Current Position: 17 44.318’S 168 18.643’E; Local Timezone: UTC+21; SOG: 0 kt COG: N/A; TWS: 4 kt; TWD: 105; Distance to Waypoint (Vanuatu, Efata, Port Vila): At Anchor; Total Miles Sailed: 6941 nm;
Comments: Sunset is about 17:20. Now, 24h before sunset tomorrow, I have 100 nm remaining to the entrance of the harbor. From there, I have about 5 nm to the customs anchorage. I have managed to sail directly at the waypoint all day, but wind speeds are going to decrease, and my experience is slower boat speed make it more difficult to run without accidentally jibing. I only need to sail 4.2 kt on average to be at the entrance to the harbor and for tonight at least I expect to sail about 6 kt. Bottom line is I expect to make the anchorage tomorrow. Even if it is after dark, I intend to anchor because the route into the anchorage is simple. At 15:20 I could make out the shore of Erromango, about 20 nm away. I downloaded a new GRIB at that time. There were no major changes. Arrival was predicted at about 19:00 (after dark) with 17 kt winds and 21 kt gusts the whole way. Because the wind had already started to wane, the boat was slowing down a bit, and I really had not seen any violent squalls in several days (the rain storms had not been bringing with them high winds, I decided to shake out the second reef in the main and run with one reef for the remainder of the voyage. The boat picked up about half a kt of speed to 5.6-6.4 depending on whether it was gusty or not. I had to trim the sails and adjust the windvane. It is becoming increasingly difficult to head for the waypoint. At some point I will need to jibe. I will probably wait until I am close to Efata so I have a better idea how far I will need to jibe southwesterly. I went to sleep about 19:00 and set 1h alarms. In the middle of one interval, at 22:20, I was awaken because the boat was being driven N at high speed by a storm with heavy rain and 27 kt wind. I had slept only one minute before being awaken. I gained control of the boat and corrected the course. The wind only lasted a couple more minutes. I was now 20 nm NE of Erromango and 70 nm from the waypoint. I was just 2 nm NE of the point that PW had recommended the main jibe to align the boat with the waypoint. The PW course had arrived at this point by taking a smaller jibe of 5 nm earlier, but I had found that unnecessary. I was 3.5h ahead of schedule. I have 19h to cover the 70 nm to the waypoint and need to average 3.7 kt to arrive there before dark. I am indeed going to have to take a major jibe (adding distance, loosing time), but I am going to wait until daylight hours to do that. Besides the wind, rain, and dark, jibing now would bring me close to the N coast of Erromango. My current direction takes me to the SE coast of Efata. There is actually predicted to be better wind on this course than if I were to jibe now. I can go as far as 35 nm before I jibe, which will be 5-6h if the wind holds up. Sunrise is about 6:20, so it will probably still be dark. I plan to sail the 35 nm, jibe for 20 nm, then jibe again for about 25 nm to the entrance of the harbor. My best guess is I can do that in 14-16h, placing me at the entrance of the harbor well before dark. I would still need to sail/motor about an hour within the harbor to get to the anchorage. I downloaded a new GRIB and weather plan at 23:00. There are no surprises. The plan has me arriving at the waypoint about 15:00, jibing earlier than I plan. On the long-range AIS, I see another sailboat (Fluer) about 10h ahead of me on the same course. They are slow-walking to arrive in the morning, whereas I am pushing hard to get there before dark. A plan in hand, I went back to sleep knowing there are no obstacles until about 5:00. By 2:09, the boat had slowed down significantly, averaging 4.5 kt. But, it seemed like the course had shifted a bit westerly, as expected, so I pressed on without jibing. 52 nm remain to the waypoint. At 2:30 I got hit by a storm, initially with 30 kt winds from 50. I took advantage by hand-steering due E at over 7 kt. Initially it rained, but that only lasted a few minutes. Eventually the winds died to 15 and drove the boat at little over 5 kt. It was as if I had jibed, but I was not loosing latitude. Every nm I traveled E made it that much easier to steer towards the waypoint later. At 3:15 I was still making do E at 5l kt in 13 kt of wind from 40. This was clearly driven by a nearby storm. The wind started veering again and by 3:30 was blowing from 60 at 8, so I steered towards the waypoint at 3 kt. Over the hour I had made 5 nm due E and was 47 nm from the waypoint. Now I was on the backside of the storm and it had sucked out the air. I went below and waited for the wind to return. By be “hands on” I had made good progress instead of being driven 7 nm N. By 3:45, the winds were beginning to return to normal, 95 degrees). At 4:00 I jibed to 240 making 4.5-5 kt in 15-20 kt winds from the SE. I got hit in the back with a large flying fish while in the cockpit. I threw him back in the sea. I need to travel 20-25 nm on this course before jibing again, I imagine around 10:00. Only half the distance will count towards the waypoint. After that, I will have 36 nm to sail, but it should be directly at the waypoint. At 4:30 I went back to sleep. I must have accidentally jibed/heaved to after that, but there was so little wind, it did not wake me up. I continued to make progress for an hour, essentially towards the waypoint, but only at 2 kt. When I woke up at 5:30 I corrected the course. I went on the foredeck with the intention of shaking out the last reef, then decided to wait for more light so I could put eyes on the weather. I was making 5 kt on 240 with about 16 nm to go before I could jibe again. Sunrise was at 6:15. The skies looked fine, but I was making 4.5-5.5 kt in variable 14-21 kt winds, so left the reef in for now. I took down the Tongan flag and raised the flag for Vanuatu as well as the quarantine flag (which according to Vanuatu law I was supposed to be flying when I was within 200 nm of any Vanuatu island). It is 6:45 and since sunrise the wind has shifted unexpectedly to 125-130, allowing me to steer a course (290) nit far from the waypoint (296). I am not complain because even at 4.5 kt I am making good progress. There are no storms in the area. The only thing I can think of is the wind may be funneling between Erromango and Efata. The endgame in arriving at a destination can be the challenging. When you have thousands of miles between you and a destination, your course is less critical. But when you are a couple of dozen miles, your choices a limited. But, those choices are defined by decorum may have made days or even weeks earlier. I believe ai have made very good choices on the passage that began when I decided to leave last Wednesday instead of Friday. At 8:00, I choke out the last reef and trimmed the sails it I did not like the impact the full main was having on the Yankee, so ai put the reef back in and was getting about the same speed without shadowing of the jib. Also, with the full main I was forced to 270, but with the reef in I could point to 285. The wind had backed from the 125 at dawn to 95 now, forcing me further S, but also making an earlier jibe possible. It is 8:40. I could jibe now and head for the waypoint, but I will get better boat speed if I wait, perhaps an hour. At 10:00 I jibed, 27 nm from the entrance to the harbor. I was doing over kt in a broad reach toward the waypoint I 19 kt wind. It seems that I have chosen wisely. Once the sails and windvane were dialed in, the average speed was near 7 kt. It seemed likely I would be entering the harbor sometime around 15:00, so I started preparing the boat, starting with the anchor locker. Of course, while buried in chain and behind all the stuff on the V-berth, a storm struck. By the time I finished and got to the cockpit, the boat was surfing N at 8 kt in 30 kt wind. It was also pouring rain. Filthy and hot from sorting out the chain, I gladly sat in the cockpit and hand-steered through the storm while getting a shower. When the rain cleared, about 11:15, I saw Efata, now about 10 nm away (the harbor entrance was 19). Once the influence of the storm passed at 11:40, the wind direction was perfect to sail into the harbor. The boat was doing over 6 kt in 19 kt wind in a broad reach with 18 nm to go. I had a fishing line out for a couple of hours today and had a strike around noon. I fought the fish for about 15m before it came off the line. Never saw what it was. I didn’t want to slow the boat down. If I had, I probably would have landed it. I am going to try to sail into Mele Bay, which is the 4 nm wide bay outside the harbor, then drop my sails there because it should be relatively sheltered from the wind. I’ll then motor the last fee miles into the anchorage. It is 14:00, I am 6 nm from Mele Bay, and it is engulfed in a ran storm, so I cannot make out any features, including the point that guards the S side of the entrance. I could use GPS and my charts, but the storm is localized, so I will wait it out if I have to. The big storm in the bay has passed, but there seems to be a long string of them. I will slip in between two of them. It is 14:30 and I see the point a couple of miles ahead. The wind is picking up as the next storm rolls in. I rounded the point at 15:15. The wind dropped to single digits. I motor sailed for a bit, then headed up and dropped the sails. I motored the remaining couple of miles into the anchorage. It was about 16:30 and a spectacular double rainbow arched over the harbor, as if to celebrate my arrival. I opened a beer and watched the sunset.
