Current Position: 18 16.620’S 158 02.285’W; Local Timezone: UTC-10; SOG: 5.7 kt COG: 268; TWS: 20 kt; TWD: 120; Distance to Waypoint (Tonga, 253): 905; Total Miles Sailed: 4766 nm;
Comments: I did not sleep as soundly last night, probably because of all the sleep I have had the past few days. I went to the cockpit several times. It seemed like a cloudless night, no moon, and the stars were spectacular. I used the wind vane all night in moderate 15 kt winds and made steady progress toward the waypoint at about 5 kt. All in all, a very pleasant night of sailing. I was awaken at 4:30. As it had the previous few mornings, the wind had veered to 120, causing the AWS to increase to 20 kt, driving the boat over 6 kt. The change in wind direction does not change the course of the boat, even though it is being guided by the wind vane, because there is more weather helm that requires oversteering. The effects cancel one another and the boat maintained a course exactly towards the waypoint. As I lay in my berth, I can see out the companionway at a swath of sky, framed by the boat and the bimini. There is a bright object in the night sky, Saturn, and it is bobbing around as the boat surfs down the swells, seemingly moving randomly, but always within the frame that is constrained by the wind vane. It is a remarkable device. I fell asleep for one last nap before sunrise. I didn’t even set an alarm. There isn’t another vessel within 100 nm of me. Sunrise is at 6:55. I got up an hour earlier to make tea and watch it. The cockpit is damp. Must have taken some waves over the cowling last night. It’s 6:00, 14h since my last check-in and 952.9 nm from the waypoint. Less than a 1000 nm now, so I have a decimal point. Watching the decimal point ticking down never get old. I’ve made 71 nm on overnight, averaging 5.1 kt. The wind is about 17 kt, but sometimes gusting to 23 from 115 degrees. I’ve been heading in the same direction with the same sail configuration (full Yankee and one reef in main) for almost three days, but that will change next week when the wind first veers to the S and then backs to the N. There will be a lot of sail trimming then. PredictWind has begun using the boat’s polars. I had set this up months ago, but apparently had a parameter wrong and the data were not being uploaded by the DataHub. Now that the polars are being used, I need to change the artificial parameters I have been using to correct the predictions (90% upwind, 80% downwind, and 80% at night) because I am traveling faster than predicted. There will still need to be an efficiency correction, because for example the wind vane does not steer in a straight line, but I don’t know what it is, so I have set the three parameters to 100% and will measure the efficiency over the next couple of days. It is 6:30 and bright enough that I can see rain falling behind me in the sunrise. The rain is falling vertically, so the storms do not appear to be threatening. I am thinking now the wet cockpit was due to rain, not breaking waves. Now that the wind vane is working again, I don’t feel as anxious about gusts. The TillerPilot struggled but the wind vane generally does not. I downloaded a new GRIB. The weather still looks nasty the second half of next week, but perhaps not quite as bad as was forecasted earlier. At sunrise, the wind gusted to 25 kn as the storm passed N of me. This may be the last day for the bananas. There are a dozen left. This is about the time some of the food goes bad. The eight loaf of day-old bread I bought nearly a week ago has started to go moldy. The oven-roasted chicken I bought Saturday and cut up does not smell right. I think it was undercooked. The lentil dish I cooked Sunday seems to be fermenting. This is the second time I have made something like it, and it does not seem to last more than five days. Next time I will make a half batch. Don’t want to take a chance, so I am getting rid of all of it. By the middle of the week it will be impossible to cook. I am going to try to use up the fresh stuff by the end of the weekend, then make a bean dish early in the week to last a couple of days. I also have eggs. Hard boiling six of them today. That leaves about a dozen. 7:45 and there are dark clouds windward. I turned on the Radar and there is a small squall 6 nm away. I expect it to hit me. However, the CAPE is relatively low, so I am not expecting it to be high-energy. It is not going to be a good day to produce solar energy. I have shut down everything but the nav instruments until I get some sunshine, perhaps after this storm passes. 25 kt wind and fairly heavy rain hit at 8:05. The boat is doing 7-7.5 kt and handling the storm well. A beautiful rainbow developed on the port side ahead of the storm. I can see a long, almost continuous series of rainstorms windward. I suspect there will be at least several hours of this. The storm passed by 8:20, but the one behind it looked more energetic. I furled in half the Yankee and put a second reef in the main. This slowed the boat to 4.5 kt in 25 kt wind. The leading edge of the storm will pass north of me, but I still expect most of it to hit me. It looks nasty. The leading edge is curled. It is a squall and is blocking out the sun completely. I lost half the bananas in the last storm. I grab the remains and toss the stock overboard before the next one. Because the storm is sideswiping me, the wind built gradually from 15 to 25. The boat is doing 6.5 kt with half the sail area I had up earlier. I can see essentially continuous storms lined up behind this one. The storm reaches me at 9:10 and it starts raining. The wind vane is doing a good job. Gusts in the high 20’s. It was a good call to reduce sail. By 9:30, the storm had most passed. There was light to my stern, but windward was still blocked out by rainfall. I decided to sail under reduced sail until it is clear all the storms have passed. The wind veered to 135 and dropped to 10 kt after the storm passed. I couldn’t tell if it was a front and a longer term change. A few minutes later my thoughts were confirmed when the wind backed to 95 and increased to 26 kt. I was in the wake of the storm. Since the wind vane was useless, I tried to switch on the TillerPilot. When I turned on the breaker, it did not come on. I confirmed power at the breaker and at the female plug. The connectors looked corroded again. On my punch list for Tonga was wiring a power only cable that I could connect both TillerPilots to, because the backup has a different style plug and because I no longer am using the NEMA cables. The idea of trying to do that while at sea was not appealing. First, I wanted to confirm that the plug connection was the issue, so I tried to clean up the plug and reconnect it. That did not work. Either the plug is shot or the TillerPilot is dead. I can see something failing in the TillerPilot, but it seems less likely that none of the lights would come on, and also I have had problems with the plug in the past. It seems my choices are to use the existing plug, cut the wires to the original TillerPilot and make an adapter out of the plug so I can use either TillerPilot or to simply put in a new power cable through a through-deck fitting. Since the cable on the original TillerPilot is useless, either because the plug is bad or the TillerPilot is fried, the easiest thing to do is cut the cable and see if I have power at the cable. If I do, I can make a simple adapter to use either TillerPilot. If the plug is no good, I need to run a new cable anyways. In the longer term, once I am at anchored, I can replace the plug altogether with a new through-deck fitting and waterproof connector, but for now, I can rig up something temporary. I cut the cable on the original TillerPilot and confirmed with a meter that the connector was making contact. Then I spiced the cable and confirmed the original TillerPilot is dead. Then I cut off the incompatible plug from the backup TIllerPilot, spliced in a waterproof plug, and confirmed the back-up works. I then used heat shrink tubing to seal the temporary plug. I now have a TillerPilot, but I do not intend to use it unless absolutely necessary. When I have an opportunity, I will acquire another backup. Between the weather and technical problems, it’s been a long day. Now, back to sailing. The wind has veered again to 125, making it easier to steer towards the waypoint. I’m doing over 5 kt in 19 kt wind with half the Yankee and a double-reefed main. I am still surrounded by clouds that could produce rain, but they are not threatening. Nonetheless, it’s been a long day and there is the potential for more weather, so I am going to leave the sails shorted. Furthermore, I am going to want to be conservative tonight. I ran the engine for awhile earlier, in part because I need to use the inverter for the heat gun, but also to deal with the a day when it was not possible to produce much solar, so the batteries are in pretty good shape, 97% charged and I am producing some solar under partly cloudy skies. And … just as I wrote that it started to rain. A small storm snuck up behind me. Looks mellow … and I’m not worried as I am running little sail. Funny thing is I just broke out the solar shower to get cleaned up. Instead, I put my harness in and went in deck to shower. Aitutaki is about 100 nm away. I should pass N of it tomorrow unless the winds drive me further S in the meantime. I have made 119 nm on and 130 nm total (average 5.4 kt) during the past 24h.
Comments: I did not sleep as soundly last night, probably because of all the sleep I have had the past few days. I went to the cockpit several times. It seemed like a cloudless night, no moon, and the stars were spectacular. I used the wind vane all night in moderate 15 kt winds and made steady progress toward the waypoint at about 5 kt. All in all, a very pleasant night of sailing. I was awaken at 4:30. As it had the previous few mornings, the wind had veered to 120, causing the AWS to increase to 20 kt, driving the boat over 6 kt. The change in wind direction does not change the course of the boat, even though it is being guided by the wind vane, because there is more weather helm that requires oversteering. The effects cancel one another and the boat maintained a course exactly towards the waypoint. As I lay in my berth, I can see out the companionway at a swath of sky, framed by the boat and the bimini. There is a bright object in the night sky, Saturn, and it is bobbing around as the boat surfs down the swells, seemingly moving randomly, but always within the frame that is constrained by the wind vane. It is a remarkable device. I fell asleep for one last nap before sunrise. I didn’t even set an alarm. There isn’t another vessel within 100 nm of me. Sunrise is at 6:55. I got up an hour earlier to make tea and watch it. The cockpit is damp. Must have taken some waves over the cowling last night. It’s 6:00, 14h since my last check-in and 952.9 nm from the waypoint. Less than a 1000 nm now, so I have a decimal point. Watching the decimal point ticking down never get old. I’ve made 71 nm on overnight, averaging 5.1 kt. The wind is about 17 kt, but sometimes gusting to 23 from 115 degrees. I’ve been heading in the same direction with the same sail configuration (full Yankee and one reef in main) for almost three days, but that will change next week when the wind first veers to the S and then backs to the N. There will be a lot of sail trimming then. PredictWind has begun using the boat’s polars. I had set this up months ago, but apparently had a parameter wrong and the data were not being uploaded by the DataHub. Now that the polars are being used, I need to change the artificial parameters I have been using to correct the predictions (90% upwind, 80% downwind, and 80% at night) because I am traveling faster than predicted. There will still need to be an efficiency correction, because for example the wind vane does not steer in a straight line, but I don’t know what it is, so I have set the three parameters to 100% and will measure the efficiency over the next couple of days. It is 6:30 and bright enough that I can see rain falling behind me in the sunrise. The rain is falling vertically, so the storms do not appear to be threatening. I am thinking now the wet cockpit was due to rain, not breaking waves. Now that the wind vane is working again, I don’t feel as anxious about gusts. The TillerPilot struggled but the wind vane generally does not. I downloaded a new GRIB. The weather still looks nasty the second half of next week, but perhaps not quite as bad as was forecasted earlier. At sunrise, the wind gusted to 25 kn as the storm passed N of me. This may be the last day for the bananas. There are a dozen left. This is about the time some of the food goes bad. The eight loaf of day-old bread I bought nearly a week ago has started to go moldy. The oven-roasted chicken I bought Saturday and cut up does not smell right. I think it was undercooked. The lentil dish I cooked Sunday seems to be fermenting. This is the second time I have made something like it, and it does not seem to last more than five days. Next time I will make a half batch. Don’t want to take a chance, so I am getting rid of all of it. By the middle of the week it will be impossible to cook. I am going to try to use up the fresh stuff by the end of the weekend, then make a bean dish early in the week to last a couple of days. I also have eggs. Hard boiling six of them today. That leaves about a dozen. 7:45 and there are dark clouds windward. I turned on the Radar and there is a small squall 6 nm away. I expect it to hit me. However, the CAPE is relatively low, so I am not expecting it to be high-energy. It is not going to be a good day to produce solar energy. I have shut down everything but the nav instruments until I get some sunshine, perhaps after this storm passes. 25 kt wind and fairly heavy rain hit at 8:05. The boat is doing 7-7.5 kt and handling the storm well. A beautiful rainbow developed on the port side ahead of the storm. I can see a long, almost continuous series of rainstorms windward. I suspect there will be at least several hours of this. The storm passed by 8:20, but the one behind it looked more energetic. I furled in half the Yankee and put a second reef in the main. This slowed the boat to 4.5 kt in 25 kt wind. The leading edge of the storm will pass north of me, but I still expect most of it to hit me. It looks nasty. The leading edge is curled. It is a squall and is blocking out the sun completely. I lost half the bananas in the last storm. I grab the remains and toss the stock overboard before the next one. Because the storm is sideswiping me, the wind built gradually from 15 to 25. The boat is doing 6.5 kt with half the sail area I had up earlier. I can see essentially continuous storms lined up behind this one. The storm reaches me at 9:10 and it starts raining. The wind vane is doing a good job. Gusts in the high 20’s. It was a good call to reduce sail. By 9:30, the storm had most passed. There was light to my stern, but windward was still blocked out by rainfall. I decided to sail under reduced sail until it is clear all the storms have passed. The wind veered to 135 and dropped to 10 kt after the storm passed. I couldn’t tell if it was a front and a longer term change. A few minutes later my thoughts were confirmed when the wind backed to 95 and increased to 26 kt. I was in the wake of the storm. Since the wind vane was useless, I tried to switch on the TillerPilot. When I turned on the breaker, it did not come on. I confirmed power at the breaker and at the female plug. The connectors looked corroded again. On my punch list for Tonga was wiring a power only cable that I could connect both TillerPilots to, because the backup has a different style plug and because I no longer am using the NEMA cables. The idea of trying to do that while at sea was not appealing. First, I wanted to confirm that the plug connection was the issue, so I tried to clean up the plug and reconnect it. That did not work. Either the plug is shot or the TillerPilot is dead. I can see something failing in the TillerPilot, but it seems less likely that none of the lights would come on, and also I have had problems with the plug in the past. It seems my choices are to use the existing plug, cut the wires to the original TillerPilot and make an adapter out of the plug so I can use either TillerPilot or to simply put in a new power cable through a through-deck fitting. Since the cable on the original TillerPilot is useless, either because the plug is bad or the TillerPilot is fried, the easiest thing to do is cut the cable and see if I have power at the cable. If I do, I can make a simple adapter to use either TillerPilot. If the plug is no good, I need to run a new cable anyways. In the longer term, once I am at anchored, I can replace the plug altogether with a new through-deck fitting and waterproof connector, but for now, I can rig up something temporary. I cut the cable on the original TillerPilot and confirmed with a meter that the connector was making contact. Then I spiced the cable and confirmed the original TillerPilot is dead. Then I cut off the incompatible plug from the backup TIllerPilot, spliced in a waterproof plug, and confirmed the back-up works. I then used heat shrink tubing to seal the temporary plug. I now have a TillerPilot, but I do not intend to use it unless absolutely necessary. When I have an opportunity, I will acquire another backup. Between the weather and technical problems, it’s been a long day. Now, back to sailing. The wind has veered again to 125, making it easier to steer towards the waypoint. I’m doing over 5 kt in 19 kt wind with half the Yankee and a double-reefed main. I am still surrounded by clouds that could produce rain, but they are not threatening. Nonetheless, it’s been a long day and there is the potential for more weather, so I am going to leave the sails shorted. Furthermore, I am going to want to be conservative tonight. I ran the engine for awhile earlier, in part because I need to use the inverter for the heat gun, but also to deal with the a day when it was not possible to produce much solar, so the batteries are in pretty good shape, 97% charged and I am producing some solar under partly cloudy skies. And … just as I wrote that it started to rain. A small storm snuck up behind me. Looks mellow … and I’m not worried as I am running little sail. Funny thing is I just broke out the solar shower to get cleaned up. Instead, I put my harness in and went in deck to shower. Aitutaki is about 100 nm away. I should pass N of it tomorrow unless the winds drive me further S in the meantime. I have made 119 nm on and 130 nm total (average 5.4 kt) during the past 24h.