Category: By Voyage Position

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: 2016/05/22 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: 2016/05/21 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: 2016/05/20 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: 2016/05/17 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: 2016/05/15 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