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Filed under rants
Tags , accident, navy, vhf
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Imagine our pride at having sailed over 4,000 miles, unassisted, without incident and without a scratch to Esper. I haven’t mentioned that our autopilot packed up early on in the Gulf of Aden, so many of the last 2,000 miles were hand-steered. That’s bloody hard work in case you didn’t know. Imagine, then, our horror when approaching the Indian coast, after our incident-free 4,000 miles, we were t-boned by the stupid dumb-ass Indian Navy!
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Filed under podcast
Tags , net, radio, vhf
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The last update we gave you had us stuck in an anchorage waiting for southerlies to blow through whilst we repaired the damage on a rudder on a boat that had hit coral. Phew! Now that the winds have blown through and returned to the usual northerlies we may resume our progress southwards. This is something that we discuss on The Net.
The Net is a kind of interactive VHF radio show held on a certain channel every morning. This is a recording of one such show where we discuss our tactics for entering Sudan and Eritrea. You’ll also hear some positive words from Anthony of ‘Divanty’. Definitely worth a listen…
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Tags , night watch, vhf
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We spent the first hour listening to the VHF, which was a real education. Having done most of my night-sailing around the UK and then across empty oceans, it was a new thing to learn about Philipino Monkeys. For those who don’t k now, all vessels should have their VHF radio on stand-by on the international channel 16. It’s used as a hailing channel and for emergencies but it can be open to abuse.
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Filed under heavy weather sailing, video clips
Tags , squall, vhf
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Another miserable day on the weather front (the second in a row with no sun), giving us a grim backdrop for the bad news: the batteries had stopped charging and neither the skipper nor the first mate had any idea why this was so. Ocean Indies is, after all, a new boat. This situation meant we now had to run what is called a ‘dead ship’, i.e. no electricity.