At sea to Tahiti
31 July 2021 | 11 57.570'S:143 22.215'W, At Sea, French Polynesia
NC
30th -31st July
11 57.570 S
143 22.215 W
Weather; in the words of Crowded House Ð four seasons in one day!, wind 5-15 knots, waves 1.5 Ð 3 meters
ANOTHER LATE BIRTHDAY GREETING Ð I'M PUTTING THIS FORGETFULNESS DOWN TO OLD AGE! MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY FOR THE 29TH TO RUSSELL, WE HOPE YOU CELEBRATED IN STYLE AND WISH YOU ALL GOOD THINGS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD.
What a carnival ride the last 24 hours has been! We only needed for it to snow and we would truly have seen all four seasons in one day, happily the snow kept away though. We made a mistake when we were doing the preparation of the boat and setting off, instead of getting the spinnaker pole up and ready for use when we were ghosting along at 3 knots in flat, calm water at the start of this trip we waited until we were roaring along at 6.5 knots and heeling over whilst bouncing through the waves. Gerry decided this would be the time to put up the pole ready to use with the jib, goose winging, when the wind moved behind us as the predicted weather forecast had us believe was going to happen. I manned the lines whilst Gerry wrestled the pole into position out on deck, it's not easy at the best of times and this certainly couldn't be described as the best of them. We managed to get the pole up and ready for use without too much arguing ( yes I know that's a miracle but neither of
us had the required breath to yell abuse at each other). We didn't need the pole at that moment but it was ready for later, should the need arise.
The sky was horrible for most of the day, covered in thick layers of cloud ranging in colour from white and fluffy looking to black and threatening, the sun didn't put in an appearance at all which meant no solar energy but the wind generator made up for it as it was spinning away all day. The lowest boat speed we saw in the 24 hours was 2.5 knots, that didn't last too long and we spent most of the day watching the speedo change between 4 and 8 knots. The main sail and the staysail were out for most of the day on a port tack but the wind gradually eased its way from forward of the beam, through the beam to aft of the beam and headed towards the stern, so with each slight change the sails were adjusted, the staysail furled away, the jib unfurled and poled out to allow us to goose wing for a while until the next change of wind direction when everything was reversed. Gerry is never content to set the sails and sit in comfort, he had to constantly be fiddling and adjusting them t
o get every last bit of speed out of them, I think it's the competitive racing thing going on even though there are no other boats around to be racing against!. At least he doesn't expect me to be doing the adjusting and fiddling so that's something to be grateful for and if it keeps him happy to have every last tell tail flying in the right direction, so be it, it certainly kept him busy for the day as the wind never settled in one direction or speed for the entire day! We were very glad to have the full enclosure when it started to rain, at least we stayed dry but as soon as the rain stopped we found that the humidity was too much and had to open up the curtains to let some air through the cockpit. The wind and waves were too inconsistent for us to put the rod in the water, so there were no fish on the menu and it doesn't look like today is going to be any different although the sun has come out and shown itself today so we will at least get some solar energy. Despite all
our fiddling around with the gen set, polishing the fuel as best we could whilst at anchor, changing out the filters and blowing through the fuel lines we are still having trouble with the start-up of the gen set and are having to start up the main engine each time before starting the get set up. It runs mostly OK after that but has the odd hiccough when it slows down as if there is fuel starvation going on, it's most certainly on the agenda for checking and fixing in Tahiti. We have added another fixing job to the list since leaving the harbour, the brushes on our water maker have died and of course there are no replacements to be had anywhere closer than New Zealand, and possibly not even there. This means that we can't run our water maker so we are having to be careful about our water usage. We started out with full water tanks and are trying to keep our use down as much as possible Ð turning us into true grotty yachties! Of course these brushes are particular to this wat
er maker engine so the chances of getting an off the shelf replacement are slim to none leaving us with a couple of options Ð filling the water tanks where we can and using the water very carefully until the next port or replacing the engine, if that's possible Ð not the best of choices to have to make but we can survive the last bit of the trip if we need to. Overnight the wind and waves settled down into a pattern that was reasonable, we sailed along with the staysail and main out, were reasonably upright and comfortable, so much so that we both managed to catch up on some sleep and are feeling better for it this morning. Given our water situation we are going to head straight to Tahiti as Gerry is keen to get somewhere that might be able to supply stuff with which we can fix things. Our shroud has stood the test of a rough start to the trip so all is good there. We haven't seen anything on or in the water since leaving Nuku Hiva, just huge expanse of water and low clouds.
In the 24 hours we have managed to do 141 NM and have run the engine for just half an hour ( that would be to start up the gen set each time).
It's hard to think that we are going into August at midnight, where has this year gone?
Anyway I'll be back to check in again tomorrow, hopefully nothing else will need fixing at that point.