Day 9 - Sextants and Stars

One unusual feature of this placid passage has been our continued proximity to another boat. 'Melody', with Holger and Roz on board have been within sight for several days, as other boats motor past us. As I mentioned in an earlier post, these immensely experienced sailors enjoy longer passages (Holger sailed for 60 straight days from New Zealand to Victoria, BC this year). This gives them a different perspective from most of us and they have encouraged us to slow down and enjoy the mild conditions, rather than turning on the motor. Most of our friends are now more than 100 miles to the south, having overtaken us during the calms, but some have motored for 36 hours or more. However we have been enjoying the placid days and good conversations with our neighbors via VHF - exchanging recipes, comparing sun sights, and chatting about the stars that are new to us in the southern sky.

It has been frustrating at times, trying to keep the sails filled in 1-4 knots from behind us. There is a ridge of high pressure that often blocks the passage between the tropics and New Zealand. This area is, I believe, called the 'Horse Latitudes' (you can do a Google search to see the various theories why) and was famed in the days of sail, for it's light airs that would have stopped a large vessel in its tracks. However, the pay back comes when you cross over the ridge and slide down the south side towards the lower pressure that is currently sitting off New Zealand. We now have consistent NE winds and light seas under partly cloudy skies.

Rani took a noon site yesterday and was within a couple of miles of her latitude and 4 miles in her longitude - very respectable results for her first solo attempt at this. Holger's had similar results, but told us that his GPS was only 'off' by two miles when verified by his sextant.

At night we have watched 'Te Ra' O Tainui' rise in the northeast. This is a Maori constellation, which translates as 'The Sail of Tainui' - a sailing canoe that brought the Maori's ancestors to New Zealand from Hawaii. 'Matariki' or the Pleiades forms the raised prow, 'Te Kokota' (the Hyades) outlines a triangular sail, and 'Pewa A Tautoru' (Orion's belt) makes up the stern. Incidentally Orion's sword sticks upwards down here, rather than hanging from the belt and this constellation is known 'Te Manu Rore' or the Bird Snare, with the belt as a perch, the bright star, Rigel, as the fruit bait, and the Orion nebulae as the snare. This information was drawn from a little star-gazing booklet that our friend Marcelle on 'Adventure Bound' gave us, entitled "Naked Eye Wonders". Our own guide is limited to the Northern Hemisphere and no use down here.

It was so calm yesterday that we baked pizzas for lunch and the first loaf of bread of this passage. We have been careful with our oven use, but with only a week or so to go to New Zealand, we can now afford to be profligate.

Our position at 7:45 am was 27 51 S 177 24 E and we were making 4-5 knots dues south in about 7-9 knots of NNE breeze.

Day 8 - Songs and Spinnakers

It was another calm day yesterday, flying the spinnaker half the day and night with a light wind from the east northeast to northeast. We can count the number of times we have used the 'chute this year on one hand as normally the winds are either too light to counteract large swells or too much to handle the sail without risk of a knockdown. But here we have fairly calm seas, so we saved our mainsail and jib from flogging and UV damage by letting them have a holiday. Our speed varied from 2.5 to 3.5 knots with the added gust pushing us past 5 knots. Yes, very exhilarating! At 3.30am we packed it up and went to bed for a couple of hours while the wind played hide and seek.
During the mellow morning, Chris worked out his frustration by writing some sailing lyrics to the music from "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel. He entertained our cruising friends later by singing it on the radio net at noon. Several well-meaning folks suggested he launch his career on "Youtube" and they would provide the backing vocals. Maybe he will make his new career debut in Opua!

Our friends' children on "Long Shot II" played "battleships" with their pals on "Water Music" while some adults sounded like they were having fun playing "Name That Tune", all via VHF. In the evening we learnt that "Long Shot II" were towing "Wondertime" who have engine problems. As I mentioned before, most of the boats on passage from Tonga to NZ are motoring to reach Opua before the next "low" front on Wednesday. Why have never heard of these "doldrums" north of New Zealand?

Our whopping 24 hour daily run for yesterday was 60 miles and our position at 0745 this morning was 26 45S 177 44E

Net Picking - Day 7

Yes, net picking not nit picking! In times past I am sure many would have had to deal with the latter. Try to find a copy of a documentary series called "Ring of Fire" in which the crew of the Bogeys in Indonesia sit around examining each other's heads. The series has some brilliant footage of sailing in the Celebes Sea by two documentary-making English brothers.

Getting back to Ladybug, we are still drifting along with the pumice at speeds varying from 0 to 3 Knots. The winds have been 0-5 Knots from SSE to SSW and we are doing our best to keep the sails happy. Last night we took them down altogether to sleep for five and half hours. Ladybug rolled gently in the slow one meter swells and drifted for a few miles. We peered out every 20 minutes or so to check if anyone else was around. Two other yachts were in the periphery of our horizon but none came close enough to worry about.

Under these mild conditions we have time on our hands, so we spend a lot of it listening to weather forecasters and chatting with our cruising buddies on the single sideband radio. We even have friends within VHF range to commiserate with while we are all stuck in the middle of the "high" for at least another 36 hours. Then we may have to wait for another "low" to pass over the top of New Zealand before we sail for Opua.

Some of the bigger yachts with bigger engines and more diesel have been motoring since yesterday to reach NZ before the "low" transpires next Wednesday. These boats can average 150 miles per day going full tilt with their longer waterline whereas we average nearer 100 miles.

Since we have little chance of beating the front, we are enjoying the summer weather - sunshine and blue skies, flat seas. Good conditions to do some baking. I made a batch of almond squares yesterday, a favourite recipe from my lovely sister-in-law, Jasvir, in Vancouver. No doubt we shall be waddling ashore when we reach Opua!

Our 0745 position this morning was 26 00 South 178 15 East. We made a whopping 69 miles' progress in the last 24 hours.

"Windigo" Update

We received an update on the yacht "Windigo" yesterday via friends on "Long Shot II" who are in touch with the RCCNZ. A vessel called "Follow Me" located "Windigo" at 24 49.3S 179 49.3E at 1522UTC on Nov 12. The yacht seems to have drifted in an easterly direction from its original position and will probably continue in that direction and then NE according to their drift models.

"Follow Me" got tangled with line from a search and rescue life raft that was also drifting nearby at 24 41S 179 59E. They punctured the raft to scuttle it but it is probably still afloat below the water surface and less visible. A second life raft has not yet been located.

Vessels approaching the area close to the above way points should pay attention, especially if motoring.

Day 6 - Fleeces and blankets

It may be the influence of the cold front that is giving us stable weather, but it is turning decidedly chilly on Ladybug. We put on trousers this morning for the first time and I am wearing a cardigan as I type this message in the pre-dawn glow. Rani is asleep on the settee berth, wrapped snugly in a blanket - another first as we have only recently needed sheets. New Zealand will be a shock to us after 6 months+ in tropical countries.

Yesterday we received good news - the weather looks very stable for the next week except for a low that will pass well south of us. We have also learned that there should be mainly easterly winds on our approach to New Zealand in place of the predominant southwest winds. This allows us to point straight for the island now, rather than running off to the west and should save a day or two on passage. However this could change with no notice...

Determining where to point Ladybug has been a challenge and we have tried to combine the computer generated forecast models with input from forecasters and the observations of boats that are out in front of us. To this, you need to figure in your boat speed, feasible direction, a comfort factor so you will not be bashing into big seas, etc. We have started using the route planning feature of OpenCPN along with its ability to overlay weather forecast data. This still requires manual manipulation but allows one to plot the boat's progress along an imaginary line and see what the winds should be like at each position. I would like to write a software program to help me figure this out, but do not have access to everything I need to do this on board.

We are still sailing through pumice - floating volcanic rock - and discovered some in our raw water strainer for the engine. 'Lisa Kay' who has been sailing in the fleet from Tonga lost their water pump impeller, perhaps due to ingesting pumice, but may also have been due to an old impeller. The water stopped running and the hot exhaust gases melted their muffler. They only noticed this when water was coming into the boat from holes melted in the exhaust system. Fortunately they were able to jury rig a repair and received help from several cruisers to repair the muffler when they made 'landfall' at Minerva Reef. The pumice comes from an eruption that occurred south of Raoul island in the nearby Kermedec islands. Apparently there is a floating island of the stuff 30 by 300 miles wide floating somewhere south of us.

The sailing yesterday was lovely - close reaching in light SE winds. Around dark, the wind died down to zephyrs and we ghosted along all night at 1-2 knots. Rani even hand steered around 3 am for an hour or so to keep us moving.

Our position at 7:45 am on Nov 16 was 25 28 S 179 10 E. We ran exactly 100 nautical miles in the last 24 hours, not bad considering we had almost no wind all night. The wind is back up to a few knots from the SSE, seas are calm, and we are making good progress directly toward the North Cape of New Zealand.

Day 5 - experiencing turbulence

If you have ever been in an airplane when it goes through a pocket of turbulence, then you have some idea of what it is like to sail on a small boat in a rough sea. To make things more interesting, the 'pocket' can last for days, there are no seat belts, and you must do complex tasks like type at a computer or cook a meal while being tossed around like rag dolls. The GPS records how fast the boat is traveling, keeping a record of the maximum speed. It currently reads 83.6 knots - a bit unlikely, but in the last minute I have watched our speed vary from 3 to more than 10 knots as we fall off one wave and run into another.

Yesterday was quite tranquil for much of the daylight hours. We observed a partial solar eclipse (the full effect being seen a few hundred miles south). We used the sextant with its viewing filters to safely view the earth's shadow as it obscured nearly 2/3rds of the sun. Our first albatross paid us a visit around this time - a giant bird that circled the boat a few times. In flight it was graceful - zooming towards us like a fighter plane. Bobbing in the water, however, it looked more like an overgrown and slightly gawky seagull.

The calms seas allowed for the first proper shower of the passage. Oh bliss! Plus it smells better now down below in the closed up confines of a boat at sea.

The tranquility ended around supper time when the southerly breeze freshened and swung gradually into the south/southeast. We have been bouncing along now for more than 12 hours, passing Minerva reef around 9 pm. We did not stop because entering the reef at night would be tricky and also because we have a fair wind for making progress toward New Zealand. We were close enough to see the lights on the masts of the little community of yachts nestled within the reef's protecting ring and we were sad we had to pass it by.

Our position at 7:45 am was 24 09 S 179 49 W: Heading about 220 at a speed of 5 to 6 knots in 12 knots of SSE breeze and 1.5 meter seas. We are sailing under 2-reefed main and partially furled jib. We sailed about 125 miles in the last 24 hours.

A Plastic Free Boat

I find myself thinking often about plastics and our impact, in general, on the world out here. The beaches of paradise are littered with plastics. Even remote Suwarrow would yield a few garbage bags full from the small beaches on the main island.

So is it possible to cruise without using plastics? It would certainly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels to do so, but without a huge effort, I think it is not feasible. Too many things we take for granted are made from plastic.

Starting with the boat, we would have to build one from some other material other than fiberglass, which is plastic resin reinforced by glass fibers. Our running rigging would have to be replaced with wood or metal blocks and lines made from natural materials such as hemp or sisal. We would forego electricity on board, because wires and connectors use plastic for insulation and almost all electrical devices are made at least in part from plastic, valuable for its insulating qualities. Reverting to cloth covered wire and wooden/metal appliances might be possible, but the results would be unlikely to hold up in a wet, salty environment. Without electricity, we lose our depth sounder, GPS, and lighting. The latter would need to be done entirely with kerosene and would require lanterns for the running lights (two or three), anchor light, and interior lights. We would have no engine, since the pipes that feed water and the many of gaskets that seal it are made of plastics. Plumbing would also have to be re-done with metal pipes only, sealed with lead or oakum joints. We would have to look long and hard to find a metal compass to navigate by and an all metal sextant for off-shore work. Our chronometer would also need to be all-metal and glass - hand wound. I suspect a 'simple' non-plastic boat would cost more to build and be a pain to maintain.

Re-provisioning would be possible, but difficult, without plastic, since most processed 'foods' are packaged in plastic. We would bring cloth bags to the local market and have to be very choosy as to what we bought in the grocery store. Perhaps this is where we can have the most impact - by buying fewer plastic containers, especially out here in places like Tonga, where most plastic is simply thrown on the ground, burned, or dumped in the ocean.

Day 4 - purring engine

Yesterday saw us making quite good progress from the early morning on. We had sailed under the edge of a bank of low grey clouds, hoping to take advantage of some winds after a too calm night. This proved to be a good move, for while our friends 20 miles away were motoring, we sailed all day in breezes up to 10 knots. The seas were down and the wind only a little behind the beam. Eventually as the wind died down, we unfurled all sail and were still making 4 knots when we noticed around sunset that we would soon sail out from the edge of the front and into clear skies.

As I guessed, this meant the end of our wind, and after sailing southeast (90 degrees from our desired course) for a few hours, we finally lost any semblance of forward movement. There was still enough swell to make taking down all sails and waiting it out an unpleasant prospect, so we started our diesel for the first time on this passage. She has been purring away at 1300 rpm, pushing us at 3.5 to 4 knots for several hours now, while we doze below with ear plugs in to drown out the unaccustomed din.

We had our first movie on passage - a late afternoon matinee, watched while we still had a reliable breeze. The feature presentation was "The Best Years of Our Lives" - a nearly 3 hour long movie about servicemen returning to their US hometown after World War II. This An excellent film with thoughtful dialogue and very good acting. It deals with the difficulties soldiers, sailors, and civilians experienced adjusting to a changed life after the prolonged upheaval of war. Many of the truths the movie explores are still relevant today. I guess this is what makes a classic.

We saw one boat last night, which motored past us maybe 4 miles off as we sailed sluggishly to the southeast. Also, our friends on 'Melody' suffered a broken paddle shaft on their Aries windvane self-steering gear. We checked our Monitor windvane parts, but determined that our shaft replacement piece would not fit their gear, despite the American Monitor being a copy of the British Aries. Holge on Melody believes he can sleeve the shaft with a slightly modified winch handle, but will need to stop in Minerva to make the repair.

We have been sailing through fields of pumice, the detritus of an underwater volcanic explosion that occurred nearby. Apparently the pumice reaches all the way down to New Zealand,. So far, it has not affected our water cooled engine.

At 7:45 we were located at 23 11 S 177 56 W - Te sails are up in 1-2 knots of SW wind and were making 1-2 knots in relatively smooth seas.

Chasing squalls!

It is Day 3 and we are wishing for a little bit of that wind from Day 1. Yesterday was beautiful with the 10-15 ESE, blue skies and sunshine, but just after supper we were shaking the second reef out of the mainsail as wind speed dropped to less than 10 Knots. After midnight, we were being thrown around by 2m swells from south and east and the sails were slatting in less than 5 knots from the east. Neither the windvane nor the tiller pilot were able to hold the SW course to Minerva Reef, so we turned south and then southeast to keep going. Other boats close to us reported that they had either taken the sails down and or switched on the motor at around the same time.

This morning we were excited to see a line of squalls south of us. Wow!Wind! We deliberately changed our course to get some of that wind. And maybe we could get a boat wash at the same time! As we approached the biggest and blackest patch we put a second reef in the main. "Hurrah, we are up to 6 knots plus again!", we sang over the radio net. That elation was short lived. Another hour later we were shaking out the reef again. These squalls seem to be light and static, hardly moving at all, but we are still chasing them to keep moving, even if it is in the wrong direction and at only 4 Knots.

According to the weather sources we will be in zero to light winds for the next two days. This means we may stop at Minerva Reef for a day if we get there in a day or two. But nothing is for certain. At times like this I wish I were on a fast boat like Segue, a large Canadian catamaran which set off later than us from Vava'u but anticipate being in Opua by Friday. They made 224 miles in 24 hours on Day 1!

Our position this morning at 0745 was 21 59 S 176 51 W. We ran 131 miles in 24 hours but probably only 100 in the right direction.

Position update Day 2

It's Remembrance Day at home - a day later out here and we are enjoying much more peaceful conditions than yesterday - winds 10-15 ESE and seas down below 2 meters. Still bumpy but much less water on deck. Position at 7:45 was S 20 17 W 175 47 - we made 148 nautical miles in the first 24 hours from our anchorage in Vava'u - an average of over 6 knots.

In retrospect, we should have sailed a bit further west to make things a bit less violent on board. Making tea in 3 meter seas and 25 knots is a potentially painful experience. Today we were able to cook and eat porridge with only a slight boil-over.

First night en route to NZ

We departed about 15 hours ago from Tonga bound for New Zealand amidst a fleet of fellow cruisers. The seas were still rough - left over from the low that passed a few days ago to the south and a new chop produced by 20+ knot winds. We have been close reaching with water washing over the decks and coach roof and finding its way inside through hatches and portlights that no longer seal entirely when submerged in green water.

There has been much chatter on the VHF and sharing of weather data on SSB. A few of the boats have signed up for custom weather routing and are generously sharing this with the fleet. I wrote a small program to covert some of these data to a route that can be displayed on OpenCPN - my small contribution to all this.

Position at 11:15 PM local time 19 38 S 175 09 W - - somewhere off two volcanic islands in the Ha'apai group of Tonga.

Will try to do daily updates. The passage should take less than two weeks and we may break it up with a stop at Minerva reef.

Rotis and Routes

On this eve of our departure to New Zealand, we ran through our 14 point "to do" list in a very tranquil anchorage. Most importantly we inspected the standing and running rigging, fixed the leaking portlight which dripped saltwater over the settee during our last passage and re-enforced the lines which hold the solar panels and wind-vane steering in place.

We also held a pre-passage meeting yesterday with other yachtie friends who are leaving from Vava'u to discuss the weather and route strategy. Everyone is keen to leave as soon as possible and while a few were ready to depart today, most of us had to re-provision and will depart tomorrow or Monday. The forecast looks good with moderate winds and seas for up to one week. Of course, the wind is a fickle friend and depending on the dance between the highs and lows of barometric pressure, it may become overly enthusiastic or desert us altogether. The main thing is to keep abreast of the meteorological reports spanning more than a thousand miles. Over the next two weeks, we shall be staying in touch with David from Gulf Harbour Radio, NZ, and downloading grib files (computer generated wind and sea states) and some friends are receiving personal weather routing.

I had the enviable task of galley duty, preparing some simple meals to eat during the next couple of days while the swells may not be conducive to culinary creations. As a result we have a large container of hummous, fourteen plain rotis, a saucepan of lentil, chaco and carrot stew, and some cut mangoes, papaya and pineapple for dessert. There was not enough to bake the almond cookies, so hopefully there will be quiet days at sea to do so.

On a positive note, the people on Windigo, the boat we reported as being rolled a few days ago during the deep low, have been rescued and are on their way to New Zealand. The boat was abandoned and is apparently still floating, so we will be on the look out for it on our passage through that area.

Anyway - we are ready! So wish us good luck and we will be on our way after breakfast tomorrow. We will try to post a daily position report and check into the Pacific Drifters Net on SSB 8131 USB at 0715 and 1730 local NZ time.

All is not wine and roses

Well we had a record day on day one of our passage from Suwarrow to Samoa - 168 nautical miles in 24 hours - an average of 7 knots. To put this in perspective, our average speed over 5500 miles from Mexico has been 4.5 knots. However, such speed comes at a price - high winds and high waves make for very uncomfortable sailing and poor Rani has been green for the first couple of days. She is better now and was able to keep down a meal of fries and eggs this afternoon.

Also - back at home, the new tenant in our house had a sewage back-up as soon as she moved in. They are blasting behind our house, which may have caused a pipe to collapse, but whatever the cause, we feel bad for our tenant and also for our friends, Dave and Patrick Rife who we asked to fix the problem. They spent a messy few hours in our crawl space and for that we are very grateful and also a bit guilty-feeling! It is certainly frustrating trying to deal with issues like this from a sailboat in the middle of an ocean and I am swinging over to the camp that advocates selling the house before you leave on an extended voyage!

We are about 170 miles out of Samoa at 13 56 S 168 52 w. The seas are down from yesterday's 3+ meters but things are still rolly and we are barrelling along at 6+ knots. We look forward to making landfall at Apia on Friday morning (Thursday back at home - we cross the international date line tomorrow).

Arrived in Suwarrow

We are anchored in the small atoll of Suwarrow - a Cook Island administered as a national park. Position: 13 14.8 S 163 06.5 W We were the 21st boat here when we dropped the hook early this morning - some kind of record for number of cruising boats, I think.

The passage took almost exactly 6 days, with a brief wait this morning for enough light to enter the pass. Ladybug ran 720 miles to make good about 660 for an average speed of 5 knots. Not a fast passage, but given lighter following winds, we are happy with our fat little boat's performance.

We plan to stay a week or more here to snorkel the unspoiled corals and enjoy the reefs and beaches of Anchorage island. To balance all the dry, boat maintenance related posts, Rani has promised to write something interesting soon.

Motorcycle Chain Lube

Last night the wind vane pulleys were squeaking, so I reached for a can of dry lubricant that has become a staple of maintenance on board Ladybug. One squirt in the right place and I could go back to sleep while Rani watched for ships on our 5th night out from Maupiti.

I came across this product while sailing in Mexico. The marine version is called Sailkote - a Teflon-based dry lubricant that we first heard about from a sail maker in San Carlos. This costly product (about $30 for a medium sized a spray can) is excellent for lubricating sail tracks and jib head foils as well as for blocks and other areas where you do not want to use oil that will wash off or stain. The lubricant sprays on and then dries leaving a slippery waxy coat.

I bought a partially used can from the sail maker, but when it came time to replace this and lay in a couple of cans for our trip south, I balked at the price. So I did some research and found that what I believe is a similar product (possibly identical?) is used to lubricate motorcycle chains and control cables. The cans we bought are made by DuPont and are called "Teflon Chain-Saver". You can buy this in hardware stores in the US for about $6!

We should make landfall in Suwarrow tomorrow morning after heaving to tonight to wait for good light. The entry pass is coral lined and there are more cruising boats anchored here than at any time in the recorded past, so it may take a while to find a place.

Energy Consciousness

Another thing about living on a boat is that you are always conscious of your systems - energy (diesel, propane, and electric) as well as garbage waste disposal and water. In a house in town, you have utility companies and municipal services for most of these On a boat you are the head of your own multi-faceted utility company. I have written before about water use, so will talk now about electricity, which I don't think we have blogged about in any detail.

When a boat owner is trying to work out their requirements for an electrical system, there are three areas to be concerned with - storage, use, and production of electricity. Storage is a matter of selecting the correct number of suitable batteries. These are usually lead acid deep discharge batteries and the common choices are vented wet cell batteries that require periodic topping up (e.g., golf cart batteries or marine deep-discharge units) or sealed units such as AGMs or Gel Cells. We chose to install three group 27 Trojan AGM batteries because we plan to leave the boat in warm sunny areas and will not be around to top up the batteries. AGMs also typically last longer than regular wet cell batteries, although they are much more expensive ($750 US for our three batteries).

It turns out that the number and size of batteries depends on both how much electricity you consume and how much you can produce in a day. You also need enough capacity to tide you over between recharge periods, which may be when the sun shines (if you use solar panels), when the wind blows (using wind turbines) or when you run your engine or a generator to generate electricity from gas or diesel. You don't want too many batteries because they cost plenty and weigh a lot and because if you have more battery capacity than you can recharge easily, this is just wasted.

To produce electricity, we rely mainly on solar panels (250 watts total) and an 80 amp externally regulated alternator on our diesel. As a rough way to calculate how much we will generate per day, I used a rule of thumb of taking the watts and dividing by 5 to get amp hours per day (although in the tropics on sunny days you may do much better, this allows for the odd cloudy day). Amp hours are a useful common unit for dealing with production and consumption. I also assume I will run the engine on average for an hour every other day, producing about 12 amp hours per day from this. I try to treat this as a bonus, because ideally I only run the engine when we need to as part of a passage or on leaving or entering anchorages. So that gives us a total of 62 amp hours generated per day.

That leaves consumption of power. To determine this, you do an energy audit, which is simply a list of all the things that consume electricity and an estimate of how much you use each one per day. This is different when on passage versus at anchor, so I did 2 lists. Here is one list for at anchor:

Fridge: (varies with air & water temperature - measure this to calc): 6 amps for 10 minute/hour: 24 amp hours
Interior lights: 2 @ .4 amps for 4 hours + 1 fluorescent @ 2 amps for .75 hours: 4.95 amp hours
Propane Solenoid: .5 amps for 1 hour: .5 amp hours
Anchor light: .3 amps for 12 hours: 3.6 amp hours
Net-book charging: 2 amps for 3 hours: 6 amp hours
SSB transmission/reception: 2 amps for 1/2 an hour + 25 amps for 10 minutes = 5 amp hours

This list gives us a total of about 45 amp hours per day. underway, we probably consume another 12 amp hours for instruments (24 hours @ .5 amp/hour) and 4 for periodic use of the radar for a total of roughly 60 amp hours. You can see that the fridge is the main consumer of power, especially in the tropics. We actually used about 15 amp hours per day in cooler Mexican waters. Our fridge is very small and we do not have a freezer. As an aside, we have friends whose refrigeration consumes far more than 100 amp hours per day - they run a generator every day to keep things cold.

It looks like we have a slight surplus here when in port and a rough balance when underway, assuming we do not get too many days of cloudy weather. If this happens, we must either cut down on our optional consumption (mainly Net-book time) or run the engine more often. Note that I have not included the water maker consumption here as we only run this when we have a surplus of solar energy on sunny days or when we are running the engine.

One final thing - how did we determine we needed 3 Group 27 batteries? I assumed we would need to last for two days without recharging. We do not want to run the batteries below 50% charge as this reduces their lifespan, so two days is 120 amp hours, which is a little less than the 150 amp hours (300 amp hours/2) the batteries claim as their rated capacity. You want this extra room for various reasons, but mostly because you rarely charge your batteries to 100% of their rated capacity.

The sick room

I was struck today by how similar the experience during the first few days on a long passage is to that of being home from school with a cold or the flu.

You spend much of your time in a state of semi-consciousness with the thick head caused by lack of sleep. In some cases you suffer from a mild nausea caused by the rolling and pitching of the boat. You can't go anywhere and you spend way too much time lying in your berth or slouching around the cabin. Your back starts to ache and your bum gets sore.

You eat easy to prepare comfort food, read books, and watch movies because there is nothing else to do. You can't go for a walk and all your friends are playing somewhere else.

On the plus side, if you like clouds and water, there is an every changing vista of these rolling by. We spend hours in the cockpit when the weather is good. We check in to a radio net each day to hear other cruiser's voices and learn where everyone is. Oh - and the thick head usually goes away after a few days...

We are 2.5 days out of Maupiti with about 366 miles to go to Suwarrow. Position 15 22 S 157 08 S We have been averaging 125 miles a day in light SE winds and mixed swells - broad reaching.

Pictures from the Crossing to the Marquesas

Twenty six pictures for the 26 (well 25 and a bit) days. The detailed text for these pictures can be found in previous radio posted blog entries. The photos show a mix of wildlife, weather, repair work, and celebration.

Dolphins in the bow wave

Approaching squall

Tanker passing at dusk

Blue water swim

Fixing a bulkhead bonding problem with thickened epoxy

Red footed booby on the solar panel

Flying fish rigor mortis

Baby flying fish - these fish landed on board ranging in size from an inch to 9 or 10 inches

Fixing a leak in the rudder steering tube

Fixing another leak in the traveller bolts through the coach roof.

Rani boning up on her French.

Strumming near the equator 

Getting the bubbly ready for equator celebration

Equator GPS - a bit late as we were toasting and bribing Poseidon

One for Poseidon, one for us

Sweetened rice offering to the Gods

Cleaning up after the squall (we left a hatch open!)

Squall in real life

Same squall on radar

Amazing squall area clouds

More squall clouds

Approaching Hiva Oa - We use a free chart software (OpenCPN) as back up to paper charts

Happy to see land!

Approaching Hiva Oa

The hook is down in  Taahuku  Bay, Hiva Oa

The anchorage at Taahuku

Land Ho - Day 25/26

Day 25 was the fastest yet. We covered 144 nautical miles, broad reaching in 15 to 20 knot easterlies during the day and lighter easterlies at night. There were squall lines still, but more spread out and with less punch than those of the previous day. Two reefs in the main, then one as the winds died. We kept the jib partially furled to reduce backing and slatting in the rolly swells. Despite this much reduced sail, we still regularly reached 8 knots on the GPS with some 9 and 10 knot surfing - great fun.

At 14:30 Zulu on Saturday April 14, our position was 09 36 S 138 29 W. We ran 144 NMs with 137 made good in the previous 24 hours.

Just before sunrise, this morning, 25 days after leaving Los Frailes, we sighted Hiva Oa lying under a bank of cloud in the pre-dawn haze. We danced on the deck hugging each other and cheering - what a sight after nearly 4 weeks at sea! We dropped the hook at 14:50 Marquesas time (UMT - 9.5 hours) and our friends Mike and Karen on 'Chapter 2' dinghied over to help us set a stern anchor (the anchorage is small and very crowded so the two anchors are needed to avoid swinging into your neighbor).

We are now anchored at 09 48 S 139 02 W in Taahuku a.k.a. 'Traitor's Bay' near the village of Atuona. There is an outrigger canoe race in progress and music is playing from the boat ramp. There is a horse grazing in the woods by a surf pounded beach off our stern and a huge cloud-shrouded green sided mountain rising to starboard. The sights and smells of this paradise are overwhelming. We will sleep well tonight.

The total distance we sailed/motored from Los Frailes, Mexico was 2932 nautical miles by our GPS 'odometer' at an average speed of 4.8 knots. We motored for 36 hours in total, using approximately 15 gallons of diesel. About 8 hours of this motoring was done mainly to recharge batteries due to problems with refrigeration. This did not contribute substantially to boat progress because we were sailing at the time. We stopped for only a couple of hours at Clarion Island and for another hour or two to scrub the boat's bottom.

This will be our last passage report for now but we will try to update the blog regularly while sailing amongst the Marquesas. Our tentative plans are to visit 5 of the islands, spending 4 or 5 days at each, before departing for the Tuomotus.

3000 Mile Diet - Day 24

Who would have thought we would still be eating Greek salad, with fresh green pepper, cucumber, tomato, red onion, black olives and Chiapas cheese, 30 days after provisioning in La Paz?

Living without a fridge for the last three years in the hot climate of Mexico has taught us a few things. We have learned to choose fresh vegetables and fruits with a discerning eye, preferring to buy non-refrigerated produce from the farmers' market. The Mexican vendors do not mind if we handle the produce to avoid bruised or over-ripe fruits/veggies. We have also discovered "new" vegetables, which naturally keep longer, like chayote (a good zucchini substitute) and jicama.

Once onboard, we carefully wrap each delicate item in brown paper, cut-up bags we had saved from bakery and wine purchases. Newspaper also works but glossy magazine paper is not good because it does not breathe. Our produce locker has stacking plastic baskets with holes in the sides for airflow and we almost always leave the lid off this locker to allow air in. These two steps seem to help prevent the goods from chafing and going moldy, keeping things dark but ventilated and not too dry.

This voyage to Polynesia is on a different scale from our usual 2 or 3 week Mexican stints. We bought enough produce to last 4-5 weeks, in case we got stuck in the doldrums, and were prepared to sacrifice some along the way. The oranges and apples were hung in hammocks, the vegetables split between the galley produce locker and an open Rubbermaid container under the quarter berth. I unwrapped and aired vegetables, other than potatoes and onions, every day or second day, depending on the sea state. We placed the most ripe tomatoes, green peppers, cauliflower and avocados in the fridge, once space became available, 7-10 days after leaving La Paz. The same applies to cut vegetables which have been partially used, like cucumber for example.

Our loss has been minimal - in more than 4 weeks of sailing - two grapefruits, one orange, one tomato and several carrots. We ate the last zucchini two days ago and still have kilos of onions and potatoes, several cukes, some carrots, cabbages, jicama, chayote, poblano peppers, and even a few tomatoes and an avocado. Admittedly, the carrots and peppers look rather gnarly. In the fruit department, we have ten oranges, lots of limes and a few dozen 5000 mile apples from Washington (via Mexico). No scurvy victims on Ladybug!

Now - we just have to get through Friday the 13th and hope that when we make landfall, the inspectors in French Polynesia allow us to keep our hard earned veggies and fruit!

More on favourite at sea recipes at a later date as I am feeling a bit nauseous in the bouncy seas today.

Our position at 1430 Zulu on Friday April 13 was 8 12 S 136 35 W. We sailed 136 NMs in the last 24 hours and are 155 NMs out of Hiva Oa. Note that the captain had us going to the wrong waypoint (40 miles east of where we should have been aiming), so our previous entries for miles to run are wrong and we will probably reach Atuona by tomorrow afternoon. He should leave the navigation to the first mate :)