Q&A Session
amul muzz:
What do you guys do for exercise out there?
A: Not much. I'm sure I got the most exercise but that was just a matter moving around the deck a lot. Other than that, the most intense work out is cranking the winches. Cranking on those will give you a serious pump. (Winches are the big steel drums with handles on the top which you crank to pull in lines/ropes)
Have you given up on fishing then?
A: Although we were a small crew, we all had somewhat specific responsibilities (which also pretty much went out the door because they were so sick), but Luke was responsible for fishing. I've never been much of a fisherman and honestly taking care of all the other stuff was enough responsibility on my plate. So I basically left it to chef Louie. I'm guessing he became discouraged and stopped throwing the lines in so yes, we pretty much gave up on fishing.
Taj:
How does a squid get on deck?
A: I'm assuming it is from waves. When pounding through seas several feet of thick blue water can come over the decks at times so I would guess they come up when the wave comes over.
What's with the Yankees hat?!! Hello...Where are your Cal hats?
A. As you know, I don't even know if it's baseball season. Dave gave me that hat. It fits perfect and feels good. And it's from Dave! I don't have a Cal hat.
Cal Ryan said...
Is flying fish any good eating?
A: I don't know, but I know their eggs are delicious. Their eggs are the orange glow in the dark looking ones you see on Sushi rolls. The eggs are called "tobiko" which basically just means flying fish eggs.
I can understand how they got there but what about the squid? They crawl up on the side and are too lazy to go off the edge to save themselves? or did a bigger fish chase it out of the sea?
A: See answer above.
Blogger Andrew Le Lievre said...
Do you have fuel to get to the next whether system? Or will you chill out for a while?
A: I have a 170 liter tank (about 45 gallons) so really the answer is no. Others may motor for a while, but I error on the conservative side so at this point in the journey there was no way I was going to start our engine.
Paul
Food stores:
How did you plan it?
A: I used on of my best friends in the world: Excel. I made formulas with number of people, days, etc. Then put the weight of the food. That gave me a rough idea of what we would need. I also put certain food types in the abandon ship bag. So when my dad and Luke arrived in Japan we went through the responsibilities and split them up. It was planned that dad would be totally responsible for food and the kitchen on the trip. I gave him my excel list and reasoning and tried to explain it to him. But he is the "creative" type, so he is more like a bunch of this, a bunch of that, some more of those and we'll be good.
But really. Here is what it was. Canned soup, tons and tons of dried fruit (which was NOT a hit). Tons and tons of random bags of cookies and snack foods. Mac and cheese. Curry mix (popular in Japan- and was also a big hit on our trip). Noodles (terrible. They have some kind of flavor packets which I think have some kind of gelatin and also msg. Really was terrible on the tummy). Lots of bins of nuts from Costco.
But in the end basically all I would eat was a few cookies for breakfast. Then around late afternoon or around dinner chef Louie would make a big batch of mac and cheese or pasta or whatever and that was it for the day.
Where do you keep it? Refrigerator? Dehydrated?
A: My boat has pretty good storage so we just tucked everything in cupboards. The fridge was not on so we just used them for food storage.
How do you cook on a boat with all the motion?
A. It is not easy. But you surely get used to it. Solis has a gimbled stove which means the entire stove/oven swing on hinges. It works pretty well. There is also a strap, like a belt, you put around your waist and clip into the wall so you don't get tossed all over.
Water....are you filtering?
A. I have a water maker (turn sea water into drinking water), but it is low capacity and in the abandon ship bag. So the boat carries 100 gallons of water and is fed throughout through pumps, etc. So we use this water for washing, etc. For drinking we packed 60 or so 2 liter bottles.
Is there anything that you're craving? Or anything, like the beer, that is collecting dust?
A. The wine and champagne also collected dust. The chines noodles and the ramen were just bad for reasons I mentioned above. As for the craving, I think that became clear in later blogs.
Peach....how good would a nice juicy peach go down about now?
A. Fresh fruit and veggies would have been great.
Equipment:
What have the key pieces been? Sounds like the Monitor wind vane is a good one.
A. I really thought about that a lot on the trip. Before we left on the trip I spent almost 3 months solid preparing for the trip. I completely equip Solis for offshore passage making. Key items where obviously the Monitor self steering gear, the wind generator which cranked our our charging power, solar panels, and oh yeah, the radar. The radar saved us. We had originally planned on doing watch, but with the radar we were able to all sleep while setting the radar to "guard" so that an alarm would go off when it picked anything up.
How have they performed so far?
A. Great!
What has failed?
A. I would not say any particular thing, but just a lot of maintenance items. I was constantly checking, pulling, jerking on things to see if screws, bolts, etc. had come loose. It really is amazing how much maintenance does occur out there. My biggest disappointment was my internet connection. It was infuriating. The connectivity was absolutely terrible. It would not stay connected for longer than 30 seconds to 1 minute, so it was extremely difficult to send and receive mail and get weather.
What do you wish you had brought?
A. Paper plates and bowls. More canned/pickled veggies and beef jerkey or other dried meats.
What should you have left behind?
A. The beer. But I was not going to bring it anyway. Luke wanted it. And blankets. They were terrible. We had sleeping bags so I thought that was enough, but dad insisted that we bring blankets. In the first two days they got totally wet and soggy, then molded and smelled absolutely terrible for the entire trip. We never used them.
Senses:
What does it sound like in the middle of the Pacific at 2am?
A. It depends on the weather of course. But it did not seem that different far out as it does close to shore. But it is strange when you cannot see anything at all but you can hear waves coming. That can be a bit nerve racking in the beginning.
Do you get whiffs of anything on a breeze, or does it smell like the ocean all the time?
A. Smells like the ocean all the time.
Aside from the steering wheel, what do you find in your hands during the day/night? Tools, books, fishing pole?
A. I think it is mostly just hanging on.
How do you feel about the space? Small bit of cramped real estate set in a wide open area? Cabin fever?
A. Oh yeah. This is a major thing I never really went into before. Solis has three cabins. The bow for dad, the side for Luke and the captains cabin in the back. The second day out that all changed. Dad's room had a leak and he was deathly ill so I told him to take my room. Luke said his bed was too uncomfortable so he wanted to drop down the table in the living room area and turn it into a bed. That left me somewhat empty handed so I slept on the floor by the entrance for about the first 12 days of the trip. Then Luke and I switched off for about 10 days where I slept on the converted table and Luke slept on the floor. The sleeping arrangements were kind of a bummer for me, but like they say, you deal with the hand you are dealt. And also I am thankful because just switching up sleeping places is not that big a deal. I always think that things could have been much worse.
Routine:
What the hell do you guys do all day now that it's not so, "white knuckle" at every moment? Reading, fishing, or constant attention to the duties of piloting and navigating?
A. Dad was lying down all day in bed or sitting on deck (later in the trip). Luke spent nearly the entire trip lying down reading. I only read 1 book. Other than that my time was split up between navigation, repairs, sail trim, or just sitting on deck talking to dad or thinking.
We want to know the basic stuff too, like how do you shower?
A. Baby wipes. I had already thought about that one before we left. Lots of baby wipes.
Do you have an onboard head (capacity issues?) or are you squatting the plank in 10' swells each morning?
A. Two nice bathrooms.
tokyoace
What and when was the scariest part of the trip?
A. Getting out of Japan in the begining was surely the most difficult/scariest part. Continuous waves breaking over the boat at night was pretty intense.
Did you guys end up catching any fish at all?
A. Nope. I really wanted to and by the end I was hinting to Luke that maybe we should, but by that time we were so close to Hawaii we decided to just wait.
What type of life jackets are you wearing?
A. You can probably see them in the pictures. They are auto-inflate type so that if you fall in they blow up. They also have a thick/strong strap that goes around with two metal eyes on the front so you can clip a tether into them.
Is there a GPS unit or transponder attached in case you get thrown overboard at night?
A. Nope. Apparently that was one of my dads' and Lukes' biggest fears. They would hear me out there in the middle of the night on deck in the conditions. I laughed and thought they were not so worried about "me" going overboard, but worried that if I went overboard they would not be able to sail the boat. hahaha!!
Did you see any other boats or ships out there?
A. I thought we would see a lot of boats. I have heard from others that they see a lot of boats. Here is the tally of human life out there: I think it was only 7 boats for the entire trip. When we left Japan on day two or so we say an airplane. The morning we were approaching Hawaii we saw two more airplanes...I was amazed. At least I thought we would see jets in the sky, but nope....
michelle
Could the way from Hii to Ca be as rough as the way out of Japan?
A. I think so. I have always heard getting out of Japan is the hardest part.
How many days is that trip?
A. Out to California should be about another 20 days, so that would make the total close to 50 days.
Will you be ok w/ just Luke?
A. News flash!!! Luke is taking a plane home next week as well. I'm considering my options at this point...I had originally considered doing the Japan to Hawaii trip alone so that may be a possibility.
You said to ask questions.....now that you've had all this experience, and other than adding paper plates to the voyage, would you do anything different to the boat, like adding more equipment?
A. The boat performed flawlessly and brilliantly. The major problem was my sat. phone which had absolutely terrible connectivity. I should have installed an SSB radio (high frequency radio which works all across the radio for both reception and transmission and internet).
Did the boat hold well after the trip?
A. The boat was great. Only maintenance issues and some minor repairs. More like needing a tune up after a long trip.
Sails were not ripped?
A. My main sail ripped in multiple places. But I was using a very old mainsail which was in poor condition to begin with. 3 days out from Hawaii I actually changed my mainsail to a nice one I had below.
Tokyoace asked a pretty good one; did you catch any fish? did you prepare sushi?
A. See above.
What do you guys do for exercise out there?
A: Not much. I'm sure I got the most exercise but that was just a matter moving around the deck a lot. Other than that, the most intense work out is cranking the winches. Cranking on those will give you a serious pump. (Winches are the big steel drums with handles on the top which you crank to pull in lines/ropes)
Have you given up on fishing then?
A: Although we were a small crew, we all had somewhat specific responsibilities (which also pretty much went out the door because they were so sick), but Luke was responsible for fishing. I've never been much of a fisherman and honestly taking care of all the other stuff was enough responsibility on my plate. So I basically left it to chef Louie. I'm guessing he became discouraged and stopped throwing the lines in so yes, we pretty much gave up on fishing.
Taj:
How does a squid get on deck?
A: I'm assuming it is from waves. When pounding through seas several feet of thick blue water can come over the decks at times so I would guess they come up when the wave comes over.
What's with the Yankees hat?!! Hello...Where are your Cal hats?
A. As you know, I don't even know if it's baseball season. Dave gave me that hat. It fits perfect and feels good. And it's from Dave! I don't have a Cal hat.
Cal Ryan said...
Is flying fish any good eating?
A: I don't know, but I know their eggs are delicious. Their eggs are the orange glow in the dark looking ones you see on Sushi rolls. The eggs are called "tobiko" which basically just means flying fish eggs.
I can understand how they got there but what about the squid? They crawl up on the side and are too lazy to go off the edge to save themselves? or did a bigger fish chase it out of the sea?
A: See answer above.
Blogger Andrew Le Lievre said...
Do you have fuel to get to the next whether system? Or will you chill out for a while?
A: I have a 170 liter tank (about 45 gallons) so really the answer is no. Others may motor for a while, but I error on the conservative side so at this point in the journey there was no way I was going to start our engine.
Paul
Food stores:
How did you plan it?
A: I used on of my best friends in the world: Excel. I made formulas with number of people, days, etc. Then put the weight of the food. That gave me a rough idea of what we would need. I also put certain food types in the abandon ship bag. So when my dad and Luke arrived in Japan we went through the responsibilities and split them up. It was planned that dad would be totally responsible for food and the kitchen on the trip. I gave him my excel list and reasoning and tried to explain it to him. But he is the "creative" type, so he is more like a bunch of this, a bunch of that, some more of those and we'll be good.
But really. Here is what it was. Canned soup, tons and tons of dried fruit (which was NOT a hit). Tons and tons of random bags of cookies and snack foods. Mac and cheese. Curry mix (popular in Japan- and was also a big hit on our trip). Noodles (terrible. They have some kind of flavor packets which I think have some kind of gelatin and also msg. Really was terrible on the tummy). Lots of bins of nuts from Costco.
But in the end basically all I would eat was a few cookies for breakfast. Then around late afternoon or around dinner chef Louie would make a big batch of mac and cheese or pasta or whatever and that was it for the day.
Where do you keep it? Refrigerator? Dehydrated?
A: My boat has pretty good storage so we just tucked everything in cupboards. The fridge was not on so we just used them for food storage.
How do you cook on a boat with all the motion?
A. It is not easy. But you surely get used to it. Solis has a gimbled stove which means the entire stove/oven swing on hinges. It works pretty well. There is also a strap, like a belt, you put around your waist and clip into the wall so you don't get tossed all over.
Water....are you filtering?
A. I have a water maker (turn sea water into drinking water), but it is low capacity and in the abandon ship bag. So the boat carries 100 gallons of water and is fed throughout through pumps, etc. So we use this water for washing, etc. For drinking we packed 60 or so 2 liter bottles.
Is there anything that you're craving? Or anything, like the beer, that is collecting dust?
A. The wine and champagne also collected dust. The chines noodles and the ramen were just bad for reasons I mentioned above. As for the craving, I think that became clear in later blogs.
Peach....how good would a nice juicy peach go down about now?
A. Fresh fruit and veggies would have been great.
Equipment:
What have the key pieces been? Sounds like the Monitor wind vane is a good one.
A. I really thought about that a lot on the trip. Before we left on the trip I spent almost 3 months solid preparing for the trip. I completely equip Solis for offshore passage making. Key items where obviously the Monitor self steering gear, the wind generator which cranked our our charging power, solar panels, and oh yeah, the radar. The radar saved us. We had originally planned on doing watch, but with the radar we were able to all sleep while setting the radar to "guard" so that an alarm would go off when it picked anything up.
How have they performed so far?
A. Great!
What has failed?
A. I would not say any particular thing, but just a lot of maintenance items. I was constantly checking, pulling, jerking on things to see if screws, bolts, etc. had come loose. It really is amazing how much maintenance does occur out there. My biggest disappointment was my internet connection. It was infuriating. The connectivity was absolutely terrible. It would not stay connected for longer than 30 seconds to 1 minute, so it was extremely difficult to send and receive mail and get weather.
What do you wish you had brought?
A. Paper plates and bowls. More canned/pickled veggies and beef jerkey or other dried meats.
What should you have left behind?
A. The beer. But I was not going to bring it anyway. Luke wanted it. And blankets. They were terrible. We had sleeping bags so I thought that was enough, but dad insisted that we bring blankets. In the first two days they got totally wet and soggy, then molded and smelled absolutely terrible for the entire trip. We never used them.
Senses:
What does it sound like in the middle of the Pacific at 2am?
A. It depends on the weather of course. But it did not seem that different far out as it does close to shore. But it is strange when you cannot see anything at all but you can hear waves coming. That can be a bit nerve racking in the beginning.
Do you get whiffs of anything on a breeze, or does it smell like the ocean all the time?
A. Smells like the ocean all the time.
Aside from the steering wheel, what do you find in your hands during the day/night? Tools, books, fishing pole?
A. I think it is mostly just hanging on.
How do you feel about the space? Small bit of cramped real estate set in a wide open area? Cabin fever?
A. Oh yeah. This is a major thing I never really went into before. Solis has three cabins. The bow for dad, the side for Luke and the captains cabin in the back. The second day out that all changed. Dad's room had a leak and he was deathly ill so I told him to take my room. Luke said his bed was too uncomfortable so he wanted to drop down the table in the living room area and turn it into a bed. That left me somewhat empty handed so I slept on the floor by the entrance for about the first 12 days of the trip. Then Luke and I switched off for about 10 days where I slept on the converted table and Luke slept on the floor. The sleeping arrangements were kind of a bummer for me, but like they say, you deal with the hand you are dealt. And also I am thankful because just switching up sleeping places is not that big a deal. I always think that things could have been much worse.
Routine:
What the hell do you guys do all day now that it's not so, "white knuckle" at every moment? Reading, fishing, or constant attention to the duties of piloting and navigating?
A. Dad was lying down all day in bed or sitting on deck (later in the trip). Luke spent nearly the entire trip lying down reading. I only read 1 book. Other than that my time was split up between navigation, repairs, sail trim, or just sitting on deck talking to dad or thinking.
We want to know the basic stuff too, like how do you shower?
A. Baby wipes. I had already thought about that one before we left. Lots of baby wipes.
Do you have an onboard head (capacity issues?) or are you squatting the plank in 10' swells each morning?
A. Two nice bathrooms.
tokyoace
What and when was the scariest part of the trip?
A. Getting out of Japan in the begining was surely the most difficult/scariest part. Continuous waves breaking over the boat at night was pretty intense.
Did you guys end up catching any fish at all?
A. Nope. I really wanted to and by the end I was hinting to Luke that maybe we should, but by that time we were so close to Hawaii we decided to just wait.
What type of life jackets are you wearing?
A. You can probably see them in the pictures. They are auto-inflate type so that if you fall in they blow up. They also have a thick/strong strap that goes around with two metal eyes on the front so you can clip a tether into them.
Is there a GPS unit or transponder attached in case you get thrown overboard at night?
A. Nope. Apparently that was one of my dads' and Lukes' biggest fears. They would hear me out there in the middle of the night on deck in the conditions. I laughed and thought they were not so worried about "me" going overboard, but worried that if I went overboard they would not be able to sail the boat. hahaha!!
Did you see any other boats or ships out there?
A. I thought we would see a lot of boats. I have heard from others that they see a lot of boats. Here is the tally of human life out there: I think it was only 7 boats for the entire trip. When we left Japan on day two or so we say an airplane. The morning we were approaching Hawaii we saw two more airplanes...I was amazed. At least I thought we would see jets in the sky, but nope....
michelle
Could the way from Hii to Ca be as rough as the way out of Japan?
A. I think so. I have always heard getting out of Japan is the hardest part.
How many days is that trip?
A. Out to California should be about another 20 days, so that would make the total close to 50 days.
Will you be ok w/ just Luke?
A. News flash!!! Luke is taking a plane home next week as well. I'm considering my options at this point...I had originally considered doing the Japan to Hawaii trip alone so that may be a possibility.
You said to ask questions.....now that you've had all this experience, and other than adding paper plates to the voyage, would you do anything different to the boat, like adding more equipment?
A. The boat performed flawlessly and brilliantly. The major problem was my sat. phone which had absolutely terrible connectivity. I should have installed an SSB radio (high frequency radio which works all across the radio for both reception and transmission and internet).
Did the boat hold well after the trip?
A. The boat was great. Only maintenance issues and some minor repairs. More like needing a tune up after a long trip.
Sails were not ripped?
A. My main sail ripped in multiple places. But I was using a very old mainsail which was in poor condition to begin with. 3 days out from Hawaii I actually changed my mainsail to a nice one I had below.
Tokyoace asked a pretty good one; did you catch any fish? did you prepare sushi?
A. See above.
Comments
not that it was bad before, you had your kin (in good health or bad), time to set your likings now. Really Darshaun, alone for so many days? in a storm? in a flat ocean with nobody to boss around? ha ha
Have a great time in Hawaii, can't wait to read more...
Love
Michelle
A few more questions:
-Did the Marlin attacks damage Solis at all?
-How does the Japanes blog differ from ours? What are they saying? I saw something about bikinis and beaches, the rest was in kanji...
-did you ever see any sharks?
-did you take pictures of the whales?
-Did you or Dad or the King ever jump in and take a swim?
-Was there a favorite soundtrack selection? If so, what was it?
-Did you, Dad or the King ever attempt to shave?
-Do you think you'll be home for your birthday?
A. I'm not convinced that they were attacks, but whatever it was I'm not concerned. The keel is 5 tons of steel so we could hit something pretty hard and not have any damage.
-How does the Japanese blog differ from ours? What are they saying? I saw something about bikinis and beaches, the rest was in kanji...
A. For the most part I tried to update it as much as the English one, but at times the English blog is definitely longer. I think they said we would enjoy seeing bikinies on the beach when we arrive. There is also some really funny stuff about making the avacado sandwhich.
-did you ever see any sharks?
A. No
-did you take pictures of the whales?
A. I got my video camera but by that time they were gone.
-Did you or Dad or the King ever jump in and take a swim?
A. I was going to but just never did.
-Was there a favorite soundtrack selection? If so, what was it?
A. Bob Marley definitely was key. But we were only able to listen to music 3 or 4 times since the stereo sucked down the batteries.
-Did you, Dad or the King ever attempt to shave?
A. no
-Do you think you'll be home for your birthday?
A. I would love to but it's going to be pretty close so I'm not sure.
Gene
A. The boat has a main GPS unit in the cockpit and I have two back-up hand-held units.
What was your backup system?
A. Sextant.
Did you learn how to use a sextant?
A. Unfortunately not. But I would like to on the next leg of the journey.
Did you have one and if so did you practice?
A. See above.
Did you ever consider any of the atolls along the way?
A. I joked about stopping at Midway, but it really is not much of a "stop-over" since it is really out of the way. But it was just a joke I would make primarily to my dad but I never seriously considered it. My map also says it is restricted so to stop over we would probably have to make up a really good excuse to tell the military. Other than that the only real reefs or chunks of rock sticking out of the ocean are pretty close to Hawaii, so again, never a consideration.
Was turning back discussed or an option?
A. Dad suggested it in the begining but I did not even consider it. I told him it would calm down more once we got clear of Japan (which it did) and there was no way I wanted to turn back and get hammered by more storms close to Japan. I could see another low pressure system moving in at that time and know we had to try and get as far east as fast as possible to stay out of its' way.
hey ron, do you think that "solis" might have been one of the boats uncle joe solis sold to more than one
person? remember that was why he had to hightail it out of florida.