{"id":1894,"date":"2025-06-05T01:59:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T01:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/?p=1894"},"modified":"2025-06-05T02:03:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T02:03:03","slug":"check-in-june-4-2025-200-utc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/check-in-june-4-2025-200-utc\/","title":{"rendered":"Check-in June 4, 2025; 2:00 UTC"},"content":{"rendered":"
Current Position: 19 31.992\u2019S 168 56.150\u2019W; Local Timezone: UTC-10; SOG: 5.8 kt COG: 244; TWS: 22 kt; TWD: 95; Distance to Waypoint (Tonga, 268): 290; Total Miles Sailed: 5427 nm;
\nComments: As predicted, it blew 20-25 kt all night from about 115. On average, the course was almost exactly towards the waypoint at 5-6 kt boat speed. I did not set alarms, but instead relied upon what was a very bumpy ride to wake me when things felt out of control, which was every half hour or so. The boat was not helping much as I was almost in a run, but it rocked violently at times. I had padded both sides of the berth and wedged myself in to keep from being tossed back and forth. When I was awaken, I checked the Cortex app for current heading and the PW Offshore app for current position relative to the planned course. I went to the cockpit several times, primarily to check the control lines of the wind vane (which I sometimes had to tighten)and confirm what my iPhone was telling me (which I sometimes did not believe because of how rough the ride was). Sometimes I would find the boat being driven further S than planned and I would wait a minute or two to see the wind vane correct the course. Occasionally I would help it. For example, at 22:40 there was a gust of nearly 30 kt, and I steered by hand for a couple of minutes. The gust lasted longer than usual, about 15m. The boat was surfing at 8.5 kt. My current course is essentially straight at Niue, but the wind will back from 115 to 85 in the next 24h, sending me around the island. Around 1:00, I first started noticing deviation from 115 and some gusts closer to 90. I am at 19 20S and need to be 18 55.S to clear Niue. It is going to become increasing difficult to sail E, much less move further N. I will need to make a decision whether to jibe or whether to pass Niue S. It will be easier I jibe later, when the wind direction is closer to 85. Further, I can maintain boat speed in a broad reach. In any case, the decision probably does not need to be made until later this afternoon. One thing is certain, I saved at least a quarter day by switching to just the headsail and sailing closer to a run these past 24h (by not loosing as much latitude), and probably more (because that means having wind for a longer period of time). It is 2:00 and I just downloaded the latest GRIF with weather planning. My intuition was correct. The proposed route has me going S of Niue to take advantage of the longer period of wind. There was a fairly heavy rainfall at 2:20, but no additional wind. Although I woke periodically, the wind vane required no interventions until I finally got up at 6:45. During that time the boat moved about 30 nm nearly due E (6 kt\/h). My best guess is I will be part Niue in 24h and will jibe for Tonga. There are a huge number of boats between the two islands, mostly commercial fishing boats, many in long lines of a half dozen. It is almost 7:00. The weather looks like a repeat of yesterday \u2026 frequent low-energy squalls separated by periods of sunshine and punctuated by an angry sea that is causing the boat to continuously pitch and roll. If there is any respite today, I will prepare the cabin for the jibe at the end of the day (ia.e., stow and secure everything on the starboard side). I am sailing the rough yet another rainbow this morning. It never gets old. While I was enjoying my morning tea in the cockpit, a large, rogue wave came over the port quarter. I\u2019m awake now. It is 8:30 and the wind is still coming from 110, so I continue to make progress almost due E, but the forecast is still for the wind to shift to 90. That will be one of the determining factors on when to jibe. I laid down for a nap at 11:09 and when I woke up just before noon the wind had backed to almost 90. I adjusted the wind vane and downloaded a new GRIB, which was 18h old. The new weather plan recommended I jibe earlier than before, about 16:00, in 4h. Doing so would not allow me to quite clear Niue \u201c, and instead several smaller jibes would be required. The plan would have me clear just S of Niue about dawn. I studied the plan and as usual PW overestimated my speed during the day and underestimated it at night. I noticed the paracord used to raise the flags on the starboard had chaffed through the outer sheath. I took down the French Polynesian flag and will replace the cord once I am in seas that are not as angry. It is 14:45, the batteries are at 99%, there is sunshine, so it looks like I will have excess energy today. I turned on the watermaker (and turned off the fridge), not expecting to produce a significant amount of water, but to purge the system so I don\u2019t get growth. I made about 1.5 gallon of water in 45m, then turned off the watermake abs turned the fridge on. A few minutes later, at 3:30, the batteries were fully charged. I noticed the DC-DC charger once again has a low input voltage (9.4V), which I know is wrong because the AGM bank is at 13.0 V (fully charged). I don\u2019t know if the connection is bad or the charge is defective. Although I don\u2019t intend to work in it today, I put a meter across the terminals and established the connection is good. When I get to Tonga, after I use the Internet to determine whether it can be fixed, I will substitute DC-DC #1 (the one that connects the AGM bank to the house Li bank) with DC-DC #3 (the one that moves energy from the Li bank under the V-berth to the house bank, which I never use). The distance sailed on to Tonga in the last 24 h was 418-290=128 nm. The total distance sailed was 5427-5276=141 nm (14\/24=5.8 kt average, within 1 nm of yesterday). Note I am officially in the UTC-11 timezone now, but I won\u2019t change my clocks until after I have crossed the dateline.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current Position: 19 31.992\u2019S 168 56.150\u2019W; Local Timezone: UTC-10; SOG: 5.8 kt COG: 244; TWS: 22 kt; TWD: 95; Distance to Waypoint (Tonga, 268): 290; Total Miles Sailed: 5427 nm; Comments: As predicted, it blew 20-25 kt all night from about 115. On average, the course was almost exactly towards the waypoint at 5-6 kt … <\/p>\n

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