days and 17 hours of sailing Aliza completed the first leg of her Pacific crossing complete this leg which we started on Saturday December 1st 2002, at 18:30 in Ventura California.

The first leg (About 2400 NM) is over and I am now at home in New Jersey putting the final touch on the endless TODO list for the next leg to Solomon Islands (3500 NM) Papua New-Guinea (Another 550 NM) on our way to Darwin (Final 1500 NM). I am so pre-occupied by the planning that is hard for me to think about the past and describe the trip. The 15 days of sailing were very nice, as a matter of fact “too nice” is what comes to my mind. No special events and the only thing missing were the Pacific High and its trade winds. We could have used some more wind (not on the nose) at any given time (Isn’t  that the truth for all sailors?). Weather was nice and our crew was great. On board we had Moshe, Efraim & Nogga Schwartz, and for additional crew members. Steve, Haim, Zach, and Tabitha. Steve and Haim are retired professionals with good sailing experience (Blue water as well as coastal). Zach and Tabitha are a younger couple who took a sabbatical from their technical career as web designers and have extensive costal sailing experience.

The pre-sail activity started 2 weeks earlier when the crew arrived over the few days of the first week. We started to organize Aliza for the cruise and start to put checkmarks on the “Old TODO list”. Everyone worked very hard. We had to pack smart as we bought a lot of food and we had 5 divers on board with their dive equipment. We also got a new Mizzen Spinnaker and a new shade cover made (for our time in wormer sun filled islands), and of course our new 17′-27′ adjustable whisker pole (This one heavy large pole needed to be mounted securely to our main mast. The project took Dad about 5 days to complete!. Due to lack of availability in our sailing area we order 4 new gel batteries for Aliza (8D weight 160 lb. each) it took a whole day to get the old ones out and the new ones in and connected.) Slowly but surely we got everything ready and we even managed to squeeze an afternoon of sailing (if you can call that sailing when you move at about 2-3 kt with very little wind). I think it was a little sign about the way the crossing would go! We also had a nice thanksgiving dinner at a nice restaurant in Ventura harbor and felt that we are ready to go! Well, some very important shipment did not arrive on time (Our 2 AC units) and I had to drive to San Diego to pick them up, if I did not want to stay another weekend in Ventura. While I drove with Nogga (A whole day event in LA traffic) Dad and the crew took Aliza and filled up the fuel tanks. It was more than 700 Gallon to top the tanks for a total of over 1000 Gallons of fuel on board. We did want to leave on Friday however we were all tired and we still needed to put the AC in a safe place and secure it before we go to sea. The final action before leaving was filling the hydraulic oil in the steering system. We have been losing oil due to a small leak for some time and I bought a 5 Gallon drum of oil just for that purpose. The place of the leak still eluded me at this point however it will be found before we make landfall in Hawaii.

The first night we sailed between the Channel Islands and were going south in order to find the prevailing winds. The weather charts were not their usual, and the Hawaiian/Pacific high did not show up in its usual place. (Before leaving I downloaded all of the weather forecasts and the synoptic maps for the area.) The first three days were light on the wind and flat to mirror sea. The highlight of these days was that special visit for a large pod of dolphins. Everyone went to the bow armed with cameras and digital video recorders. There were dozens and dozens of them and it seemed that they were coming to a gathering place at the bow of Aliza. They showed us some nice jumps and one of them was doing fast rolls sideway while jumping high in the air. (I never saw that trick jump before). Every day there were a few hours of 10 to 15 kt wind and at that time we would cut the engine and sailed quietly. The next noted event was sailing with our two spinnakers (The new Mizzen Asymmetrical looked great, see pictures site.) We did well with 3100 sq. ft. of sail with light wind pushing us at 7kt. The problem was that it did not last long. This time not due to the wind disappearing, it was the opposite; a wind gust ripped the main spinnaker at the top. It ripped just were we did the repair in Mexico 2 years ago. We agreed that the repair was not the best work one can do. Well, back to the repair business. We collected the 2300 sq. ft. from the ocean and continued with the main and Genoa in a wing in wing configuration. We also had to try our new toy “the adjustable whisker pole” we just got in Ventura. First we had to figure out how to work it. It seemed easy enough up to the point where Murphy dropped in for a visit. The new pole comes with a trip line to open the lock at the end of the pole. After working fine for 10 hours the line got tangled in the standing rigging and tripped the mechanism! The pole was now released from the Genoa and we had one fine fire drill. I think we can also include the 5 Mahi-Mahi we fished straight from the sea to the dinner plate, The BIG ones that got away with my father’s best lures (there were 3 of them), the 2 flying fish who visited us, the 2 squids we found on deck (still do not know how they got there?) and the small bird who landed on deck in mid trip about 1000 nm from any land, crushed and fell asleep! (She flew off after a rest and a photo session). So, I think that even on a non-eventful crossing one can always find something to remember the leg by.

The entry to Hilo was great; we could see from far away the two mountain tops and the highest peak in the Pacific Ocean. As we got closer we could see the green mountain side and the beauty of Hawaii with high cliffs with the surf rolling in and crushing against them. As we got closer we could see the water breaker getting pounded by the large rolling swell. We sailed into Radio bay got tied in (drop anchor and tie stern to land) and finally after 15 days we felt land under our feet. After I cleared with the guard that we can get to shore (It was Sunday so all the officials were not there) the crew went to the nearest shop and bought some junk food. I think we were eating to healthy for the last 15 days. They needed their sugar high. Monday morning I did the official clearance and we started to be tourists.

In Hilo we discovered two important things; 1) the steering oil leak came from the hydraulic ram that moves the rudder. 2) we were getting water leaks into Aliza from a small 1” crack on the side of the rudder post! I ordered the oil retainer kit to repair the leak and me and Dad started to think how to repair the bigger problem of the crack. At the end we bought the rubber end of a toilet plunger and I dove under Aliza and put it right under the crack. Pushed in to get the water out and pulled put to get air in (thru the crack from inside Aliza) it worked! Now Dad drilled a ¼” holes into the crack, taped them and put in a ¼” screw. This solved all but the smallest leak. After that we put some strong epoxy glue and a temporary solution was finished. When Dad got to NJ he worked on a more permanent fix, and we will not leave Hawaii before we implement a better solution to this problem.

We had four wonderful days in the big island. Beverly (Dad’s friend) flew in and joined us for ten days of sailing in Hawaii. We left on Wednesday evening for Maui. That 85 nm trip was quite an event. The wind that was not there the entire crossing came in with a vengeance! We got 30 kt constant with gusts to 40 Kt from the stern with huge breaking waves. (Payback is a Be%&h.) It was a very rough night and I was very happy the next morning as we sailed at 7 to 8 Kt with reduced main alone and got into the lee of Maui when we approached Molokini marine preserve. Molokini is a small half a crescent top of a submerged Volcano that offers great snorkeling and diving sites. As we sailed into the protected area we picked up a mooring line and secured Aliza. Everyone jumped into the water for some sightseeing. After a while we did have the scare of the day (or the trip as I feel) when Nogga my daughter wondered too far, did not hear our screams and we thought we had lost her! Fortunately a small dive boat was close by and they landed a hand going into a shoal area we could not see (behind a large rock) and fished Nogga from the water. We continued our sail to Lahaina which was 15 nm away. On our way Tabitha called our attention to a couple of Humpback whales! They were jumping and waving to us as we sailed by.

We came and tied into an open mooring that some sailors from another big commercial boat said it was OK to tie to. After some problems with the dinghy platform hydraulic system we lowered the dinghy and got ashore. The next 4 days were just great time in Maui. Fist we got a free mooring for the local yacht club plus temporary membership and use of their facility. Then after 2 nights on mooring we moved into the transient dock (#99) inside the small harbor. We were able to rent 2 cars (in spite of the many tourists who cam on a very large ocean cruiser that dropped anchor right next to the town.) and toured the entire island (Yes we were on top of mount Haleakala and we did drive the road to Hanna with all the stops along the way!). We also came on the weekend where the local artists were visiting their galleries. Me and Nogga stopped at Wyland gallery and met with him. He invited us to come again the next evening. We told him about our trip and invited him to Aliza. The next evening I took Nogga, Dad, and Beverly to meet with Wyland. Wyland did a really nice painting and sold it in an auction for $7000. (Nice way to make a living however it does take some talent) I introduced Dad to him and Dad gave him one of his handmade olive wood (from Jerusalem) nutcrackers. Wyland responded by signing three 11×14 prints of his work and taking a couple of photos with all of us. It was an exciting fun night with some beautiful prints and photos to remember it by. I Lahaina we also said goodbye to two of our crew members, Zack and Tabitha made up their mind the wanted to stay in Maui and tour the Island. Tabitha did not feel that great on the passage from California and the night sailing between Hilo and Lahaina did not add anything good. (As a matter of fact she was really sick that night). We bid them farewell and wished them the best. They did come back after a day and we made copies of their digital photos so we could all share the memories.

On Monday night we left for Honolulu as we had about 120 nm to go and the next day was December 24th. We needed to get there in mid-day if we wanted to get a slip in the Marina. Again we had some strong (30 kt) wind all night long and Aliza averaged 7.5 Kt with reduced main and Genoa. The morning view included Diamond Head and around 11 am we saw Waikiki beach. We made it in with about 7 outriggers race canoes following us in. We tied to the Hawaii yacht club dock and got ashore for the formalities. The yacht club could offer only 4 days slip for us as they were overbooked for New Year’s celebration. After making call to the custom and immigration (said it’s OK we will come after the holiday) I walked to Ala-Wai marina office and got us a slip there. We actually spent only about 4 hours in the Hawaii Yacht Club and then moved Aliza to her more permanent (so we thought) slip. On Christmas day we went out sailing, dropped anchor in front of Waikiki beach and did some SCUBA diving and water skiing. It was fun to go out knowing we have a slip to get back to. I used this opportunity to train Haim and Steve in the art of getting a 30 ton single screw sailboat in and out of a slip. This was due to that fact that the marina officials told us we will be moving around as slips become available and not available (the start of the year is hot time for new people to get slips). On the day Nogga and me had to fly home we were told to move Aliza to another slip, well; Dad had to do it with Haim and Steve.

Hawaii to Australia I Arrived in Honolulu from NJ with Raffi (our latest crew member) who flew the day before from Israel to NJ. We meet with Dad, Beverly and Steve on Aliza and a many other new friends they have made in Honolulu. We did not have a lot of time (on the other hand to offset that we had a lot of items on our TODO list 😉 so I started working ASAP. The #1 item was the repair of our Asymmetrical Spinnaker. This was done with the great help I got from Sonny Nelson who allowed me the free use of his sail loft for the repair (I had to force him to take money for the material used in the process!) I spent 3 days with Sonny and his people and it was a pleasure and a privilege to know them and to become their friend. This was followed by many smaller repairs and preparations. To make things more interesting Dad some how got and infection and needed some medical treatment. We had to delay our departure and every day we thought we are leaving the next day … only to find out that the lab report is not a clean bill of health but a rather questionable one. On the other hand we also had Murphy pay us a “pre-cruising” visit and we had a problem with our SCUBA compressor (would not start, I had to rebuild the carburetor) a blown hydraulic hose in the system caused lots of cleaning in the aft cabin (Benefit of a nice coating of oil on the steel hull is that it will not rust in that area 😉 another blown oil retainer on our NEW hydraulic motor that power the dinghy platform (a next day delivery of 3 oil retainers + a slight mechanical modification by Dad kind of solved this one) A disintegrated speed paddle wheel (speed sensor for boat speed through the water) was solved by a next day mail from my friend Jake Marantz from B&G, and so on the list is long! However like anything else the day came when Dad was feeling good, the Dr. said it is OK to go (provided he will continue to take “preventive antibiotics” for the duration of our trip in the south pacific) and Aliza was ready with a checkmark next to all TODO items. We even had a few additions we did not plan on: As we wanted to visit Palmyra which is owned by nature conservancy I told one of the local members of the Hawaii yacht club that we would not mind carrying mail to the 6 people on the island. Next I heard from Steve is that they wanted to know if we would be able to deliver 2 propane tanks to the island! I said sure, thinking we are talking about our size of propane tanks (20 to 30 lb). I sure was surprised to see two huge Hawaiians natives arriving at Aliza’s dock side carrying two 150 lb propane tanks that are almost 5 feet tall and 1.5 feet in diameter! Well, thank god (and Dad) for allowing us to build Aliza the way we did. We had no problem storing the tanks on deck right next to the main mast. (We can not store propane below as it needs an area well ventilated and as it is heavier then air could cause serious safety issues on one side and as the two of them are 300 lb and placing that much weight above deck is a stability problem IF we get into a storm.)

Anyway we were ready, Aliza was ready, and our friends (who heard us say we leave tomorrow for 9 day) were ready! We have left Hawaii on February 13th in the late afternoon. We had to rush a bit as the extra 9 days wait was going to affect us later as we needed to fly out of Papua on March 27th so we can fly to Israel on the 31st. The good news was that we had great sailing weather. The wind was at our quarter port and we made good speed (remember this is a sailing yacht) of 6-8 knots.

This brought us to Palmyra a day earlier then we budgeted for the trip. We also had the opportunity host a few more temporary visitors that we hitched along the trip and they kind of stayed for dinner (or rather they were the dinner;-). This allowed us to give some large Mai-Mai to our friends in Palmyra when we arrived and that in turn allowed them to give us the absolutely best dinner we had since we started our trip in California! You need to see the pictures to see what 2 professional chefs can do when they have the ingredients and the will to create something special (even in a remote atoll with only 6 permanent people and 4 visiting sailors).

There are not enough words to describe how the next 36 hours passed. We were in paradise, we toured the island, we got a guided tour of another island, we got a guided snorkel underwater tour, and we had great time with 6 wonderful people. The only problem was: we had to go on and sail away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we wanted to visit Kiribati however due to and honest navigational mistake (by yours truly 🙂 ) I forgot we had to change the GPS waypoint coordinates to the southern hemisphere 🙁 We were sailing to a none existent atoll in north of the equator while the atoll was really SOUTH of the equator.

The result was that we went directly to Funafuti Atoll which is part of the Tuvalu group (as a matter of fact it is the capital). The sailing was pleasant however we did not have the nice consistent wind we had the first leg. We arrived in Funafuti to a flat ocean and entered the atoll thru a narrow channel in the coral reef. It required about 5 turns and we needed that calm weather to see exactly where we were and where the reef was. (As Steve said “Thank God for GPS”) We dropped anchor (Actually the two of them in tandem) and I went ashore to do the formal entry. I came back in the dinghy with 5 officials who insisted they should see the yacht as part of the entry clearance. We gave them cold drinks and we all set in the shade on Aliza in the blistering heat (probably 95F) sweating and filling all the needed paperwork. The next day we visited the island, retrieved our e-mail in the local Internet-Cafe and went to exchange money so we could buy some food and souvenirs. In the afternoon the wind changed to a westerly and the wave picked up. Little did we know what the next day would hold! At night I slept with an anchor alarm on the GPS and a Proximity alarm on the Radar. It was a long night and very rough on the anchor. As the day broke I looked at the anchoring system and could not believe my eyes: The front part of Aliza’s deck (5 mm of steel or 1/5 inch) had ripped at the point where the anchor break was connected! And it only got worse! We spend the next few hours motoring into the wind in a futile attempt to reduce load on the anchoring system. The anchors were caught in the coral heads and we were stuck there for a while. Eventually, before I had the need to dive and try to release the anchors (a very unpleasant and un-safe proposition) we managed to get them out and basically motor away. The only problem we had was the official travel papers needed when a yacht leaves Funafuti. We did have some help fro a local ship that sent her motor tender with two sailors to pick me up from Aliza, deliver me to shore to sign and get the papers and then again bring me to Aliza! I left them enough money to buy the whole crew a drink after their work ends.

So, now the only problem was traversing the entry channel to the atoll when heading straight into a nice size storm that was developing since the previous day. Interestingly enough the channel was very calm (the reefs did protect the channel from the waves) and the fact that we already had all the needed GPS coordinates from our way in, made the passage an easy one. (If you do not count the 10-15 foot rollers we encounter at the exit point.) This is not to say that while we made the passage the adrenalin level in my blood was not at the extreme high mark!  There is something about sailing a complex course in a narrow passage with no margin for error while 15 foot waves are braking on the reef around you.  You relay on the GPS coordinates (remember that it is at best good for 10 feet accuracy.) and that the reef is just 10 feet away from you.  This is why we have also a crew member on the bow watching for danger and giving me signals to assist in the safe passage.

One more time we were on our way again and now we had to fight a real storm with head winds of 30+ kt while making SOG (Speed Over Ground) of only 1.5 to 2 kt. It was wet both inside and out, it was constant rain squalls. The only good part (After the 5 day’s storm passed) was the on deck showers when the rain was not propelled by 30kt wind so it would feel like someone throwing small pebbles at you. This was really the wettest passage of all times.

Due to slow progress (speed) and the fact that we did not have an anchoring system at all (Steve and I secured the two anchors on deck and tied them in a way that we could use the rest of the sailing systems.) and as a result of the strong wind we had some more failures: The Genoa furllers had lost its lower baring and was not safe to operate in strong wind. The inner stay sail was ripped at the point where we connect the line to it and it too would not sustain the full force of the wind safely. The Mizzen sail just ripped at the same place the innerstay did so we did not have the use of the mizzen sail at all. And the final straw – our main sail furller had 2 out of 3 bolts broken a problem that caused it to be stuck with the sail out 5/6 the of the way without ability to get it in or out! This last one was a major problem as with the high winds we were experiencing the whole rigging system was overloaded with that much sail out. We had to change our direction in order to reduce the load on the main mast and sail. Well I think you get the picture…. This was the time to pay the piper after many moons of nice sailing and no damages due to the cruise. In the big picture it was not much. No threat to lives or to the safety of Aliza. (Provided that we use common sense and not tempt Murphy any further.) The most prudent action was to skip the Solomon Islands stop we planned (there is no marina there only anchorage) and go directly to Port Moresby and the protection of Royal Papua Yacht Club Marina.

I made the necessary navigation changes and we are on our way. The weather was nice and then some rain showers when a squall line passed. We have used this to do on-deck showers and enjoy ourselves getting wet. Every Squall line did provide a challenge as the wind increased and also changed direction. With our unique limitations of the sailing systems this provided constant lookout and work. (When I’ll post the next photo batch take a look at the way I took pictures of the squalls and how they look at our Radar and outside in real life. As time progressed took a close look at our fuel supply situation and to no surprise we were short on that liquid. When we left Honolulu I did not plan for a 4500 nm trip without refueling. (Aliza has fuel tanks for roughly 1020 Gallons) The need was to conserve fuel and to make some alternate plans. As I was in communication with Zahava (my wife) every two days as she played our “weather woman” and provided us with the wind and storm prediction (remember that we were in the southern hemisphere and the cyclone (hurricane) season there was still on until May!) I have asked Zahava to look for alternate ports along our route where we could buy some fuel. Zahava did just that and also got in touch with David (Marina manager of RPYC) who provided her with a lot of help coordinating the efforts to provide use with alternatives.

The short story is that we did just fine conserving fuel and made it to RPYC with a few gallons to spare (Around 50 in my opinion). The long story involves pumping dry every tank we have (4 on Aliza) and getting all the fuel into one tank. (This is due to the fact that fuel tanks are designed where the suction point is a few inches above the bottom of the tank. This allows the water and the dirt to be below the point where we take the fuel out and therefore have clean fuel to the engine. In Aliza’s case this mean that every one of our tanks had a “reserve” capacity of about 5%. So as we had a lot of time we pumped and filtered our fuel from one tank to another while at the same time measuring the amount of fuel we had and the hourly consumption at different speeds. We were using our engine very little time and at the same time maximizing the use of our huge Asymmetrical spinnaker and sailing at 2-3 Knots. As stated, we have made it with fuel to spare and did not need to exercise our “re-fueling” alternate plans.

We arrived at RPYC on the 23rd of March and you can read a more detailed update about Papua in Steve’s update. The only thing I need to provide here is about our (Dad and me) update for the time we left Papua until we came back. In a nutshell it was hectic! We flew from Port Moresby to Singapore, stayed there 14 hours (Overnight) and left in the morning to Tokyo, stayed there for 6 hours and left for Chicago, (2 hours) and finally to La-Guardia NY where Zahava picked us up. We were not aware of SARS until arriving in the US and getting a “special note” from the CDC about the risk we were exposed to in Singapore and Tokyo. The scary part was that Dad had a 104F temp within 24 hours of arrival! He was treated and recovered in 48 hours just in time for our trip to Israel. The source of his problem was an infection in his leg which cased to swell. After arriving in Israel he still did not feel good and the 2nd warring sign of his cough caused us to get him to an emergency room about 5 hours after landing. After chest X-ray and leg ultra-sound he was diagnosed with only an infection, he took antibiotics and this started the healing process. We were 1 week in Israel and Dad was working all the time getting the needed part for our anchor system. He was rushing so much that on the last day he took a shortcut and ran through an area that was covered with grass. He hit something, fell and practically knocked himself out (probably brook a rib too) in the process. We flew back that night and were in the US the next morning. Within 24 hours Dad was again in the emergency room and diagnosed now with Pneumonia!!! (Result of the fall, shallow breathing due to cracked rib, not circulating all the air in his lunges = Pneumonia according to the Dr.) This was a little too close for comfort for use with all the news about SARS. However we continued our lives, had a great Seder dinner at my sister’s house and got back to Papua by the way of Tokyo, skipping the Singapore visit this time.

We arrived to RPYC and immediately started to work. Two interesting points were that when I picked up my e-mail in Tokyo I got a note from Raffi about him not continuing with Aliza and that we is in Australia visiting with a friend. 2nd point was my turn for accidents. Upon arrival in the airport after the long flight, I managed to step into a glass sliding door that was too slow to open. (just an ugly bump and cut on my forehead) and on another morning when I went to retrieve our food which we stored at the RPYC restaurant (Thanks David and Bryce for the food storage, I must explain that they had nothing to do with the cut) had cut my left forefinger (4 stitches) to the bone with a very sharp knife as I was cutting a block of cheese. Well I guess I had to get my share of accidents out of the way so Murphy would not need to visit us at sea while cruising.

All in all we had great time in Papua. The people were absolutely great, everyone wanted to help and made our time there a real pleasure. (Please do read Steve’s update as I do not want to repeat the information already given there. I also am in the process of writing the article which I hope to publish and that article really deals with all of the people experiences we had from Hawaii to Papua. If it would not be published in paper I’ll make sure it will appear on Aliza’s web site.) Even the weather cooperated and there was an afternoon breeze every day and the temperatures were much lower then they were a month ago when we arrived. The afternoon wing was a sample of the outside wind. We had 20Kt with gusts to 30 in the marina, the same system was blowing 40+ outside! A side note is that on one occasion we were invited to a BBQ at Maggie’s house and there were some more sailors there among them, the Capitan of a ship that is used as an ore terminal for the copper mines. He had a radio and was in constant communication with his crew about the conditions inside the bay! No doubt about it was too windy to leave Port Moresby so we waited to the wing to slow a bit. In the mean time we had solved every problem system on Aliza and were ready to leave on Friday as the locals objected! (No real sailor leaves on a Friday) So we left on Saturday afternoon on our way to Thursday Island (Official entry point to Australia and on our way to Darwin 300 + NM from Papua)

It took two and a half days of sailing crossing the famous Bligh passage in Torres Straits on the way (Actually we took a parallel route as I wanted to stay away from the shipping lane) we did not have the wind as it went down substantially after the first day of sailing. However that was good as we did not need a lot of wind in the reefs of Torres Straits, and besides, we only motored 21 hours (less than 1/3rd of the time) including getting out of Port Moresby Bay and into Thursday Island anchorage. We arrived in TI at 11AM and the officials arrived at 2PM. As usual we did have a couple of hitchhikers/visitors of the fishy kind.

We caught 2 large Wahoo (first at 25lb and the second at 22lb) there is food for the whole way until Darwin!(We did have one frozen chicken on board from our last food buy at Honolulu! We had to “use it or lose it”, see next for an explanation) the process was painless until we had to give all of our cheese (about 10lb of different kinds) and our vegetables and any before meat we had onboard (remember – frozen chicken?) to the agriculture officer to be destroyed! (That should teach me about buying large quantities of food at Costco) Next Steve and I went ashore to see the town and get our e-mail. We got some food and bread (Just a small quantity as they do not like Yachters to bring any food from Thursday Island or any other part of the Torres Straits islands.) and got back to Aliza for a fish (Wahoo) BBQ on the outside grill. This was delicious and we had a good night sleep at anchor. The next morning we went to custom to get our papers done for the trip to Darwin, bought a few more items (food and fishing gear) and paid the agriculture office $132 Australian for the pleasure and cost of giving them our food to be destroyed! At 1:30 PM we lifted anchor and were on our way to Darwin.

The one thing we are missing in this last leg is a good amount of wind in the range of 15 to 25 Kt. Not that we are not sailing enough however it does sometime test your patience when you sail in low wind condition (5-7 Kt) and make 3Kt SOG (Speed Over Ground) especially when the tidal currents in Torres Straights runs at 1.5Kt or some area 2Kt. As matter of fact right now we are seating on anchor right next to Melville Island and the current peaked at 2.6Kt against us! I choose to sit it out and wait for the flood current that will take use with less effort to Darwin. The good thing about this leg is that after a long time I had the opportunity to “cook” the specialty the La Mason, or for the people who had not had the pleasure of having seared tuna on Aliza, well, hopefully you will get that opportunity. Yesterday we had not one and not two, but three small tunas that stayed for dinner. So now we are stoked well in the food department and have enough for the stay in Darwin too. After 2 anchor stops due to tidal current and the need to arrive in Darwin during the day time (So we can see how to enter) we have sailed into Darwin Harbor at about 11 AM on Thursday the 21st of May. When I tried to get into the Marina I was told I have to get an inspection of the bottom of Aliza in order to make sure we do not carry any Zebra Mussels! Well it looks like there is a potential problem (and an opportunity) as we need to lift Aliza out of the water and do the inspection. Darwin is a fun place for sailing, the tide here is 7 meters (over 21 feet) so all the marinas have a lock chamber that helps getting the yacht from whatever level the water are on the outside to the level of the marina on the inside. Complicated system! Anyway we stayed on a mooring for the first night, an official came and cleaned all of our raw water system with detergent (now the inside of my engine raw water system is clean;-) and the next day we were lifted out of the water for the inspection.

 

We used the opportunity of a free hull out to do some cleaning and inspection of Aliza’s bottom.

(It looks great, no problem what so ever and after the power wash (38.50 dollar Australian = $25 American, what a bargain!!) she is really clean and ready to sail FAST across the Indian Ocean. After that we were legal to get into a nice small Marina (Tiparrery Water Marina) and that is where Aliza spent the next twenty days.  At that time we are doing the tourist thing and are spending a few days at Kakadu national park and other tourist attractions like crocodile farms and live wild crocodile feeding and jumping contest.

 

Arriving in Israel

On August 30th at 13:45 Aliza was at the foothill of Mount Carmel. Exactly at the same point we passed on August 1st 1994 as we started our cruise around the world. 9 Years and 29 days earlier (Much more then around the world in 80 days 😉  It was a great moment for me, my father Moshe and actually for the whole Schwartz family. A few hours later we were at the new marina in Haifa and cleared customs and immigration making it legally into Israel with Aliza. We have finished our trip and Aliza had become the first Israeli flag sailing yacht, built in Israel that have completed a circumnavigation.

The next Saturday my father Moshe celebrated his 76th birth day (Was actually on Sept 3rd) and on the 3rd an official of Kiriat-Haim (and former mayor of Haifa) presented him with a plaque recognizing this very special achievement. As my father had fulfilled his dream I am very happy that I was able to be a part and assist him in the design, build and sail phases of this project. I must confess that I was even happier to be able to FLY back to the USA and get together (probably re-introduce myself) with my family who were so patient about my adventure. I also looked forward to shaving, getting a haircut and finding a job which is not a 7X24 commitment (a 7X 16 will be a great improvement 😉 So I already did # 1 and #2 (Shaved and a haircut) hopefully this week I’ll get with some people about a job and get back to the grove!