Fantasy Routing
Aboard Jupiter planning and executing months of complex navigational routing in British Columbia and Alaska is as easy as π-thagoras. So simple that Jupiter’s crew can scribble a few thematic ambitions into the Garmin Marine’s RouteMaker Pro and unlock 3,000 nautical miles of passages and ports meeting the boat’s capabilities and the crew’s cravings.
To facilitate the process the crew keeps mandates clear and simple:
- Environment: Create an itinerary that follows obscure passages from Sidney, BC to Glacier Bay, calculating moon cycles driving tidal ranges and currents, forecast weather and sea conditions at time of passage, and seasonal kelp growth rates.
- Anchorage Locations: 75% of overnight stops shall be at lovely, isolated anchorages offering bomb proof protection from winds, waves and williwaws, surrounded by snowy wilderness peaks, and far from the madding crowd – unless they are listed in our Fellow Travelers Addendum.
- Routings: Channels shall be narrow and tortuous with enough uncharted rocks, shallow depths and overhanging trees to be thrilling, but not so harrowing that Jupiter baulks and the traumatized crew abandons ship to take up competitive bookmark collecting.
It’s amusing to daydream.
In Reality
Route Planning, logging and documenting are as fundamental to travel days as making coffee. Although a general plan is created far in advance, weather, recent experience and bias can reopen planning at any time. Fresh ideas are floated, torpedoed, or adopted based on a majority vote. Ties are broken by force of will.
Routes in planning stage are first mapped on an iPad charting app to understand distance, hazards, and options for getting from harbor to horizon. Mapping is then synced with the onboard Garmin system for live enroute navigation.
Unexplored waters drive decisions unless sea conditions order otherwise.
Jupiter’s navigation suite has long had the ability to automatically create routes, however only recently has the crew found the software to be dependable and savvy enough for routine practice. Autorouting relies on three simple user-specified parameters: minimum depth, distance from hazards such as shorelines, shoals and rocks, and overhead clearance. Within those guidelines machine routing finds the most efficient curvilinear pathway, often reducing overall mileage from user-created routes with clumsy waypoints.
Underway Informatics
Jupiter almost always has a route prepared, loaded and activated on the boat’s GPS displays before departure; however, routes are not followed slavishly. They can and must be altered underway to correct for planning errors and desired changes.
The boat’s autopilot, addressed as Admiral Baranof, keeps the vessel within a few feet of the desired course, but the helmsman can quickly disengage the autopilot by grabbing and turning the wheel, tapping steering mode to steer clear, or by using heading mode to alter a compass course.
The Admiral always requires oversight. Perilous seas might dictate a heading other than the planned route proposes; then those alterations must later be accounted for. In all conditions there are logs and whales to be avoided, working fishing vessels and their nets to outflank, and diversions driven by curiosity.
Manifest Mapping
Tracking arrangements are established as the vessel gets underway. A GPS-equipped iPad is rigged at the helm to yellow-line our track on a Garmin chart. Mobile devices can lose their bearings, occasionally indicating an impossible overland shortcut. At the end of each passage the yellow track is recorded in a screen shot, labelled and saved with the day’s photographic images. This provides a quick reference to determine where a beast was sighted, or an out island battered by an angry ocean.
While in transit a handwritten logbook is maintained noting everything of interest: bodies of water navigated, weather and sea conditions at geographic locations, vessel intersects, creature consorts, mechanical mischief, and extra crew aboard. Place, date and time of departure are inscribed, but it is considered bad practice to enter a destination before arrival.
Garmin and engine logs collect plenty of enroute data including distance, moving and stopped time, average speed, engine hours and fuel burn, which is entered into the daily log. In addition to all the other mapping, charting, graphing, tracking, sighting and writing, logging and blogging, a tiny Garmin device sits on a window ledge and logs our track to allow you to find us live time, anytime, by clicking the box below.
Interpreting the Data
And then there’s this doggerel. Jupiter’s Way twists insinuation, implication and imputation into yellow-lined yarns, sets them against scenes seen and creates a semblance of story. For want of a more reliable source, it offers a squinty-eyed look at life aboard this vessel.
Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over…
John Steinbeck ~ Travels with Charley: In Search of America
In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.
Squinty-Eyed Skewers
Alberta province supplies much of Canada’s home-grown beef and produces a particularly well-marbled wagyu.
In a small saucepan stir together two parts tamari, one part mirin, a generous splash of sake and a spoonful of brown sugar. Add in some smashed garlic cloves and a little fresh grated ginger root. Simmer for about 10 minutes until shiny and slightly thickened, then cool.
Meanwhile slice a strip steak into uniform cubes and place in a bowl. Pour over the cooled sauce, toss to coat and allow to marinate for several hours. Thread meat onto skewers and grill over moderate heat until caramelized outside yet still pink in the center. Rest five minutes.
Peel an English cucumber and two carrots. Pare both into ribbons using a potato peeler and avoiding the seeded center of the cucumber. Slice scallions into skinny strips. Toss the vegetables in a tangy vinaigrette of olive oil, mustard and rice vinegar, and allow to soften slightly before serving with the beef.
I’m Loving your well written observations of your exotic summer wandering through unknown and uncharted waters
Thanks Carole! We love having YOU along for the ride. We now find ourselves wandering back towards civilization which we are also really enjoying – stopping at small luxury resorts and marinas along the way… Not quite the roughing it to which we have become accustomed. Still, Jupiter remains our home as we strive to shed the bad habits we’ve developed during the spring and summer. We are true live-aboards.