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Editor's Note: John Potter is a Senior Member
of the OES and Co-Chair with Arjuna Balasuriya for the Oceans 2006
Conference to be held in Singapore in May 2006. He and his family's
mission is to explore remote corners of the Indian Ocean, by sailboat,
working with local and international researchers on coral reef systems,
marine mammals and fish to promote awareness of the plight of the
oceans. The OES is one of the sponsors for this mission. The last
issue of the newsletter, Spring 2005, contains some of his reports
from sea. We wish him and his family a safe return to Singapore,
and looking forward to seeing him in Washington, D.C. at OCEANS
'05.
Jocara Newsletter
July 21, 2005
At 14:45 UTC on 20 July Jocara encountered the motor tanker MT Shoshangana.
First appearing on radar, she shon a light on us, indicating that
she had seen us on radar and was looking for visual confirmation.
We hailed her on VHF and she responded, which was already a novelty
given our recent experiences with passing vessels. We explained
the cause of our lack of navigational lights and she asked if we
required assistance! This was becoming surreal! We shamelessly requested
100 litres of diesel and Shoshangana immediately made arrangements
for us to come alongside and receive 5 jerry containers of fuel,
each of 25 litres. It transpired that she had been alerted to our
situation by the UK coastguard some 4 or 5 hours earlier and that
she was on the lookout for us. We exchanged papers and separated
an hour later.
We are now motoring directly for Gan with enough fuel to arrive
under our own steam.
At 00:20 UTC 21 July Jocara was at 0 deg. 53.7'S, 075 deg. 23.1'E,
making 4 kt in near-zero wind from the W, 133 n.m. from the Pass
into Addu Atoll, leading to Gan.
All now very well on board, with a god night's sleep for the first
time in a week. Now begins the process of working out how on earth
we proeed from Gan, without mast or sails!
The crew of Jocara.
P.S. Don't forget to check out our website at http://www.jocara.net
for updates, pics and short movies, also archived newsletters. Anyone
can join the list or unsubscribe by sending an email to mandar@arl.nus.edu.sg
with the subject line 'subscribe jocara newsletter' or 'unsubscribe
Jocara newsletter' as appropriate.
Jocara Newsletter
July 19, 2005
As of 09:30 UTC 19 July we are sailing south in a WNW wind of 10
knots, unable to get closer to Gan than about 145 n.m. because of
the adverse wind angle. Our position is 0 deg. 43.57'S, 075 deg.
35.14'E. We have been plagued by squalls, for which we respectfully
lower our jury-rigged sail rather than face the disgrace of losing
our second mast in the space of a week. So, we're toughing it out,
waiting for favourable wind. There's a catch 22 here. If we drop
the sail Jocara lurches sickeningly, making sleep impossible. Just
staying physically lying down in the approximate area of the bunk
is a challenge. If we raise the sail, Jocara steadies in the swell
enough to rest, but Caro or I have to be up the whole time watching
squall development to be sure to get the other on deck so we can
drop the sail in time before the gusts hit. We're a little sensitive
about the rigging, you see.
We'd like to think that we've learnt our lesson, but Neptune thinks
not, at least not yet. West winds are unusual here for this time
of year yet we've been battling them for several days now, clawing
our way south while tenaciously hanging on to our longitude so as
not to be swept east by the current and away from our destination,
which now lies due West of us. We remain hopeful that the next couple
of days will bring different and more favourable winds, allowing
us to get within motoring range of Gan. The jury-rig sail works
amazingly well, but it does not have a very high-tech shape and
does not point as high into the wind as one professionally cut.
Meanwhile we've come across some freighters, one of whom responded
to our VHF calls with a heavily-accented assurance that he would
'turn to port to miss me' but who wouldn't say anything else despite
repeated efforts to open a meaningful dialogue. I'm still wondering
if he was referring to the solace of the bottle and faith in the
spirits rather than the left-hand side of his boat. We've also seen
several fishing vessels, none of whom have shown any interest whatsoever
in stopping to help. Today we met up with a Chinese fishing boat
in broad daylight. She came over to within 1/4 of a n.m. to take
a look at this weird sailboat with a ridiculously short mast and
funny Dhow-looking sail plan, but she never answered our HF calls.
She responded to our antics waving empty jerry cans on deck (to
indicate our pressing need) by revving her engines and dashing away
to the safety of the horizon as quickly as possible. Afterwards
we enlarged the photos we took and could read the name; it turns
out this is one of the boats licensed to fish in Maldivian waters
that the Maldives SAR controller said had been alerted to our position
and requirements and which was attempting to rendevous with us.
Right. With a rendevous style like that, one wonders what it would
be like to be spurned.
John, Caro, Casper and Alex (plus Star and Cannelle, who have run
out of catfood and are looking increasingly nervous).
Jocara Newsletter
July 17, 2005
This newsletter comes rather soon after the last, but we thought
you might appreciate news 'hot off the press'.
As of 04:40 UTC 17 July we have jury-rigged our old boom as a mast
with an unholy mix of rope, half the world's supply of shackles
and several sets of block and tackle. We have used our new mast
to raise an improved temporary HF antenna. This morning we raised
a sail sideways to make a reaching Genoa giving us 3.5 knots in
15 knots of wind just forward of the beam. We are presently headed
towards Gan in Addu Atoll, Maldives. We have 100 litres of diesel
remaining, giving us a motoring range of approx. 100 n.m. Gan is
165 n.m. distant. Our position is 0 deg. 19.0'N, 75 deg. 43.46'E.
We have moderate wind from the NW and moderate seas, overcast (but
clearing) with no squall activity.
If mild and favourable conditions persist we expect to be able to
sail within our fuel endurance of Gan. We have asked that vessels
should not inconvenience themselves on our behalf at this time.
We will continue to post updates. The severity of our situation
has steadily reduced from initial alarm (Yes! I finally got to fire
off a red flare in anger! And call a Pan Pan!) to managed inconvenience.
Let's hope it stays that way.
Meanwhile we've had many countries and authorities piling in with
offers of assistance, a truly-heartwarming international response.
Vessels from Australia, US, China and India have all become involved
in plans to rendevous with us at some point over the last couple
of days, co-ordinated by Ham radio operators from Thailand to Chagos
and the Maldivian Coast Guard. It's quite embarrassing to be the
cause of such a fuss.
So, our sincere thanks to all of you out there who have leaped to
our rescue. You can stop worrying now. I think...
John, Caro, Casper and Alex (plus Star and Cannelle).
Jocara Newsletter
July 15, 2005
At 10:30 UTC Jocara's position was 0 degrees 51.99'N and 76 degrees
31.85'E. The weather has improved, we now have about 10 knots from
the southwest with a moderate sea. The crew is doing well. We are
slowly drifting south whilst we are working on jury rigging our
boom as a mast.
We plan to try to head for Huvadhoo atoll as that is the nearest
land to us.
The jury rigged antenna is working well and we can get email out
and talk to people on the radio.
Richard from the Mobile Maritime Net Souteast Asia has been putting
out the word and the Maldives Coastguard is aware of our situation.
We'll keep you informed of our progress.
Jocara Newsletter
July 14, 2005
At 23:30 UTC on 13 July Jocara was hit by an intense squall at 01
deg. 10.5'N, 076 deg. 36.2'E. Her backstay parted at the insulator
swage, dismasting her instantly. The boom was recovered but the
mast and rigging entirely lost. No significant hull damage. 2 adults,
2 kids and 2 cats all well on board and in no immediate danger.
Now drifting south at 0.75 knot with approx. 180 litres of diesel
available, insufficient to reach land. We will try to make it back
to the Maldives. Rolling +/- 30 deg. in cross swell, so comfortable
it is not. Have jury-rigged a 7m HF antenna and requested assistance
(bring us fuel!) through HF nets.
Please keep all sailmail email strictly short and pertinent to rescue.
Hopefully we will be able to send and receive limited sailmail in
afternoons. Cancel all arrangements, if you have any, to meet us.
We will keep you posted as soon as the situation clears. Don't worry,
we'll be fine.
Jocara Newsletter
July 12, 2005
The engine part arrived, it fitted, and Chilly helped us bolt all
the little pieces (and some not so little) back together again.
The engine now runs and even works the propeller. Miracles! The
carpets will never be the same, but hey! we never liked pink anyway.
Jocara cleared out on 10 July with the intention of leaving next
morning. That's when it decided to dump squalls on us all night
and half the next day. At least it filled the fresh water tanks.
Undeterred, we left Gan in unsettled weather in the late afternoon
of 11 July and motored out the pass headed for Phuket, maybe by
way of a little island called 'Pulau Wei' on the northern tip of
Sumatra. So far we've had rain, 0-20 knots of wind (hard to say
since the wind instrument no longer works), lightning and bumpy
swells. Up all night dodging squalls with everyone feeling a little
tender. Even Cannelle looks sick. Jocara has just seen her first
dawn at sea for a while; grey, rainy but plugging along east at
3-4 knots in a lumpy sea and a light breeze from the NE, an unexpected
direction. Just 1500 n.m. to go, but who's counting at this early
stage? Jocara was to be found at 0 deg. 18.5'S, 73 deg. 59.7'E steering
080T at dawn this morning.
Jocara Newsletter
July 1, 2005
This newsletter comes to you from a Jocara stuffed with greasy,
broken engine parts and oily carpets lying to two anchors for safety
just off Gan in the Maldives. Our local mechanic, Chilli, has been
very hard-working. He's the only one on board both strong and small
enough to crawl into our ATF swamp (aft bilge) to blowtorch the
shaft coupling and remove the bolts. With his help we managed to
uncouple the shaft and remove the gearbox to reveal a bell housing
crammed with shards of torn steel; our damper plate has self-destructed.
A week later we've finally managed to order a replacement part (Oh
please let it be the right one) to be send out to us from Florida
via FedEx. Since it's not coming via DHL we might even get it. Oliver
came out from Singapore for a couple of days bearing wonderful gifts
from friends and replacement air filters for our sampling research.
Meanwhile the waiting has not been boring, with a continual stream
of water-related breakdowns to test our patience. Fresh water plumbing
spouting geysers (several times), leaking camera housings (both
video and still), generator cooling pump, a water-soaked wind indicator
shorting out... We also had a 30 knot squall that almost took the
awning away and another that threatened to put us on the rocks in
the early hours of the morning. Otherwise all is well. OK, not quite.
We're out of beer, wine, whisky, gin... actually, pretty much every
kind of systemic muscle relaxant. So spirits are on the low side
at the moment, but will surely be back on top when we get it all
together again in a weeks' time. Until then, this is the crew of
Jocara signing off.
Jocara Newsletter
June 11, 2005
There is something magical about this place that removes it from
the normal flow of time. At least, that's our only explanation for
why more than two weeks have passed since our last newsletter (when
it has felt like half that time) and how come we find other cruisers
who have been living here for up to 14 months at a stretch. Many
return year after year, having become willingly locked into an Indian
Ocean cycle, abandoning original plans to cirumnavigate, or at least
postponing the Cape of Good Hope into some uncertain distant future.
From delightful Moresby Island (with its easy access to the outer
reef, beautiful corals and bountiful fish) in the atoll of Peros
Banhos we moved 25 n.m. to the east on 2 June to explore the smaller,
but better-protected, Salomon atoll. The weather has been unsettled
with frequent bouts of wind and rain that made Moresby an insecure
anchorage. We arrived late in the afternoon, too late to navigate
across the bommie-strewn interior lagoon. 'Bommies' are big accretions
of coral that rise 10-20 m from the sea bed to lie very close to
the sea surface, providing some navigational excitement. We anchored
for the night at Takamaka island, intending perhaps to move on to
the more-popular Boddam island in the morning. We stayed almost
a week enjoying the company of a few other boats, including a couple
with sons of Alex's age. There was a fresh-water well, beachside
paella, home-brewed beer and cookies baked in a tin over an open
fire with live music provided by the international cast of cruisers
from Austria, France, Italy, Spain... Finally arriving at Boddam,
we met up with about 8 boats still remaining there (most have now
left for the Seychelles or Malaysia) and have been quickly assimilated
into the local 'Robinson Crusoe' culture of fishing, eating coconuts
and playing volleyball at 4 every afternoon. The 'hard-core' cruisers
cultivate their vegetable gardens and brew rice wine with their
boats tied to bommies in well-protected shallows tight up to the
beach. We must move on soon, however, to make our appointments down
the road and, looming increasingly large, Singapore. Now we are
waiting for a weather window, a little nervous at the reported conditions
to the north and east of us. Jocara lies snugly tied to a bommie
at 5 deg. 21.3'S, 072 deg. 12.6'E.
Jocara Newsletter
May 27, 2005
After all the fine calm weather during the whole passage to Chagos
we were a bit chagrined when it rained in squalls for days after
our arrival. John turned the awning into a rain collector and our
water tanks quickly filled. Whenever the rain eased we have been
exploring the many reefs and low-lying islands in the western half
of Peros Banhos atoll, wary as there seems to be an offset of almost
a mile between our GPS Position and the Chart we are using. Most
of the cruising boats in these atolls have moved to the Salomon
Atoll (about 30 n.m. to the east) to get better shelter from the
SE trades that are expected to fill in any day now. We are therefore
pretty much on our own, apart from a few boats we come across scattered
about the various islands of this atoll. Still, we've had a chance
to share some stories and info with boats 'going the other way'
and for the kids to find playmates from time to time. The coral
seems badly impacted, presumably from the 1998 bleaching event,
with some additional uprooting of large coral heads in the passes
from the 2004 tsunami. Still, the fish life in Peros Banhos is good,
with lots of groupers and other good-sized fish to catch. Casper
is keen to learn to spearfish! There are also many coconut crabs
ashore, some with claws the size of my fist. We've been bar-b-queing
a lot recently, and had a shoreside bar-b-que over an open fire
last night for the first time since Cocos.
Our website has just been updated with all the latest goodies from
the Seychelles, including turtle hatchlings, chatty logs and lots
of great pictures, so please do visit and let us know what you think
by signing our guestbook.
Jocara is now lying to fore and stern anchors (to reduce the rolling
from swell) in the lee of Moresby Island at the north of the atoll
at 5 deg. 14.6'S, 071 deg. 49.8'E
Jocara Newsletter
May 17, 2005
Jocara arrived at Peros Banhos, Chagos at noon on 17 May. What a
relaxed passage of 8 days it has been. The last few days we motored
the whole time as there was only the slightest breath of wind. We
caught a few more tuna including the smallest yellowtails we've
ever seen! A visit from a booby brought some amusement. The booby
started circling Jocara at sundown, looking around the top of the
mast for a place to land and deciding the lightning arrestor (which
looks like a steel porcupine) would not be too comfortable. It finally
settled for a perch on the starboard spreader. A few hours later
it was gone, but the next morning we discovered a pile of guano
on the solar panel and the dinghy hanging off the davits. As soon
as we'd dropped anchor off a beautiful little island covered by
coconut palms and surrounded by reefs we were in the water snorkeling
to the beach. There's a lot of exploring to do, better get started
right away!
Jocara is at 5 deg. 27.6'S, 071 deg. 48.5'E.
Jocara Newsletter
May 14, 2005
It seems that every time we make a passage, we are surprised. Sometimes
pleasantly, sometimes not; the latter more frequent, it seems, than
the former. This time we have been pleasantly surprised, at least
so far. We expected little or no wind and to have it on the nose
when there was. We've indeed had little wind, but mostly just enough
to sail, and so far at good angles. After poking around a turtle
foraging site on the Seychelles bank (nothing exciting there) and
then a half-day cruising around the 1000 m depth contour looking
for Sperm whales (none seen) we finally set our sails for Chagos,
970 n.m. to the east, on the afternoon of 8 May. Since then we've
caught a 9 kg Big Eye Tuna (delicious sashimi!) and seen the sparkling
phosphorescent trails of dolphins playing in our bow wave on a moonless
night while plugging steadily east, riding a favourable current,
at about 120 n.m./day. there are some privations; We've completely
run out of Sushi Nori (dried Japanese seaweed) so sushi is out of
the question. It's a tough life! We've begun chatting to the 30
or so boats in Chagos on the HF radio, now only 300 miles away,
picking up gossip and details about which to visit and where the
best fishing is. As we'd hoped, there are boats with kids on board.
Casper and Alex sorely need some new friends to mess about with.
We are all very much looking forward to the tropical island life
of Chagos, one of the most spectacular and remote tropical places
on earth and much vaunted by cruisers the world over. We are now
at 4 deg. 38.5'S, 066 deg. 46.9'E, heading east with maybe 3 days
to go.
Jocara Newsletter
May 6, 2005
Jocara is filled up to bursting with fuel, water and food, ready
for the trip to Chagos. We've cleared out and said our goodbyes
to the three brooding brothers (lush green mountain peaks) towering
over Victoria and shopped till we dropped in Mahe. We've enjoyed
our time in the Seychelles very much. Before the mayhem of running
around Mahe getting ready to leave we took a relaxed week around
Praslin, one of the neighbouring inner granitic islands, cruising
from bay to bay, doing whatever took our fancy. Every snorkel turned
up something interesting, nearly always finding juvenile hawksbill
turtles and eagle rays. At one anchorage we discovered a path behind
the ruins of a house at the shores of a tiny hidden beach. The path
led through the forest and over a headland to the other side, revealing
a gorgeous beach with crashing surf to play in. Yet another island
offered the kids a chance to 'go native', clambering over huge boulders,
slashing through jungle and climbing coconut trees to cut down coconuts,
tying them together with braided leaves and stalks. Casper baked
an awesome coconut fudgecake with the proceeds. We also had a really
spectacular dive at a site we call 'cathedral ruins' where we glided
between columns and pillars of rocks with pounding surf above injecting
sunlit plumes of air bubbles. There's very little coral, but always
so many fish! But now it's time to leave, to find new challenges
and horizons east. Just as we were about to go to engine sprung
another leak and overheated, so there's nothing new under the sun.
Now we begin our 1000 n.m. trek to Chagos, a group of uninhabited
islands and atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Jocara's position
at noon today was 4 deg. 17.6'S, 55 deg. 41.3'E, on her way to take
a quick look at a couple of turtle foraging grounds and possible
Sperm Whale habitats before properly heading east for the long haul.
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