{"id":1881,"date":"2025-05-28T01:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T01:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/?p=1881"},"modified":"2025-05-28T02:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T02:09:14","slug":"check-in-may-26-2025-200-utc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/28\/check-in-may-26-2025-200-utc\/","title":{"rendered":"Check-in May 26, 2025; 2:00 UTC"},"content":{"rendered":"
Current Position: 17 01.799\u2019S 151 55.642\u2019W; Local Timezone: UTC-10; SOG: 5.5 kt COG: 229; TWS: 18 kt; TWD: 92; Distance to Waypoint (Tonga, 250): 1260; Total Miles Sailed: 4389 nm;
\nComments: I closed my eyes for about an hour. When I got up at 17:30, it was sunset. Compared to earlier in the day, the swell was not as big. I was 30 nm, perhaps 5h from having to jibe to avoid the Bora-bora island group. Jibing requires me to go on deck to move the preventer, generally something I try to avoid in the dark, especially in such rough seas. I considered doing it early, before it became completely dark, but that would have placed me the same distance on a course towards the small island W of Moorea. At 17:45 I was buzzed by a small private jet. It should have not been that low, even if it had taken off from Tahiti. Probably a joy ride. Just before it got completely dark, I scanned the horizon. There were rain showers like the two that had hit me earlier, but they did not look threatening enough to reduce sail. It seemed likely I\u2019d only be dozing until it became time to change course. The wind veered to due east after dark. At 19:00, not long after the second cargo ship passed, a third appeared 20 nm behind me, on the same course as the other two. Since the wind veered, the wind vane struggled to keep the sane course so close to a run without accidentally heaving to. I put the TillerPilot on and it seemed to do a better job. By 22:30, the boat speed had fallen from 6.5 to 5.5 kt. The ride was a lot smoother \u2026 just in time to jibe. A cargo ship appeared on AIS with exactly the opposite course as me 28 nm away. At our current speeds (5 kt for me an 10 kt for it), we were about 2.5h apart. However, I was within 1h of altering my course 90 degrees. A few minutes later, the ship dropped off the AIS. I turned on the Iridium GO and downloaded a new weather forecast and AIS data. The phantom ship was not listed. Strange. At midnight, about 15 nm from Huahine Ite, I jibed with a new heading of 240, within 10 of the waypoint. The boat was making 5-6 kt in 25 kt wind with 18 kt gusts from the E. The course allows me to clear Raiatea, the island to the west of Huahine, about 35 nm from my current location. A new cargo ship appeared 20 nm out, but it will pass N of me. Since there did not appear to be any hazards, I laid down to sleep and set alarms at 1h intervals. During the next 1.5h, the boat accidentally jibed and the TillerPilot overcorrected into a beam reach twice. It seemed to have trouble with the westerly tack, something with gusts and waves. I switched back to the wind vane and it seemed to do a better job. The wind vane did an excellent job the second half of the night. At dawn, I was overtaken by the cargo ship Coral Islander 2. When it was 20m behind me (and I had received a collision alert) I contacted the captain via VHF and he changed course to pass my stern. At sunrise, I was doing 5 kt in a broad reach with 16 kt wind from 105. To the N and NE to there is some nasty looking weather, but it does not look too bad windward. By 7:30, the wind had dropped to 10 kt and the boat speed was 4.5 kt with the full Yankee and one reef in a the main. It was relatively calm, so rather than shake out the main, I took a nap (not enough sleep last night). Also, I sneezed a half dozen times last night and woke with a scratchy throat. There is no congestion. It feels like some sort of allergy \u2026 maybe mold. I got up at 8:30, put some water on for tea, and shook out the first reef. I am past Raiatea, which I could see, being about 12 nm at my closest approach. Except for the Maupihaa atoll about 150 nm W, the only significant land mass between me at Tonga is Niue, about 240 nm E of Tonga (I should pass well north of the Southern Cook Islands). At 9:00 I jibed to 280 to pick up some speed but also to avoid some predicted dead air south. I am doing about 5 kt in 11 kt wind on a starboard beam reach. I have a large bunch of bananas, 40 or so small ones, hanging from the cabin ceiling. They were green when I got them a few days ago, but they are starting to ripen. Will have a fire sale for the next 3-4 days. Around 165W (about four days from now) I will move to the UTC-11 time zone. Just before Tonga, I will cross the dateline and enter the UTC+13 time zone. This is significant because part of the rationale for leaving on a Monday was to avoid arriving on a Sunday, when customs and immigration is closed in Tonga \u2026 but that is a long ways away. It started to rain at 9:30. Nothing threatening, but it\u2019s not a great day for solar. It was a good call to jibe northward. I must have been in the shadow of Huahine because after sailing a couple of miles the wind picked up to 216 with gusts of 20\/ driving me about 6 kt in a beam reach. 4_At 10:00, 24h after leaving Tahiti, I had made 107 nm towards the waypoint, which is remarkable given the time spend navigating between islands and dealing with less than ideal sea\/wind conditions. At 10:24 I received a MSSI distress alert on the VHF. It was 4h old and the coordinates were 120 nm away, near Tahiti. Because of the distance, it was not possible to establish VHF communication. Because the location was near a high population density, I assumed someone in a better position to help responded. At 14:00 the wind picked up a bit and when big waves hit the boat broadside, it tended to round up and the autopilot couldn\u2019t recover. I furled 50% of the Yankee and put a reef in the main. This slowed the boat down quite a bit, to 4.5-5 kt, but it solved the problem. Also, I jibed south at the recommendation of the latest weather forecast. This also helped with the waves. Also, it is midafternoon and the batteries are not charged completely. I shut down everything but the navigation instrumentation and TillerPilot. I made 99 nm towards the waypoint since this time yesterday while sailing a total of 122 nm.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current Position: 17 01.799\u2019S 151 55.642\u2019W; Local Timezone: UTC-10; SOG: 5.5 kt COG: 229; TWS: 18 kt; TWD: 92; Distance to Waypoint (Tonga, 250): 1260; Total Miles Sailed: 4389 nm; Comments: I closed my eyes for about an hour. When I got up at 17:30, it was sunset. Compared to earlier in the day, the … <\/p>\n

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