New Caledonia Update

Just in from Stiks with dawn…

Crazy last night. Garmin chart plotter went bonkers leaving us wondering what went wrong. Sort of lost in space in the moonless darkness with the little boat icon wandering all over. Goy out a paper chart and plotted the gps position and course and kept going. Seems there was a whacko strong current. All is well this dawn though as wind has returned and is building. Noe on course to the final waypoint a little more than 800 miles to go. Coffee and breakfast, then off watch nap.
For those not following, Stiks is a reader, on triamaran SE of New Caledonia in the enviro zone SE.
More as it comes along  (many sailors here, pilots, and other wind-driven sorts…)
~ure

12 thoughts on “New Caledonia Update”

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  2. can stiks pick up my mail i sent to you ? surely the mail is working in the great banana republic ? is it ? is it there ?

  3. About 0930UTC there was a long-duration X1.2 solar flare from an earth-facing sunspot complex. Full halo CME detected coming rapidly for earth. G3 level geomagnetic storm predicted within 48 hours.

    • Stout X5.1 flare last night. There is probably time for maybe one more large geomagnetic effective flare from the 4274 sunspot complex before it exits stage right. NOAA is holding the probability of another x-flare at 35%.

      • The fun discussion in Belgium is that the flare from the X-5 may arrive as we’re still dancing from the X-1.

        They’ve upped the storm forecast to a G4 and the likelihood of more X-flares to 55%

        NOAA is also predicting a 100% probability of a visible Aurora to the Ohio River, and over a 90% probability to the Tennessee. When’s the last time George, or someone afloat in the Gulf, saw the Northern Lights…?

  5. Tie this group of malfunctions – magnetically and other earthly sensitive systems as well as the change of direction in your drain, to the recent sun activity ?

  6. Using paper charts is what I taught the wife while living on our Cat. It was difficult for her to learn Set and Drift and plot a dead recording course and position, but it paid off in the end.

    Always have BACKUP in any situation you might face.

    • Maybe a year ago I took the “bridge tour” on a brand new trans-Atlantic cruise ship and was impressed by the instrumentation and multiple video screens. I asked, “Where do you keep the sextant?” Answer: “I guess we have one around here somewhere.” Q: “Does anyone know how to use it?” A: “We all learned when we were cadets.” That is, given the age of the officers, last hands-on was probably 10 to 30 years ago. X-class flare, anyone? I suppose there were paper charts “somewhere” but I did not see any.

      • After an electrical failure after takeoff from Oshkosh, my friends navigated by compass in the dark for 100 miles to find an airport beacon to land at. Four pilots onboard… nobody had a flashlight. They were lighting matches to see if they were still upright and to check the compass. Thankfully I missed that flight. Backups, backups, backups.

        • Has the FAA changed the rule that requires a functioning flashlight aboard for any planned night flight? I had one with a red lens so as not to lose my night vision.

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