SV Yohelah – Pacific Loop

Miles traveled Day 11: 166
Miles traveled to date: 1,400
Miles to Hiva Oa: 1,748

Wow, 166 miles in one day. For us that’s astounding. If the seas weren’t so huge and it was a flatter ride it would be nice, but it’s great to be ticking off the miles so quickly. At night we turn the boat downwind a bit and put the waves behind us a little more to make a slower and calmer ride. This morning I turned us upwind to a beam reach because we had diverged from our course quite a bit and right now we’re taking the waves much more foreward of aft than is comfortable. But we should converge with our course late this afternoon and we’ll turn back down again.

Yesterday while we were still going deep downwind we got totally pooped in the cockpit. The wave that broke into the back of the cockpit was so big that it got the underside of the bimini wet. The bimini is high enough that I can stand up straight on the seats, so it’s 5’4″+ above the cockpit seats. Luckily the wave didn’t get into the inside of the boat, but it was quite a surprise for both of us. Buoyweather forecasts these seas (12′-20′) to last through tomorrow, but hopefully they’ll subside sooner.

Tomorrow afternoon we should hit the halfway mark distance-wise. But given our significant increase in boat speed compared to the first four days when we were drifting along, we should now be well past the halfway mark time-wise. I won’t look at the chart again, but I know that 1700 miles at 7 knots is 10 days. But I’m not looking!

Rob landed another Dorado last night just before dark. I was going to deep fry some of it tonite but it’s a little too bouncy for a hot pan of oil to be on the stove, even with the gimbals. It’ll just be pan fried fresh mahi for dinner again; oh what a pity.

Teresa

Miles traveled Day 12: 151
Miles traveled to date: 1,551
Miles to Hiva Oa: 1,592

When I recorded our mileage for the day we weren’t halfway yet, but the GPS just ticked over the halfway point about 15 minutes ago. It’s huge to know we’ve come this far and are now on the “downhill” ride. Yesterday the winds never did ease and ended up picking up to 25-28, so we rolled the jib and put up the staysail. You would think that more wind means a faster ride, but that’s not the case. 28 is too much wind for the jib, but the staysail (our smaller headsail) is so much smaller we just don’t make time with it. But it was a really nice comfy ride last night and we both slept well.

Today the wind has gone back to the 15-18 knot range and the full jib is back out. Also, the huge waves have diminished and we’re riding along pretty well. The wind has turned more easterly so we’re tracking a little further south than we’d like but we’re still heading for the barn pretty quickly.

And, the best news is that Rob has a new nickname. I’m calling him Rob “another day another dorado” Sicade. He won’t let me say that on the net tonight so we don’t get jinxed (or sound too obnoxious to those that aren’t catching fish), but I’ll just let it slip here. The thing is that he’s taken a real interest in figuring this out, so he’s doing well. The frustrating part is that we keep getting hits in pairs and can only land one at a time (there are always rumors that dorado mate for life and swim in pairs, but who knows). Somehow one always gets away. So Maya’s tummy is full of fresh Mahi as will ours be in another hour. At this rate the meat in the freezer will last us until New Zealand.

Teresa

The boat is here

We continue on to the Marquesas and all is well on board. We just ended the thirteenth day and are on schedule to make it in 25 days or so based on our average speed for the first half of the trip. Since sailboats are limited to hull speed based on length and sailing speed based on sail plans its hard for us to go too much faster. We did have a record 166 mile day this week but were sailing for the whole 24 hours just below the limit for shortening sail; we also had a significant current boost.

The boat continues to do well. I’ve now spent a day of the first week and a day of the second week working on a recalcitrant toilet, but we won’t go into that – it’s fixed now. The wind vane has been steering for the 10 days since or 2-day spinnaker run and is doing well. Our water maker is keeping us in drinking water, the charging systems are doing ok although with overcast skies we have run the main engine a few hours to recharge. Our overnight power usage is higher than I expected but only because I didn’t do the math. Adding to the refrigeration is the radar, AIS, instruments, radio, GPS (two), auto pilot display, tri-color navigation light, fans, and other assorted lights and power draws. Our wind generator would do marvelously in 15 knots of wind, unfortunately we are sailing downwind and when you subtract our 5 knots forward speed from the wind we are only feeling 10 knots or so – not enough for the wind generator to keep up.

Fishing has been great. We were warned it would be hard to catch fish in the deep water, one every three or four days would be good. We didn’t fish while flying the spinnaker or on days the first week when our day-time speed was very slow. We don’t fish at night. Also no fishing on days when I worked on the toilet, it just doesn’t sound right, does it? So out of our 13 days so far we’ve fished 7. We’ve had 6 mahi-mahi (Dorado) on the hook, landed 4. Two slipped the hook as we lifted them out of the water but we’re getting better. Tony mentioned that mahi-mahi often strike in pairs and it’s something we’ve noticed before. We always have two hand lines out and half of our mahi strikes this year have been on both lines simultaneously.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering why we only catch mahi-mahi, it’s because we sort of target them. First of all mahi-mahi are surface feeders and we are surface fishing – no lures that dive or are excessively weighted. Also we are trolling with hand lines fairly close to the boat, certainly within 100 feet. Mahi-mahi are curious fish and will approach very close to a boat. No surprise we catch a lot of mahi, although I would expect the occasional wahoo or tuna.

We are working our way through our fish recipes, how many ways can we prepare mahi-mahi between here and the Marquesas?

Rob

Miles traveled Day 15: 140
Miles traveled to date: 1,978
Miles to Hiva Oa: 1,171

Well the typical wind-dies-at-night certainly didn’t hold last night. When I came on watch at 11:00 Rob had the jib rolled up and only a reefed main but we were rolling around like crazy. So I rolled out the jib to try and steady the boat so he could sleep a bit. It took me an hour and a half of fussing with it (turn up, turn down, roll in a little, roll out a little) to finally figure out there was just too much wind. So I rolled up the jib and the boat continued to wallow around.

As it still is today mid-day. The winds are 18-22 as forecast. But there are two huge wave trains 90 degrees apart with 12′ waves coming at us every few seconds. I can sit in the cockpit and as we drop into a trough I can’t see any sky out the back of the boat, only the next huge wave moving toward us. Luckily none have broken into the cockpit today like when we got pooped earlier in the week, but a couple have come pretty close.

We would like to put up the staysail and steady the boat a bit, but the pole is still up and the staysail halyard holds up the pole. The thought of going forward with the boat rolling toerail to toerail every once in a while does not appeal to either of us. So we’ll roll more and put up with it until it settles down, which hopefully will be this afternoon. I haven’t pulled any forecasts in the last three days because it just looked like more of the same, but I’m requesting a couple now and we’ll see what we’re in for. I remember Brit talking about this same weather and Hello World rolling like hell a few days ago. Looks like we caught up with what they had. I think it only lasted about a day for them.

But we’re still averaging 6 knots, even with just a reefed main, as we slide down the back of these huge waves. I won’t look at the chart, but I think at 6 knots we’re about 9 days out at this point. Hopefully they’re a little calmer days.

Teresa

Miles traveled Day 16: 141
Miles traveled to date: 2,119
Miles to Hiva Oa: 1,032

As soon as I sent the mail yesterday I came back into the cockpit and Rob said “should we drop the pole and put up the staysail?”. So we went forward and the process that usually takes 5 minutes took 20, but then it was done and the staysail was up and the rolling lessened pretty quick. Today the wind has eased finally, as it’s forecast to continue doing, and turned more easterly (which is right behind us).

We don’t want to sail too far south because we’ve heard people report northeasterly winds as they approach the Marquesas, and that’s exactly what Hello World has right now. So they’re beating into 20 knots of wind their last two days to get back north and make landfall. Because we want to stay high and put out our jib we’re going to set the sails wing on wing, which means the mainsail is out on one side of the boat and the jib is on a pole on the other side and the wind is directly behind us. That also puts the waves directly behind us which makes us roll a little less, but with both sails nearly perpendicular to the boat we have nothing to dampen the roll when we do. So I think it’s a wash – we’re going to roll no matter what we do!

Today’s fishing report is a good one. After catching another typical 2 meal dorado we put the lure back in to see if there was a second one close by. In about 10 minutes I called “fish on” again and Rob started pulling in the line, but there was no bright yellow dorado on the end this time. As it got closer we recognized the narrow shape and striped coloring of a wahoo! After he got done cleaning both fish he asked which I wanted for dinner and I thought we should have a taste test. So he pan fried two small mahi fillets and four small wahoo steaks.

I don’t think there’s enough difference taste-wise between the two to call a winner or loser. The wahoo is much denser and drier and the mahi is much more delicate and a little oilier. I’d call it a wash, but a fun experiment nonetheless. In Maya’s opinion the raw meat off the wahoo won paws down.

Teresa

Yohelah is here

Miles traveled Day 17: 136
Miles traveled Day 18: 134
Miles traveled to date: 2,389
Miles to Hiva Oa: 770

The wind has eased and we’ve slowed down, which is frustrating at this point in the trip. But we jibed the main back over this morning and somehow we’ve eased the rolling again. We’ve also stayed pretty far north overnight and are sailing due west slightly converging with our course. Except we don’t exactly know where we’re going to make landfall yet.

There are three ports of entry in the Marquesas, but unfortunately the island furthest to windward is not one of them. And more unfortunately, it’s reportedly one of the most beautiful stops in the island group. It’s 40 miles upwind from what should be our intended landfall. But after traveling over 3,000 miles I know neither of us want to turn around and bash into the wind and waves for 40 miles after we stop to check in. As it happens, Brit has what she calls her “French Spy” and “German Spy” in the Marquesas. Because the European boats can stay in French Polynesia 3 months longer than we can many of them have arrived already. Two of Brit’s friends have been checking out the stop at Fatu Hiva and report that the customs boat isn’t there yet and likely won’t be for another week or two. They’re saying that boats are stopping for up to 3 weeks before reporting to Hiva Oa and checking in.

So we’re going to take a calculated risk and stop in Fatu Hiva first. Brit & Axel will arrive today and will email us if the situation changes and the customs boat arrives. What I read last night is that May 1st is Labor Day in French Polynesia and absolutely no one works on that day. That’s Friday, and if they’re good at the 3 day weekend concept they won’t be rushing over there on the weekend either.

What happens if we get caught? A big slap on the hands and a $250 fine. Is it worth $250 to not have to bash windward? Don’t know and hopefully we won’t have to find out.

Teresa

Miles traveled Day 19: 147
Miles traveled to date: 2,535
Miles to Hiva Oa: 626

Last night was just a spectacular night to be sailing. The wind was in the 15 knot range, the seas were down, and we had a 2 knot current helping us along. There was no moon, but the stars were out and it was just beautiful. This morning, however, is another story altogether.

As predicted the wind has eased considerably. It’s become a test of both our patience and our sailing skills. The seas have died with the wind, but there is still enough swell to cause the main to slat and bang every minute or two. The only way to push this heavy old girl (no, I mean the boat) in 8-10 knots of wind directly behind us is to use our spinnaker as if it was a symmetrical spinnaker, put it out on the pole and float it in front of us. The spinnaker is making a huge difference and actually giving us 4-5 knots of boat speed, but the main is still slatting around. We hate to drop it and lose the power that it gives us, so we may just try and tuck a reef back into it. With less sail up there’s less to bang about in the rollers.

The forecast looks gruesome, and is going to be light like this for the next three days. Before we left there was a boat on its way here that we heard was 5 days out for 10 days. I don’t want to even think that’ll happen to us.

We did have a major equipment breakage earlier in the week that has potential to be a big problem. The self steering gear has a stainless latch that holds the paddle in the water and it has cracked and failed. We got mail back from the manufacturer and they have no solution for an interim fix. They can ship a new latch to the Marquesas so we’re investigating that. Our autopilot has been doing a good job of steering in the meantime, but it’s compass is a little wonky right now and it doesn’t really know what direction it’s going. As long as we’re steering a course relative to the wind direction it seems to be keeping it together.

We’re just hoping the wind and the autopilot hold out for a few more days…..

Teresa

Miles traveled Day 20: 121
Miles traveled to date: 2,656
Miles to Hiva Oa: 515

OK, last night severely tested my patience. We had the spinnaker out on the pole and sure enough, just after dark the wind changed direction. So instead of plodding along at 4-5 knots towards the Marquesas we were heading northwest towards Japan. The winds were light enough we had to keep the spinnaker up. That meant to change direction we had to sock the chute, take down the pole, jibe the main, put the pole back up on the other side, move the chute around to the other side and redeploy it. There are three lines that hold the pole in place, plus the three lines for the spinnaker. In broad daylight it’s easy enough to get them tangled around each other and the lifelines, in the dark it would have been virtually impossible to get it right on the first try.

So on my 11:00 to 2:00 watch the distance to destination decreased by exactly 2 miles. This morning I woke Rob at first light and we got everything turned around and we headed southwest again.

Last night on the HF radio I talked to Don Anderson, who is an ex-cruiser in California that does weather forecasting for the yachties. He spends all his day building forecasts and reporting on the Mexican nets and advising people making long range passages. He told me that the northeasterly winds in the Marquesas and our lack of wind was due to a huge low pressure system over Tahiti and it would stick around for a while. He also said no one knew why the southeast trades hadn’t filled in this year. Just our luck, I guess. But he also said we should expect 10-15 for the rest of our trip.

And this morning the wind has picked back up to 12-17. We’ve still got the spinnaker up and 17 is about as much wind as we want to carry it in, but we’re making 6-7 knots in just the direction we want to go. So we’ll hope it doesn’t build any more today and we can live with this. As for what we’ll do tonight before dark, that’ll depend on what the winds are then, and hopefully it’s not another night of sailing towards Japan.

Teresa

Yohelah is here

Things are well here, as I write this we have a little over 500 miles to go to the Marquesas. It’s the beginning of our 21st day and we have seen nothing but water the whole three weeks. We did have the ‘Hansa Stockholm’, a container ship bound for Tahiti, pass us at eighteen knots twelve miles off our port side the other night. Too far to see even lights but it did show up on both radar and AIS, obvious since I know her name and destination. Always nice to know the AIS and radar are both working, not just consuming electricity.

The boat continues to do well. As Teresa mentioned, our Monitor wind vane steering failed the other night. Nothing will wake you up like an unexpected jibe and suddenly being 120 degrees off course. Good thing we have the pole and boom locked down in all directions, it really was a non-event.

—Begin boring details:

So the Monitor steers our boat to the wind. A wind vane is feathered into the wind and falls to one side or the other if we get off course. When the wind vane falls over it rotates a shaft that’s connected to a paddle in the water. When the paddle rotates the force of the water pushes it to one side. Lines tied to the paddle are wrapped around the ships wheel and cleverly pull it in the correct direction to once again feather the wind vane. It sounds complicated but is a wonder to watch.

Because metal doesn’t like to live in salt water the water paddle is hinged to be retracted when not in use. We broke the latch, the part that keeps it in the water. I’ve discussed it with the manufacturer via email and we both agree there is no easy jury rig – it’s difficult because the top piece consists of a stationary metal tube with a rotating inner-tube that attaches to the water paddle and any jury rig cannot attach to the upper, outer tube. I do have lots of odd parts on board including hose clamps, a banding tool, and lots of hardware. If we were forced to hand steer it would be worth it to go dead in the water for a few hours while I worked out some way of keeping the paddle in the water. With a working electric autopilot we’ll keep going and just deal with keeping the batteries charged. Makes me wonder how all the boats out here without wind vanes keep up with the electrical consumption.

—End boring details

Interesting that both our major breakdowns so far are with our automated steering systems. It’s also nice to know we’ve already ordered replacement parts that should get to Nuka Hiva before us.

I’m also not sure why there are so many cruising boats out here without spinnakers. We just finished our fourth day under spinnaker and it looks like we might use it the majority of time the rest of the way to the Marquesas. We just wouldn’t have kept the boat moving last night in 6 knots of wind without it and certainly wouldn’t be making 6.5 knots now. For us, it’s irreplaceable.

Fishing has slowed down a bit. Sunday night Teresa was on the radio with Carina, another Seattle boat that is the closest to us right now, 140 miles east of us. We had a fish hit one of the lures and I called her away from the radio to handle the net. Unfortunately this beautiful bright yellow mahi-mahi jumped in the air twice and after the second jump was off the hook. Literally. We are currently experiencing a fishing slump of three days. Can’t really complain too much, since we’ve had fresh fish about three quarters of the time over the last two weeks. Never expected to catch this much of our food and even if we stopped now we’d still be way ahead of expectations. It is nice to know we’ve figured out how to fish, and nice to know we’re out-fishing our friends who are using fishing poles, a method that should result in more hookups. If you’re going cruising, take hand lines. Email me for some recommendations, especially for books on fishing.

Twenty one days. Seems like a long time but I’ve decided the only difference between our shorter ‘long passages’ and this one is this one is just longer. Seriously, it takes two or three days to get into the swing of a watch schedule and you spend the last couple of days wishing you were there. In between, we have our routines that very little from day to day. In the case of this long passage the middle part is lasting long enough to totally lose track of days. Truthfully it doesn’t feel like we’ve been out this long. We are starting to get anxious to be there and at 500 miles to go the miles seem to be flying by.

That’s it for now. Everything is going well, we expect to arrive in the Marquesas this coming weekend.

Rob

Miles traveled Day 21: 133
Miles traveled to date: 2,789
Miles to Hiva Oa: 385

The wind has been up and down, but happily it’s mostly staying up. And it’s held the southeast direction so we’ve been zipping along quite nicely straight towards the Marquesas. If this holds we’ll have to slow down Friday night so we don’t arrive in the dark. There’s no way we’ll make it before dark on Friday, but we should arrive early Saturday morning!!!!

We’ve been out of fresh fruit for a week now but still have potatoes, peppers (not happy peppers, but still ok), cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and eggs. And we even still have half a loaf of Bimbo bread. Bimbo bread is ubiquitous to Latin America (I remember posing for a picture in front of the Bimbo truck with Debbie Cook in Cozumel in 1986) and must have more preservatives than flour. Our friends Lisa & John on Andiamo brought a loaf of Bimbo bread to the South Pacific a few years back and it was still not moldy when they got back to Mexico a year later.

Not much else to report. The spinnaker’s up and the boat’s flying along like a horse to the barn.

Teresa