Best news of all! Just heard that she’s arrived, and all is well!!!

Shirley’s blog post with the story:
http://speedwelladventures.com/blog/slow-trip-to-the-gambier-islands/

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Putting the Internet to some of its best use, this post is not about AUKLET. Rather, it is for anybody sailing in the Pacific, or who might know anybody sailing in the Pacific at the moment, roughly between the Panama Canal and French Polynesia, who might have run across the boat in this photo during the last few months. Shirley, I very much hope that you are about to arrive safe and sound, and that you will forgive that I am taking the liberty of posting this concern for your whereabouts all over the place. It is my great hope that A, it will be completely unnecessary, and B, that if things have become seriously difficult, that all this word might help lead to just the right help.

Following is a message, with details, that I posted to my Facebook page this morning. For those who use Facebook, it can also be found here: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=624410714611586&id=100011279893542
Please feel free to share this around – information moves like a flash nowadays, especially through already established networks. Like ocean sailors. Again, Shirley, I hope that you will forgive this – if nothing else, a LOT more people will be knowing about your blog! Hoping that we will all be hearing of your safe arrival very soon.

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The text of the Facebook post:

Has anybody sailing in the Pacific seen this boat in the last three months (since mid-May, 2018)? Shirley Carter, on the 25 foot junk rig sailboat Speedwell of Hong Kong, is overdue in her passage from the Islas Perlas, off of the Panama Canal, to the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. She left from the Islas Perlas around May 10, 2018. Friends and family are concerned, as she expected to make the trip in less than 60 days.

Shirley is a very experienced and competent sailor, who has done extensive cruising and living aboard for many years. There is some thought that very light wind in the early part of the passage may have slowed her down considerably, and may have also contributed to bottom growth that could have continued to slow the boat even after she got into the trades. Because Shirley is hearing impaired, she has limitted radio communications aboard. If anybody sees her boat, could you please let us know, and if possible check on her well-being? She carried food and water for 60 days, though will have likely started rationing that when she saw how slowly progress was going. The boat has an engine, but fuel supply was limited.

As you can see in the photos, Speedwell is very easy to spot. If anybody has seen this boat in the last couple of months, it would be very helpful to know, even roughly, where that was. Please feel free to copy and paste this post, or to share it from my personal FB page, to any groups with members who might have seen Speedwell and Shirley, or who could be on the lookout in that part of the Pacific.

Many thanks,
Shemaya Laurel
ShemayaLaurel (the usual e-mail format) yahoo com

Here’s the link for Shirley’s blog – it includes a great description of her recent passage through the Panama Canal. http://speedwelladventures.com/blog/
Note that she built a new sail a couple of years ago. Both the old and the new are bright yellow, but the new one may not have the black image high on the sail that shows in many of her blog photos.

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The link for this AUKLET blog post can of course also be shared…

Guy, just so you know, the network of Facebook sailors is vast. I shared the above post to the group Women Who Sail, which has over 16,000 members. Many of those members, including quite a few who sail in the Pacific, have now also shared this post to other substantial cruising sailor Facebook groups. Folks will be looking for Shirley, and telling their friends who are in the region, truly worldwide. Hopefully she will forgive me for this – it’s a chance I’m willing to take, in the hopes that somebody will see her boat and offer whatever assistance might be needed. Many messages of good wishes have also come in. Hopefully she’ll be showing up any day now!

Speedwell of Hong Kong, April 2018, getting ready to go through the Panama Canal westbound.

Having a proper float plan form, filled out with crucial details about the boat, its occupants, where we expect to be, and what to do if we aren’t, has been on the to-do list for a very long time. Progress was made before the recent sail, but the completed item was not quite ready. Suzanne has been the informal holder of the float plan for all of these trips, as we stay in touch while I’m out and about, including about plans and checking in after arrival, and she knows the boat and has access to an assortment of records. Still, managing this so casually has not been the proper way to do things, and would add difficulty in the event of an actual emergency. Since arriving home I’ve come back to the float plan project, and the form itself is finally in order. I’ve found it helpful for thinking through equipment lists, as well as for gathering all the assorted boat information in one place, completely apart from the float plan’s official purpose.

There are several float plan forms available on the Internet (linked below). They provide for varying degrees of detail, but no single one that I found seems to include everything. This inspired me to start making a list that would cover all of the items from all the publicly available float plans that I could come up with, as well as details that were not listed anywhere but that have seemed important. Then I had some fun formatting, making a blank for my own use over time. It seems that other people inclined for the more thorough version of this sort of thing might find this form useful also, so voilà: here is yet another blank float plan available on the Internet…

Here’s a version in XML format, for anybody who would like to copy this and then make changes of their own: composite float plan-blank-XML (Please note that if you want to keep the original layout, the margins will need to be set at 0.5 all the way around – this setting is sometimes lost during the download process.)

And here’s a version in PDF format, for those who might want to simply print the pages and fill them in by hand: composite_float_plan-blank-pdf

At the bottom of both versions is a page with links to each of the float plans that I found already available, from official sources like Boat US, and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary; there is also a link for a page about why it can be a good idea to write one up. All of these references are copied in a tab near the top of the Sailing AUKLET home page, for easy access… Comments/suggestions are welcome.

Here’s to another safety item that one hopes to never actually put to the test!

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Resources:

Boat US: http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/FloatPlan.pdf

Coast Guard Auxiliary Association: http://www.floatplancentral.org/download/USCGFloatPlan.pdf

Nautical KnowHow: http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/boating/float1.htm

US Power Squadron: http://www.usps.org/o_stuff/fp_form.html

Why Prepare a Float Plan: http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/float_planning.aspx

Two or three weeks ago I learned a new trick with the blog, and as a result there are now a couple of additional headings that you can click on at the top of the main page. One of them says “Say Hello!” But it hasn’t been getting much traffic, and I think that the folks who “follow” the blog don’t see it at all. So here’s a link: http://sailingauklet.com/say-hello/

It’s utterly intriguing to me, the question of who’s actually reading this stuff. If you’d like to say a quick hello, or introduce yourself more thoroughly, it would be a real treat. And thank you to all of you who have been in touch already! I think that it’s fun for other readers, as well as for me.

So please do consider yourself invited… Here in the northern hemisphere – and especially for those of us in the somewhat more northern part of the northern hemisphere – it’s now snowy and cold. I’m writing this at one in the afternoon, and it’s 15°F outside, with snow falling. What better than to hang around and visit! I hope you’ll join in.

With very best wishes for wonderful holidays,
Shemaya

Well, I understand that the blog post titled “Change” accidentally went out to all the followers again yesterday! This is because I was tinkering with settings, on the theory that perhaps it would be good to have this blog not include this particular post and similar ones. “Thoughts on Rescue” is also in this category, getting into the overlaps between sailing and trauma recovery. I have thought of moving these posts into a separate blog specifically for that collection of work.

Now that the post titled Change has been unintentionally brought to everybody’s attention again, it seems like a good opportunity to ask readers – since there are quite a few at this point, much to my amazement! – what you think. Does it matter to anybody, one way or the other? Do you have preferences for seeing the blog Sailing Auklet focused on trip stories, boat organization, and sailing/boat handling, and leaving the deeper stuff about Why Go Sailing to a separate place with a link? Or are you reading this blog actually because it includes the whole story, in all its intertwined, complicated ways?

If you’re inclined to let me know, please do! Either by commenting here or sending an individual e-mail. Thanks!

Next post, a tiny update…

I have started this blog knowing full well that I, who write by speech recognition, have laryngitis. Precious bits of voice come and go, are measured, metered throughout the day, for so many necessities. Social connection, help, and stupid phone calls related to Internet order confusion.

I think about
what I really want to say.

This blog, begun now, in preparation for sailing. Because I had more to say last year than made sense for photo album captions. And because it seemed it would be easier to figure out at home, with endless computer electricity, and near-seamless Internet connection. I was right about that, and I’m glad that I did.

AUKLET launch 2013 has now been planned and postponed for enough dates that I’m not even telling people the new one. Maybe it’ll happen, and I’ll write from the water!

Meanwhile, driveway projects continue – and I write.