Category Archives: Education

Hangin’ in Puerto Vallarta waiting for Wind

A little about WEATHER

We’re still in Puerto Vallarta waiting for the right weather window to open up for the jump to the Marquesas.  I attended a Puddle Jump weather seminar put on by Mike from PV Sailing and learned a lot.  It’s looking like this year the jump window (prime time to depart from Mexico) will open up later than normal–around the 3rd week of March.  We’ve been experiencing El Nino trends since 2012 where a band of warm sea surface temperatures develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific.  This affects surface pressure in the southern hemisphere and sometimes means lighter trade winds in the south pacific.

We had hoped to leave around March 15, but will stick around until the weather gods give the go-ahead.  It all has to do with the Pacific high stabilizing and moving into place so we can sail along the 1015 millibar barometric pressure line.  When this happens, then you wait for a cold front to come down the outside of the Baja peninsula that will give you the push needed to reach the trades, which typically takes 4 good running days.  If you leave at the wrong time, there will be too little wind and, unless you motor, you’ll be going nowhere fast.

So we’re keeping a close eye on the weather trends.  The images shown below are part of what we look at.  These are NOAA charts for a region of the Eastern Pacific and can be downloaded from the internet when land based, or from single sideband when at sea.  The top one shows barometric pressure lines and the ITCZ (inter-tropical convergence zone ie doldrums) for today, March 1, 2015.  Puerto Vallarta is at 20.7N, 105.3W, and we want to cross the equator near the 125 degree longitude line.  The diagram shows a large part of the pacific sitting at a pressure of 12 (1012 millibar), meaning there would be very light winds.

03-24Hr-Surface-Forecast

The next diagram shows wind and wave height for the same region.  The wind barbs point in the direction of the wind, and show the wind strength (each full barb represents 10 knots of wind, and half barbs are 5 knots, so the one in the top left is 20 knots, and the 3rd one down is 25 knots).  The numbers next to the wind  barbs represent average wave height (mostly 7-8 feet in the diagram).  If you compare the 2 diagrams, you will notice that the higher wind occurs near the higher pressure gradients–in the upper left.

06-24Hr-Wind-and-Sea-Forecast

The diagram below indicates areas that are predicted to exceed 35 kt winds.  It’s something we will look at every day during the crossing and we want it to look exactly like below–area void of high winds!13-E_ Pacific High Wind and Seas

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Wilderness Medicine Course

Being a health practitioner and in preparation for our upcoming offshore excursion I decided to “brush up” on some Wilderness Medicine.

The meeting was attended by a large variety of healthcare professionals from physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners to EMTS and medical students. The topics included Alpine and Travel medicine to search and rescue and fracture/dislocation reduction/immobilization plus a variety of hands on practical courses like knot tying, things for your medical kit.

There were also guest presentations from a variety of speakers for interest.

Dr Matt Oliva, an ophthalmologist presented his work with in Nepal with the Himalayan Eye Project. This organisation’s quest is to cure blindness with a simple cataract operation through training, mobile field hospitals and grassroots local clinics. The model has been so successful that they’re now implementing a similar model in Ethiopia. It was inspirational to watch videos of people who were previously blind for years when the bandages were taken off a day after their surgery. The pure joy on their faces when they realised they could see again and the dancing and celebration!

Dr Micheal van Rooyen talked about the Frontiers of Humanitarian Medicine, touching on the quest to eradicate malaria in the third world and the emergence of dengue fever as a new threat to those who live and visit the tropics. There is exciting emerging science in the field of mosquito borne diseases that will hopefully make a difference in the coming years to eradicate these diseases that cause a lot of morbidity and mortality.

Dr Karen van Hoesen talked about her expedition to Antarctica to test new SCUBA regulators under the polar ice cap. The photos were spectacular and amazing.

The things that I learnt from the meeting are as follows.

1. Dengue Fever is on the rise in the tropics. This is a mosquito borne disease causing a flu like illness of high fever and pain, often called breakbone fever” which can be debilitating. It is now prevalent in ALL areas tropical. For those exposed to it a number of times you are in danger of getting Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever which is also life threatening. There is no vaccination, no treatment and no cure for this disease. All that can be done is “supportive therapy” hence treating the symptoms.

An ounce of prevention is better than any cure. These mossies bite during the day as well as night! Wear long sleeve clothing, use lots of insect repellant, sleep under a net.

www.cdc.gov/Dengue/prevention/index

wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2014/chapter-2-the-pre-travel-consultation/protection-against-mosquitoes-ticks-and-other-insects-and-arthropods

2. Diarrhea is very common, you will get it and it will make you miserable but it won’t kill you.

Prevention is better than cure especially in underdeveloped countries where there may be feces in the soil etc. Purell doesn’t remove a lot of these bugs so carry some soap and water with you to wash your hands. Don’t use community soaps or towels. Boil/treat your drinking water and use this to brush your teeth as well.

wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2014/chapter-2-the-pre-travel-consultation/travelers-diarrhea

Pepto Bismol can help with the treatment of diarrhea and pull out the antibiotics only if it doesn’t get better or if you’re immunocompromised.  Loperamide for symptoms if needed. If you’re in South East Asia, Ciprofloxacin resistant Campylobacter is on the rise so you may need to take a different antibiotic there. Consult your medical practitioner.

3. I probably need some ear drops to prevent “swimmers ear” and for barotrauma from diving and some more ophthalmic drops for eye injuries and infections in my medical kit, which I didn’t think about.

4. A great refresher on how to reduce dislocations and simple fractures and the uses of SAM splints which i’m going to pack in my medical kit.

5. Safety pins and duct tape are useful improvisation tools for your medical kit.

Now I’m off to pack my Medical Kit.

 

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14th Annual Seattle Women’s Boating Seminar

The freezing temperature today made it a perfect day to spend indoors at the Seattle Women’s Boating Seminar. It was my third time attending and I’m amazed how much there is to learn from the women giving the lectures and how inspiring it is for me to attend. Being held at the end of Winter, it does tend to get me out of my winter boating blues and thinking of our next cruise this summer and how we should prepare for it.

Today I learnt about using our Radar from Linda Lewis who was very practical in her approach and made it seem simple – boy did I wish I did this before our trip last year when we sailed in the pea soup fog around the San Juan Islands and Straits of Juan de Fuca.

Nancy Erley talked about leadership roles comparing Captains Kirk and Bligh which I think Jim really needs to attend!!  Nancy has circumnavigated the globe twice and runs a womens sailing course on her own boat Tethys.

Lynne Reister an accredited marine surveyor talked about surveying your boat and showed great pictures on what to look for which led me to think that perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on Jim when he says he needs to do maintainence on the boat – especially after the stories of how boats end up sinking while still moored!!!

Wendy Hinman who has a lot of sailing miles under her belt gave us tips and tricks on cruising which were really useful and has a great blog Velella’s Adventure which has more information crucial for our big trip.

We also heard about spring maintainence from Judy Nasmith which made me think more of Jim and how much work we both have to do to get the boat ready for the sailing season. So Jim, please spend as much time as you need on the boat to fix er up!

The last talk of the day was given by Kaci Cronkhite who has run the wooden boat festival at Port Townsend for a number of years. She gave an inspirational talk of her life and how she started sailing and circumnavigating the world  with Nancy Erley.

It gives me great inspiration that there are a lot of women out there sailing whom have done a lot of miles with a much experience and are interested in teaching and educating those of us who are just starting out. To think that these great lectures only cost a measly $90 which probably only covers the venue and lunch is a testament to their dedication to education!

So to all you women sailors out there – it’s time to get your boat ready for this years sailing season. Get out there and enjoy yourselves!!

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