Off to Vanuatu at Last

[cat man do]

I got onto the ship provedores to buy a bit of piss for the trip, and the owner said get $700 worth, so I got

12 x 4 litre wine cask's white and red,
12 x 1 litre Smirnoff vodka, and
44 x 1 litre bottles of 4 bell's rum


Plus tommorow we get 12 carton's of beer.


Do you think we have enough???

We did'nt think we'd get this much

1 litre bottles of rum @ $10-00 each

1 litre bottles of Smirnof @ $16-00 each


Four Bell's Rum

http://www.fourbells.co.uk/index.html

I hope it's nice.


Probably make a run for Vanuatu tommorrow night as the Cyclone they have been calling for over a week seem's about the same as it was over a week ago, and the wave height's for the trip aren't much more than 1.5 metres with 20 kn of wind at the moment.

Dave.

[cat man do]

This waiting around is really starting to get on my nerves.

Wish the so called cyclone would just blow it's ring out and fizz out.

After having a week of damn near perfect weather for it with a low not moving, now we have the swell starting to build nicely, but no real wind to worry about.

This site is pretty good.

Buoyweather.com Global Weather Service

It allows you to zoom in to a particular part of the world and get wind and wave height.

All that Rum that we got, and we cant touch it until we are in international water's.

just as well I make my own .

Dave

[cat man do]

Today's outlook is looking like us, so custom's are clearing us out at 1-00pm and we are out of here, well at least up to the top of Fraser Island, and another weather check before we jump off on Wednesday.

Hopfully the prediction will be correct.

See Ya.

Dave

[Boracay]

Have I got it all wrong or is the weather forcast for 40 knots on the nose, with rough to very rough seas and moderate to heavy swells?

IDQ20008
SECURITE

HIGH SEAS WEATHER WARNING FOR METAREA 10 ISSUED BY THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF
METEOROLOGY, BRISBANE 0115 UTC 4 March 2007

GALE WARNING FOR NORTH EASTERN AREA

SITUATION
At 050000 UTC a tropical low [ex-Tropical Cyclone Odette], 996 hPa was centred
within 20 nautical miles of 16.1 S 155.6 E and was near stationary.

AREA AFFECTED
Within 240 nautical miles of the centre in the southeastern quadrant.

FORECAST
Clockwise winds 30/40 knots. Seas rough to very rough. Moderate to heavy swells.

Forecast positions:
At 1200 UTC 05 March: Within 60 nautical miles of 16.1 south 155.6 east
Central pressure 996 hPa.
Winds to 40 knots.
At 0000 UTC 06 March: Within 80 nautical miles of 16.2 south 155.7 east
Central pressure 996 hPa.
Winds to 40 knots.

REMARKS
All ships in the area please send weather reports every three hours. Regular
weather observing ships use normal channels. Other ships please use either
email to marwxqld@bom.gov.au or fax to +61732200221 or satellite to SAC 41
through Land Earth Station Perth 222.
Next warning to be issued by 1900 UTC 04 March 2007.
WEATHER BRISBANE

[cat man do]

Absolutely correct Chris, but we are under the 40 knot stuff, and the BOM reckon we may see a bit of 20 to 25 for the first day and then it should fade out and the swell drop off.

Hopefully mid paddock it will be all good for the rest of the trip.

We will still head up toward's the top of Fraser, so if it all goes pear shaped we have an out.

This boat weighs 47 tonne, so she suck's up 30 knot's easily, not that we want that, or expect that.

Dave

[cat man do]

Fiji map show's 25 knot's from S/E in area we will be travelling.

That is today.

Also note that 2/3rd's of the way out it goes back to 10kn from S/E and over the top of New Cal it veres to a 10 knot NNE around Vanuatu.

It is pissing down rain though, but we have shade cover.

Dave

[cat man do]

As per the Forcaster from BOM's prediction, the weather is washing off.

Today's high sea's report.

HIGH SEAS FORECAST FOR METAREA 10
NORTH EASTERN AREA EQUATOR TO 28S, 142E TO 170E
ISSUED BY THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, BRISBANE
FOR 24 HOURS FROM 2300UTC 05 March 2007

PART 1 WARNINGS
Nil.

PART 2 SITUATION
At 051800UTC.
Monsoon trough from 12S142E to low near 17S158E to 21S170E. Low expected to move
slowly south. Front approaching southwest border along Australian east coast.


PART 3 FORECAST
North of monsoon trough.
NE/NW winds 10/20 knots with moderate seas, reaching 20/30 knots with moderate
to rough seas south of 10S between 155E and 165E. Moderate to heavy N swells in
exposed waters. Low to moderate SE swells. Scattered showers, thunderstorms and
rain areas.

South of monsoon trough.
Mostly SE/E winds 20/30 knots with moderate to rough seas. Winds tending SW/SE
southwest of a line 26S152E to 28S156E. Moderate E swells. Scattered showers,
thunderstorms and rain areas near trough and front. Isolated showers elsewhere.

WEATHER BRISBANE

And a wave height map from weatherzone
Weatherzone - Australia's leading weather resource - weather forecasts, satellite, BoM radar and more

http://data.theweather.com.au/access...us.hsig.00.png



Seem's to be Lumpy in the middle still, but i'd reckon by Thursday it'll be a lot better.

Dave

[cat man do]

Well we left on the 7th and had a glamour ride over.

Did Cato island, a few sea mounts one only 30m deep and could see bottom clearly, went in between Chesterfield and Bellona bank's, cruised about 10 metres off of the reef's at the top of New Cal before going to Sabine shoal's, then down to Port Villa.

What a great trip and an Adventure afterward's.

Up through the Island's around Santo, all around Mallacula, down to the Mescalin's, A Cyclone on my Birthday, and a few other dodgy thing's that won't be mentioned here, but think "Cape Fear".

Can't wait for the next trip

Pic's of typical weather for the trip over, the rock's at the top of New Cal, Cato Island and wreck, and some fish on the way.

Dave

[northerncat]

wheres all the crays dave? you should have been travelling through some great spearing country
sean

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by northerncat

wheres all the crays dave? you should have been travelling through some great spearing country
sean

How goes it Sean

We had our Ni-Van crew pull the pin at the last minute, litteraly 1 hour before custom's turned up, so we did the trip with only 2 on board.

This vessel had no anchor winch, now it is in in Vanuatu it has a winch.........4 Ni-Van's.

Because we caught so many fish at Cato Island, we felt that we only had a limited amount of time before they lost condition on ice alone, so unfortunately we went non-stop without anchoring, with much protest from me, of course.

There WILL be plenty of cray's next time I go back as the boat is being set up as a "pick up big crates of cray and Mud [caledonian] Crab" boat.

Dave

[S/V Elusive]

What is your current status Dave? Where the hell are you?

[cat man do]

Unfortunately back in "Brisneyland" [Brisbane OZ]

Caught the shiny silver bird back a week ago.

A bit sad, but hope to do a repeat on a 45/47 ft 22knot alloy powercat in a few mth's time.

I'll go with a bit more pocketmoney on the next trip so I can get down to Tanna and out to Pentacost for a look.

Only took $200 for the month on the last trip and returned with 1000 vatu [about $10 AUD] and 4 Black pearl's, so my host's looked after me well, but more $$$ would have been handy.

Dave.