Author: kerri

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/23 20:52
LATITUDE: 16-04.26S
LONGITUDE: 142-22.04W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 14
WIND_DIR: SE
CLOUDS: 50%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1015.7
AIR_TEMP: 31.1C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Raroia Atoll just south of Kon Tiki Motu, Tuamotu Islands…. (2 days 18 hours)

Nicely, the winds subsided last night down to 12-16 knots. We\’d made enough south-ing to have a lovely just forward of the beam reach the last 125 miles.
We arrived just off Takume (the atoll north of here) around 5 a.m. local time. The full moon showed the low lying islets (motus) and Palm Trees.

This pass is a bit notorious and hopefully the most challenging we\’ll see while in the Tuamotus. The slack times were reported to be 6:30 a.m. and around 1-1:30 p.m. Normally, if there are no standing waves (which there were not), we\’d just power through any 6 knot current. However, our engines and steering are a bit of an issue at the moment, so extra caution was the order of the day. We didn\’t push to hard which meant it took longer and we had a 4.5-4.9 knot current running against us. The atolls are essentially enclosed bodies of water that constantly are fed more water than they can hold over their SEastern reefs.
As such, the passes are always out flowing (especially if there is only one pass like this atoll) and when the tide is rising, it fights the out flow and actual standing waves can form. It looks like a surf site in static motion. Glad we didn\’t see that here. I did 7 years ago at the largest atoll in the group – Rangiroa.

After we made a speed of only 1.5 knots over the bottom (our speedometer said 6.5 knots!), we negotiated the pass and the current then quickly abated. It took about 15 – 20 minutes to enter which is a long time.

We were hailed by s/v \”Maluhia\” and s/v \”(I can\’t remember). They\’ve been here for many weeks. As the best protection is on the downwind side of the eastern shore, we motored across (about an hour) and are now anchored near Dave and Kim on \”Malahia\” (not too close…:-) in a gorgeous setting with lovely small palm tree encrusted islets. This is the classic look of the approximately 77 Tuamotu Atolls.

We\’ve still got the steering issue and will always check it before entering and exiting the reef systems as well as the engine issues to sort out in Tahiti (where will be longer than we want to be).

For now, we hope that our friends who will be here tomorrow or the next day are getting an easier time of it than we had, it sounds like their big winds will be shorter in duration than ours. The classic \”Maramu\” set up was happening, but convergence zone seemed to jump way north and reform breaking up the pattern. Let\’s hope it stays that way.

We\’ll try and locate the monument soon to \”Kon Tiki\” (Thor Heyerdahl\’s raft that floated here from South America in 1948) and take lots of photos.
We\’ll update the regular Ship\’s Blog – photos and all when we reach Tahiti.
For now, feel free to drop us a note and KIT!
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/22 23:24
LATITUDE: 14-43.71S
LONGITUDE: 140-46.50W
COURSE: 230T
SPEED: 6.9
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 19
WIND_DIR: SE
WAVE_HT: 0.3M
WAVE_PER: 4
SWELL_DIR: SSE
SWELL_HT: 1.7M
SWELL_PER: 6
CLOUDS: 80%
VISIBILITY: 10
BARO: 1013.6
AIR_TEMP: 30.6C
COMMENT: Beach House -En Route – Hiva Oa to Rairoa – Tuamotu Islands – Day 2 – 151 nm (122 nm to go) Should be early a.m. arrival.

Whew! Yesterday was light air on a beam reach with 10 knots of Easterly gentle trades. At 4 a.m. local time (why always after midnight?),
Nik woke me up for the first of what would be about 10 squalls in our neighborhood. We took in our headsail and put in a precautionary reef in the main sail. Only two got a piece of us and winds were no greater than just over 20 knots. We also benefited from the full moon and could pretty easily see them. The radar is a big help in determining whether the squalls will hit us or just graze by.

The squall line was quite discernible and we knew this was the harbinger of the south easterlies we would soon encounter. This is what\’s known in Polynesia as a \”Maramu\”. Strong, high pressure winds out of the SE. Usually, these will last around a week. The good news is, this isn\’t a whammer! At least not so far. Predictions are actually for it to lessen in about 24 hours, but remain South Easterly.

When we looked at the weather window, we knew we had to bank as much easting as possible, because once this wind hit, we\’d be close reaching for Rairoa (which we are now!). At first, the seas were a washing machine and there was little wind for several hours. Once we were clearly on the south side of the squall lines, the winds came fast and the direction changed in an instant. We had 18-22 knots out of the SE and then SSE! which we really didn\’t want. Fortunately, \”Beac House\” aka: Miss Piggy again with her speed, got us far enough south and we\’re close reaching in 18-22 knots (wind about 65 deg apparent) with staysail and double reefed main. This is comfortable and we\’re directly on heading for the entrance at Rairoa Atoll\’s lagoon. We\’re keeping a little extra south-ing in the bank in case the winds decide to go back to SSE. The twin Atolls will give us nice cover from the seas when we are about 6-8 miles away. This will be welcome.

There are several other boats behind us and hopefully they will encounter no more difficulties than we have so far. When we speak to them on the radio, though only 120 miles behind us, it\’s like we\’re in two different oceans regarding the weather.

Hopefully tomorrow, we\’ll report successful entrance to the lagoon and anchorage around this time tomorrow.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki – yet again making fabulous meals under duress….:-)

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/21 23:25
LATITUDE: 12-34.31S
LONGITUDE: 139-46.79W
COURSE: 183T
SPEED: 6.0
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 11
WIND_DIR: 053T
SWELL_DIR: ENE
SWELL_HT: 1.0M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 20%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1012.6
AIR_TEMP: 33.9C
COMMENT: Beach House -En Route – Hiva Oa to Rairoa – Tuamotu Islands – Day 1 – 165 nm (254 nm to go)

The first day was overall quite nice and remains so. We\’ve been able to sail much further EAST than we thought possible which is a really good thing.
The winds that were supposed to shift from the ENE – East to the ESE and SE will arrive sometime late this evening instead of tomorrow late afternoon as the weather files have been saying for the past three days! Hopefully, they\’ll yet again change their minds as this is the most fickle set of GRIB files I think I\’ve ever seen since a hurricane formed in the Indian Ocean.

Due to the expected wind shift, we\’re staying very far east and trying to get south as fast as possible. Tonight, we\’ll roll up the big reacher before dark and set the genoa which is very easy to put away.

We\’re currently sailing a course of around 175-185 true which is effectively due south. When the winds shift, we\’ll have to change course to around 220-230 deg true and we want to keep that new wind as much on our beam or behind us as possible.

Friends on \”Jacaranda\” and \”Blowin\’ Bubbles\” are a day behind us and hopefully our wind will not get up to them before it changes back to the East. We just don\’t get to know yet.

A lovely smooth day with the odd squall going by, but nothing of note…so far!…:-) We do expect more squalls this evening. Hopefully they will be like last night and much ado about nothing. The full moon really helps to see them coming as well.

We should be at the entrance to Rairoa Atoll\’s pass on Monday morning. It seems the current should be down around 8-10 a.m. for us, so good timing..we hope.
More on the passes tomorrow.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/20 23:20
LATITUDE: 09-58.36S
LONGITUDE: 139-08.84W
COURSE: 198T
SPEED: 7.0
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 13
WIND_DIR: E
CLOUDS: 20%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1010.6
AIR_TEMP: 33.9C
COMMENT: Beach House -En Route – Hiva Oa to Rairoa – Tuamotu Islands

After checking in, we did some shopping, maintenance and Nikki did a day tour of the beautiful island of Hiva Oa. We had a few evening gatherings with friends on Swiftsure and Blowin\’ Bubbles and a lovely dinner with Chuck and Linda of \”Jacaranda\”, who I\’d not seen in 7 years. After fueling up (Thank You Lanny and Ginger on \”Swiftsure\”), we were headed for the island of Tahuata. It\’s only 8 miles from Hiva Oa and while en route, we looked at the weather window to the Tuamotus (400 miles to our South South West). We realized, we were just in the beginning of a really nice window for a boat that could make the trip without question in a boat that can do our speed. Another concern is that with all the engine and steering issues to resolve, we will lose a month in Tahiti and as such, we do need to keep moving along the carefree highway…:-)

As we sailed by, we (radioed) waved goodbye to all our friends in Hanamananoe Bay on Tahuata and set sail. We\’re now en route for the two and 1/2 day passage to Rairoa.

Some of the other boats behind might take 4 days and this window would be too short for them. They end up with some pretty strong ESE to SE winds hitting them and it wouldn\’t be any fun.

We are headed to the island of Rairoa where the \”Kon Tiki\” raft of Thor Heyerdahl unceremoniously went aground on the atoll. This of course proved it was possible for pre-Columbian people from South America to have migrated to the islands of the Pacific. His ideas remain quite controversial to this day.

So far, we\’ve lovely flat seas and a beam reach with 10-15 knots, making around 6.5-7 knots. This should put us off the entrance to
Rairoa on Monday morning.

We\’ll keep you posted.
Feel free to drop us a note.
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/17 00:56
LATITUDE: 09-48.20S
LONGITUDE: 139-01.86W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 5
WIND_DIR: S
CLOUDS: 75%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1009
AIR_TEMP: 31.1C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Hiva Oa – Marquesas Islands – Check in tomorrow

After two lovely nights and a nice day at Fatu Hiva, we\’ve sailed in tandem with \”Blowin\’ Bubbles\” to the island of Hiva Oa. Hiva Oa is the main harbor that usually checks in the transpacific \”Puddle Jumpers\” and here we are in the height of the season. There are 34 boats anchored in here! I\’ve been here twice before and never saw more than 4!

The sail was a beauty in light trade winds and after we get checked in tomorrow, we\’ll do a bit of food shopping, take the hike the gravesite of famous French Artsit, Paul Gaugain (sp?), fuel up and hopefully be gone tomorrow afternoon or the next day at latest to Tahuata which is only 10 miles away. The anchorage is another beauty and if I recall, has white sand beaches? If so, it\’s one of the few anchorages in these islands that does have sandy beaches. These are geologically very young islands and the the spires and mountains are truly dramatic. It IS the attraction here – just looking at the place. Photos will follow when we get to real internet.

Also, dear old friends Chuck and Linda from s/v \”Jacaranda\” are here. I last saw them with Cindy in the Revillegedos Islands (Socoro\’s of Mexico) in 2009.
These are the friends we went Manta Riding and swimming with at San Benedicto Island. Interestingly, there are small manta rays swimming all over this anchorage. The same species we saw in Mexico, only quite small with 3-4 foot wing spans. Ironically, today would have been my and Cindy\’s 24th anniversary.
Cindy loved the Manta Rays….

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/15 06:57
LATITUDE: 10-27.90S
LONGITUDE: 138-40.06W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 3
WIND_DIR: E
CLOUDS: 60%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1012.9
AIR_TEMP: 29.4C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Fatu Hiva – Marquesas Islands – 18.25 days

Just a quick update to let everyone know we\’re safely anchored in Hanavave Bay (The Bay of Virgins) at Fatu Hiva Island, Marquesas Islands….
We\’ll do a big blog soon. Friends on \”Blowin\’ Bubbles\” helped us get anchored in this windy and very tight anchorage. A very big help, thank you \”Bubbles\”!

Last update on \”stuff happens\”. Our port engine has overheated about 6 hours from being anchored and a big coolant leak has been detected. We\’ll investigate tomorrow in the light of day. Everything on these engines is new. So much for being pro-active….:-)

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/14 18:06
LATITUDE: 10-37.35S
LONGITUDE: 137-29.80W
COURSE: 254T
SPEED: 7.5
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 13
WIND_DIR: E
WAVE_HT: 0.3M
WAVE_PER: 5
SWELL_DIR: ESE
SWELL_HT: 2.8M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 40%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1013.9
AIR_TEMP: 32.8C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 18 – 185 nm

Well yesterday, we sort of just sat around and looked at getting the boat ready for arrival, so at first, we forgot to get the boat going fast!
We pulled the 1/2 furled reacher out of the laundry room, raised it and stowed it. A few damaged parts, but it will be easy enough to repair.

We then sort of just watched the world go by at around 6.5-7 knots with our full main and genoa poled to windward. It then seemed a decent strategy, but we realized that wasn\’t as Nikki says, \”going to get the baby fed\”. This, we did all day!

So late yesterday, we hoisted the wet spinnaker (which we\’d last stowed a week ago!), which we had to dry out anyway and kept it up all night. We did 110 miles in around 12 hours, averaging just over 9 knots. The wind was 16-20 from the ESE and we were bookin\’ for the barn. We will do around 215 miles from our 0400 UTC position report on the Pacific Sea Farer\’s Net when we report again tonight. So, Miss Piggy still rocks!

Today, we\’ve about 65 miles to go and will arrive at the south end of Fatu Hiva just around dark. This will make the trip a total of about 18 days, 6 hours.
Not too bad considering all the muss and fuss we\’ve had going on the last several days including the 4-5 days of not much wind just after the quarter way mark. The rudder is still slipping on the port side, but it\’s a manageable fix, just a pain in the rear to keep re-aligning it in the engine room every 3-6 hours.

Our friends on \”Blowin\’ Bubbles\” arrived at Fatu Hiva last night and we\’re looking forward to a rest, a hike and a glass of wine with them tomorrow!
We\’ll send in a final report and report of safe landfall sometime tomorrow as well.
KIT, thanks for everyone\’s notes, emails and support!
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/13 18:00
LATITUDE: 10-19.61S
LONGITUDE: 134-27.25W
COURSE: 256T
SPEED: 8.3
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 20
WIND_DIR: ESE
WAVE_HT: 0.3M
WAVE_PER: 5
SWELL_DIR: ESE
SWELL_HT: 2.8M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 30%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1013.9
AIR_TEMP: 31.7C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 17 – 165 nm (245 nm to go!)

Yesterday, just after dark, the ENE wind switched under a cloud and we\’ve had very nice ESE to SE winds taking us directly down our course.
The morning was quite slow with light winds, but after the shift, we\’ve had 15-22 knots at various times. It\’s one of the reasons for the slow day…..However!

I take our \”daily runs\” at a consistent time. Last night on the Pacific Sea Farer\’s net, we checked in as usual at 0330. They chart all their check in boats daily runs and they had us doing 235 nm in 24 hour! So, you can see \”Miss Piggy\” really does rock and roll, it\’s just that I never cherry pick my own \”best run\” in any 24 hour period vs. the fixed times I use. As I write, we\’re on par for another long mileage day …. if the wind holds.

The steering is behaving \”better\”. Why, we\’re not sure, but in the lighter air it seemed to need less adjustment, as the wind has picked up, I\’ve needed to do it more often. The good news is, it\’s holding together.

If the winds hold for the next 24 hours, we should be able to make landfall at Fatu Hiva late Saturday night. If so, we\’ll have been on about an 18 day 6 hour trip. We\’ll see when we get there. The rudder business has cost us about a day. In 2009, we did this trip in 16 days 6 hours with a crew of three – Mike Lonnes, Cindy and myself. We had more stable air then and we were able to press on at times where this trip has been winds really up and down which makes flying a spinnaker more problematic with just two of us aboard.

Our friends on \”Blowin Bubbles\” are now 32 days out of Panama and should arrive at Fatu Hiva 12-20 hours ahead of us.
They feel like they\’ve been at sea forever, I\’m sure. I know of a boat however that did the same trip as they did and took 62 days! Why, they\’re veritable speed demons! It will be GOOD to relax and have a glass of wine with them.

Okay, bookin\’ for the barn, we can almost smell the frangipani from here!
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/12 18:04
LATITUDE: 10-34.33S
LONGITUDE: 131-55.48W
COURSE: 265T
SPEED: 6.5
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 17
WIND_DIR: ENE
WAVE_HT: 0.1M
WAVE_PER: 5
SWELL_DIR: E
SWELL_HT: 3.0M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 30%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1014.1
AIR_TEMP: 31.7C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 16 – 165 nm

Housekeeping: Nikki is getting her emails on my email address from friends and family. She thanks you.

Yesterday, we got fooled (well, I did). Nikki asked me about a very wide looking squall with rain in it just after I had shaken the reef and went back to a full mainsail. I said, \”looks like rain, but not much more\”. We turned on the radar and indeed, it looked quite benign. Nikki wasn\’t so sure….
Nikki was right. The rain hit and within 30 seconds we had 40 knots of wind! We rolled up the head sail and we\’re truly sleigh riding fast, too fast hitting 15 knots briefly. This was not a good thing. I then went forward to reef, but the reefing pendant had parted in the gust. Ride the wild pony we did. After 10 minutes, the wind abated to 35 knots for another 20 minutes. Then finally back down in the mid 20\’s. Lesson learned – yet again! (Maybe never!???)

This was indeed the wind shift we\’d been expecting and we actually \”tack/gybed\”. Instead of putting our stern through the wind which is trickier in handling the mainsail, we did a 270 degree turn and headed off to the ENE from our previous heading of SW. Nikki handled the sail controls while I powered us around in a circle. We\’ve been on starboard tack (wind on our right), ever since.

Two nights ago, the steering failed and we had quite the sail drill drama as we wrote yesterday. Last night, we had a mini version of the same event, but fortunately not as bad.

With a first quarter moon, we can see the water in front of us and while I was on watch, I noted the steering was starting to slip again. We had at the time a reef in the main and our genoa poled out to starboard. I thought I would be able to wait for Nikki to come up on watch, but just then the rudder failure alarm went off and the steering packed it in again. This time, the boat did an un-intentional gybe which can be quite disastrous. The wind got on the wrong side of the mainsail and started to spin us around. I quickly called Nikki and started the port engine. I was able to power our way back on course with the now very difficult steering system all over the place. Nikki was able to fight the wheel and keep us on some sort of course while I went aft to fix the problem. This time however, it was due to the starboard ram\’s being \”locked\” against it\’s rudder stop. It was quickly cleared and we\’ve been checking the rudder ever since about every 3 hours. I will need to adjust it when done with this report.

Because of the dicey steering issue, we are sailing with reefed main only now after dark. We set the head sail in the daylight so if a failure occurs we can deal with it easier. We will furl it before dark. This will likely slow our arrival at Fatu Hiva down by around a good 1/2 to a full day. So instead of just under 18 days, we\’ll likely be somewhat under 19.

The weather is cooperating so far today, we had a lovely pleasant night after the sail/steering drill. The wind has allowed us for now to sail directly to our destination, but that will likely change a bit as the day wears on.
It all comes under the general heading of, \”Stuff Occurs\”. Just another thing to fix in Tahiti.

We\’ve 395 miles to go.
All is well despite the issues.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/11 18:06
LATITUDE: 10-42.18S
LONGITUDE: 129-13.80W
COURSE: 243T
SPEED: 7.9
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 22
WIND_DIR: E
WAVE_HT: 0.3M
WAVE_PER: 5
SWELL_DIR: ESE
SWELL_HT: 3.5M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 10%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1014.3
AIR_TEMP: 31.1C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 15 – 190 nm (550 nm to go!)

***Housekeeping Note: Nikki\’s computer got the \”blue screen of death\” and as such her direct email is now out of commission.
You can write her at my email and she will return emails when we get internet ashore.***

Whew! Where do I begin. We were really busting the miles yesterday and got a bit fooled by our weather files. I know from experience that the GRIB Files (which are computer generated wind models of the oceans) UNDERestimate the wind speed by 3-5 knots. Two days ago however, they were exactly correct, so I got lulled into thinking maybe they\’d changed the model? NOPE! Last night, I would normally have believed we would have had 23-25 knots, but the weather said \”18-20\”. So, I kept too much sail up and we were saved by serendipity.

At 2 a.m. local time (always after mid-night!), Nikki got me up and said the wind was pumping up to 27 knots occasionally so we took in the reef. This however really wasn\’t enough and we should have taken our reacher down at sundown and gone to the smaller and far more manageable genoa. Hind sight is a wonderful thing isn\’t it?

At about 3 a.m., our hydraulic steering failed (read that as very bad!). The boat rounded up beam to the wind and sea -then the reacher sounded like it would tear itself to shreds. Temporarily, I thought I had the steering under control – NOT! Nikki and I tried to roll the reacher up, but the boat just went back to beam on instead of allowing our mainsail to blanket it. I got it half way rolled up and then the entire furler unit on the bottom became knotted up.

Nikki came forward and we began to lower the halyard (line that keeps the sail up in the air). When we got it half way down, the rest of the sail filled and it went overboard. So here\’s the picture. It\’s 3:15 a.m. no moon, pitch black, big seas, steering out and big sail in the water. Are we having fun yet?…

The good news was that the boat was extremely well behaved (Miss Piggy always saves us!). With the sail on the downwind side and blanketed, we were able to retrieve it because I had tied a \”Figure of Eight Knot\” in the halyard, which prevented the sail from going under water as the halyard didn\’t just run out of the mast. The sail, with halyard attached, was dragging along side us on the surface. We slowly got it back aboard and stuffed it down the starboard forward locker. Now we had a reefed main up and no steering. Essentially, we were \”hove too\” the wind and seas and fortunately in then pretty good shape.

Next I went to investigate the steering in the port engine room. For whatever reason, our steering ram in the big seas and waves essentially slipped. How this happened is a mystery. Hydraulics are very strong. I doubt we had air in the system as the fluid levels were normal. The steering rams are pretty new as well – replaced when we were in Florida. This caused the rudder to be hard over but have no effect on controlling the boat. We re-centered it and locked it back down, now we were back under control.

Everything behaved properly and we continued on with a single reef and no head (front) sail for the next 3 hours. At 6:30 a.m. (first light), I unrolled the genoa to windward on the pole and all has been well since. We\’ve had a few squalls and winds were up to 30 knots very briefly.

We are 550 miles from Fatu Hiva and heading somewhat south of the island. We will likely gybe (go the other direction with the sails) sometime today?

This morning, around 8 a.m. I saw a 40 foot whale 35 feet from the boat heading in the opposite direction. The Whale was going up wind, we were going downwind. I suspect it just came close to see what this big noisy thing was? I have a pamphlet that describes the whales tails and dorsal fins.
I\’m not sure of course, but it seemed it might have been a small Sperm Whale?

So, it\’s still blowy out here, we feel fortunate that no damage was done and that we got the steering fixed and the sail back aboard.

Welcome to Cruising!…
More tomorrow, Hoping for a \”Pretty Standard Day\”….:-)
Scott and Nikki