| Date: | Nov. 22, 2014, 10 p.m. |
| Position: | 35 18.81 S, 174 7.79 E |
Anchored off Pine Island and getting some sleep.
| Date: | Nov. 22, 2014, 6:44 a.m. |
| Position: | 33 23.00 S, 173 49.00 E |
A lot of motoring again in glassy conditions up to about mid-afternoon when we were able to get our full rig out and had a great afternoon of sailing in very calm and flat seas with 12kts making about 6kts.
All going well we should be arriving in Opua tomorrow afternoon so we may not make a post until late when we are all tied up on the Q dock.
Winds forecast to go light(er) tomorrow morning (they are already light at only 12 kts) so maybe just another few more hours of motoring to get there.
Everyone keeps talking about how incredible the persistent light winds have been on this passage, even the old-timers who have done this 20 times can't believe this passage. It seems to be that the Tuuletar "lollipop run" continues. Touch wood.
Just heard from other boats on the SSB and we are not doing too badly with regards to fuel consumption. Most other boats have used around 100 gallons and a very keen sailing boat with a 3m keel even used around 70 gallons. We are currently sitting on 95 gallons so we'll also be around 100 by the time we get in to the Q-dock. This does include a bit of motoring around Kandavu to have a rest and clean our bottom though so we're probably beating the average on fuel consumption.
I must admit that I do extract some small pleasure from the awkward silence that comes after some people, who had scoffed at our wheelhouse and labeled Tuuletar as a caravan or a clunky motor-sailor, come to the realization that we have got there as fast or faster and with less fuel consumption... and we're still wearing tropical clothing inside the wheelhouse.
| Date: | Nov. 21, 2014, 7:46 a.m. |
| Position: | 31 0.00 S, 173 49.00 E |
We made some reasonable westing as we moved slowly into it last night and were starting to head in the right direction as the wind backed to the east before it dropped to about 6kts at 6am in the morning.
So the engine came back on and we've been motoring into fairly glassy conditions all day. Its been very calm all day other than a big southern swell rolling in, but that hasn't really affected us as the period is large. We had an adverse current for most of the day which really slowed us down to around 5kts but that seems to be easing now and we're back up around 6kts.
Most of the other boats that we are in radio contact with are having fuel- issues due to the sheer amount of motoring we have had to do on this passage. Except for 48 hours the wind has been light enough to need the engine running in some form. Most boats are running out of fuel and many are going to have to drift and just wait for wind. Its very nice to not have to worry about that issue on Tuuletar, but this will be an expensive passage.
At this stage it looks like we might have to be motoring all night and at least motor-sailing most of tomorrow too. At this rate we will be getting in to Opua on Sunday night or Monday morning early.
| Date: | Nov. 20, 2014, 10:52 a.m. |
| Position: | 29 16.00 S, 174 16.00 E |
Firstly Cat thanks everyone for her birthday wishes. If her birthday was 2 days ago we would have celebrated it by having a Webber BBQ complete with table and chairs on the back deck as we motored at 6 knots. Today... not so much. A raw carrot for entree and steamed brocolli for mains was about all we could manage.
The wind picked up a bit just after I posted last night so we stopped motoring as it was just an expensive and uncomfortable way of getting nowhere fast.
I have learned from Legacy that these types of wind are the common "Noserly" winds that blow regularly all over the world
As the wind was directly on the nose we took our now regular approach of sailing very slowly to windward, almost heaved to, but slowly reaching forward at 2-3kts. The logic is that if you are making zero VMG by sailing almost 90-degrees to the rum line then it doesn't matter if you are going slow or fast so you might as well make it comfortable.
Anyway the strategy seemed to work and we both got a much better sleeps that night than if we had been motor-slamming into 15kt headwinds for $20 per hour. We set the hydrovane and it was a perfectly silent and somewhat comfortable night, as comfortable as you can get in bouncy, choppy, swelly, sloppy seas.
I love the hydrovane also because we can just set small sails and pretty much forget about sailing the boat throughout the night. The hydrovane takes care of all the wind-shifts which was great because the winds have been very shifty up to 30-40 degrees either way. The one on watch only has to check there is no traffic or major weather coming our way. Aside from that it is silent so we sleep so well. It also uses no power, so our batteries got up to 100% on solar before midday. In fact, we are so well charged up and using so little power that the solar controller reaches "float" mode before midday, which it almost never does.
It is very frustrating though sailing for 25 hours and making almost no forward progress. Today the winds started backing to the east and although we have done nearly 110nm in 30 hours we have only knocked off 60nm towards Opua. We would get up to about 3-5kts before a big piece of sloppy confused sea would slam us down to 1-2kts and we would start the process all over again. Not so fun.
Things are picking up now as I write we have about 13kts and we are still sailing hard to wind but the seas have calmed down a lot so we are starting to move at 4.5 to 5kts.
| Date: | Nov. 19, 2014, 6:46 a.m. |
| Position: | 28 24.00 S, 175 56.00 E |
We managed to switch off the motor at about 6am this morning and do some sailing in 10-15kt NE winds. We were going along nicely most of the day at 6kts or so.
The front was quite obvious when it arrived. A distinct line of low-level cloud but nothing too ominous looking. I was having a rest when Cat woke me up and it was perfect timing because we had just enough time to reef in the main and jib before the NE piped up to 25+kts in the squalls. We were sailing alongside (about 2nm apart) "Land Fall" which is a boat we left Suva with and have been in contact on the SSB each night. We both disappeared into the rain... the wind quickly shifted the full 180-degrees and then completely fizzed out leaving us bobbing around in confused seas with about 6kts of southerly wind.
So the outcome of today... Dak-a-dak-a-dak-a-dak-a-dak. Still motoring into about 8-9kts of SSW wind... right on the nose.
Its not really enough wind to comfortably sail but enough to make it uncomfortable to motor directly into. We're now just about to experiment with setting some sail and motor-sailing at an angle to the wind to smooth things out.
With regards to the fuel situation. We carry 275 gallons of fuel on board. We have used 61 gallons so far. If we motor-sail then the engine is quite efficient and we have enough fuel to pretty much motor-sail twice the distance as NZ to Fiji. Even motoring in glassy conditions is quite efficient. However, when we are slamming into even a little bit of wind however the fuel efficiency drops right off to around 3-4 miles per gallon. So I try to avoid motoring directly to windward like this. However if we only have to do it for 12-hours it is sometimes a reasonable compromise.
It is nice to have the extra fuel and motor capacity. The other boats around us are starting to run low on fuel and are having to heave-to or drift in order to save fuel. A boat we know last week going to Nelson used all their fuel on board except for a single jerry-can of reserve which they used to get into the dock in Nelson. If we start to run low then we'll also adopt fuel-saving methods but at the moment we don't have to worry about it too much.
| Date: | Nov. 18, 2014, 6:11 a.m. |
| Position: | 26 0.00 S, 176 38.00 E |
Dak-a-dak-a-dak-a-dak-a-dak. Still motoring. Caught a mahi-mahi at sunrise. Water went completely glassy mid-morning. 150nm in 24 hours.
Frontal system due tomorrow looks like it might be a bit of a fizzer... We may have to motor all the way to NZ!?!?!
| Date: | Nov. 17, 2014, 6:14 a.m. |
| Position: | 23 31.00 S, 177 4.00 E |
The wind backed to the north and dropped as per forecast last night. We kept on sailing up until the sails started flogging as we rolled and then switched on the motor for a few hours in the early morning.
At mid-morning the wind picked back up so we turned the motor off again and sailed for a while at 4kts or so until it dropped off again. Since then we have been motor-sailing with the engine ticking along at 800rpm and full sails up, we have been making 7kts or so all day. Fortunately with the sails up we have not been using much fuel and we are sitting on around 0.75 gallons per hour. So around 10 miles per gallon is not bad fuel efficiency.
Looks like we will have to keep motor-sailing like this for tonight and tomorrow. There is a frontal system forecast to come our way midday Wednesday which may bring a bit of wind (but from the south). There is a chance however that it might not amount to much and we might have to motor right through. We'll see how we go.
| Date: | Nov. 16, 2014, 6:18 a.m. |
| Position: | 21 17.00 S, 177 7.00 E |
Our average dropped heavily last night as the wind died and we slowed down to 2-3kts. The conditions remained gusty so we took it slowly and stayed at that pace until sunrise. Also Cat and I were both pretty exhausted after copping a bit of a beating from that southerly swell in the first 24 hours so we each opted to let each other sleep on our watches as opposed to fussing around with sail changes in the night. If we keep up our current pace we will hold onto a 5-knot average through to midnight tonight.
Sailing today has been close to perfect as the seas calmed right down and we got 10-14kts of ESE winds. We put all our sail out and have been averaging around 5.5kts most of the day.
I think we have at least a 0.5kt current against us only because we would normally be keeping 6-7kts in these conditions and there seems to be nothing I can do to get us consistently over 6. Anyway, it has felt like we were moving very fast through the water all day. (Note to self: need to get our log fixed when we haul out in New Zealand).
Winds are forecast to back to the north and ease tonight and tomorrow so we will be able to take back some westing but we may have to motor at some stage.
| Date: | Nov. 15, 2014, 12:06 p.m. |
| Position: | 19 56.00 S, 177 28.00 E |
We ended up motoring all of last night into the wind until we got to the lee of Kadavu and then motored along the north coast. We anchored briefly off Talaulia Bay on the western end of Kadavu and I jumped over to clean the prop and bottom. Partly for biosecurity NZ and partly for saving fuel.
When we rounded Cape Washington there was a massive southern swell and we had 20kts or so of SE. Not very comfortable at all. We were able to sail and made 5-6kts before having to reef down.
The wind is now dropping a bit and swinging more easterly. We have slowed down to 3kts but we might hold this until morning as its pretty gusty.
| Date: | Nov. 14, 2014, 9:11 a.m. |
| Position: | 18 7.45 S, 178 25.49 E |
After waiting for the wind to shift east we are heading out into 10-12kts of SSE winds. Hopefully it will go more east throughout the night.
| Date: | Nov. 13, 2014, 9:15 a.m. |
We have spent the last few days getting the boat ready for the passage. We have taken the bimini down again (and found that it is getting very easy and quick to do now).
We have been watching the weather quite carefully along with several other boats. There are probably 4 of us that will leave Suva together tomorrow. There is another several dozen in Lautoka and another 30 or so in Tonga waiting for this window. It will be BUSY out there when we all converge with possibly up to 50-60 boats out there, when you account for the ones that we don't even know about.
Current passage looks like it might be a motor-sailling fest. Winds look likely be to light from the SE with a weak frontal system about half-way through that might bring some sail-able conditions for a few hours.
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