Mexico to the Marquesas.
The crossing, second times a charm so they say.
I am writing this on the my night watch following Day 25 at sea, Currently at 2'05'12.4S, 128'27'34.5W and motoring. This crossing has been very different to the last. Having an engine being one Major difference though I have been very reluctant to use it. Why now then you ask. Plain and simple, I wanted to get moving in the right direction. Just North of the equator we hit a South Easterly current pushing at 2kts. In the days since we have covered 140Nm, not so bad really. Problem is we've been steering a course of 240deg but actual course over ground has been 180 deg at best. The last day was 30 Nm at least partially in the right direction but with the sails constantly spilling then filling like a whip cracking It was hard work. Hence feeding the 64 horses and getting the F out of this current.
We have had very light wind days for a lot of this trip, but had some really awesome sailing as well mingled with complete calms.
I had a forecast down to The Socorro islands showing calms moving in in about a weeks time. It was pretty light along the bottom of the Baja so we motored on the second afternoon to get us To the NWesterly wind so we'd pass the Socorro's before the calms. Nearly worked Hahaha. This was our second night out from Muertos and we were moving OK in the NW breeze but had to duck around 3 South bound vessels overnight, had to round up in each case to avoid them. The first two were large pleasure yachts and I think they were oblivious to us until we were quite close. We had been tracking them from the horizon but travelling at our speed there wasn't much point altering course till they were close.
Night 4 saw us completely becalmed just on sunset,so I dropped everything except the club foot staysail, left it to Nat and Bill to keep an eye out and went to bed. Nat woke me just before 12 which is when I come on watch anyway. The breeze was picking up so hoisted the main, rolled out the jib and had the best 6 hrs sailing ever. The night was completely overcast and no moon at all behind the clouds so it was dark dark dark. True Companion was gliding along at 6-7 kts on a Beam reach with 15-18kts of wind. The Monitor wind vane was doing all the steering. It was absolutely Beautiful and a little surreal. Of course Nat was up at 5 and the wind began to drop. This seemed to be the pattern for the next week or 3. Sunrise and sunset the wind would change, not the direction so much, just the strength.
We've had a mixed bag in the last 3 weeks. Up to 25kts on the rare occasion coupled with showers North of the ITCZ but mostly 6-8kts. One morning we were double reefed down with the jib rolled part way in and tucked up out of the rain followed by an afternoon of ghosting along under fluffy clouds. I think the ITCZ for us was from about 6 deg North till 3 deg North. We had some very light moments and another 3 calms, the longest of which was 12-14 hrs. The skies were clear a lot of the time with the clouds always seeming to be on the horizon. When they did arrive they'd come out of nowhere and be gone half hour later.
Our best day saw 168Nm and our slowest just 24. The worst days for me are the ones with just enough breeze to be moving in the right direction but not enough to keep the sails full through the rolls. Then I have the sails in one ear and Nat in the other, long days.

The great Tongan desert
3rd night out from Bora Bora and it's a glass off, so much so that you can see the Milky Way and Southern Cross clearly reflected on the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It's a Beautiful night marred only by the constant noise of the Cummins pushing us across the flat Earth. No moon tonight so we could be right on the edge, who knows as the canopy of stars and the Sea merge as one.
Unless you believe in a different version of things of course. Maybe tonight we are the Marshmallow in the coffee cup, complete with sprinkles on top. Hopefully about to be stirred but not dunked.
Now you'd be wrong about now. No smoking or Rum involved in tonight's works, nor even too many Coffees. Just thought I couldn't be to Poetic or you might think I'm a punce and if you've gotten this far through the blogs your probably sick of the standard passage making troll so lighten up this isn't one of those. Not tonight anyway.

Surprisingly, I just had another thought. Why aren't the deep Sea fisherman targeting the calm spots, we come across them in the middle of nowhere but not while it's been so calm. Just imagine how much easier to be working here rather than dragging those nets onto a rolling deck surely. Maybe I should sell that idea and save some lives, but then again, perhaps the fish don't like the calms either, because when their looking at the other side of the mirror to us, they see something they don't like so they go to where the waves are. There it would be like a Carnival wall of mirrors, something for everyone. Too many questions for just one night.
Also, there are a lot of those, also's I mean. You also don't see anywhere near the bird life when it's calm. I always thought that it probably had more to do with the fact that, the more wind there is, the less flapping needed to do all that soaring and wheeling about that seems so necessary for fishing. Maybe there are just no fish. Things are coming together now.
No. You're still wrong, but the big questions stop me from thinking about the certainty of the work I have waiting for me when we get home. Not looking forward to that one bit. Not even a tiny little bit.

Had some Pilot whales swing by today to ride the bow wave for just a few minutes each before they carried on their merry way South. I think they were as excited to see us as we were them as they definitely pick up speed and porpoise a bit higher to meet the boat. Awesome to be standing on the bow and seeing them 3-5m long and only 1.5m from the bow. You can see the pimples on their backs. Sad though to see that one was trailing a fishing line and swivel, you could see the hook in the front edge of his dorsal and the swivel almost back by its tail. Then again, I would have thrown him back too.

Tonight is our fifth from Bora Bora, it's the same Sea with a different look. There is still no moon, almost no breeze and lots of stars. You can see reflected in the Ocean the occasional cloud that appears and disappears or drifts through. They look dark both in the sky and the Ocean but if the sun was up they'd look white and fluffy. I saw a planes lights flashing on the low Western horizon tonight, the first I have seen in weeks besides the ones coming and going on the islands we've been to.
Often, high in the night sky you'll see a bright pinpoint flash of white light and think it may be a plane but after 3 sometimes 4 flashes it's gone. My theory is, they may be shooting stars that are coming straight at you so you don't see a trail just the instant they hit the atmosphere. Almost always 3 flashes though sometimes 4. Weird. You'd be surprised how many shooting stars there are in a clear night sky. Beautiful.

Well, it's now night number 9 on the way and once again we have no wind and are motoring. It seems this desert just rolls on and on, the dunes are endless. The forecast isn't great on the wind front either and we will run out of fuel before we cross it. Still 350Nm to go with no wind on the horizon for yet another 3 days. Tomorrow I'll transfer the jerry's into the tank and then we are going to Bobs. Current plan is to motor at night if the calms continue and Catch up to Bob during the days. Bob still has a project or two for me to look at when I'm idle and the Cummins isn't. Hopefully we'll meet bob, not BOB, Nat likes him way better. I myself am looking forward to Windy dropping in. She really rocks my boat.
I'll have the sails up and down, in and out 5 times a day as the breeze comes and goes from all points of the compass. There is always just enough swell to spill what little breeze does happen along from the sails. Like the Boobies though, I really don't like all that flapping.
Tonight at least I can give you an Answer to the question, in case you were wondering, just how much can one tired Booby shit in a night?
Answer : Way more than you would have ever thought possible.
By the way, neither bob showed up. He sent little Windy and her flat Mate. 🙂

So why do it?
Here I am on my second drift across the big blue paddock and the question still comes to mind. What has driven me to be out here. Well, I don't really know.
I've always had a love for sailing even though I haven't actually done a whole lot of it. When we were kids my Dad got us a little holdfast trainer and we raced that for maybe 2 years total. I was maybe 7 years old at the time and was the crew with an older club member as skipper. One day when we were on holiday Dad tipped us out in the middle of Dutton Bay and that was the end of it for me, scared the crap out of me and I wouldn't get back in the boat for years so he eventually sold it. I regret those days lost sailing with my Dad now. I don't think that's why I'm here, so again why am I out here.
We did sail with one of Dads friends on a steel schooner occasionally some 6 or 8 years later. Some of those trips were overnight to Kangaroo island from Adelaide and return. Really did enjoy being on the Ocean then, all my fears vanished.
Still in my teens I bought a catamaran but never joined a club and raced, just the odd weekend here and there over the years amongst having a family, house projects and a Wife who didn't like sailing. Ended up selling the Cat to buy pavers for the backyard when kids came along. Thats life, and I didn't sail again for 20 years. Then I had a friend looking for crew to sail from Gove NT to Darwin.
As it turned out the boss had told me the week before that I had too much leave accumulated and would need to start taking some so With about 4 days notice I obliged him and took off for 3 weeks. We day sailed only, anchoring every night. It was an awesome trip of motor sailing,fishing and swimming. When I returned home I thought, Mmmm I could do that for sure and my search for a boat began.
I decided my budget, dreamt up what I was looking for in a boat and went internet shopping. Of course I wasn't living anywhere even close to where most Ozzie boats were and didn't see anything that made me want jump on a plane and go for a peek. Naturally I began to think well, why not look overseas, cruising the Pacific looks like fun might as well start on the other side. Obviously with no real life experience of what a good cruising boat might actually look like my whole conception was based on my extensive Internet research. Not. You get out what you put in and I got very lucky and am very Happy with what I got out.
Now you might think all this would take a while and it did, only a little while though. Just 7 months after stepping off my friends Boat in Darwin and never having left Australia before I was stepping on a plane and flying to Mexico to look at 'True Companion' a CSY44. My wish list was, something around 40ft, centre cockpit, sloop, fibreglass, Moulded keel and with enough fruit for someone with no idea what to do with it. True Companion ticked all the boxes and for what my budget allowed. That really was the easy part. I wasn't ready to go sailing yet so I stored my new girl and went home to sell everything I owned.
I still can't tell you what drove me to want to sail across an Ocean, maybe I'm just stubborn and once the idea got in my head I wouldn't let it go, but where did it come from?
So this time around I'm on my own boat, as Skipper and I can tell you that it is a lot different than crewing for someone else. I'm out here with the full knowledge that I'm making it up as I go along, learning how to get my boat balanced in the varying conditions and all the while trying to make it look like I have some idea what I'm up to. I think the kid skippering me around all those years ago knew more about sailing then, than I still do now. Lucky again that I bought a Boat who knew how to cross an Ocean and look after the people onboard.

I am very lucky to have my Wife sharing this adventure with me. Not the before mentioned one. No more of a sailor but more tolerant of my meanderings. She doesn't share the same attraction to this life as I but she at least is here with me though she constantly wonders why. In a very different way to my pondering though, and often followed by some colourful language rather than my Rosy thoughts 😊

It really is a beautiful thing to glide across the ocean with the sails silently full under a canopy of stars, some of them even shooting, but the only noise is the wind in your ears and the sound of the ocean disturbed by your passing.

I've always wanted to fly also but I've never bought a plane. Go figure.

French Polynesia done quick.
Most of you have probably never heard of "Quake"It was one of the first, first person shooter games, Right after "Duke Nukem 3D" it had multiple levels and took me months of dedication to get through. Naturally I had to see every corner and kill every nasty thing that came at me. Shortly after I had completed the adventure I was told about a video. "Quake done quick". Somebody had done the whole game in something like 3 minutes,I can't remember the exact time right now. They raced through, not worrying about collecting anything just purely getting from one level to the next. That's how I feel I've done French Polynesia. FP done quick. No time to look at anything but the essentials.

Well as usual I've left It awhile as we are now actually enroute to Tonga.
It took us 32 days in the end to reach Taiohae Bay arriving on Tuesday 16th May.
We enjoyed the Marquesas but only for a little more than a week. Food, fuel and water all topped up, scrubbed the waterline for growth and barnacles and enjoyed a few relaxing swims to top it off. We tried leaving on Wed 24th of May but the promised wind was nowhere to been seen or heard on departing the Bay so we headed in to Daniels Bay for a night and stayed 2. Bill walked to the waterfall with Saxon and Holly from Sonrisa II, another Aussie boat. Nat and I did boat chores and swam for the day.
Friday saw us up and outbound for the Tuamotus.
I should add in here that during our stay in the Marquesas I went to the masthead to check the vhf antennae , while I was up there I cleaned the little solar panels on the wireless wind instrument and noticed the weather cock was drooping a bit. Naturally I tried to straighten it which resulted in me bringing it back down to the deck in 2 pieces. Oh well another thing to fix as I couldn't find a replacement in Taiohae despite there being an awesome little chandlery. Turns out the vhf antennae looked fine by the way. More on this later.
So back to the departure, no sooner had I got the anchor up than the wireless wind instrument died. Oh well, that's 2 for 2, ended up using a bit of string on the shrouds until we got to the Tuamotus and guessing the wind speed from the looking at the sea state.
We had a really good 3 days sailing, even smoked a Pacific Seacraft headed in the same direction, At least for the first 2 days. We had 164, 147 and 133 Nm days and hove to 5Nm from the entrance to Kauehi atoll waiting for daylight and slack water. I chose this atoll because it was a fairly easy entry and good lagoon. Good choice as we were a little early for the slack water and the tide was still running out pretty good. No problems though, what a beautiful place, proper postcard stuff. Your probably wondering where all the pictures are, well I'm too busted arse broke to subscribe to the premium addition so you only get one per post. At least you will when I get around to it.
The houses are mostly very poor, partially constructed or deconstructing but everyone seems to have a phone and Satellite dishes. There's not much to do on the island so I was surprised that there weren't more kids. There are the remains of a pearl farm in the lagoon and most houses have a collection of good size buoys piled high in old lean too's, rusted out Utes or tied up in the trees. Despite this they weren't interested in selling me 2 for the anchor chain, not that I'd need them much after here.
I had planned on staying 3 nights but we stayed a couple extra waiting for the Southerly to turn around, what a chore, more swimming and walking.

Oh yes, back to windstruments. While at Kauehi I bodged the weathercock back together with araldite, cable ties and a tiny screw so back to the mast head it went. Whilst up there I removed the wireless one and bought that down. Turns out that when I spit and polished the solar panels in Daniels Bay I had cracked the plastic cover there by letting the rain in. I stripped it down and that's how it remains now on the Nav station table. I'm hopeful that it will come back to life once I source a replacement battery and if so then I'll do a work around repair on the covers to let the sun in whilst keeping the rain out.
Incidentally the string on the shrouds isn't as good as the ear hole method. If the wind is blowing in your right ear and out your left, you need to turn right until the whistling noise is even in both ears. Where you are then looking is where the wind is coming from, it's a very simple method and even works in the dark. Bonza.

We had good trip to Tahiti, 3 days, 2 nights and anchored behind the reef before sunset. Was hoping to reach Moorea but decided to pull in here instead of heaving to overnight. Stayed 2 nights which was plenty of Tahiti for me. It is a beautiful place but Papeete not so much. We had tea at a place 300m from the dinghy dock and as we were leaving to walk back the waitress asked Nat if we had a car or were getting a cab. When Nat replied no, we are walking just to the dinghy dock she was told "walk nicely straight there". Good bye Tahiti, on to Moorea.

Moorea is less than 20 miles so we left late and got there mid afternoon. Anchored in Baie de Cook which is an absolutely stunning anchorage, Go there someday.
Next morning Nat and I decided to walk to the Belvedere lookout. It was a solid 3 hours to the top and we were the only ones walking it, we were passed by quad bikes, hire cars, scooters, electric bikes and even an electric moke. Well worth the walk but a long way back down via Oponohu Bay for lunch. It was 2.30 by the time we stopped there and got talking to a family a few tables down from us. One had a "Bremer bay canyon Orcas" shirt on (first I've heard of Bremer bay Orcas but apparently they are a big thing these days), another had West coast Eagles shorts on so I called out "Hey Aussie" . Turns out they share a farm fence with Bills Dad in Albany. They were visiting their Daughter who is studying Marine Biology in Moorea. It is a very very small world.
Next Day Nat and I hired a scooter and toured the island. It's only 60km around so it was an easy ride around the shoreline all the way. In Spite of that, you can't actually access a whole lot of beach because there are houses nearly all the way with only the occasional break. Very beautiful scenery though.

Moore-Bora Bora, we didn't see the breeze that was predicted and ended motoring pretty much the entire 140 miles. As of last year you can't anchor anywhere inside the Lagoon around Bora Bora, you must book and pay for a Mooring ball, not a real hardship if you're aware of it before arriving. Luckily we were but we only found out when in Moorea. I knew I should have paid more attention to the booklet we were given in Taiohae. In spite of the new rule we saw at least 5 boats anchored and no one came by to police them. In fact two of them dropped anchor outside the mooring area while they waited for a ball to become available, Oh well.
As with every place we have been to I regret not having more time to spend just chilling and exploring. Bora Bora is certainly one of those iconic places to visit but I did like Moorea better. 🙂 I'm working on Nat to come back one day but her idea of how that should look is us flying in and staying in an over water Bungalow. The waters around both islands are absolutely too good for words with good coral and snorkelling straight from the boat or shore.
PS, Bill also left the boat in Bora Bora, my decision so Nat and I could spend some alone time together before getting home. I don't think Bill will miss the seasickness and passage making too much, he had been checking out every airport since Nuka Hiva just made the decision for him.

Boobies, cos everyone loves them
If your a hardy soul and have read from the start of the blog, you'll have already seen some of my musings about Boobies. We always enjoy seeing them around the boat as they are quite a curious lot. Usually not alone, they will turn up most days even in the middle of the Ocean.
It seems that like us they have varying abilities despite appearing very similar. Though they all most go to the same flight school and all must have passed, there are some that got C minuses and a rare few with an A plus.
The Boobies are the only birds that swing by looking for a roost, at least some of them anyway. Most will choose the Pulpit to attempt a landing but we have had a couple try the solar panels and the C minuses who think for whatever reason that they can land on the sails. We have had some birds who take a dozen cracks at the Pulpit before either nailing it or giving up and leaving.
We had one bird who we named Paulie, he (or she) was with us for 5 nights. Paulie was an A grader who came and went several times a day to fish and nailed the landing first time in all but the worst conditions. One night we were in a rain storm with 20 plus knots, I was on watch and Paulie was perched on the pulpit as it crashed up and down. I was amazed that whilst the web feet were wrapped firmly around the stainless railing, most of the time he had the head tucked under the wing sleeping. I looked up at around 4.30 and saw a bird flapping madly alongside the boat on the Lee side. It was Paulie who must have been knocked off. He came up twice from the side and almost made it back aboard before he changed his tactic and came in from the windward side. He came right alongside and rode the pressure wave from the jib in, plopped onto the rail as easy as tucked his head back in. Most birds couldn't do this on a calm day. Paulie was a Top gun for sure and we missed him when he left.
We did have one successful landing on the solar panels or I should say one bird landed successfully several times. Again parking up till it saw a school of fish, ducking off for a quick snack and returning. It only stayed a couple of hours but deposited enough crap for a week.
There is another honourable mention and quite the circus act. In the early hours one morning and while Paulie was enjoying a peaceful night up front I had a Boobie land on the wind generator body. Now the generator rotates to face the wind usually, but in tonight's case it spun with the rolling of the boat, even more so with a Boobie on top. How it got any sleep I have no idea as the generator swung him sometimes a turn or two forward and sometimes a turn or two in reverse. It may have been the same Boobie who returned later that morning to discover that when the winds blowing the fan is spinning. Generator one, Boobie zero. The poor thing was knocked unconscious on the deck, we put a towel over it and there it stayed one eye swollen shut for a little over 2 days. Thankfully Genni made a full recovery, (we hope) she took off one mid morning, did a fly by and disappeared out the back. Awesome.
Now getting back to the B graders. I was wondering, seeing as they obviously have different skill levels whether they also have different personalities. Like for example, When there are a couple of birds together do they share the lead like a bunch of cyclists or do you think there is always a Kevin. Happy to cruise along at the back, let the others find the all the fish and just dive in for a free meal. It certainly looks like there are some that lead and some that follow, do they grow out of this or is that who they are for life. It's the big questions you have to deal with out here and I have plenty of them.
Oh, I have one more quick one that made me laugh. It was around 5 in the morning, rather dark and not much wind so I was peering over the side at the jib and trying to decide what to do with it. It was flopping in then flicking back out as it filled. As it flopped in this time I saw a Boobie headed right for me. As quickly as I saw it the sail filled and flicked and smacked that Boobie right out of the air and into the boat wake. The timing was absolutely perfect Hahaha. Last I saw him, taking off real quick like you do before anyone sees you after falling over.

Boobies, gotta love em.

Footy's mental.
We're not talking that poncie "World game" here either. This is the real thing, Aussie rules, you don't need those bloody corners.
You have a lot of time for the time to mess with your head when your bobbing along out here. In the first week or even 2, I would go off watch and leave Nat and Bill with a course to follow, invariably it was around 225 deg true. When I'd get up we'd be heading more West than that with Bill at the wheel and I'd say we need to keep making the South in the course. Same again next time. Bill would say, but the boat goes quicker up here and I would say "yes, but we"re not going to Hawaii".
On course had us on a broad reach and more West bought us up to a beam reach where it definitely feels like your getting somewhere quicker, not much good if the somewhere isn't where you want to be though.
Mixed in with the West mentality was the constantly altering course by small amounts to try and follow some imaginary line. Now it has to be said that I did have the I-pad in the cockpit with waypoints added to guide us. They're just arbitrary points on a map that give you an indication of heading and distances more than an exact course to be followed. More so you know what bits to bump into and what bits not to. It was a concept that took a while to sink in with Bill. I had taken Him down and showed him on the Pacific Ocean chart( Nth East portion) where we were starting from and where we needed to end up. It's a whole big field out here, As long as you start at one end, stay in the big oval and get between the goals at the other end it's all good. It's like the oval ball bouncing down the ground, it never goes straight, it tumbles along in the general direction but keeps moving forward. It's not always quicker to run it down the middle instead of the flanks and definitely not always easier. I thought the chart might put it in perspective, you know 10 or even 50 miles off the arbitrary course doesn't look much on that scale. Didn't help. If there's a line it must be followed.
So, the first step to altering the mindset was to remove the I-pad from the cockpit, it doesn't matter if we are a mile or 10 off the rhumb line, there's a long way to go and many days to adjust back. The I pad now lives on the chart table and is woken up at 12 noon each day to record our position and see who guessed today's mileage. We can then check and see if the course needs a minor adjustment for the next 24 hrs. All good.
There are points of sail which "True Companion" doesn't do so well, or at least I haven't learnt the best way to keep her there. The wind in the rear quarters, 120-150 deg from the bow are difficult . On a broad reach once you get beyond 120 degrees the main blankets the jib and wing on wing is only practical beyond the 150 degrees, mostly because I don't have the main sheeted way out wide as it rests and rubs on the shrouds. Ok for a few hours but not day after day.
How to cure the Westing?
We had been almost dead down wind for a few days which is slow and uncomfortable in light winds. So I did 15 secs of Mental time distance juggling and decided that if we broad reached left then right, we were well inside the Oval and would arrive at the same spot in 5 or 6 days and at about the same time
The added benefit was it made it much harder to sneak in the westing as we were on the 120 deg limit for the sail trim. This worked pretty well for the 5 or 6 days.
I'm a bit of a slow read obviously because a week later as we neared the equator I again got the go West young man go West and Bill made a comment about "True Companion" knowing the way (as I tried to keep her South west). It finally clicked with me. All this time He's wanted to go West because Home is West across the Pacific and being seasick he was in a hurry to get somewhere. I had to point out at this time that it's also a fair bloody way South and we were never getting to the Marquesas heading more West, maybe Samoa in an extra few weeks but not the Marquesas in 2. All sorted, now we just need some more bloody wind.

As I'm writing we haven't made the first quarter goal posts yet but we're almost at 50m and dead in front. Looking good.