Logbook
Wind did indeed come back. We entered the night with the main in the first reef, and by morning had switched to 2nd reef and staysail. Seas have been somewhat lumpy and weather squally. But despite that we finished today with higher battery level than yesterday, thanks to the hydrogenerator. Today has also seen a very slow motion chase scene, as a 14m sailboat has spent the last 20 hours slowly…
The wind quieted down for the night, meaning that we had to spend the dark hours with occasionally slatting sails and struggling windvane. But at least we had a good showing of shooting stars to accompany us. It seems we truly left our sea legs into the smooth waters of the atolls. Suski is still working to adjust, and feeling the effects of the motion in the seastate. By afternoon the wind was…
We hoisted anchor just before sunrise. Swell outside had settled a bit, and so it was finally time to leave French Polynesia behind. As soon as we rigged up the spinnaker pole, we realized this is the first downwind leg since probably the trip to Nuku Hiva! Passing Ra’iātea, we were hailed by Tahiti JRCC. They were having trouble contacting a vessel, and wanted to do a radio check. We had a brief…
While we have been waiting for weather for the passage to Cook Islands, we’ve utilized the time building backup communication systems. Starlink changes their policies on August 17th, and it is possible it becomes prohibitively expensive for us. And so now we have tools to publish blog posts and request GRIB weather data over both InReach satellite connection and amateur HF radio. This post is our…
It was quite the workout to raise the anchor from 20 meters deep. But with both of us pulling we managed without our rope to the winch backup plan. Inside the bay we hoisted the mainsail and motored out. Just as we were in deeper water, a pod of humpback whales greeted us. What a majestic sight! As the darkness fell, we changed to staysail and few hours later put in a reef to the main. The night…
Having done a ton of grocery shopping, it was time to leave industrial Tahiti behind. We knew our anchor was stuck on an old mooring, and so we chose a calm morning to detach. Luckily the mooring rope was long enough to reach the surface. We had friends ready to dive for us, but that wasn’t necessary. After the anchor had been cleared, we radioed Papeete Port Control, and were told to again…
After dinner we could slightly ease our course, trading some of our gained height for comfort. The night skies also cleared, and there was a huge shooting star streaming across the skies in the early hours. Pretty soon afterwards we started getting some shelter from the island of Tahiti, making for a more comfortable going. Eventually wind also died, and in the morning we had to motor the…
Instead of the forecasted 20kn of wind, much of the night was hovering around 10kn. While this did hurt our day distance, it did make for smoother motion. As consequence, we both got pretty good sleep. In the morning the wind picked up again, and we’ve been barreling through the big and now a bit splashy waves towards Tahiti. Skies have remained leaden, giving little solar output. At least the…
After a couple of days waiting, the wind finally backed to southeast. Not quite as far as we’d like, but as there was nothing better in the horizon, we decided to take this window to get to the Society Islands. Departure from a mooring ball is always easy. Anchor was already packed away, and we could prepare the staysail before letting go of the mooring pendant. Departure from this little blind…
At sunrise we were already outside in the 1kn wind getting the anchor up. After the 360° change in wind, we had a bit of the chain under a rock but we managed to wrangle it out without getting wet. As we were motoring out, the wind picked up a bit and turned southerly, several hours earlier than in the forecast. So we changed our plan. Instead of heading back to the Fakarava south pass, we headed…