Current Position: 18 39.801’S 162 01.852W; Local Timezone: UTC-10; SOG: 6.1 kt COG: 240; TWS: 18 kt; TWD: 134; Distance to Waypoint (Tonga, 256): 676; Total Miles Sailed: 5009 nm;
Comments: Regrettably, it got cloudy yesterday afternoon and I had to run the engine to charge the batteries, primarily because I ran the fridge for 24h straight. I’m trying to run the fridge again overnight, but I am turning up the thermostat so its duty cycle is less, I want to find the setting that allows me to run it all the time and still have enough solar to fully charge the batteries. Unfortunately, the DC-DC charger that connects the engine’s alternator to the house battery bank is showing a “fault” and only works intermittently. I am not sure exactly what that means, but I have a spare I can swap out, but I’d like to wait until J am at anchor to do that. There is nothing worse than squeezing in the engine room while the boat is underway. One of the reasons I am recording such detail in these entries is to demonstrate just how many things go wrong on an extended passage. If someone is thinking about doing this, they should ask themselves if they and their boat are ready to deal with these issues. There’s no Home Depot at 18S 160W and Amazon doesn’t make deliveries here. The question I am asked most often is “what do you do with all your feee time out there?” Ha! I thought I might go a day without storms, but at sunset there is a squall to my port, a squall to my starboard and there’s a third bending me that just started dumping rain on me. This was short-lived, but at 18:20, just before it got dark, I was surprised by a very large and fast-moving storm. I quickly furled some more of the jib and put a second reef in the main. The wind shifted quickly from 135 to 90 as the storm approached, the back to 120 as it started to rain. The wind vane was of course affected by the change in wind direction, but I let the boat go with the flow knowing the changes were temporary. The storm was large, but not particularly energetic, but it was pretty clear that I was going to face similar storms at least CNN part of the night, so I was happy that I had shortened sail. By 18:30, the boat was moving along at 6 kt with very little sail close to the desired course. As the last of the light disappeared, I could see more storms lined up. I suspected they were all low-energy (the CAPE is supposed to be 200-300), but I was satisfied with the sail plan and retired to the cabin. I was awaken just before the 22:00 alarm. The winds had shifted to 145, 6h earlier than expected. The boat had to be put on a beam reach to point towards the waypoint and was doing 6 kt with minimal sail. In addition to rebalancing the wind vane, I had to sheet the main and would have more if not for a preventer and the fact I had no desire to move it in the dark because the boat was rolling. There did not appear to be a storm or gust that as causing this. I set an alarm for an hour to see if the change persists. Of course it did not. My best indicator that wind shifts were temporary was the drizzle/rain felt when I entered the cockpit to make an adjustment. It was a long night of second-guessing the behavior of the wind while trying to keep the boat from accidentally jibing or jumping to an unrecoverable position while rounding up. From my horizontal position in the pilot’s berth, I knew exactly what was happening at the helm from the sensations of heeling and sounds of the sails. The challenge was to resist the urge to make a correction that I knew would only be temporary and would precipitate the need to act again before I’d even settled back into the berth. It’s 00:22, the first day of my third and last full month in the South Pacific. At 4:00 I woke to deal with the course again and I noticed a 43’ sailboat had unexpectedly popped up on AIS 7 nm behind me. The sailboat was heading towards me with variable speed 3.5-6 kt. However, my speed and course has been all over the place tonight, and it I was not clear how it had gotten so close without being detected by now … did I overtake it or it me. I suspect it has been here and didn’t have its AIS on. The name of the boat finally appeared … Stet. It has maintained essentially the same position behind me the past hour. It is 6:00. Normally, I would have my tea in the cockpit and watch the sunrise. It is blowing 25 kt and spray is coming over the rails as the boat travels 7 kt, so this isn’t a good morning for that. I have made 793-730 = 63nm on and travelled 4952-4884 = 68(68/14 = 4.9 kt) since my check-in yesterday. It is 6:30 and still quite dark. I turned the Radar on briefly to confirm there were no squalls in the area. I could see Stet, still about 7 nm behind me. The weather forecasts have the wind turning southerly towards the end of the passage, with the recommendation that I pass S of Niue. All the forecasts recommend that I make some distance S now. I have adjusted my course to 240 (waypoint at 254). I am in a close reach, the first time I have sailed upwind in a very long time. The routes have me jibing midweek. It looks like Stet may be heading for the Samoa, so our paths should cross in about an hour. It was a good call to shorten the sails last night. It made it a lot easier to handle the boat in the ever-changing conditions. The models right now have the wind disappearing around Tonga on Saturday afternoon (Sunday local), but picking up again Sunday (Monday local). I don’t want to arrive Sunday because the immigration/customs office is closed. If it looks like I am arriving too early, I can take advantage of the calm to heave to and ready the boat for inspection. I am going to pass about 3 nm ahead of Stet. It is light now. There is a very dark and angry-looking front behind me. It’s going to be another day of shortened sail and no solar. This concerns me because of the issue with the DC-DC charger and the fact as did not run the fridge all night. It is 7:30. It is starting to sprinkle, but actually, upwind and down course the skies look relatively clear, so if I can outrun what is behind me, it might not be as dire as I through at dawn. In fact, the sun just cleared the top of the storm behind me. Also, I just crossed over the path of Stet, which is 4 nm behind me. At 9:30 I downloaded a new GRIB. While the route has not changed, and all six models have me headed more southbound until Wednesday, it is noteworthy that the very severe weather predicted last week to occur at the end of this week is no longer predicted. It will still blow hard and die down Saturday, but the dangerous front to the S is no longer there. On one hand I t is really hard to predict more than a week out. On the other, the route recommended really has not changed in two weeks. It is 11:00, the sun is shining, and I’m doing 6 kt in 16 kt wind in a beam reach just off the waypoint … a fine day so far. I had a look at the DC-DC charger and specifically whether there was a short like I observed before, but cannot see anything. I will note there was some drops of condensation on top of the unit, and it is possible that moisture was causing the problem. When I run the engine to charge in the future, I will also run the blower to see if that helps. In a positive note, the wind vane is doing a very good job today. By 13:00, there were practically no clouds in the sky, the first time in almost a week. By 3:00, the waves had picked up, resulting in significant rolling. Nonetheless, the boat was making good time averaging over 6 kt. The sailboat Stet ran parallel to me all day, albeit somewhat slower. I thought from its original course that it was headed to Samoa, but now it seems more likely that it is headed for Niue or Tonga. Perhaps they changed their minds after seeing the forecast that there was going to be dead air between here and Samoa for several days. The distance sailed on in the past 24h was 793-676 = 117nm. The total distance sailed was 5009-4884 = 126 nm (124/24 = 5.2 kt average). Note I have sailed over 5000 nm since leaving San Carlos.
Comments: Regrettably, it got cloudy yesterday afternoon and I had to run the engine to charge the batteries, primarily because I ran the fridge for 24h straight. I’m trying to run the fridge again overnight, but I am turning up the thermostat so its duty cycle is less, I want to find the setting that allows me to run it all the time and still have enough solar to fully charge the batteries. Unfortunately, the DC-DC charger that connects the engine’s alternator to the house battery bank is showing a “fault” and only works intermittently. I am not sure exactly what that means, but I have a spare I can swap out, but I’d like to wait until J am at anchor to do that. There is nothing worse than squeezing in the engine room while the boat is underway. One of the reasons I am recording such detail in these entries is to demonstrate just how many things go wrong on an extended passage. If someone is thinking about doing this, they should ask themselves if they and their boat are ready to deal with these issues. There’s no Home Depot at 18S 160W and Amazon doesn’t make deliveries here. The question I am asked most often is “what do you do with all your feee time out there?” Ha! I thought I might go a day without storms, but at sunset there is a squall to my port, a squall to my starboard and there’s a third bending me that just started dumping rain on me. This was short-lived, but at 18:20, just before it got dark, I was surprised by a very large and fast-moving storm. I quickly furled some more of the jib and put a second reef in the main. The wind shifted quickly from 135 to 90 as the storm approached, the back to 120 as it started to rain. The wind vane was of course affected by the change in wind direction, but I let the boat go with the flow knowing the changes were temporary. The storm was large, but not particularly energetic, but it was pretty clear that I was going to face similar storms at least CNN part of the night, so I was happy that I had shortened sail. By 18:30, the boat was moving along at 6 kt with very little sail close to the desired course. As the last of the light disappeared, I could see more storms lined up. I suspected they were all low-energy (the CAPE is supposed to be 200-300), but I was satisfied with the sail plan and retired to the cabin. I was awaken just before the 22:00 alarm. The winds had shifted to 145, 6h earlier than expected. The boat had to be put on a beam reach to point towards the waypoint and was doing 6 kt with minimal sail. In addition to rebalancing the wind vane, I had to sheet the main and would have more if not for a preventer and the fact I had no desire to move it in the dark because the boat was rolling. There did not appear to be a storm or gust that as causing this. I set an alarm for an hour to see if the change persists. Of course it did not. My best indicator that wind shifts were temporary was the drizzle/rain felt when I entered the cockpit to make an adjustment. It was a long night of second-guessing the behavior of the wind while trying to keep the boat from accidentally jibing or jumping to an unrecoverable position while rounding up. From my horizontal position in the pilot’s berth, I knew exactly what was happening at the helm from the sensations of heeling and sounds of the sails. The challenge was to resist the urge to make a correction that I knew would only be temporary and would precipitate the need to act again before I’d even settled back into the berth. It’s 00:22, the first day of my third and last full month in the South Pacific. At 4:00 I woke to deal with the course again and I noticed a 43’ sailboat had unexpectedly popped up on AIS 7 nm behind me. The sailboat was heading towards me with variable speed 3.5-6 kt. However, my speed and course has been all over the place tonight, and it I was not clear how it had gotten so close without being detected by now … did I overtake it or it me. I suspect it has been here and didn’t have its AIS on. The name of the boat finally appeared … Stet. It has maintained essentially the same position behind me the past hour. It is 6:00. Normally, I would have my tea in the cockpit and watch the sunrise. It is blowing 25 kt and spray is coming over the rails as the boat travels 7 kt, so this isn’t a good morning for that. I have made 793-730 = 63nm on and travelled 4952-4884 = 68(68/14 = 4.9 kt) since my check-in yesterday. It is 6:30 and still quite dark. I turned the Radar on briefly to confirm there were no squalls in the area. I could see Stet, still about 7 nm behind me. The weather forecasts have the wind turning southerly towards the end of the passage, with the recommendation that I pass S of Niue. All the forecasts recommend that I make some distance S now. I have adjusted my course to 240 (waypoint at 254). I am in a close reach, the first time I have sailed upwind in a very long time. The routes have me jibing midweek. It looks like Stet may be heading for the Samoa, so our paths should cross in about an hour. It was a good call to shorten the sails last night. It made it a lot easier to handle the boat in the ever-changing conditions. The models right now have the wind disappearing around Tonga on Saturday afternoon (Sunday local), but picking up again Sunday (Monday local). I don’t want to arrive Sunday because the immigration/customs office is closed. If it looks like I am arriving too early, I can take advantage of the calm to heave to and ready the boat for inspection. I am going to pass about 3 nm ahead of Stet. It is light now. There is a very dark and angry-looking front behind me. It’s going to be another day of shortened sail and no solar. This concerns me because of the issue with the DC-DC charger and the fact as did not run the fridge all night. It is 7:30. It is starting to sprinkle, but actually, upwind and down course the skies look relatively clear, so if I can outrun what is behind me, it might not be as dire as I through at dawn. In fact, the sun just cleared the top of the storm behind me. Also, I just crossed over the path of Stet, which is 4 nm behind me. At 9:30 I downloaded a new GRIB. While the route has not changed, and all six models have me headed more southbound until Wednesday, it is noteworthy that the very severe weather predicted last week to occur at the end of this week is no longer predicted. It will still blow hard and die down Saturday, but the dangerous front to the S is no longer there. On one hand I t is really hard to predict more than a week out. On the other, the route recommended really has not changed in two weeks. It is 11:00, the sun is shining, and I’m doing 6 kt in 16 kt wind in a beam reach just off the waypoint … a fine day so far. I had a look at the DC-DC charger and specifically whether there was a short like I observed before, but cannot see anything. I will note there was some drops of condensation on top of the unit, and it is possible that moisture was causing the problem. When I run the engine to charge in the future, I will also run the blower to see if that helps. In a positive note, the wind vane is doing a very good job today. By 13:00, there were practically no clouds in the sky, the first time in almost a week. By 3:00, the waves had picked up, resulting in significant rolling. Nonetheless, the boat was making good time averaging over 6 kt. The sailboat Stet ran parallel to me all day, albeit somewhat slower. I thought from its original course that it was headed to Samoa, but now it seems more likely that it is headed for Niue or Tonga. Perhaps they changed their minds after seeing the forecast that there was going to be dead air between here and Samoa for several days. The distance sailed on in the past 24h was 793-676 = 117nm. The total distance sailed was 5009-4884 = 126 nm (124/24 = 5.2 kt average). Note I have sailed over 5000 nm since leaving San Carlos.