SV Yohelah – Pacific Loop

Miles traveled, day 6: 96
Miles traveled total: 646
Miles to Port Angeles: 3,956

We went 96 miles yesterday, but only 31 were made good in the direction of home. It was a long ugly day and we’re both glad it’s over. About 4:00 we noticed we were making ground to weather and the boat wasn’t sitting as comfortably in the waves any longer, so we decided the wind must have eased too much to remain hove to with just the double reefed main and it was time to leave. When we went outside the first thing we noticed was our US flag dragging in the water behind us – the flag halyard had parted sometime earlier. Then I realized the reason we were moving so much was because we had chafed through the reefing line and lost the second reef. The mainsail was laid up against the spreaders and we were sailing.

We both agreed there was still too much wind to shake out the second reef, so we decided to drop the main and hoist the trysail. An exercise that would take maybe 20 minutes in good conditions (when, of course you would never need to do that) took 2 hours. It was just becoming dark when the work was done and we were sailing slowly again. We took our night watches from inside while it poured buckets outside. The wind continued to ease, so the trysail wasn’t giving us enough power to overcome the seas and we were rolling gunnel to gunnel every few minutes. But neither of us wanted to go outside and deal with the jib, so we put up with it until daybreak.

This morning it was another 2 hours to reverse the process and get the trysail back down, the mainsail hoisted and the decks cleaned up. First thing we found when we went to roll out the jib is that the bow pulpit is completely bent up from the dinghy crashing into the lifelines. Luckily we’ve got a couple of inches clearance between the stainless rail and the roller furling unit on the jib and it will still roll in and out.

Repairs that need to be made outside when we both get rested up and the seas flatten out again: 1) re-tie dinghy into correct position; 2) replace bar on bimini support that came out; 3) reinstall bimini; 4) reinstall dodger panel that blew out in 46 knots of wind; 5) repair the reefing line on the mains’l. But that list is nothing compared to the cleaning we need to do inside. The boat absolutely reeks of saltwater infused towels, sheets, cushions, carpets and rain gear. The floors are all covered in salt water, there’s a quart of milk sloshing around the bottom of the refrigerator, and everything that once was on a shelf is now on a bed or the floor. Normally if we were near landfall we would save the cleaning until we were anchored and rested up. That’s not the case with nearly 4,000 miles to go.

There was one really good thing about yesterday, though. We both learned that we make a good team when things get really tough. All the frustration and unhappiness and discomfort never turned in to squabbling or arguing. We work together really well outside on deck, even during the worst of the weather. On one of the weather faxes I downloaded yesterday I saw another low pressure system developing over Japan. While I wait another 6 hours for the next set of forecasts from Hawaii for our area, we’re hoping to find out we don’t have to go through all of that again soon.

Teresa

Japan to Seattle, first week.

This first week has been an adventure. At the end of our first week we’ve done 836 miles with 3750 to go. Not bad considering we’ve weathered two gales.

No fishing so far, it’s been way too rough. The crew is doing well, all things considered. Maya seems bored and sleeps a lot. Except she wants to play at night, just when we want to sleep. We keep telling her how nice her life will be at the end of this passage with no more overnight passages for a long time. Certainly for longer than her memory is…

Our friends who have been in worse weather will chuckle at this, but there is nothing in this world like working on deck in 45 knots of wind, trying to get the staysail down, or hoisting storm sails. We are always double tied to the boat but with the bow moving up and down 25 feet, occasionally disappearing into waves, it’s definitely an E-ticket ride at disneyland (do they still have the same ticket system there or did I just lose everyone younger than I?) Teresa and I work well together in these conditions so it makes things easier. I also have to say that the second gale was easier than the first.

The boat is doing well. We thought everything was well sealed on this boat and the decks and house very water tight but it’s a different story when waves wash across the decks. The dorade ventilation boxes that are designed to let in air but not water get overrun, with water dripping in. Our time in the tropics has dried some of our sealant so we have a few port light frames which have started to leak. When we get pooped water comes through the aft hatch, although we’ve reduced it as much as possible. When we come in from outside we drip water everywhere, and more collects taking the wet gear to the shower. All this makes for a very wet boat interior. Mopping with fresh water dries things faster (OK, did you know fresh water evaporates faster than salt water?) but its a lot of work and the boat still feels really wet. Today things are starting to dry out.

Aside from the dinghy coming loose and bending a stanchion in a wave that sent water OVER the cabin top midships, we’ve had little breakage. A reefing line parted in the first gale and unfortunately sucked up into the boom. Our boom is around 18 feet and we needed to re-run the line before we could set our second reef again. I felt like McGiver when I fgured out how to use the remaining reefing line to pull the second back through the boom. If you’ve ever looked at the sheave box on a Kenyon boom you know the difficulty. But those problems aside, the boat has weathered the Lows very well. This is why we bought a 30,000+ pound cruising boat.

If you want more up-to-date information about our location and conditions than we supply on our website or via email, look on the YOTREPS website. We check in to the Pacific Seafarers Net every day at 0330Z (3:30 am GMT, UTC, or Zulu). After taking our report, along with the other 20 or so boats underway in the Pacific and checking in, they send in a report to YOTREPS. I don’t have the exact web address, but if you Google ‘Yotreps’ it’ll come up, should be pangolin.nz domain. Once on the site search for Teresa’s HAM call sign KE7WWA and you should find our latest report. If you look around 9pm on the west coast you’ll see our conditions as of 8pm. Times very depending on PacSea’s submission of the report but they are usually pretty fast.

We always report in to the Pacific Seafarer’s net when underway. They have stations on the US West Coast, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Pitcairn, and a few other places I’ve forgotten. Someone can always hear us. They track all boats and send out inquiries for boats not checking in. They also provide phone links when propagation allows and we’ve heard them get a doctor on the radio to give advice to a boat in the middle of nowhere. They also help coordinate search and rescue efforts. It’s a good organization of vounteers, we appreciate their efforts. Another good reason to have your HAM license before going cruising.

So with the weather improving in our part of the Pacific we will continue to look in dismay at the number of gales east of us. Hopefully they stop coming off China soon and the North Pacific High re-establishes itself before we need that half of the Pacific. BTW, if you live on the west coast the weather charts are showing some prety stinky weather heading your way, just hard to tell right now whether it’ll hit Alaska, Canada, or Washington.

That’s it for now, we’re waiting for the weather to calm down a bit more so we can work on deck and stay dry. Might as well get ready for the next set of lows the Chinese seem to manufacture these days.

Rob

Here is our email to the Coast Guard documenting our encounter with the tanker ‘Siteam Leader’. In the report below ‘CPA’ is ‘Closest point of approach’ and is constantly calculated electronically by our AIS unit and displayed on our chart plotter. AIS receives a VHF signal from all vessels over 300 tons, ours displays all contacts on our chart plotter/radar display. Generally we are not concerned about vessels passing with a CPA over a mile away. If the CPA is under a mile we usually contact them at 12 miles via VHF radio and ensure they are aware of our presence.

I have x’d out the name and call sign of our contact in Hawaii since this is being posted on the web. Since this is simply a report of the facts, the tanker’s information is intact. All is a matter of public record, anyway. – Rob

Begin Report—–

I received your email address from Xxxxx (HAM Call sign here) on the Pacific Seafarer’s Net. We would like to report a strange incident with the tanker ‘Siteam Leader’ on July 14, 2010. While no laws were broken in the incident we believe the ship caused an excessively dangerous situation for no reason.

Our vessel:
SV Yohelah
Seattle
Doc #667842

Other vessel:
Tanker ‘Siteam Leader’
MMSI: 565917000
IMO: 9343194
Call Sign: 9VNR2
596 feet, 40 foot draft
Markings: Fitzen Chemical

At 0200z on July 14, 2010 we first noted an AIS target on heading 274*T traveling at 14 knots at a distance of over 20 miles. The vessel MMSI 565917000 was to the south east of us. We were on course of 095*T at speed of 4.5 knots. AIS was calculating a 7 mile CPA based on the other vessels course and speed.

By 0300z the vessel had turned toward us and had decreased the CPA to three miles. In the intervening hour we had not received the supplemental AIS signal giving us the vessel type and name, along with other information. AIS continued to show the vessel turning slowly toward us.

Our position at 0300z was 38* 43′N, 168* 17′E, on a course of 082T at 5.0 knots. Turning more easterly had increased our boat speed and widened the gap between us and the vessel. However, it continued to turn toward us. At just under 5 miles we had a visual on the vessel and confirmed it was a tanker. Still no supplemental AIS information. At 2 miles the CPA was under 0.5 miles and the vessel continued to turn toward us. At this time we received the rest of the AIS signal and were able to identify the ship as indicated above, the tanker ‘Siteam Leader’.

At this point we were amazed a commercial ship would deviate this far from course for a fly-by of a sailboat. As the ‘Siteam Leader’ continued to close, so did the CPA. At 0.3 miles away the ship sounded one prolonged blast on the ship’s horn. Since this is meaningless to two ships in daylight hours within sight of each other, we interpreted it as an attention signal and gave them one long blast back. I then called Siteam leader on the VHF and asked, “What are your intentions?”. The person answering the radio stated they were just making sure everything was ‘OK’. The voice was of a non-native English speaker, although the words were very precise and clear.

I answered that everything was fine here and that no assistance was needed. At the time our boat was sailing along with properly trimmed sails and no sign of distress, as actually had been the case since we left Japan. We had not made any radio VHF transmissions for a week or so, so there was no reason for anyone to suspect problems. I also told ‘Siteam Leader’ there was another sailboat 50 miles NE of us – I fudged ‘Red Thread’s’ position a little since they were over a hundred miles away – it just made us sound less ‘alone’ at the time.

‘Siteam Leader’ acknowledged my transmission and passed 0.22 miles off our stern, we have pictures. Our position was 38* 43′N, 168* 20′E. At this point they were on a course of 336*T, 62 degrees off their original course. We continued to watch them as they turned to port, hopefully to resume their course of ~274*T. We watched in dismay over the next several minutes as they actually turned through almost 270* and pointed back in our direction. Their speed dropped to 10 knots. ‘Siteam Leader’ did not answer VHF calls after the first conversation.

As they were making this turn I looked at the time and realized the Pacific Seafarer’s HAM net was starting on 14300 USB. Since we check in daily with the net I picked up the microphone and called priority traffic. This was at 0328z. We contacted Xxxxx XxxXxxxxx, XXXXX, net relay station in Hawaii and gave him ‘Siteam Leaders’ details. We were due up on the roll call in 20 minutes so no other action was taken. Shortly after 0330 ‘Siteam Leader’ started turning to starboard and toward the south. We watched as the tanker continued to steam south and then west. It stayed on a course of 240*T for a half hour or so and was 15 miles away before it actually resumed it’s original course of 274*T.

While no laws were broken, we do not understand the maneuvers of ‘Siteam Leader’ and consider the situation to have been dangerous. At best they were trying to scare us, at worse they may have hit us – the problem is that by the time laws are broken we cease to exist in a contest between a 40′ fiberglass sailboat and a 600′ tanker. In over 27,000 ocean miles in the Pacific we have never seen a commercial ship waste this much fuel and time to maneuver close to a sailboat for no reason. I also find it curious that their AIS signal was inadequate and that they stopped acknowledging the VHF.

While it would be nice to have answers to our questions, we want to at least make a record of the incident in case this ship is ever involved in similar incidents. Perhaps it’s location should be ascertained in past cases of sailboats missing at sea.

Rob(AD7XA) and Teresa(KE7WWA) Sicade
SV Yohelah
enroute Japan to Seattle

Compared to the storms of the first week and the psycho tanker at the end of the second, the third week has been pretty uneventful. We spend most of our time looking at weather faxes and deciding which way to go next. Mid-week the 3-4 day forecasts were predicting a storm and a gale preceding a low pressure system just short of the International Date Line. We were still 5 degrees short and the wind died, leaving us becalmed in a soon-to-be stormy place. We burned 25 gallons of diesel leaving Japan and getting 150 miles offshore so we could enjoy the first two storms without worrying about land, and we’ve also burned another 10-15 charging batteries – it’s been overcast and foggy most of the time and we don’t get much benefit from solar panels most days. So anyway, with the big winds headed our way we started a race toward the North Pacific High. We’ll know for sure by tomorrow, but it looks like trading a little diesel for calmer winds has worked.

We have a little over 2000 miles left. We have 74 out of 140 gallons of diesel left. We also have gas for the Honda generator and can run it in calm weather. We’ve made a little over 500 gallons of fresh water. Tannowa harbor was pretty dirty and we left with empty tanks, so 130 of this water filled our water tanks. The other 370 or so is what we’ve consumed in three weeks. Since we have a water maker we’ve never rationed water or used salt water for washing. Our usage on this passage is a little higher than normal mainly due to laundry. On shorter passages we hold it for landfall and usually don’t do it by hand onboard because doing laundry by hand uses a lot of water.

We’ve made repairs to a mainsail slide, a bilge pump, chafed a reefing line, and replaced a sea strainer. A few pins have worked their way loose, so far we’ve caught them before anything goes ‘boom’. The Monitor wind vane lines that attach to the wheel were starting to chafe by the water paddle, so we end-for-ended them. One of the water maker pumps stopped running the other day but then started again – worse case I’ll switch back over to the mag-drive pump instead of the 2 Shurflos, a little less water per hour but certainly more efficient. That’s about it for repairs so far – nothing major.

The boat has been sailing itself for most of the trip. We average a couple of adjustments per day on the wind steering and of course change sail configurations when needed. Rest of the time we watch the boat sail. Not that we’re not busy. Sleep schedule, cooking, dishes, repairs, and cleaning all take time. We are downloading 24 weather faxes per day right now, I have a schedule taped to the nav station so I don’t miss one. Together with spot forecasts from sailmail we know enough about the weather to a least see stuff coming. Unfortunately the weather systems move so much faster than we do we can only mitigate the affects.

Nothing else for now, today on Yohelah we’re all wishing we were closer to home…

Rob

As I write this we have around 1500 miles left. There is no real news this week, we’ve been slowly sailing north, northeast, and east depending on the wind. We’ve been close to becalmed twice and are motoring as we speak. When the boat is doing 4.3 knots and the wind instruments are showing 5 knots of wind on the nose, there isn’t enough wind to go much of anywhere. It’s actually been a pretty boring week all things considered.

What makes this passage different from all our other passages is the weather. Most everything else was tradewind sailing in pretty settled weather. Worst you’d see is a front or two passing. Up here in the north Pacific the wind is generated around a series of lows and highs. We spend all our time watching the weather trying to stay between lows and highs, under the illusion we can dodge and weave our way across the ocean in favorable winds. The truth is we are at the mercy of weather systems that don’t follow forecasts. At no point in this passage do we get to say, “We’re home free now, it’s all downhill from here”, at least not until we enter the breakwater at Port Angeles in a couple of weeks. After the passage is over we may say, “That was a pretty nice sail, over all!” but during the passage we can never feel that relaxed about the weather to come. I think this is the most tiring aspect of this passage.

We download up to 24 weather faxes per day from the NOAA service out of Hawaii. There are 1, 2, 3, and 4 day forecasts, Surface Analysis faxes that give us current locations of all weather systems, and Wind/Wave forecasts that tell us what to expect in 2 and 4 days. Most are done in 12 hour intervals, some cover different sections of the ocean. Additionally we request spot forecasts from a service of boat email, Sailmail. We send in a series of locations and it returns a three day wind/wave forecast in three hour increments. These are especially worthwhile in preparing the boat for the winds in the next 12 hours or so. If it’s going to pipe up to 20 knots in the middle of the night, we can ensure the boat is set up for that night’s winds before it gets dark. This strategy has kept middle-of-the-night fire drills to a minimum. Between our weather faxes and spot forecasts via Sailmail, we get a pretty clear picture of the weather, and what to expect.

It helps to have a sense of humor, especially when it comes to weather forecasts. As Teresa reported, our 4-day forecasts from NOAA are the worst case, cover-our-bureaucratic-asses sort of forecast. Of course, I shouldn’t say this until we’re behind that breakwater in Port Angeles or we’ll see one of these 4-day wonders actually come true.

Today is the first day we’ve had the boat in gear in over a week. We have 67 gallons of diesel left, about half of our original amount with less than one third of the trip left. We’ve seen so little sun this passage that the solar panels and wind generator have had a hard time keeping up with our electrical usage. You’d think we’d be home free with a broken refrigerator but we still use a lot of amps with all the electronics and laptops. Did you know a laptop consumes nearly as much as our refer did? Add to that all the SSB radio time (30 amps when broadcasting) and fax receiving times (average 12 minutes per fax, during which a laptop, SSB, and Modem are all powered up) and it’s rare to see less than 12 amps out of the batteries at any given time. Between the Honda generator and the main engine we charge almost every day.

We’ve made 780 gallons of fresh water, our water tanks are currently full since we fill up with the water maker anytime we are motoring. We aren’t fishing. We lost a great lure to something way too big. Before ducking into Adak, Red Thread reported losing lures also and having difficulty landing the large tuna that were striking. Between losing lures and the cold we just don’t think it’s worth sitting out in the cold watching a couple of hand lines on the off-chance of catching a tuna. No hard core fishermen here.

Today on Yohelah we are bored, and strangely hoping to stay that way.

Rob

The fifth week started with us becalmed. When we checked the surface analysis we were stuck between two very weak low pressure centers – who knew you could get becalmed between lows? Because they were so small and weak and our spot forecast reported wind soon, we started to motor when we lost steerage. Losing steerage is the time we check the weather and fuel to see if motoring makes sense – when the wind dies completely the waves stick around for a while, leaving us rolling around while we drift. Not very comfortable and pretty noisy. Fortunately we have used little fuel and can afford the occasional motor-sail.

The wind since has been variable. Predominately from the south, we’ve been able to make good time along our preferred course. And of course today, the end of our fifth week, we are becalmed again. Not unexpectedly. We are directly above the center of the North Pacific High. Since we need to make a couple of degrees east to get out of it we are once again motor-sailing, more motor than sail. Certainly by the time we get to 140W we should have good wind.

Today was the first sunny day we’ve had since leaving Japan. It’s peeked out for an hour or less a couple of times but today we actually had sun all afternoon. The temp in the boat this evening is still 70, warmest it’s been in a long time. The solar controller is claiming a whopping 116 amp hours of charging today; normally not great but for this passage we’ll take it.

On the 1st of August the Seattle based ‘Swan’ with Dave and Rhonda aboard reported the 43rd day of their voyage from Majuro, Republic of Marshall Islands to Seattle. They were almost to the Dateline when we left Japan and we’ve been slowly gaining, we are now 600 miles behind them after starting at a deficit of over 2000 miles. They should make landfall in the next day or two. They started at the edge of the North Pacific High and sailed around it, finding themselves becalmed many days. As you know, we’ve been dodging lows the whole time, I sometimes feel like the Peanuts character “Pigpen” except ours isn’t a dust cloud, its our own personal low pressure system. Dave actually told us on the PacSea net one day they were waiting to see our sails on the horizon; I wish – to pass them we would eventually have to sail in the same weather and Yohelah simply isn’t fast enough to make up the miles.

We met them in Majuro during our stopover there. Very nice folks. Like a lot of cruisers they decided to go light on the amenities aboard, no refrigeration or water maker or energy consuming appliances. This makes the electrical burden so much lighter that the boat can carry much less charging equipment. Dave spends a lot less time and money working on his boat than I do working on mine. However, the biggest issue on a passage like this is water. We’ve had very few water-catching opportunities and it’s probably similar on Swan. We cruised in Panama with a Canadian boat who used salt water for nearly everything and reckoned they went through 50 gallons of fresh water every two months. While it’s doable, my hat is off to Dave and Rhonda for a tough light air voyage. Bet that first shower ashore will feel good.

We are at our last ‘hill’ – the top of the North Pacific High. We were all set to sail right over the top of it until it formed another high pressure center dead ahead of us. It should move south over the next couple of days, giving us light but sail-able winds. Another 200 miles east and we’ll be on the downhill side of things with north winds and an east-southeasterly course. Swan is there now and reported 25+ knots of wind yesterday, 15 knots today. Looking forward to it.

Today on Yohelah it’s the end of day 35 with less than 800 miles to Port Angeles and we are getting the diesel heater ready…

Rob

I guess I should say sixth and final week.

The last week of this was boring as we’ve sailed south east towards the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Winds were variable but mostly good and the passage fine. After the North Pacific High formed that new center right in front of us we had two days of very slow travel. The high then moved south with the center going slightly below 40*N. This was good for us since we never went further north that 51* to clear the high.

Off British Columbia on Sunday night I popped out into the cockpit and saw stars for the first time since we left Japan. Seriously, we’ve been in fog and clouds for six weeks. Tuesday morning was the first sunrise I’ve seen in the same time. Amazing we have to get close to Washington to get clear skies, not exactly what this part of the world is known for.

After 42 days, 5200 miles, and too many tuna casseroles to count we made landfall at Neah Bay on August 10th. As Teresa mentioned, we had a foul current off south Vancouver Island and decided to stop in Neah Bay when it became clear Port Angeles wouldn’t happen until the middle of the night.

Our route took us down the coast of Vancouver Island. We were once again thankful for AIS as we were passed by numerous freighters and spent the last night dodging fishing boats. All three of us were happy to be stopped.

I realized the other day that on this passage I’ve become cat furniture. It started over a month ago while we were sailing through those lows and cold fronts. The cabin temp was getting down into the mid-fifties at night and even Maya with her cheap fur coat was getting cold. She started sleeping with me, preferring to sleep between my legs. It was cold enough I felt sorry for her and let her sleep there, accepting the limitations and moving less to not bother the cat. Teresa thinks this was my training. Now if I’m sitting around the settee and it’s close to bed time Maya will come find me and sit on my lap, or anywhere else convenient for her. And the other day I was sitting on the edge of the seat talking to Teresa when Maya sat behind me and started pushing on by back; I think she was re-arranging her furniture to go to bed.

Neah Bay offered new sights and sounds for Maya. She has never been around sea gulls before, at least not the kind we have here with their loud cries. The sea lions in the marina and sounds of an eagle were foreign. She spent most of the evening staring out her open window, alternately leaning forward to go out, then ducking down as a new sight or sound appeared. At dark she finally found the courage to go out on deck and spent a few hours outside before retreating to her bed (yes, HER bed) for the night.

Our stop in Port Angeles was nice since we were able to visit with US Customs for a while and catch up with Dave and Rhonda on SV Swan after their 48 day sail from the Marshall Islands to Port Angeles. I actually managed to sleep through the night, after 42 days of sleeping in 3 hour chunks it’s hard not to wake up 2 or 3 times a night.

Today on Yohelah we are officially checked in and slowly motoring in the fog toward Port Townsend, glad to be back.

Rob

A week after arriving in Seattle we received an email from the owners of the psycho tanker, Siteam Leader. Quite a pleasant surprise, I never in a million years expected an answer from them, yet they contacted their ship operations company and received a report from the ship. I will post here first our original correspondence to the company which wasn’t posted in this blog, followed by their answer and then our response to the ship’s report. I am eliminating included copies of previous emails since they appear earlier. If you weren’t following the blog then, this will make more sense of you go back and read our postings from mid-July.

First, our original email to Eitzen Chemical sent the day after the event from the middle of the Pacific.

Rob

——————————-

Greetings,

I would appreciate this email being forwarded to someone in authority in your company who has responsibility for your tankers.

On July 14, 2010 we had a mid-ocean encounter with the tanker ‘Siteam Leader’. The Pacific Seafarer’s HAM net reported the incident to the US Coast Guard and we supplemented their report with our own email. The PacSea net also provided us with your company name as the owner of this tanker. The ships details are:

Tanker ‘Siteam Leader’
MMSI: 565917000
IMO: 9343194
Call Sign: 9VNR2
596 feet, 40 foot draft
Markings: Fitzen Chemical (I believe we read the first letter as an ‘F’ when it is in fact an ‘E’)

Our encounter with the vessel is documented in the below report as submitted to the US Coast Guard in Hawaii. I would like the owners of this vessel to be aware of this incident as it reflects on their company, maritime safety, and operational expenses for the aforementioned ship.

I hope your vessels are not in the practice of deviating course over 62 degrees and traveling an additional 7 miles so they can have an unnecessary encounter with a recreational sailboat as indicated below. I would appreciate you taking this seriously and perhaps investigating the decisions that were made on the bridge of this ship that led to the maneuvers around our sailing vessel. Any information you can provide that would illuminate the tanker’s side of the incident would be educational and most welcome.

We are currently underway between Osaka, Japan and Seattle, USA and do not expect landfall earlier than mid August. We can be reached at this email address but since it is received via SSB radio at very slow speeds please be advised of the following restrictions:

1. Attachments are not allowed, incoming or outgoing.
2. Do not include the previous message in replies – the connection is very slow.
3. Due to radio propagation we are able to connect to email only a couple of times a day, so be patient when waiting for a reply.

Feel free to email us with any information or questions.

Rob and Teresa Sicade
SV Yohelah
Seattle
enroute Japan to Seattle

—– Begin Coast Guard Report—–

Here is the response we received from the owners of Siteam Leader. Unfortunately for them, we have photos that seem to contradict their report.

Rob

—– Original Message —–
From: “Unni Thorsen – Eitzen Chemical NO”
To:
Subject: FW: Owner of tanker ‘Siteam Leader’
Date: 27 Aug 2010 08:53:00 -0000

Dear Rob & Teresa!

Please accept our apology for very late reply to your email.

Below is the statement from the Operations Director in V Ships UK (the ship operator) I received yesterday:

On 14th of July 2010 the mt “Siteam Leader” was en route from Panama Canal to port destination Ulsan.

The vessel was maintaining a course 279 and running with speed about 14.2knts, with moderate breeze and sea state moderate becoming rough.

At 14:00 hrs LT the ship was in position 37 47.7N, 175 41.4E with the nearest coast being about 1200 nm away. About 14:30 LT on the starboard bow a small yacht was seen about 8-9 nm ahead, without any ID on ship’s AIS.

The yacht was about 50-55 mtr long and was rolling and pitching in the moderate sea waves.

Several attempts were made to reach the yacht by VHF radio but this was aborted as the yacht kept radio silence.

By the time distance between ship and yacht was about 4-5 nm ahead on the starboard bow they were clearly visible through the binoculars.  Nobody was visible on weather deck.

The ships whistle was sounded and continued attempts to reach them by VHF was made without a positive result.

It was very unusual picture with a small yacht so far away from the nearest land rolling by the sea waves. All attempts to reach by radio
contact had been unsuccessful and no one from yacht’s staff were visible on open deck. It gave the impression that the vessel was derelict or some trouble had happened on board.

On this basis the ships course was changed to starboard about 10 degrees from original with intention to approach close with CPA about 1.5-2.0nm.

At about 15:10 LT the yacht was abeam on the starboard side with distance of about 1.5-2.0 nm. radio contact was made. We received
confirmation that all was ok and for information there was one more yacht about 30nm away.

Good luck and bon voyage was the wishes and about 15:20 hrs the vessel resumed on the original course and continued on route.
———————————————————————————————————————————
If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Brgds John
John Kerr
Operations Director
V Ships UK ltd

And finally, our response to the owners with a link to photo’s that seem to be at odds with the tanker’s captain. I’m sure we’ve gone on about the psycho tanker incident enough now but I thought it was intersting enough to complete the story that started back in July.

Rob

——————————-

Mr Onni Thorsen

Thank you for your reply to our email. I cannot begin to express my thanks for your answer as I did not expect an answer from Eitzen Chemical. Thank you very much for expending the time to look into this incident. My apologies for the delay in replying, since arriving back in Seattle we have hauled the boat for much needed maintenance and have been busy with re-establishing a shore-side life.

I have already sent you a copy of our report to the US Coast Guard in Hawaii, I would like to also direct your attention to a series of photos we took during the incident as the tanker passed by. The photos are at http://www.svyohelah.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=18843, the dates are off 1 day due to the server location on the other side of the international dateline from the boat’s location. I would like to volunteer a few comments regarding these photos and associated discrepancies in the report you were provided from the ship.

1. Weather – In all photos the wind is clearly behind SV Yohelah, we are sailing with a south westerly wind off our port stern quarter on a heading of 82 degrees True at 5 knots. Contrary to the assertion from Siteam Leader, the seas are obviously not “moderate becoming rough”. Wind was less than 11-14 knots, sea state was pretty flat with long period swell even for our small boat. NOAA Sea State Analysis for this date clearly show us between high pressure systems with no increasing winds or sea state.

2. Sea state – With wind from behind us as shown in the photos, we were not rolling in the waves, certainly not “rolling and pitching in the moderate sea waves”. The very small waves.

3. Course changes – Since the wind is from the southwest and we are heading east, Siteam Leader is heading just west of north. This seems to contradict their assertion they only changed course 10 degrees. Especially when you compare Photo 1 with Photo 5 in which they turn more than 90 degrees as they passed us the first time.

4. Distance – These photos show less than 1/4 miles separation between the two vessels. Certainly a bit closer than the 1.5-2.0 nautical miles (nm) claimed by Siteam Leader.

5. Yohelah’s size – At a range of .22 nm, it is unfathomable that Siteam Leader would describe us as a 55 meter sailboat. Our 13 meter sailboat usually doesn’t appear 4 times larger.

6. Derelict – This is the first time our sailboat has been described as a derelict. The Osaka Tannowa Yacht Club website contains many photos of our boat before we left Japan, they are at http://www.tannowa-yc.jp/NOCTILUCA/yohelah/yohelah.htm – also our website has many pictures of our boat. Our last survey listed our condition as ‘Bristol’. Please feel free to come to your own conclusion about the boat condition.

These pictures clearly contradict enough of the report you received from your ship operators to establish the complete fiction represented. I only hope the ships logs do not contain this erroneous information since ship’s logs are generally required to be accurate from a legal viewpoint.

My original hope was for the Captain of Siteam Leader to at least have to answer questions from someone in an official capacity; perhaps the experience would change his behavior in regard to recreational vessels. I believe that goal may have been accomplished and we can hope there will be no recurrence of this sort of incident with this Captain.

I will provide copies of our emails to the US Coast Guard for inclusion in their investigation and also include this in the blog on our website.

Thanks again for taking this seriously enough to look into the incident; while I do not believe you were supplied with accurate information I appreciate your efforts.

Rob and Teresa Sicade
SV Yohelah
Seattle

—– Original Message —–
From: “Unni Thorsen – Eitzen Chemical NO”