Preparations

Some pics from the maiden all women sortie to Karwar... hope to see many more of them. As of now, we are gearing up for upcoming expedition to Vizag for participation in the IFR!

Quote of the day-

Smell the Sea, Feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly...

So far

Its been some time since I last updated this blog. Things have been going more or less OK except for the refit activities that have been pretty sluggish so far, due to a hefty delay in issuing work order to the boatbuilder. Anyway, work has finally started with the engine repair guy coming in for routine overhauling of the engine. He changed the prefilter and main filter and filled in fresh engine oil and gearbox oil in the sumps. He also checked the Oil Pressure and Temperature gauges that might require a change and Volvo Penta guys have promised to come again to fix those two.

Today after almost twelve hours of working on the LED garland for IFR, we finally managed to put it up and set it on the fore and backstay and light the lamps. Mhadei looked beautiful after illuminating.

Dec 8. Mhadei saw the first independent sortie by all women crew between two ports. Our mentor was generous enough to give her to us to take the boat from Goa to Karwar and back. we had sailed off from Goa in the afternoon of Dec 8. we made a very very slow headway towards our destination and even after 7 hours of sailing out we had yet not crossed Grandie. It looked like Mr Grandie wanted to take some revenge on us. After a long wait we finally managed to throw a Mathri in the water to mark the 'Crossing the line' ceremony:D. winds soon picked up after that and we found ourselves doing a decent course and speed. Our estimate of reaching Karwar late was proved wrong hen the winds started picking up to 25 knots around midnight Mhadei was happily doing almost 8 knots after taking down to reefs and coming down to stay sail. we reached Karwar at 0930 hrs next morning and after getting her alongside a Yokohoma four of us headed to Cdr Chikara's place for a quick shower followed by meeting with the FOKNA, got lunch packed from nearby ship and off were back for Goa by 1430 hrs on the 9th of Dec. The faster our voyage was from Goa to Ka, equally slow as it on the way back. winds were constantly dropping and we had to put off the sails couple of times to avoid damage to the riggings. After almost 20 hours of trying to stick to our intended course for Goa, we made it back at 1100 hrs on Dec 10. Our mentor seemed happy and proud to receive us back which was very satisfying. He also took us for a celebratory lunch after that. 

I now leave you with some pictures we took during the voyage. It was certainly an exciting journey.

Targets

1. Prepare list of spares and ration( for 1 month for 4 ppl) required for IFR.

2. Design Ts 

3. Search for sacrificial anode.

4. Stay sail shackle to be surveyed

5. Duct tape for foaming on spreaders

Enjoy the music..of whatever

As a starter....

Short and sweet

Yet another night sortie. To describe it in the minimum of words- It was short and sweet. Good winds from a favoured direction; Occasional thunderstorm activity with winds gusting to 20 kn, so took in a reef with the genoa on and then, what a bang on track to our target checkpoint! So yes, bravo zulu to us and ofcourse to the wind Gods.

Few points to remember:

1.  Secure ropes properly in the rope bags so they do not entangle with sheets fore and aft. Handybilly and downhaul need specific attention.

2.  In case of a handybilly been put at the genoa for donwind sailing, always remember to remove it before taking sheet in for upwind conditions.

3.  While coming alongside, headrope to never be tightened first as it gets the head in instantaneously if there is a slight headway.

4.  Last but most important, keep irritations at bay! Not a favourable condition for sailing:D

And yes, enjoy, the music..of whatever!

Tomorrow, 29 Sep 15

1. See for the defect in Sea and fresh water valve in the galley.
2. Fit back clocks on wall.
3. Foaming work still pending
4. Sea water valve of the engine- ?
5. Change stern rope

Tracing winds on a windless night- First overnight Sortie

Oct 27 saw the first overnight sortie of the Trinity onboard Mhadei. Plan was to cast off around 1230 hrs and get back to Mandovi next morning around 10 AM. The team managed to finish all admin works and arrange for food, water and other supplies in time. By 1245 hrs we were out at sea. We decided to head west for a few miles before opening to South and continue with it through the night. We were expecting 4-7 kn of S-SW winds during the day veering to N-NE by the night. Sailed in pretty light winds in a broad reach making a Southerly headway but the headway seemed sluggish, hence took a call to put up the only genneker that we are left with at the moment, the A3 Genneker. Our mentor says that the day he doesn't have to come out to help us with sailing the boat and he can peacefully sit on his bunk and read his books for three consequtive days, he would know that we are ready. Well, he did get his book this time and we also tried our best to not disturb him with the boat's activities. Fortunately, he didnt as well come out very often except once or twice when he might have lost his resistance. Hopefully next time we sail, he regains his lost resistance!

Soon the evening grew into an almost full moon night. We planned to sail to a parallel course to Karwar and then head back around midnight. Sad that the winds started dropping from 6 kn to 5 to 4 to 3 even touching zero at times before midnight itself. Plan A of heading till Karwar was thus made to drop and Plan B was freshly formulated, which was to head back from a few miles north of Karwar so could make it back by the morning. Our belief in the forecasted winds was triggered when we came to standstill by around 1 am today. No and absolutely no winds. Main and fore sail flapping and we were only drifting endlessly. We then put off a reef to avoid riggings getting damaged. Then what! We could only wait for the winds to rise! Every watch tried to extract maximum of the these least of the winds that we were getting for our consolation. Finally around 2 am we got a 5kn breeze so we could at least steer at 3 kn. Caught little bit of sleep only after that. With barely any winds there was no chance of getting back by morning. At around 11 am winds dropped again and we had to again repeat the drill of latching up the sails , sit back and wait! Finally after lot of lpoitering around, we returned the boat pool around 1545 hrs. Not bad, eh?:D

Tomorrow

1. Put up the Radar reflector
2. Foaming of spreaders
3. Plastimo Life jackets to be ordered
4. Put up the spare stay sail shackle. Try if we can solve the mystery of the previous lost shackle
5. Gas cylinder for next night sortie
6. Check boats laptop

Welcome note

Hi All,

Welcome to Trinity. We being the first three members in the blog, hence the name. As we get more members, may be we shall start looking for a new name:). This blog is meant mainly to keep a record of the work we are doing onboard mainly to help us not lose track. Im expecting any pictures, videos etc. we take of the boat or the  three of us that we share/do not share in our watsapp group to be put here may be by the end of every week. Its only for our own record-keeping. Also, lets start posting any informative stuff we come across in the net or other sources on this blog.

And yes, feel free to speak up anything and everything here. Its only going to help us in the long run. So i hope we keep this blog active and running.

Cheers!