Flicka 'round the world' trip planned

[AdriftAtSea]

Gene-

I don't see why you think electric autopilots are only useable under power... they work quite well under sail from what I've seen.  

I also don't see how you can conclude that I like to motor from what I've said.  Personally, I abhor motoring.  The only time I use mine is to get by the swing bridge, since they do not allow you to sail through said bridge.  

While I have to agree that in an emergency, you use whatever lights or devices you possibly can to help avoid a collision—I just don't see a steaming light as being helpful, especially as it might confuse the situation.  This is my opinion... and you're entitled to yours.

Is Flight of Years equipped with a radar reflector in addition to the CARD??? While the CARD helps you know that the ships are there, it doesn't help you show up on their radar.  

[Frank]

Gene..."cold" is a relative term as I sit here in northern Ontario Canada at -18  ;D   Hope all goes well for Heather...she'll do FINE !!!!!!!!

[FLIGHT]

You sissy, Frank!

TONIGHT - THIS VERY NIGHT - HERE IN FLORIDA - SUNNY NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA - OUR WEATHER FORECAST IS FOR SEVENTEEN DEGREES!

And the wind here at our home, right on the Suwannee River, is about 15 knots.  YOU figure out the chill factor!

Heather will be cold tomorrow.

Gene

[AdriftAtSea]

Hope she has good thermos for the coffee... she's gonna need it. :)

[FLIGHT]

Guess what, Dan.

She doesn't drink coffee.

But thanks for the idea.

Gene

[AdriftAtSea]

Cocoa, tea or soup then... :)

[CharlieJ]

again, interesting- we use our electric tiller pilot under sail, quite nicely. I AM building a wind vane, so we'll have three distinct ways of self steering- we've used sheet to tiller for several days at a time quite successfully offshore, and the tiller pilot does a good job too. But having all three makes it even better.

[FLIGHT]

Hi Charlie -

That's great!  You use an electric tiller pilot under sail.  I've never talked with anyone who has worked that successfully - obviously there's a lot I still need to learn.   To operate adequately, of course, your tiller pilot would have to take or ease the sheets during a wind change.  And I've heard of electronic steering systems which also so do indeed control the sheets, but I've never heard anyone who has actually used one.  Tell me about it.

Yes, you're absolutely right.  I used only self steering for my first thirty years of sailing - i.e., without wind vane equipment.  I hadn't heard of wind vanes, if there were any back then.  I never used a sheet to tiller direct arrangement, because I could never make that work for long.  But I used combinations of surgical rubber tubing and block and tackle units.  Never had any trouble at all, except that they weren't nearly as true as the Monitor.  But many folks have sailed around the world with nothing more.

You've got it all covered!

Thank you for your input.

Gene

[Lost Lake]

Did you say 17 degrees??? I hope that's Celsius you're talking about, not Fahrenheit...  :o

I'll be in Florida in 30 days, maybe when you get this epic journey well under way you can bring back some warm weather again  ;)

Fair winds Heather!!

[FLIGHT]

SEVENTEEN TONIGHT.

I don't know whether this daily Mayo Weatherforecast URL will work, but here's where it says 17F!

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Mayo&state=FL&site=TAE&textField1=30.051&textField2=-83.1767&e=1

[CharlieJ]

Sure - you may need to tweak the course slightly once in a while- keeps you awake ;D

Seriously, we find that the wind is constant enough around here anyway, to sail for many hours without any adjustment- the wind does swing a bit ( oscillates, but often not enough to require sail shifting. In other areas, that might not be true of course.

We use sheet to tiller as outlined in Letcher's book, but there is a really good write up online here-

http://www.jsward.com/steering/index.shtml

We've adopted the surgical tubing set up he shows. In fact, there's a video of us sailing out in the GOM using it, stored here on SailFar if I could just recall the URL ;D

[FLIGHT]

Hmmmmmm....

Some guy put a post on a forum just the other other day telling me he had an electronic tiller steering which would also handle the sheets.

I was hoping you had something similar.

But I should think such a device would be terribly expensive to produce.

Thanks anyway.

Gene

[Frank]

Two things to add...1- I've sailed over 1000  knm with an 12V autohelm..a joy to use..even for a 'techno phobe' like me (they must be simple)  2- here is my home forecast for tonight..." Humidity: 67%
Dew Point: -8 °F / -22 °C 
Wind: 5.0 mph / 8 km/h from the WNW   
Wind Gust: -
Pressure: 30.44 in / 1030.7 hPa(Rising) 
Windchill: -12 °F / -24 °C 
Visibility: 9.0 miles / 14.5 kilometers 
UV: 0 out of 16
Clouds: Clear -
(Above Ground Level) "....see, 17 ain't so bad ;D

[CapnK]

It's 33 here now, forecast to go low 20's, and the boat is already pretty cold. I'll be climbing into the sleeping bag early tonight. :) Looking forward to Saturday!

Gene - tell Heather that I said Feel Free to post the email I sent her, if she is looking for something else to do. ;) lol

Tonight
Clear and cold. Lows in the lower 20s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph.

Thursday
Sunny. Highs in the lower 40s. North winds 10 to 20 mph.

Thursday Night
Clear. Lows in the lower 20s. North winds 5 to 10 mph.

Friday and Friday Night
Clear. Highs in the upper 40s. Lows in the lower 20s. North winds 5 to 10 mph.
   
Saturday
Sunny in the morning...then becoming partly cloudy. Highs in the lower 60s.

[CharlieJ]

Gene - there ARE electric autopilots with wind vane input also- a small vane that connects to the pilot. I had one on my trimaran when I lived aboard. unfortunately I had an AutoHelm 300 something and never could keep it working very long- it was NOT water proof. Every time I had it in use and ran through a rainstorm it quit. The AutoHelm people told me to put a milk jug over it >:( after they replaced it the second time.

[AdriftAtSea]

A lot of the autopilots, like the Raymarine ones, can use input from the wind instruments to steer based on apparent wind direction.  The ST60 wind instruments can "talk" to the Raymarine autopilots via a Seatalk connection. 

The round-the-world solo sailors use electronic autopilots all the time, and none of them, as far as I have heard, have ever used an autopilot that adjusted the sheets at all.

Then again, even windvanes don't adjust the sheets at all.  If anyone has designed one, I haven't seen or heard of it.

[FLIGHT]

That's great guys!  I'm happy for you!

I'm glad most of you are having great success using an electric autopilot for sailing - without an engine.

Heather doesn't have one on my advice, so don't blame her; blame dumb old me.

Happy new year anyway!

Gene

[FLIGHT]

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Adrift at sea, here's the approved list of the Slocum Society solo circumnavigators.

You say, "The round-the-world solo sailors use electronic autopilots all the time...."

Which of these sixty did so?  Smile!

Gene

[FLIGHT]

Oops - here's the list: http://www.joshuaslocumsocietyintl.org/solo/solotable.htm

[CapnK]

OK fellas, let's keep it on an even keel, and a straight course. :)

We can have differences here, that's fine and healthy - but let's do so while being respectful of others both in manner and intent. Remember -

We're all small boat sailors.

There ain't enough of us to be squabbling amongst ourselves. ;D

Thanks!

Kurt