S/V Code Blue

2015 in review December 29, 2015

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,600 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Code Blue – Opua to Whangarei December 15, 2015

Merry Christmas – from Code Blue, Best to you this season. Sorry no snow, but we like the warm weather.

We took part in the All Points Rally again this year. One note of interest was the advances in lithium batteries and advantages. This year we did some cruising in the Bay of Islands to the town of Russell a couple of days then to Otaio Bay. Russell used to be called the Hell Hole of the South Pacific with whalers and sailors on leave and no law enforcement. We left Bay of Islands and headed to Whangaruru Harbor and Sandy Bay. Took the dinghy out for a three hour tour of the harbor and visit to a couple of boats. One couple was headed to Christchurch on the south island. s/v Wave Runner, 42’ Colin Childs 1984 ketch who’ve had the boat since new. Another boat was our dock mate in Whangareri, Paul, from last year, s/v Searcher, 40’ Eric Cox steel offshore 1965. We decided to meet up for dinner in Tutukaka the next night.

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s/v Code Blue — Landing at Opua, Ants Again & Judy Ribs November 22, 2015

Fiji folks saying goodbye to us as we left the marina

Code Blue Followers, 11-22-15

Light winds for the most part but then also for a while into the high 30’s. On the 16th winds got into the high 30’s and saw gusts up to 44, but Judy injured herself being thrown across the cockpit from port side into the starboard winch and combing area. Similar to a broken rib feeling she thinks. No bruises showing but can’t put her own socks on or bend over much at all. Her left side from back to front area in the rib cage area is very sore. The last couple of nights she’s been sleeping in the starboard settee area propped up almost in a sitting position. This way she can get up by herself if needed. When laying down she can’t get up by herself.

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Code Blue – Update 11-15-15 November 15, 2015

Code Blue Followers:

Now motoring since about 8am this morning. Winds have clocked to almost straight behind us with apparent wind down below 10 kts most of the time but the jump up to 20 or so at times. Judy’s not interested in tearing up the asymmetrical sail. The small bilge pump is clogged I noticed when I checked the bilge. A small amount of water comes out when I turn it on manually. I cleaned the strainer but that didn’t help. There is a ball check valve at the entrance point of the hose in the bilge that must be clogged. The switch is not working either. I gouged some meat out of one of my finger tips up on the deck, so reluctant to work on this project. The bilge was about 1/2 full so I drained part of it with a big sponge then I grabbed a dinghy hand pump that worked pretty well. About 8 gallons taken out. We have a rather small bilge due to in the keel and bilge area are our integrated built in water and fuel tanks. This puts the weight of fuel and water as low in the boat as you can go. It also offers up a dual hull system in case a log or something penetrates the hull into a tank. I think the water got into the bilge when we were sailing I didn’t notice the shaft was free turning due to the propeller not set into a feathering mode. Previously I checked the bilge and it was dry.

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Code Blue Update 11-14-15 November 13, 2015

Starting place, Vuda Point Marina, Fiji; headed to Opua, NZ
Noon to Noon mileage
Daily

Day Nov.   Total Sailing Motoring
01 6/7   =  85,     55      30
02 7/8   = 104,    104       0
03 8/9   =  98,     74      24
04 9/10  = 109,     52      57
05 10/11 = 110,     95      15
06 11/12 = 131,      0     131
07 12/13 = 113,     70      43
08 13/14 = 111,    111       0
           851     561     300
=          100%     65%     35%
Avg. NM per Hour 4.29     5.23
Hours used 130.8            57.4

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Code Blue – Update 11-8-15 Now At Sea to NZ November 7, 2015

Thought I’d send a message from at sea using our sailmail account. So far weather has been pretty good. Winds 10-20 kts. Blue skies with some clouds now, lots in the past and also none. Saw a boat light last night and tried calling them but no reply on VHF 16. We couldn’t tell how far away it was as it did not show up on radar on about 7 or 8 o’clock position and no AIS targets yet since leaving Fiji. There were plenty of AIS targets inside the reef.

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Finally Back to s/v Code Blue in Fiji October 31, 2015

To Code Blue Followers: 11-1-15

OK, we arrived at the boat about 6:30am local time on Thursday 29th. Boat was dusty and some leaves. Mainly we noticed very small ants crawling up the port cockpit scupper into the companion way from a nearby ant hive while on the ground. We discovered thousands of dead ants in various places, forward head on the soul, galley area, fruit ripen area. Just today we thought no food sources for them and they just died of no food or water, but then we found some moving around in a small bag of small marshmallows and in a bag of prunes that wasn’t quite sealed. Anyway we put the sails on, bimini and such. Launched the boat into the water about 12:15pm on Friday. Saturday we headed to town. Also no internet working. Lautoka about 14 km away. Bought a bunch of groceries. Thurs. was hot mid 90’s and no wind. Last several days are about high 80’s, and wind helps most of the day. Humidity 65% but I have a new better meter not hooked up yet.

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sv Code Blue – Steve and Judy in Pacific NW June 12, 2015

s/v Code Blue in a “Cyclone Hole” in Fiji, Steve standing on stern.

Code Blue – Sailors 6-12-15

We hope to see all our NW friends. Presently our boat s/v Code Blue
is located in Fiji. So far we’ve done about 15,000 miles. We’re now
in Auburn, WA, house-sitting for a while.

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s/v Code Blue – Itinerary Spread Sheet Seattle to Fiji & Mosquitoes May 31, 2015

Mosquito coil

Judy did a spreadsheet in Excel with our trip since we started in
Seattle.  (See below for the Itinerary starting in Seattle)

Steve
Nice work Judy. I love this kind of info.

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s/v Code Blue – Steve and Judy to return to Pacific NW via Air – June 4th May 30, 2015

To s/v Code Blue Sailors, 5-31-15

We’re returning to the Pacific NW via airplane for a while, best guess
is 1 to 3 months but we don’t know for sure so that’s why we’ve booked
one way tickets. We’ll be taking care of various items, house,
dental, medical, dive gear and boat items plus visiting our great
friends and family in the PNW.

Presently, we are with the boat at Vuda Point Marina, Fiji. Their
website is cool with pictures and map location etc.

WEBSITE http://www.vudamarina.com.fj/

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