Month: April 2025

Current Position: 9 13.463’S 138 07.952’W (Hiva Oa) Local Timezone: UTC-9 1/2; HDG: N/A; COG: N/A; SOG: N/A; TWS: ?; TWD: ?; TWA: ?; Distance to Waypoint (Hiva Oa): at anchor; Total Miles Sailed: 3422 nm;
Comments: I fixed the bent bowsprit extension and worked on getting the damaged stanchion free so I can have it welded.

Current Position: 9 13.463’S 138 07.952’W (Hiva Oa) Local Timezone: UTC-9 1/2; HDG: N/A; COG: N/A; SOG: N/A; TWS: ?; TWD: ?; TWA: ?; Distance to Waypoint (Hiva Oa): at anchor; Total Miles Sailed: 3422 nm;
Comments: I walked to Atuona yesterday. It was not very far, maybe a mile and a half. However, my feet have not touched terra firma in the better part of four weeks, and the trek was brutal. There is a strange mussel on my hull, so I need to add scrapping them off to my list. Overnight, a 60’ catamaran anchored next to me, LIA The crew, a Mormon family, invited me to go to church services. Besides myself and the family I went with, everyone at the Easter service were locals. All were very friendly, especially Pifa, one of four police officers on the island (population 2000). He translated the southern Marquesan and French for me during the service. I asked him if his family was in attendance and he said, “We are all family. You know how it is. My ex-wife is my cousin. When we get married, we have to move out of our house.” After the service, he invited me for lunch. The experience was one-of-a-kind and I will report it in a separate post. Although I did not spend much time on the boat today, I did remove the sail pack in preparation for repairing the zipper and fixing the issue with the fraying reefing lines.

Current Position: 9 13.463’S 138 07.952’W; Local Timezone: UTC-9; HDG: 213; COG: 215; SOG: 5.7 kt; TWS: ?; TWD: ?; TWA: ?; Distance to Hiva Oa: approximately 70 nm; Total Miles Sailed: 3342 nm;
Comments: The winds yesterday afternoon were unexpectedly light. I managed 3.5-4 kt with a beam reach and a heading of about 200 with the full Yankee and a reefed main. The wind vane struggled with the light winds and when I used it the sails would flag with the waves, so I used the TillerPilot. About 19:30 the wind picked up to perhaps 10 kt and I was about to achieve 5 kt on a broad reach after relaxing the Yankee sheet. I switched to the wind vane and when to sleep with alarms on two hour intervals. I woke up at 21:00 because the boat was overpowered. The wind had picked up. I furled half the Yankee and adjusted the wind vane for a heading of about 215. The boat was traveling 6-6.5 kt. At some point I am going to have to jog S, but I may not be able to do that without putting a second reef in the main, unless I get another lull in the wind … something to deal with in daylight hours. At 22:30, the boat was doing 7 kt at about 220. The boat seemed overpowered in I am guessing were 18 kt winds that I thought was a gust, as predicted. I stayed away to watch what developed, reluctant the depower by turning W as I knew that would bring on the longitude of Hiva Oa quickly and make it difficult to get an angle on its S side. Probably the furthest point I could safely turn south from this point is 10h away at this speed, so I have plenty of time. If the wind continues, my choices are to heave to or overshoot Hiva Oa from the N and approach the anchorage from the leeward side of the island. At 1:00 I heaved to in 20+ kt winds. The boat has rounded up to 200 and was surfing at 7.5-8 kt. I tried slowing her down by heading up wind, but the wind was too strong for the wind vane. I was 108 nm from the waypoint and two hours ahead of schedule. She had traveled 50 nm in 7h (7.2 kt average speed, even after being kept to 4 kt for 3 of those 7 hours). The boat drifted the opposite direction I had came at about 2 kt. These are times that I really appreciated my wind instruments as I would have set an alarm to alert me when the winds decreased. By 5:00 it was light enough to see the water. The waves were white capped, the boat was heeled over 22 degrees, and it had drifted 6 nm in 4h. The winds were the strongest of the passage, probably 30 kt. I would need to put a second reef in the main to continue, and it was too dangerous to work on the foredeck, especially because I will need to work on both sides of the mast. The temporary halyard is on the port, but the pendant and reefing line is on the starboard. I am in no rush. I don’t plan to arrive at Hiva Oa until tomorrow and I have 36h to do the 120 nm or so. This isn’t localized weather, a squall, and it was not forecasted. I had some difficulty getting a new forecast, but when I finally did, it was clear that I am not alone most of the boats I was following are also heaved to and there is a lightning warning for Hiva Oa suggesting it is getting hit by a storm. It is 6:00 and supposed to be daylight, but it is still dark outside. At 6:30, almost an hour after sunrise. It is still dark. The waves are short, steep, and white-capped. The wind often settles down after sunrise, so I’m going to give it a bit, then try to reef the main. I just noticed the vane on the wind vane is only partially attached. The high winds have blown it over. I do not believe there is a risk of loosing it because it is attached by a lanyard, but I will have to reattach it before I can get underway again, and the thought of leaning over the back of a pitching stern to do that is not appealing. By 7:15 I had fixed the wind vane, put a second reef in the main, and had a heading of 210 at 5.5-6 kt on a beem reach with the double reef and half the Yankee. I had large, closely-spaced waves to the port, some breaking over the cowling. I stayed below and monitored the boat’s speed and course using the Cortex system. It took an hour to make up the distance the boat drifted last night. The 9:00 check showed I had made (193-106) 87 nm to the waypoint, quite a bit as most of the night was spent heaved to and drifting in the wrong direction. By late morning the wind speed had decreased and the boat was going 4.5-5 kt. I made no effort to improve the speed because it was consistent with my plan for an early morning arrival. At noon I plotted a waypoint (#27) E of the island and at the entrance to the southern channel it was 70 nm away. At the present speed, I would reach it around 1:00. From there, it would be 25-30 nm to the anchorage. I will try to sail it, but there is an island to the S and the prevailing wind is straight up the channel. I sorted out the chain locker. It took the better part of an hour to untangle the chain. The late afternoon became partly cloudy, relatively sunny Since early this morning I have sailed with a partial Yankee and two reefs in the main, making 5-6 kt. If this continues for the next 8h, I will arrive at waypoint #27. If so, I will heave to outside the channel for a couple of hours, then continue on.

Current Position: 8 00.078’ S 137 04.499’W; Local Timezone: UTC-9; HDG: 214; COG: 225; SOG: 2.8 kt; TWS: ?; TWD: ?; TWA: ?; Distance to Waypoint (Hiva Oa): 159 nm; Total Miles Sailed: 3233 nm;
Comments: Because of the spray and rough seas yesterday, I had to spend almost the whole day below. Although the storms are a pain to navigate through and the cloud cover limits the amount of solar energy I can collect, one advantage ii it is not as hot below. Still very hot and humid … but bearable. At dusk I sat in the cockpit though and are a pan of Ramen noodles and took note that it looked pretty clear to the E. At 20:00, there was a strong wind driving the boat 6 kt in a course of 200. I could see some stars, but it was clearly overcast. According to the PW route, I was as supposed to head more S to avoid some dead air to my W, but that appears to be unnecessary and my present course puts me a couple of hours ahead. There is no way I can reach Hiva Oa by Friday night, so at some point I am going to have to slow down, either on purpose or because of the weather. I can always heave to Friday night if necessary. I woke at 21:30. The boat was doing 6.5 kt in strong wind, but was on course. The moon was up and the skies looked relatively clear to the E. At 22:45, the HOG was right (214) but the high winds were pushing the COG to 225. The wind was blowing too hard to change course without putting a second reef in the main. I will make the correction during the day. I got up at 4:45, a half hour before dawn. The boat had traveled almost 80 nm overnight at a remarkable average speed of 6 kn without a single incident or need to adjust the wind vane. My route planning had me arriving to the E side of the island. I have changed the destination to the anchorage itself. PW says I will arrive about midnight Friday night. One reason I am going faster than predicted is I have built in a 25% slowdown at night, assuming I’d reef for safety. However, I have been sailing reefed all the time and still making good time. If I take out the padding, I arrive at the harbor at sunset on Friday. Sunrise was at 5:45. It is partly cloudy. There is nothing threatening to the E or S. Wave height is significantly lower than the past few days. I have strong wind and doing 5.5-6 kt with half the Yankee and one reef in the main. The apparent wind has shifted and is more SE, driving me more southward, which need to happen anyway, so I am going to let it play out. The reefing line I replaced chaffed through again in the same spot, where it passes through the grommet in the sail. It is strange because I have sailed several years without a problem and it has happened twice now in a week. I will need to examine the grommet for burrs. Also, , my wind disappeared about 15:00. There was a prediction that it would decrease to perhaps 11, but it feels more like 8. I used the lull to run the engine for about half an hour to completely charge the batteries. The fridge was warm. I threw out the remaining fresh food (there was not much). The current model has me arriving at Hiva Oa at 2:00 on Saturday. However, the current delay was not predicted. In any case, I do not intend to arrive at the anchorage in the dark, so I expect to be there sometime Saturday morning.