Current Position: 18 30.106’S 172 50.538’W; Local Timezone: UTC+23; SOG: 6.4 kt COG: 255; TWS: 15 kt; TWD: 340; Distance to Waypoint (Tonga, 257): 62; Total Miles Sailed: 5564 nm;
Comments: Note, I will have crossed the dateline by the time the check-in is submitted. All of the local times reported herein are UTC+23. As I began writing this, it is Thursday 16:30. Now it is Friday 15:30. Sunset will be about 17:50, 2h from now. I am doing 6.5 kt in 20 kt of wind coming from 61. Sometime tomorrow, hopefully later in the day, the wind will drop to single digits. Overnight, the wind is expected to back from the E to due N. It will also reduce in speed from 20 to 12-15. However, I will be sailing on a beam reach instead of a broad reach (nearly a run), so if necessary I can use the staysail to maintain good speed. Ideally, I can knock the current 175 nm to the N side of Vava’u down to 50 nm or so, which I will have to make Saturday night to put me in a position to make my way around to the W side of the island and navigate the complicated passage to the anchorage at Neiafu well before dark on Sunday. It is an hour before sunset. During the last hour the it has gotten progressively darker with a hodgepodge of different types of clouds. I prepared some of the swordfish I caught today. It is going to be in sale the next five days, ensuring I get my quota of mercury. Before dusk, I spotted the 59’ powerboat Danza about 7.5 nm off my starboard quarter doing about 7,5 kt, about 2 kt faster than me. They passed 0.75 nm S of me about 20:30. I downloaded a new GRIB and it does not look good. The winds I am riding now will be gone by morning, not tomorrow night. They will be replaced with a soup of different wind patterns that will require a lot of hands-on to navigate. It is predicted that I won’t reach the northern end of Vava’u until Sunday afternoon, too late to access the anchorage. To make things worse, lightning is expected Sunday morning. Around 00:30, the wind shifted to 45 and I had to trim the sails and rebalance the wind vane to maintain course. The wind vane does not seem to do as well on a starboard tack as a port, which makes sense when I think about how it was damaged. It may need a few more blows from the mallet. It is 4:00. The weather model does not appear to be correct. By now, the wind is supposed to be from the N, but I am getting 14 kt wind from 40, making 4.5 kt, and am 5h ahead of schedule. I trimmed the main, adjusted the wind vane, and checked for an update on the weather. The latest GRIB now says the wind will turn due N over the next 6h and recommends I change course northward at dawn. I am going to try to make progress to the waypoint as long as I can. Basically, I think what is happening with the weather between here and Vava’u over the next 24h is too complicate to model. Even if the current map is correct, I should be able to make progress toward the waypoint for the next 12h. By then, the map will have changed again, as it has every time I have downloaded it over the past 24h. Sunrise should be about 6:50. I woke at 7:00 and it was light. It had just started raining hard. I was at the point where I was supposed to change the course northward. The wind was supposed to be 13 and blowing from 19 and it was 30 and blowing 10, but I figured it could be due to the rain storm. I was right and by the time so had shaken the first reef out and trimmed the sails, I was doing 5.2 kt in 15 kt of wind blowing from 60. .The forecast from a few hours ago was wrong again, but I certainly was not complaining. The course was 266 and the waypoint was at 257. I had managed to end up at the latitude of the waypoint, which was a 100 nm away. I would try to remain at 18 30S and if and when the wind backs to the N, I will be in a position to use the staysail in a beam reach. Had I followed the recommended route, I would have been 45 nm N. Satisfied, but fooling uself that every could so south any moment, I decided to make myself a cup of tea. But, before it was brewed, I was surprised by a strong rain storm. I had been watch upwind for storms, but this came from the bow and as it struck the wind went practically zero. I took advantage be heaving to and retrieving a line I had been training behind the boat for two weeks. The line is attached to the bottom of the servo rudder and is used to raise it when not in use. Retrieving it was on my list of things to do today because I could not run the risk of fouling the prop with it in the water. While retrieving the line, I noticed that the stanchion on port side was missing two of its three screws and the third had backed out and was about to fall into the sea. The stanchion was moving back and forth with the motion of the surge. I quickly took the weight off the stanchion by connecting the hoist to the outboard and tightened the screw. I will need to find replacement screws. I went to the starboard side and sure enough those screws were loose as well. I had been thinking about putting a bar across the stern pulpit for further support. If I can find the stock and the hardware in Darwin, I will do that. In the wake of the strong storm that had passed, not surprisingly, the wind dropped to single digits, causing the boat speed to fall to 2.5 kt. The direction changed to 60, but I knew this was all going to be short-lived, so I didn’t even try to adjust the course or trim the sails and instead went with the flow so I could finally enjoy my tea. While drinking my tea in the cockpit, I downloaded a new GRIB. Of course the weather had changed. It now recommended I do what I had been doing the past 24h, make my way towards the waypoint. My motive for retrieving the line was the expectation the wind would get confused at some point and I would need to motor out of dead air. Until I found the energy to rummage trough the extra hardware locker, a laborious task that involves removing most of the storage containers in the upper pilot’s berth on the port side, I cannibalized two screws from less important stanchions. As I enjoyed my tea, the sun came out from the storm that had just passed and I noted that it was surprisingly clear ahead. Surprisingly, because thunderstorms are predicted later. I started to parse my punch list for today. If all goes as planned, I will arrive at port tomorrow and I need to do things like inflate the fenders, which I have not used since leaving San Carlos. Since the seas were unusually calm and the boat was moving slowly, I decided to take my tea on the foredeck, wearing my harness of course. It was there that I averted near disaster. Two of the four screws that held the boom on were missing and a third was loose both screws on the port side were missing and the boom was flexing in the fitting that connects to the gooseneck. I quickly went below and found replacement screws. They were unusual, large, but recognizing the importance of having spares, I had two in my emergency hardware box. With the help of the engine, I put the boat in a position with respect to the wind that moved the boom to line up the screw holes. Because if the forces involved, there was no way U was going to be able to manhandle it into position. I discovered that the top screw had stripped out. That is probably what caused the problem. I would need to tap the hole and put in a larger bolt, but I did not think I had a large enough. I would check later. Fortunately, the forces should come mostly from the starboard side until I reach Vava’u. I of course examined the rigging in Tahiti and did not spot the missing screws. So I suspect they came out during the passage. It is possible they were loose before that and I just didn’t notice. I am going to have to take the time to check the security of every piece of hardware on the deck and in the rigging after every passage. By that, I mean get a driver/wrench in every piece of hardware and check that it is tight. It is 9:30 and the sun has come out. I have been trying to have my tea for almost two hours. It is still hot in the thermal mug. I will need to lash secure the boom to minimize its movement for the remainder of the trip. I also noticed the sheet for the jib is getting warm where it goes through the block. I need to reverse the line, but that involves lowering the jib because the line is attached too high up to reach. The cabin looks like a bomb went off. Looking for the hardware I need, I threw stuff in a pile, and that pile was quickly spread all over the floor by the motion of the boat. I am running down my priorities. I can see rain clouds windward. I am going to produce very little solar today. I decide to get the cabin put back together again, make some breakfast, pull the DC-DC charger from beneath the V-berth, and replace the one in the engine room. It will be a challenge, not only because of the motion of the boat, but because most of the stuff on top if the V-berth will have to be moved to get to the compartment with the controller. I’m finishing my tea in the cockpit before getting to work when I see a show float by. It is too far away to reach. I see amazing little flotsam out here. With all of the commotion, I am already an hour behind the schedule that was made two hours ago. It took me about 30m to get DC-DC #3 out from underneath the V-birth. It was very hot and humid, and I was dripping sweat on the Li batteries and electronics. I was worried I was going to cause a short. As I was taking the unit out, I was reminded it is the “non isolated” version whereas the one I am replacing is the isolated version. However, since the Li and AGM banks share a common ground, that shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, it is easier to install the non-isolated version because it only has a three large cables at the base instead of four. By the time I got back to the cockpit to cool off it was nearly 11:00, and clouds had replaced sunshine. I did not see any breaks in the thick, dark clouds, so I don’t expect much solar energy. The wind was in the single digits at 22 and the boat was crawling along at 2.8 kt. In a positive note, with the boat hardly moving and the seas calm, it was going to be easier to work in the engine room. While sitting in the cockpit thinking about the process, the wind suddenly shifted to due N and started blowing double digits. I trimmed the sails and set the single vane and was suddenly doing 5.5 kt. I started working in the engine room at 11:15. It was warm from running the engine for a minute earlier. I should disconnect the batteries before working on the charger, but that would cause all sorts of problems with the instrumentation, so I worked with hot wires, successively removing the negative, insulating the wire with electrical tape. Since the units were the same dimensions, it was pretty much plug-and-play, except ai replaced the two grounds with one. I used the ground to that main buss rather than the one from the engine block, and double checked the AGM side was hot. The input side of DC-DC #1 was black. It had clearly been shorted out and that was likely the cause of its failure. DC-DC #3 has been programmed to charge a Li bank from another Li bank. I had to reprogram it to charge from an AGM bank. After doing that, I the substitute DC-DC #3 was tested and I thought it works, but the excess current is not being detected at the shunt. There were two grounds going to the isolated charger and I arbitrarily picked one to use for the non-isolated charger. I thought both grounds when to the buss, but now I am thinking one went to the shunt and the other to the buss, and I picked the one that went to the buss. It does not matter in that the voltage of the Li bank tells me the state of charge, but it is convenient to have an amperage inventory. I have to rewire the shut anyway (because the small inverter I use for the computers is wired to the wrong side of the shunt. On further testing, it is clear current is not flowing between the battery banks. I will deal with this in Tonga. I will connect DC-DC #1 to a battery source and check its setting to make sure the ones I am using are correct. I vaguely remember it took some time to set this up. I knew something was going on while working in the engine room. When I returned to the cockpit I discovered the boat was doing 7 kt in 27 kt of wind. I adjusted the course to the waypoint and was still making over 6.5 kt in 16 kt wind from the N. Just when I thought there is zero chance I will make it in time tomorrow to anchor, the wind gives me some hope. I’ve only made 16 nm in 5h, an average of 3 kt. 85 nm to go to the north side of the island. It is 13:15 and I have 78 nm to go, During the period that distance is covered (between now and 8:00 Sunday morning), the wind is supposed to back (shift counterclockwise) 180 from N, where it is blowing at 15 kt now) to S. There is a dead zone I cannot sail between, about 220-300 degrees from my current waypoint direction of 257 (due W). In the 18h or so, I assume about 9 will be N of me and 9 will be S. I am sailing a beam reach now as the wind blow from the N. Over perhaps the next 6h, that should change to a close reach and eventually a close haul, at which time I will need to head S to still make progress. Eventually I will tack and head N again to make up the difference. It should be something 14:00 to 20:00, head W. 20:00 to 23:00 head S. Tack and head N 23:00 to 2:00. Finally, head W 2:00 to 8:00 to make the waypoint. The period between 20:00 and 2:00 in particular will require quite a bit of hands on sailing. So, I don’t expect to get much sleep tonight. At 14:00, I am heeled over 15 degrees doing almost 7 kt. I am worried about the stern pulpit. I have taken as much weight as I can that is supporting the 6hp outboard using the lift. I just put a cargo strap between the two stanchions with the outboards to lend more support. Sunset should be about 18:05, 2.5h from now. I have done 181-62 = 119 nm on in the last 24h, which is very good considering I was largely becalmed most of the morning. I am sailing with the full Yankee and no reefs in the main, which I what I plan to do overnight as gusts over 18 are not expected.
