Logbooks:

Panama to French Polynesia
Caribbean to Panama
Denmark to Caribbean
Scandinavian Summer 2017
Winter (and a baby) in Copenhagen
Azores to Copenhagen
Cape Town to the Azores
African Coast (Durban to Cape Town)
Southern Africa Overland 2015
Indian Ocean (Broome to Durban)
Darwin to Broome (Kimberley Coast)
Townsville to Darwin
NZ to Townsville , Australia
NZ 2014-15 Part 3: North Island
Fiji to New Zealand
Fiji 2014 Part 2: Lau Group
Fiji 2014 Part 1: Suva to Savusavu
New Zealand to Fiji
NZ 2014 Part 2: North Island
NZ 2014 Part 1: Southland & Fiordland
Hobart to Bluff, NZ (March 2014)
Whitsundays to Hobart
Brisbane to Whitsundays
Maintenance Log

NZ to Townsville , Australia

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Arrived Safely

Date:	May 12, 2015, 10:10 p.m.
Position:	19 15.00 S, 146 49.00 E
Speed over Ground:	0.0
Heading (True):	0.0
Wind Speed (kts):	20.0
Wind Direction (True):	135.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.0

Sorry for the delayed post. It has taken us a while to get our SIM cards and internet up and running in Townsville. We're all sorted now and back online catching up with emails.

We motored into Townsville yesterday in glassy conditions and tied up to the Breakwater Marina at 1:30. Customs were there to greet us and we cleared Customs and Biosecurity in about 1-hour. The guys were absolutely lovely and after all the horror stories we had heard about Customs and Biosecurity coming into Australia I was pleasantly surprised. The guys probably took less stuff than New Zealand biosecurity did because they were a bit more thorough in inspection. We were surprised that we were able to keep pretty much everything, the only thing they took was a half-cabbage which was going bad anyway.

David and Patricia from Gulf Harbour Radio hooked us up with some local veteran yachties (2.5-times circumnavigated via South Africa) here in Townsville and they were here to greet us and handed us a huge bag of fruit and veg which was completely awesome. We were then whisked away in their car and went on a little tour around town and to the shops to pick up a SIM-card and Cat picked up a few more staples. We came back to the boat where they had made up a lovely lamb curry and we celebrated a successful passage with some wine and a lovely dinner on the back deck... what a welcome back home!! We can't thank Ashley and Brenda from the boat Ashymakaihken enough.

The guys at the Breakwater Marina were also lovely and have hooked us up with a berth for a couple of nights. The rates are not the cheapest but the facilities are good and they have a 7-nights for the price of 5 deal. The trade-winds are coming in at a ripping pace today (20-30 knots with strong wind warnings) so we'll have a look at the weather and work out how long we stay. We were thinking of staying just the 2-nights and then heading off north however we might stay for the week and do a full re-provision and avoid stopping in Cairns altogether.

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Almost there

Date:	May 12, 2015, 8:10 a.m.
Position:	19 32.00 S, 147 47.00 E
Speed over Ground:	5.7
Heading (True):	310.0
Wind Speed (kts):	5.0
Wind Direction (True):	200.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.0

Another day of light southerly-quadrant winds. We reached the Whitsunday Passage around mid-morning and turned the engine off and cruised past the islands in completely flat conditions which was really nice. Its been a perfect last few days of the passage. The wind dropped away again after sunset so we're back to motoring now.

This is probably the last post we'll make before arriving in Townsville. We're currently 22nm SE of Cape Bowling Green. Customs are notified that we'll arrive in Townsville at 3pm. We managed to get in touch with the marina and we'll probably stay there for 2 nights to re-provision and get some rest before continuing north.

We managed to catch a pretty big Yellowfin Tuna which is currently on ice for a sushimi dinner when we get to Townsville.

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A lot of motoring

Date:	May 11, 2015, 1:20 a.m.
Position:	21 22.00 S, 150 15.00 E
Speed over Ground:	6.5
Heading (True):	300.0
Wind Speed (kts):	5.0
Wind Direction (True):	45.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.0

The wind came up later today at around 11am we were able to finally turn the motor off after a night of motoring in calm conditions. We had some great sailing for about 5-6 hours before it dropped away again and its now swung to a very light NE wind. This is obviously the effect of the land that we have now as NE is against the currently prevailing conditions.

We running the motor a fair bit to try to keep up the pace. I'm trying to time it so that we arrive in Townsville on the Wednesday afternoon. We could take it slower, sail more and arrive Thursday morning however there is a fair bit of wind forecast to come up on Thursday morning so I'd rather get in early and be secure rather than muck around with getting into an unfamiliar port in windy conditions with us both tired after 16 days at sea.

We're also trying to keep up a 6-knot average so that we hit the Whitsunday Passage on a favorable tide tomorrow. That will give us an extra 2-3 knots through the passage and should guarantee that we make Townsville by Wednesday. If we have a contrary current then we'll probably arrive Wednesday night sometime which would not be ideal.

We have had to take mental notes of these last few days because I don't think we'll ever see the Capricorn Channel so calm again. Its been absolutely spectacular cruising past all of the islands in calm conditions. Not the best for fuel-conservation though.

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Perfect day

Date:	May 9, 2015, 10:10 p.m.
Position:	22 45.00 S, 152 48.00 E
Speed over Ground:	5.5
Heading (True):	310.0
Wind Speed (kts):	8.0
Wind Direction (True):	225.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.5

The wind dropped away to nothing for a few hours last night so we started up the engine and pushed through. Then around sunrise the wind picked up to a perfect 12-knots and stayed like that for the whole day. There was almost zero sea or swell so we glided along reaching at 7-knots for most of the day in completely calm conditions. Perfect conditions like that have only happened to us 2 or 3 times on Tuuletar, they are pretty special moments.

Its now coming up to sunset and the wind has dropped away again so we are motoring through the Capricorn Channel. I think we are starting to get the effect from the land on the wind because there is a big variation between daytime and nighttime conditions which we have had for the past 2 nights. We've timed the channel poorly as we've reached it on an outgoing-tide, in another 5-6 hours it should switch and we'll be flying inside the reef at 7-8 knots. Tomorrow looks like its forecast to have yet another day of good conditions we we're looking forward to that.

We've had two lines out trolling for fish all day but I think we were going to fast to catch anything. It's coming up to fish-o-clock though and we just pulled in a little bonito tuna about 30 minutes ago. We let him go as we're looking for Yellowfin... fingers crossed.

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Cruising

Date:	May 8, 2015, 10:30 p.m.
Position:	23 23.00 S, 155 5.00 E
Speed over Ground:	7.0
Heading (True):	310.0
Wind Speed (kts):	15.0
Wind Direction (True):	150.0
Sea state:	Moderate
Swell (m):	1.0

The wind dropped as per forecast last night however we were able to run off and make some northing with a full jib poled-out and full mainsail goosewinged. The advantage of the wind dropping was that the sea-state got quite flat and the swell dropped off so that sailing was very comfortable. We were still making 5-6 knots. Around midday the wind dropped to under 10knots for a while and our boat-speed dropped to about 3-4knots. We almost put the engine on but were rewarded for holding out an hour or two because it picked up to a perfect steady 15-knot SSE wind. We've been making 6-7 knots most of the afternoon in very smooth conditions. Its one of those days where its so smooth that when you go downstairs to rest it feels like we are at anchor.

We're still poled-out and heading north of the rhumb-line. I'm planning to take down the pole and start a reaching towards the waypoint in the Capricorn Channel to enter the reef sometime tonight. The reason for this is because the wind is forecast to drop further and we can maintain better sailing and boat-speed in light-conditions if we are on more of a reach. We tend to need at least 10-knots for a poled-out dead-downwind run like this otherwise the sails start flapping around and making a lot of noise.

The other reason for heading a bit further north before reaching in is to catch the most favorable currents. This is the first passage where I am starting to look at the currents more seriously and include them in the routing calculations. I'm thinking of it as a little bit of a practice run before crossing the Indian Ocean where the currents around the southern end of Madagascar are quite serious. I find it quite fascinating because the currents seems to be one area where there are a lot of sweeping generalizations made and the whole thing is a bit of a black art. For example, reading all the blogs everyone passaging to South Africa is most concerned about the Agulhas current. While this is a consideration for sure it tends to be confined to a small region between 20-50nm from the coast. The reality is however that in the vicinity of the Agulhas, East Australian and Gulf-Stream currents there is much more complex dynamics taking place.

From all the research I have done it appears where people have more issues is south of Madagascar where there is a continuous train of large eddies which come from the Mozambique channel and shed off the southern end of Madagascar. The currents in these eddies can be as strong or worse than the Agulhas itself and the problem with them is that most cruisers don't have a way of knowing where they are located at any particular time. I have read reports of cruising boats have a 5-6knot counter current (making 0-knots over ground) while a boat just 30nm away has the same strength but favorable current. Where things get dangerous for cruisers is when they are in one of these eddies in the middle of the ocean and a frontal-system comes through which can whip up a wind-against-tide situation of epic proportions. Everyone knows that this happens regularly in the Agulhas current and are prepared to avoid it, but not many cruisers seem to be prepared for this to happen at-sea.

For this passage I am pulling down near-real-time ocean-current information in GRIB format. This allows you to see where these eddies are located. The reason they call them near real-time is because they take measurements at various points around the ocean and then use a computer model to fill the gaps between these measurement points. The computer model gives a five-day average of the ocean currents. This is ok because, unlike wind, the eddies in the ocean move very slowly so over 5-days a typical eddy might only move 10-20 miles. Therefore you can get a snapshot of the ocean-currents for the week and have a pretty good idea of what's going on.

Currently (no pun intended), these maps show that the East Australian Current starts to pick up around the Capricorn Channel and intensifies to its full force south of Fraser Island. Interestingly, just 140nm off Fraser Island is a much stronger counter-current flowing north at about 1.5 knots. This forms a large eddy which has helped to carry us north and now we are at the top of the eddy it is helping carry us west towards the Capricorn Channel. This eddy then joins up with the south-flowing current which is where we will jump off. We will have to pass through the south-setting East Australian Current but only for 40nm or so and its average intensity around the Capricorn Channel is presently 0.8 knots. So we might lose only 7nm of northing as we pass through the current.

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Very fast day

Date:	May 7, 2015, 9:20 p.m.
Position:	24 28.00 S, 157 34.00 E
Speed over Ground:	7.0
Heading (True):	310.0
Wind Speed (kts):	22.0
Wind Direction (True):	135.0
Sea state:	Moderate
Swell (m):	1.0

We sailed slowly dead-downwind with poled out full jib and goosewinged full mainsail waiting for the promised SE winds to kick in. Around 11pm conditions became quite overcast and we had a 30-knot squall come out of nowhere. Fortunately we caught that one in time and we were in the middle of reefing when it hit and rained buckets. After that the wind died away and we actually had to motor again for a few hours.

At 5am the wind picked up and we were able to sail with a full jib and 2-reefs in the mainsail on a port-tack broad reach heading 310. The wind was a perfect steady 20-25 knots from the SSE. The seas were relatively calm and the wind angle was perfect. We were able to cruise downwind with a 7-knot average most of today with max speed down some of the waves reaching 11 knots.

Sailing downwind in these conditions is one of life's pleasures. The boat is perfectly balanced and the hydrovane has kept us on a perfectly straight and fast course all day while we fly down the waves.

The wind is forecast to drop tonight and we might be back to motoring or motor-sailing by midday tomorrow. Those calm conditions look to continue until we almost reach Townsville so its a good thing that we have our engine back in action.

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Cruising in light air

Date:	May 6, 2015, 9:20 p.m.
Position:	25 50.00 S, 159 30.00 E
Speed over Ground:	6.5
Heading (True):	310.0
Wind Speed (kts):	4.0
Wind Direction (True):	135.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.5

After our high seas encounter with the Carnival Spirit yesterday I went downstairs and did an oil-change (and a sneaky impeller change at the same time) and by about 8pm we were motoring again. We stopped an hour later at 9pm to re-check oil and other engine vitals. We then motored for another few hours and did the same. By the morning we had motored 12 hours and the engine seemed to be going great. Oil still looked fresh and clean; oil pressure normal; transmission oil pressure normal; engine temperature normal; and it was sounding as good as it always had purring along nicely. I'm not sure if I was doubting myself but I could possibly hear the valve tappets a little more than before so I'll double-check the tolerances on them when we get to port.

Conditions have been remarkably calm for the past 24 hours. We motored last night overnight and then gave the engine a rest in the morning while we did our SSB radio scheds and I took all the raw-water pipes off the engine in preparation for sailing (to avoid a repeat). We sailed in very light air of about 6-7 knots downwind with a poled out jib and goose-winged main-sail. We made about 3 knots in extremely pleasant conditions. I set up the hammock on the front-deck and also hung the raw-water deck-washdown from the rigging to create a lovely mist and/or shower over the front deck which kept everything cool. We definitely feel like we're getting into the tropics when we need to have cold-water showers on the front-deck to stay cool. Sailing in these conditions, although very slow, is absolutely gorgeous.

By 3pm progress was just a little too slow for our liking and we got the engine going again (looking forward to installing some sea-cocks to speed up the process of pulling pipes on and off). There was meant to be a SE wind that was going to kick in this afternoon but its nowhere to be seen. The wind will hopefully kick in tonight and we'll have 20-25 knots from behind us tomorrow which should help cover some miles.

Now that we are back in action it seems like we might only change our port of entry to TOWNSVILLE. We are a bit behind schedule and I don't know if we will be able to make Cairns before the weekend next week. Pulling in to Townsville should be an achievable goal before next weekend (provided we don't have any more dramas).

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We heart the Carnival Spirit Cruise liner team!

Date:	May 5, 2015, 9:38 p.m.
Position:	26 13.00 S, 161 39.00 E
Speed over Ground:	1.0
Heading (True):	300.0
Wind Speed (kts):	4.0
Wind Direction (True):	45.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.5

You are not going to believe this...

We enjoyed a fantastic overnight sail with a full rig in light conditions which lasted until midday when the wind dropped off completely. We wallowed around and made the best of things, airing and drying out the boat. Our little friends the sea birds showed up again to see if we had seen the wind or perhaps some fish. One of the pair is very bold and inquisitive happily sitting right next to us.

We were contemplating our options; wait for the wind; wait for the wind with sails up & flapping around getting worn; or risk running the engine a little short of oil. We are a little concerned with some nasty conditions which appear to be forming next week and with the current weather forecast which shows us out here wallowing for some days. As we continued to debate with the birds, we looked up and noticed not one but two ships on the horizon, the first we'd seen since leaving New Zealand waters.

One was cargo ship Yangtze Brilliance and the other the cruise liner Carnival Spirit. both were on course to pretty much steam right over the top of us. Though we have right of way being under sail usually we would normally take evasive action under the 'might has right' sub-law. However, with our engine out of action and our current sailing speed of 0-1knots we had to radio them to explain our situation and kindly ask them to evade us. We also, cheekily, asked if they had any spare engine oil and we could not believe it when we saw the huge Carnival Spirit pull up directly in front of us!

"Can you see us?" the Captain asked us over the radio!?! He must have a pretty good sense of humor we thought as we sat in their shadow. Shortly after their tender (which was nearly as long as Tuuletar) turned up along side and the super friendly crew dropped off 40L of engine oil! I don't think Mark has been this excited since we found a deserted barrelling surf break at Matuku. He is still grinning from ear to ear as he sits down in the engine room changing out his oil. Needless to say we are now VERY big fans of the Carnival Spirit team and are looking forward to getting back underway and back to Australia before we have to face another nasty Low.

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I heart 15 knots on the beam

Date:	May 4, 2015, 11:25 p.m.
Position:	26 33.00 S, 163 30.00 E
Speed over Ground:	6.0
Heading (True):	300.0
Wind Speed (kts):	15.0
Wind Direction (True):	45.0
Sea state:	Moderate
Swell (m):	0.5

Our hitch-hiking sea-birds decided that the conditions were fair enough at dawn to leave their nook in the lee of our wheelhouse on the back-deck. This morning we started to get clear patches of sky for the first time in 3 days. The wind speed dropped to around 20-knots and the squalls reduced in frequency and intensity which gave us confidence to get more sail out. We started cruising along very smoothly at 7 knots.

We were trying to get across the line of that trough however looking at the gribs it appeared that we would have been left bobbing around with no wind at all on the other side. Meanwhile the conditions on our side were clearing up and getting rather nice so we decided to tighten up all our sheets and head on a tight-reach working along the eastern fringe of the trough. It seems that in our current position just east of the line of the trough we seem to be in some kind of twilight-zone of awesomeness. Hopefully it continues throughout tonight.

We've ended up having the most terrific day of sailing in calm seas and with about 15 knots of wind on the beam all day making around 6-7 knots. We've been able to sneek a bit of northing in which should put us in a better position to catch the south-easterly trade winds when the trough blows over us probably tonight or early tomorrow morning. We'll have light conditions from the south-east for a while then which will actually be nice to catch a bit of a break before, hopefully, we run down the trade winds for the last few days to Mackay.

We're going to try to pick up the pace a little bit more now as (hopefully) the winds should be a bit more consistent. The reason we have not been covering much distance over the past few days even though we have had solid 25-30 knots from behind us is because it was ridiculously gusty and squally. The wind would squall up from 25-knots to around 40 or more which meant that we ended up carrying very little sail area to accommodate the peak wind. On top of this the sea-conditions were quite rough so even if we did pick up some speed it got washed off by the slewing around of the boat. This slowed our boat speed down so we ended up just plodding along at about 5-knots on average. When we have consistent 15-20 and are confident to leave a lot of sail up we should be able to get our average up closer to 7-knots.

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Still running downwind

Date:	May 3, 2015, 11:45 p.m.
Position:	27 8.00 S, 165 36.00 E
Speed over Ground:	5.0
Heading (True):	270.0
Wind Speed (kts):	30.0
Wind Direction (True):	45.0
Sea state:	Rough
Swell (m):	1.5

We are trying to push through this trough to get to clean air on the other side. There is plenty of rain and we are seeing lightening in the distance. If communications drop out after this message then it is most likely that we would have gotten struck.

You know things are rough when the sea-birds have started taking refuge on the back deck. We have a little flock riding along with us.

Otherwise the boat is going very well and we are comfortable in the conditions. We hove-to this morning for about 4 hours from 4:30am to 8:30am when the wind became very strong in the 40's for a time. We had an omelet for breakfast which was lovely while we worked out a course of action. David from Gulf Harbour suggested that once we get west of about 163E then conditions will improve significantly. We are aiming for that because this system is too slow moving and we would have had to stay hove-to for 3 days for it to pass over.

At this rate we are currently looking to clear into MACKAY next Tuesday the 12th of May.

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Solid conditions

Date:	May 2, 2015, 11:45 p.m.
Position:	27 30.00 S, 167 24.00 E
Speed over Ground:	7.0
Heading (True):	285.0
Wind Speed (kts):	33.0
Wind Direction (True):	60.0
Sea state:	Rough
Swell (m):	1.5

We made good progress today with NE winds of around 25-knots for most of the day. We were on a broad-reach with staysail and some of the headsail unfurled. This gave us good speed at 7-8knots and the bit of headsail sheeted in tight helped balance the boat when she tried to round-up.

We're running downwind with staysail-only in pretty solid conditions at the moment. The wind is picking up to high 30s for extended periods before dropping back to around 33 knots on average. The sea state is not too bad which is the only reason we haven't hove-to just yet and/or deployed the drogue. Its a bit difficult to relax in these conditions so we might heave-to just to get some rest tonight and resume running again tomorrow... but it is a catch 22 because its also lovely to cover so much ground while the wind is behind us.

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Morning Position report

Date:	May 2, 2015, 11:15 a.m.
Position:	27 56.00 S, 168 41.00 E
Speed over Ground:	5.0
Heading (True):	300.0
Wind Speed (kts):	25.0
Wind Direction (True):	70.0
Sea state:	Rough
Swell (m):	1.5

A quick post of our position this morning. The sea and wind is coming up from the NW. We had sustained 30 knots for most of last night but it seems to be easing somewhat now. Quite rough, we're down to our staysail-only and reaching to stabilise the boat, motion is still quite comfortable.

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Running downwind

Date:	May 1, 2015, 10 p.m.
Position:	28 30.00 S, 169 45.00 E
Speed over Ground:	5.5
Heading (True):	300.0
Wind Speed (kts):	20.0
Wind Direction (True):	70.0
Sea state:	Moderate
Swell (m):	1.0

We made it north of Norfolk Island which was a major milestone for us to reach before encountering this trough over the next few days. David the meteorologist from Gulf Harbour Radio called it "the mother of all surface troughs" ... which didn't sound too encouraging. Team Gulf Harbour Radio (David and Patricia) have been awesome though and went right out of their way to get good useful information regarding our engine. Its really nice to have that level of support and they are calling us up first each morning. The Southern Cross Net are also great and we're chatting to them most days.

We're still plodding along with only our reefed headsail and making 5 knots as we're in no rush to encounter this weather system sooner than we have to. The forecasts are showing that it should weaken in intensity somewhat and also move south so the slower we go and further we get north then the better it should be.

I listened to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology high seas forecast earlier and there is a warning area extending up to 27-north and 160-east with 30-40 knot winds but that is expected to die out throughout tonight. Anything can happen around these things though, and we have been caught out before, so I spent the day rigging up our drogue ready to deploy just in case. If we get sustained heavy winds then we'll run off under staysail-only towing the drogue which should reduce the load on our steering gear and increase the comfort-factor substantially. Experiments that we did with the drogue under motor indicate that it should reduce our boat speed to 3-4 knots and getting it back in the boat after would be extremely difficult.

We took down our mainsail last night in preparation for fairly brisk downwind conditions. We've learned from experience that furling the mainsail into the boom is lovely but if its over 25-30 knots then getting it down (particularly without using the engine) is a nightmare. It also tends to make the boat want to round-up and thus gives us a lot of weather-helm putting undue stress on the rudder and poor "Hydie" the hydrovane self-steering gear which just keeps working tirelessly out the back night and day.

We love the hydrovane and couldn't imagine making a passage like this without it now. Not only is it silent which is awesome for sleeping at night, but it maintains a downwind-heading more accurately than the Raymarine. The motion seems to be more comfortable AND in this case its saving our bacon because we don't have to worry about power-consumption which is an issue when your engine's on the blink.

The wind came up to a steady 25 knots for most of the day which made the sea quite rough for a time. Unfortunately this coincided with the time we were running dead-downwind to avoid a submarine volcano which our boat seems to be attracted to like a magnet on the charts... unbelievable... out of the entire ocean?! We've now got Tuuletar back on its most-comfortable sailing position which is a broad-reach with reefed headsail. The broad reach gives us good speed downwind but is just enough to prevent us from rolling. If the forecasts are correct then in theory we should ride this and not have to touch the hydrovane for the next 3 days until we are through the trough... fingers crossed.

All's well on board. Cat has certainly got her sea-legs and we've been eating like kings, especially since the fridge got de-commissioned to save power.

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Engine woes

Date:	April 30, 2015, 11:30 p.m.
Position:	29 47.00 S, 171 18.00 E
Speed over Ground:	4.5
Heading (True):	320.0
Wind Speed (kts):	15.0
Wind Direction (True):	120.0
Sea state:	Moderate
Swell (m):	1.5

At about 4am this morning the wind eased and we were sailing in relatively calm conditions, so we decided to just turn the engine on to charge the batteries. The engine wasn't happy about starting which I though may have been caused by the pressure of the following seas on the new flap which we installed recently to prevent following seas from coming up the exhaust pipe and flooding the engine. We turned to face the seas and it started without an issue and sounded good when running. I had niggling doubts though so we stopped the engine and I went down to check on things. It was pretty alarming to find that we had about 10 liters of salt water in the oil.

Its becoming obvious now that when we are hard on the wind on a port tack and/or get knocked over hard like we had in the squall the other day then large amounts of water are somehow about to make its way down the anti-vacuum "pisser" on the side of the boat and down into the engine. When this happened to us in Fiordland we assumed that it was the heavy seas managed to come up the exhaust before we had a chance to close the valves. That's the only logical explanation that the mechanics, and I, could think of. Thinking back now to that situation we were also sailing hard in 50-60 knots (and also lost a jerry-can from the starboard side) and manage to take in roughly the same amount of water.

I managed to do a flush of the system with transmission oil and a mixture of a bunch of other oils. Then I did a final oil change with our regular 10W-40 but I was short by a few liters so I added some mono-30 oil as well as some 10W-30. The oil now seems clean and the engine runs smoothly. However with the cocktail of oils in the system as well as us still being short a few liters I am reluctant to do any significant motoring with it. It will be enough to run for 30 minutes to get us into a harbor somewhere or out of imminent issues.

So this morning was spent on the Gulf Harbor Radio net getting advice on options for changing our routing (as well as using transmission fluid to flush the engine). We could aim for New Caledonia but we'll have heavy weather on the nose for a good few days. Norfolk Island is not an option due to poor anchorages and I don't think we could head back to NZ as we're expecting SE trade-winds for the next week or so. The consensus from David on Gulf Harbour was that we'll still get a good run with the weather to Queensland. We'll look at pulling into a port further south with easy access where we can sail right in. Possibly Mackay or Gladstone?

Otherwise all is well on board. We had a wonderful day of sailing in 15-knots from behind with just the headsail up. We topped up the batteries with the generator running on the back deck and we've de-commissioned the fridge to save power. We're expecting pretty solid weather over the next 2-3 days as we start to approach the trough that is coming off the low forming near Brisbane. We always knew this one was coming and were prepared for it. At least we'll be running downwind with it and 25-30 knots is not too bad for us generally... it could even be better than what we had the past few days leaving NZ.

The only long-term solution I can think of to fix the anti-vacuum leak issue is to install another sea-cock before the final transmission heat-exchanger to prevent any water from being able to get in contact with the engine. I've currently just disconnected that sea-water line so it flows to the bilge and there's no possibility of any sea-water being able to contact the engine. I'll have to re-connect the pipe before turning the motor on again. Day 3 and we already have major work to do when we arrive at port.

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Wind swinging south

Date:	April 30, 2015, 1:40 a.m.
Position:	30 40.00 S, 172 56.00 E
Speed over Ground:	5.0
Heading (True):	300.0
Wind Speed (kts):	17.0
Wind Direction (True):	200.0
Sea state:	Moderate
Swell (m):	0.5

I just realized that I made a mistake on the dates from the last posts they should have been 0715 on the 28th and 29th respectively. I'll fix that when we get back to civilisation. I hope they still appear in the correct order and plot our track on the map correctly.

Last night was more of the same with very squally conditions continuing throughout the night. It seemed about every half-hour or so we were hit with another rain squall although none as intense as the first one we encountered. Cat had a good 40-knotter that she was able to run-off with on her watch. Mine were mostly gusts to 30 and after living with them all night we didn't even bother worrying about those.

Winds stayed strong at around 25-knots and very-westerly all morning. Only this afternoon around 4pm it started to ease slightly and swing to the south. The wind however (and still is) persistently more westerly and stronger than the GRIBs and metservice/bom forecasts predict. By now the wind should be east of south, however it is still slightly west of south and we are on a beam-reach heading 300 degrees to an arbitrary waypoint about 50nm north of Norfolk Island.

The lack of correlation of our actual weather with the forecasts is making me a little nervous only because we start to approach a major front coming off the low that is forming over northern NSW on Saturday. We always knew that would be a windy 48-hours or so but given conditions experienced thus far it might be a bit windier/squallier than we anticipated. The upside is that we will be running almost dead downwind rather than on a tight reach.

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Rough first day

Date:	April 29, 2015, noon
Position:	33 4.37 S, 173 56.11 E
Speed over Ground:	6.5
Heading (True):	0.0
Wind Speed (kts):	25.0
Wind Direction (True):	270.0
Sea state:	Rough
Swell (m):	2.5

We got off to a good but slow start last night. After rounding nine-pin island on the northern end of the Bay of Islands we had very light and fickle winds coming off the land. We knew the forecast was for 20 knots and other boats that left earlier reported the same so we kept our sails reefed expecting it to come... It gradually picked up but was much more westerly than the GRIB or the metservice forecast anticipated so we continued going slow at about 4-5 knots on a tight reach heading west of north. Conditions were quite gusty and unsettled even though we had clear skies so we kept a reef in the jib and 2 reefs in the main plus our small-mizzen.

Then at about 2am we were hit by a freak isolated thunderstorm. The squall preceding it was like nothing I've ever seen before. I was getting some rest and Cat was on watch. I woke up to her saying 25... 35... In the matter of a few seconds the wind had gone from 15 knots to well above gale-force. I don't know where it topped out at as we were too busy taking action to watch the wind speed after it went over 35 knots.... but it just kept going. I jumped straight out of bed and grabbed the wheel inside. Fortunately we were running the hydrovane so we didn't even have to waste time turning the autopilot off. Even if we had steerage turning and running downwind was not really an option as I felt quite certain we would blow out our genoa. There was no way we could have furled it in those conditions. The only thing we could do was try to control the round-up into the wind and let the sail spill their air to take the load off them. The rudder was almost out of the water as the boat was pretty much flat. It was probably the most terrifying 4 minutes we've had on Tuuletar so far.

I've never been so glad to feel buckets of rain pelting the boat as it meant we were nearly through the squall. Sure enough about 1 minute after it started raining the wind died to a more normal 20-25 knots which gave us steerage and the ability to run-off and furl the jib. Nothing like waking up to that experience and then heading outside into freezing cold torrential rain to make you feel alive.

.. Then the lightening started. Several strikes all around us as we just pulled the wire out of anything we could see. About 20 minutes after the whole thing started we were through the other side to clear, starry-skies once again as if nothing had happened. We were still close enough to radio the NZ coast guard radio for a radio check and it all seemed good... so on we went. The only casualty from the experience was a 20-liter jerry-can which was strapped to the side and just floated away when we were flat. Only a few days before I had re-tied our splash-guards around the aft handrails with smaller cable-ties so that they broke away in just this kind of event... they worked flawlessly but now we have a loose splashguard on one side.

That pretty much sums up the first day. After the wind turned west we were hit with a relentless 25 knots WSW all day with gusts to 30. The sea built and a SW swell hit us on top of that once we were north of Cape Reinga. All in all not a very fun first day. I ended up cracking the sheets and running off somewhat to give us a more comfortable angle to the sea and swell. However this was at the expense of any westerly-progress. The only upside is that it was a fast day. After the slow night we had with heavily reefed sails we've kept up a 7-8 knot average throughout the daylight hours. We're now directly North of nine-pin island and managed to make 127nm in the past 24-hours which is ok for us.

The WSW wind is forecast to swing more south and ease as we enter the ridge over the next 6 hours. Hopefully it clears up and gives us a little more of a comfortable ride tomorrow.

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Departing Opua

Date:	April 28, 2015, 9:30 a.m.
Position:	35 16.64 S, 174 6.46 E
Speed over Ground:	7.1
Heading (True):	0.0
Wind Speed (kts):	13.0
Wind Direction (True):	270.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.0

No matter how hard you try to get prepared to leave in advance, the final day is always a bit stressful. It must be the way we deal with the stress in our own way.

Anyway we cleared customs this morning at 1100 am but ended up having to do lots of little chores like giving the keys back to the marina and getting our refund. We ended up with about $60 worth of cash refunds that we spent at the chandlery on adhesives and sealants.

It was pretty blowy all day but its now around sunset and it seems to have calmed down in the bay. Hopefully the wind will pick up a bit as we get further offshore. I'm also hoping that it will swing south somewhat as we will still be on a tight-reach with our apparent wind forward of the beam.

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Weather and Safety Info and Schedules

Date:	April 27, 2015, 12:30 p.m.
Speed over Ground:	0.0
Heading (True):	0.0
Wind Speed (kts):	35.0
Wind Direction (True):	20.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.0

Here is a list of all the weather and safety info and radio schedules that we will be getting via HF radio for this passage.

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RADIO SCHEDULES:

We will report our position with South Cross Net until Saturday and then switch to Gulf Harbour Radio after the 1st of May as I don't think we will get good propagation at 0830 on the Southern Cross Net.

Gulf Harbour Radio (starting 1st of May):
8752 (primary), 8779 and 8297kHz (alternatives) @ 1915UTC (0715am NZST)

Southern Cross Net (prior to 1st of May):
8191 (primary), 8155 (alternative) @ 2030UTC (0830 NZST)

Far North Radio (will only make contact in an emergency):
1800-1900 hours New Zealand daylight time - 6.516MHz
1900-1930 hours New Zealand daylight time - 4.417MHz

Meri Leask (Bluff Fisherman Radio - will only make contact in an emergency if cannot reach other channels):
4417kHz @ 0730 and 2030 NZST

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SAFETY AND EMERGENCY INFO:

In case of an emergency the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and NZ Taupo Radio maintain a continuous DSC watch on the 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 MHz DSC distress and safety channels (4207.5, 6312.0, 8414.5, 12557.0, 16804.5 kHz) and voice watches on 4, 6, 8 and 12 MHz ([2182], 4125, 6215, 8291, 12290, 16420 kHz). Contact will be made on these channels with voice and DSC on our HF Radio.

Contact on these channels would likely be associated with our EPIRB going off, we carry 3 in-date, GPS-enabled EPIRBS: 1 primary and 2 personal. We have 1 expired (but may have some battery-life). We also have 1 personal AIS beacon for self-rescue in man-overboard situation. We have a 6-man Viking Liferaft with 3 days of water and food rations for 6 people and about the same in a ditch-bag.

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WEATHER RESOURCES AND LINKS:
We will get our weather primarily via GRIB files over sailmail on the SSB radio. As we approach the Queensland coast we will also be requesting the following URL's (through saildocs on the SSB radio) from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to get a more detailed idea of the coastal weather.

NZ METSERVICE COASTAL FORECASTS:
http://m.metservice.com/marine/coastal/brett
http://m.metservice.com/marine/coastal/kaipara

NZ METSERVICE HIGH SEAS FORECAST
http://metservice.com/marine-surf/high-seas/subtropic

BOM HIGH SEAS FORECAST
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/nehighseas.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/sehighseas.shtml

NSW COASTAL WEATHER FORECASTS
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/sydneycoast.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/byroncoast.shtml : Byron Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/coffscoast.shtml : Coffs Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/macquariecoast.shtml : Macquarie Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/huntercoast.shtml : Hunter Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/sydneycoast.shtml : Sydney Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/illawarracoast.shtml : Illawarra Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/batemanscoast.shtml : Batemans Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/edencoast.shtml : Eden Coast
-- Local Waters forecasts --
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/sydneywaters.shtml : Sydney Closed Waters
-- Other forecasts --
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/norfolkisland.shtml : Norfolk Island
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/lordhowe.shtml : Lord Howe Island

QLD COASTAL WEATHER FORECASTS
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/south-east-gulf-of-carpentaria.shtml : South East Gulf of Carpentaria
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/north-east-gulf-of-carpentaria.shtml : North East Gulf of Carpentaria
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/torres-strait.shtml : Torres Strait
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/peninsula-coast.shtml : Peninsula Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/cooktown-coast.shtml : Cooktown Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/cairns-coast.shtml : Cairns Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/townsville-coast.shtml : Townsville Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/mackay-coast.shtml : Mackay Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/capricornia-coast.shtml : Capricornia Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/fraser-island-coast.shtml : Fraser Island Coast
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/sunshine-coast-waters.shtml : Sunshine Coast Waters
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/gold-coast-waters.shtml : Gold Coast Waters
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/hervey-bay-waters.shtml : Hervey Bay Waters
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/moreton-bay.shtml : Moreton Bay
-- Offshore Waters forecasts --
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/gbroffshore.shtml : Great Barrier Reef

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WEATHER RADIOFAX SCHEDULES:
We also have the capability to receive weatherfax from Australia and NZ through the SSB radio. Schedules for weatherfaxes are found here:

NZ RADIOFAX SCHEDULE:
http://www.metservice.com/marine-surf/radio/zklf-radiofax-schedule

AUSTRALIAN VMC & VMW RADIO FAX SCHEDULE:
http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/radio-sat/radio-fax-schedule.shtml

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Preparing to depart Wednesday (or Tuesday)

Date:	April 25, 2015, 11:50 a.m.
Position:	35 15.63 S, 174 6.83 E
Speed over Ground:	0.0
Heading (True):	0.0
Wind Speed (kts):	22.0
Wind Direction (True):	20.0
Sea state:	Slight
Swell (m):	0.0

We are currently anchored off Russell waiting for a blow to pass over tonight and Monday. This is the remnants from the same system which hammered Sydney last week. Hopefully it will be a bit kinder to us, the forecast is for 35 knots for a few hours Monday morning which should not be an issue.

We are keen to leave as soon as possible after the blow passes over as we want to get as far north as possible before the next front hits us. We would like to leave on Tuesday but because of the ANZAC day long-weekend and shops closed on Monday we may not get all the prep-work required done on Tuesday so it will probably be Wednesday. Ideally we would like to encounter the inevitable front that we have to pass through somewhere north of Norfolk Island and preferably closer to New Caledonia where it will be (hopefully) somewhat reduced in intensity, but it most likely still be squally and raining buckets.

I have done some work on our website and set up a new logbook (this one) which we will use for the passage from Opua to Cairns. All of the log-posts that I make will have this same format as this one and include details of current position; speed; heading; wind speed; wind direction; sea-state and swell in the header of the log-entry. Our position will be automatically updated on the Google Map on our homepage at http://www.svlogbook.com/Tuuletar so you can go there to see where we are at any time.

Please note that the date/time posted in these emails is GMT time. So will be 12-hours behind our current local time. I will try to make posts 2-times per day in the morning and evening however I may only be able to actually send the post once per day (at night).