Just 5 minutes ago we hit 11,000 Nautical miles sailed on Reverie.
( that's 20,372KM!)
It's 6:54 or 7:54 am depending on what time zone we are in - not
sure, 8th May.
Jo is asleep, I am on watch. There is just enough wind to sail, if
we have much less the engine will have to go on ( we have about
12 knots of true wind and about 5 knots apparent wind).
Dire Straits - Alchemy , "telegraph road" is playing on the CD
player ( Ahhh this brings back memories! of way too long ago).
I just put two fishing lines out so hopefully we'll hook some fish,
there is a radio net on shortly and I will check in with our
position and see where other boats are, then we will work on some
breakfast.
We are currently at 11-58S, 124-11W, We are moving at 7 knots SOG
over a course of 225M. 1165 miles to go!
Yesterday was a fantastic day sailing, no speed records but
conditions that would be close to perfect -12 knots of true wind,
and with our sailing angle we were able to bring the wind to about
16 knots of apparent, just forward of the beam. With the wind so
light the seas were very calm. There were no clouds and the air
temperature was in the mid 20's.
Today however is starting a little odd, there is a lot of cloud and
as mentioned above not much wind. Hopefully the cloud will burn off
and we can bag some fish!
Two days later....
Position 13-29S, 129-36W, SOG 6 knots and going down..., COG 240M
Wind 10knots ENE to East
Well the previous day was an odd one. WE LOST OUR WIND!!!!.
Damm, down to sailing in 10 knots of wind coming from the East,
sometimes it has a little North in it as well.
Not what we really wanted. It has been that way for two days now,
bugger!, looks like it will be like this for at least one or two
days more. Now we are getting excited if we see 6 knots on the
speedo!, where before we were hitting 8 and 9's.
Another big drama came up today, the watermaker has died. Well not
sure how dead it is, but it looks like we have a BIG oil leak from
the gearbox in the watermaker, the oil is running into the electric
motor!!, so now I (think) we have a gearbox with no oil - That's
not good, and an electric motor full of oil - that's worse!.
Not sure where the failure is, I guess it's an oil seal between the
motor and the gearbox, after all what else could it be?!
Now the challenge is, the watermaker has a 3 year warranty, we may
need a new motor and gearbox - That woul dbe bad news, as shipping
anything into French Polynesia is costly and time consuming.
We will see how this unfolds over the next few days..
More on the tragic front, we just finished "LOST" series 3,
tragedy!, now we need to find out if there is a series 4 and if it
is on DVD, if it is maybe we can pick it up in Tahiti....
Our lives must come across as very trivial when underway...
Day 14.
Position: 14-00S, 131-18W, SOG 6. knots, COG 240M. 727 miles to
go.
Wind is still light and the forecast looks like it will stay that
way for the next few days at least, so it looks like we have some
slow sailing ahead.
Last two days we managed to complete 128 miles and 132 miles.
Nothing to get excited about but a least it's forward.
We still have yet to hook a fish that we want, yesterday we managed
to hook a small Bonito ( sort of like a small tuna) we chucked it
back. Luckily we have a freezer that's stocked with some Yellow Fin
Tuna that we caught in the Galapagos. But what we really want is a
couple of Wahoo and a few Mahi Mahi, that would give us plenty of
fish for the next few weeks. We will cross our fingers and keep
praying to the fish gods that we get something soon.
Day 15-16
Position 14-53S, 135-46W SOG 6.5 COG 242M
Wind, 10 knots ESE 460 miles to go!
Had a great sail over the last 36 hours. The wind moved south just a
touch and we were able to get the spinnaker up with the main. This
was a massive jump in power. Reverie quickly jumped up to sailing at
around 7-8 knots in very little wind.
On the radio net in the morning one boat had so little wind they
jumped overboard and cleaned the bottom of the boat! The conditions
seem quite variable as some boats have wind and some have none and
some have a little bit - we are in the little bit area.
The seas are very calm, no squalls and fast sailing.
We kept the kite up all day, night and the following day.
At about 9pm on Day 16 , there seemed to be a lot of squalls coming
up on the radar so we thought we would bring the kite in and sail
the night on main and genoa - copped a huge speed penalty but it
made for stress free night sailing. What we really need is a big
code
zero free flying reacher, now that would be cool.
We will get the kite up once the sun comes up and try and get the
speed up. It makes a massive difference in the boat motion having
some more power in the rig. We don't get pushed around by the waves,
the boat is stable, smooth and quiet, can't wait!
Still no fish, had a huge bite yesterday, the line (200lbs) was
incredibly tight, you couldn't pull it in an inch, so whatever we
had it was big. Unfortunately the hook didn't set in it's mouth
enough and it came free, lets hope for another shot at it
tomorrow!
Managed to take the watermaker apart yesterday. There was about
250ml of oil in the electric motor, coming from the oil seal between
the motor and the reduction gearbox. The seal looks ok, but clearly
it's not. Cleaned out the motor and tested it so that's ok, now
it's just what do we do about the seal.
We might try mounting the unit another way so the reduction gearbox
is under the motor, this way we may be able to run the unit with no
leaks - at least until we can get it repaired / replaced - lets see
what they want to do under the warranty.
Looks like we will arrive in on Friday the 16th May. One day behind
the plan. What we now have to think about is the timing to enter the
pass into the Atoll. The Atolls are quite large and usually on the
reef on the southern side the ocean swell dumps a lot of water over
the reef inside the atoll. What this means is that there is quite a
fast
current running out the small pass. Makemo Atoll is approx. 61km
long and 8km wide, it only has two passes where water can leave. So
with the excess water from the ocean swell and the tide coming out
there can be quite a fast current to get through. When this water
meets the water outside the atoll the whole lot looks like a huge
bath tub, it can get very rough and if you don't have a strong
engine you won't make it in. So we need to time our entrance to be
at slack tide or on an incoming tide. Slack tide is at dawn and in
the middle if the day.So depending on when we arrive we may have to
sit outside and wait a little.
Day 17..
Light wind today, Genoa is in and the Kite is back up. Progress is
quite slow though as we only have 9 knots of true wind and about 5
apparent.
Fishing lines out, lets see what the day brings.
Will try and install the watermaker today and see if we have any
success without leaks.
.......
Watermaker re installed and seems to be producing water without any
oil leaks, we will however have to get it fixed at one point.
No fish yet, same old story, but we live in hope.
Wind died right out about mid afternoon, down to about 5 knots
true, that was leaving us with about 2-3 knots. Very calm out, may
even have a BBQ tonight, wahoo for Jo and jamaican jerk chicken for
Jason.
We are down to just over 400 miles to go, lets hope the wind picks
up a little more so we can make some more progress towards Makemo.
Around 5pm, one of the fishing lines went off with a bang, we had a
big Mahi Mahi on the line, unfortunately the hook didn't set and he
was off the line inside of a minute. About one hour later the other
line went off, this time we had a tuna on the line. Hook
managed to set well and he was bought in. It was about 15kg's, which
is a good size fish! After a bit chopping we had him in the fridge.
Looks like the fish drought maybe over, although we need some white
fish meat - Wahoo or Mahi Mahi.
Very flat seas tonight, with a light breeze blowing, we are sailing
at around 6 knots. Just on 353 miles to go!
Cheers
J&J
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