S/V Gudrun V

Monday, 2012-10-01, 11:40 UTC+13, 18:28.955S 178:31.896E , COG 255, SOG
6.5kn, Wind 15kn SE, sunny

Great sailing today! All sails up, and Gudrun is zooming along just nicely
now, fast and steady at 120degrees apparent wind. Suva is just up north, and
there should be no problem with being at the Navula passage on the
south-eastern corner of Viti Levu tomorrow early morning. From there I have
to go 22nm north-east to Lautoka to clear in before going back south a 6nm
to Vuda Point, where the marina is. Hope clearing in doesn't take too long
and I can get there before evening.

Plan for the rest of the day is mostly just sailing and a little cleaning,
getting ready for the inspection by the authorities. And cooking, hmm, I
wonder what to have for lunch today. Yesterday I made Burritos, very tasty.
Now I have one onion, one carrot, a little bit of cabbage, some potatoes and
some apples left. Sounds like stew, but I don't feel like it. What I would
really like right now is a plate of kebab with rice, salad, and sauce!

125nm to go

Monday, 2012-10-01, 18:27.182S 179:39.601E, COG 280, SOG 5.5kn, Wind 20kn SE

hey - did you notice? The longitude is E now, not W anymore. I passed the
date line today (180 longitude)! So, after passing the greenwich Meridian (0
longitude) in February 2010 on the way from Ibiza to Almeria, I've sailed
now officially more than half around the world. Almost exactly half of that
distance (89 degrees, from St Martin to Tahiti) together with Liz. Sweet!

But that is actually not the most exciting thing that happened today. That
was when at 7pm after another no-wind day suddenly a heavy rain-front passed
with 25kn and at the same time the radar detector and AIS alarm went off.
Another boat! And I can't see it for all the rain . So no photo. But
thanks to the AIS I know it was the 42m Motoryacht Calliope, doing 12.7kn on
the way to Denarau, Fiji. I verified it's position by Radar, and seeing that
we'll pass each other with a mile to spare I went back to playing a
roleplaying game on the iPad ("Aralon" - Nothing special, but you've got to
do something when there's nothing to do all day because of no wind).

Now the rain's gone, but the wind is still 20kn. The sea is also pretty
agitated at the moment, and the boat's rolling again. Ah, maybe going super
slowly wasn't so bad after all

183nm to go

Sunday, 2012-09-30, 12:00 UTC+13, 18:33.284S 179:30.833W, COG 245, SOG
2.1kn, Wind 4kn E, overcast + rainy

Zzzzzzzzzz ... so glad I have my little electronic distraction devices,
otherwise I couldn't help but sleep all day on a day like this - overcast,
rainy, 2-3kn of speed.

The investment into eBook reader and tablet are so worth it when you go
cruising. I've read hundreds of books in the last three years on the boat. A
lot of them reference books which I keep turning back to. No way I could
carry them all in paper. Nowadays I only buy paper books if I can't get them
as ebooks. And even then I photograph the important pages (of reference
books) and convert them into text-ebooks with Adobe Acrobat and Calibre. Not
that I could get the book I wanted on the route - download is the only way.
And the tablet (Android or iPad, doesn't matter) are not only great for
watching movies, playing games, or reading color ebooks (e.g. about
photography, video), but also for navigation. They all have GPS, and some
even GPS + GLONAS. And charts are cheap.

On this trip I've tested "SEAiq Open" for the iPad, which takes the standard
CM93 charts that "everybody has", and it works great. Much more features
then the Navionics software, and a lot cheaper too (only $15). I'm only
wondering why they didn't include a feature to measure distance between two
points. Kind of essential.

My brother Ralf, the ingenious engineer, send me an email saying it can't be
Diesel in my oil, otherwise I would definitely smell it. I ran the engine
for anouther 1.5h yesterday, and the oil level didn't change. I also checked
the transmission oil and it's at max, so didn't loose any of that either.
Looks like I just did have too much oil in there to start with. Hmmmmm

235nm to go.

Sunday, 2012-09-30, 0:00 UTC+13, 18:21.694S 178:49.078W, COG 270, SOG 1.5kn,
Wind 5kn SE, raining

So glad the wind has finally established itself back South-east. Now there's
a chance of getting some decent, steady wind soon. But it might take another
day. Doesn't matter. Infinite patience here on the boat. If maybe the rain
could stop.

Only the supplies are running out. No more Nutella! Absolute disaster. Gummi
bears also strictly rationed, only 8 left. Lots of gelatine, sugar, juice,
and jam though ... maybe I can make my own?

Still very excited about the whales. Totally made my day

270nm to go

Saturday, 2012-09-29, 17:38, 18:29.560S 178:29.780W, COG 270, SOG 4kn
(motor), Wind 4kn S

What a stressfull sailing day. All the time sails up, sails down, engine on,
engine off, tack, reef in, reef out, tack, then all that rain and then on
top of it engine trouble ... . Btw, I had a look at that in between sailing
stuff, and it actually seems I had too much oil. I removed 3/4 liter, and
that solved the problem. Question is: how come? It's not water. So either I
put too much oil in last time (but why didn't the alarm go of earlier?) or
diesel got into the oil. Or oil from the transmission. Or am I missing
something? Have to look some more.

But first there's reason to celebrate: I saw humpback whales! From my boat!
While sailing! Isn't that awesome? Almost three years I've been waiting for
that . I had just tacked, and looked toward Oneata Island to see if I
could see the reef in front of it. And instead I saw a plume of water!
Fortunately - tataa! - the camera is always ready in the cockpit in a PELI
case, and I just managed to get some shots of a "hump" and a fluke before
the whales went out of sight. Then I sat there for one hour with the camera
in hand, waiting for the two whales to come up again. But no luck. Anyway,
still very happy. But wow, that went so fast, I can see how you have to do a
lot of watching to have a chance to see a whale out in the Ocean. And to be
honest, I'm not doing that much watching *blush*.

But what I saw instead was: S/V Promise, a little catamaran. So funny.
Promise left Niue with me, and five days later (is it only 5 days?) we get
to this passage at the same time. I took some shots of them, maybe I'm lucky
and they took some of Gudrun too. Although I doubt it, it's a boat delivery,
and they didn't look like photography was a priority.

Have to complain a little here: This is propably the least miles for effort
I've managed on any sailing day ever - 35nm in 17 hours! And just in the
time it took me to write that email I had to work in the cockpit 6 times: 3x
adjust sails, 1x reefing, 1x unreefing, and finally to take the sails down
and start the engine.

Anyway, I'm pretty much through the passage now, after that I'm happy to
drift again or whatever. And I saw whales today! Isn't that absolutely
amazing? Whaaaales

295nm to go

Saturday, 2012-09-29, 12:11 UTC+13, 18:28.883S 178:15.409W, COG 240, SOG
4.1kn, Wind 6kn NW, overcast

So far the day was pretty crappy, lots of rain and little to no wind. The
little wind that is keeps shifting from NW to NE and back, and because I
have to go straight W it's a little bit of a pain. I didn't feel like
playing catch-the-wind games and turned on the engine while I made pancakes,
eggs, and coffee for breakfast. Then the wind felt slighted and went away
completely, so I kept on motoring. I want to pass those first islands during
daylight.

Ten minutes to twelve the oil alarm went off - beeeeeeeep! I turned off the
engine in a hurry and looked over the engine - oil looks good, temperature
looks good, no idea. I've only changed the oil and filters in Tahiti, that's
like 19 engine hours ago. So I'm surprised there is a problem. Well, that
takes care of my afternoon activities

But first I have to get through that oneata passage. Not that I expect any
problems, it's 4nm wide, more than enough space to tack if necessary.
Fortunately the wind just went up to 7kn, which allows for decent sailing.
heyyyyyy!

sh....

So, wind just turned to W and because I was down here writing the boat
tacked by itself and I had to clear the sails. Yep, busy. So, wind form west
is really not very nice now, hopefully it keeps on turning S! Be a little
more cooperative, come on.

Anyway, all clear, just a little busy. But that's sailing ... nothing to do
for days and then everything is happening at the same time.

307nm to go

Saturday, 2012-09-29, 00:00 UTC+13, 18:28.381S 177:51.528W, COG 240, SOG
1kn, Wind nada

Friday afternoon continued to be very nice, slow sailing. 8kn of Wind, main
+ gennaker. Then three hours ago little fronts started passing through. Rain
and wind for 10 minutes, then no wind for half an hour. Then again some
rain, followed by wind. Then nothing. Hope that doesn't go on all day today,
it's a little annyoing.

Sometime today I should reach the first Fiji islands - Oneata, Karoni,
Thakau. Not islands really, more just reefs. Lots of reefs around here. But
there's the "Oneata Passage" marked in the charts, so that part can't be too
bad. After that pretty much nothing for 100nm until Moala, then nothing for
another 80nm, and then 100nm more of going around Viti Levu to my
destination Lautoka. That last leg is where it's going to be really busy,
but that's at least two days away.

330nm to go.

Friday, 2012-09-28, 11:50 UTC+13, 18:25.530S 177:07.432W, COG 265, SOG
2.5kn, Wind 5kn NE

The wind was pretty good the rest of the night, sometimes up to 12kn. Calm
sea, no rolling, perfect for sleeping. Except for the GPS alarm which went
off every few minutes after 2am. "GPS Fix lost". Then it ackquired it again,
then another alarm - "GPS Fix lost". Rebooted the whole navionics stuff but
the error persistet. After five minutes I shut the GPS alarm off. No
worries, GPS isn't that important out here anyway. I'm sure it wasn't my
devices, probably a temporary bad coverage. South pacific isn't a priority I
guess. Anyway, after an hour I didn't see the GPS signal get lost anymore.

This morning the wind dropped to 5kn, and that's where it still is. Very
slow goig with 2-3kn. Nothing I can do about it, patience is the key. Maybe
I get lucky again and it picks up 1h after this blog entry?

Lunch today is a very simple stew: potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic,
cabbage, chicken-stock and spices. Classic boat food

370nm to go

Friday, 2012-09-28, 0:00 UTC+13, 18:24.898S 167:13.335W, COG 280, SO 5.5kn,
Wind 12kn NE

Wonderful sailing all afternoon and night so far. Steady wind, calm sea. At
first main + gennaker up, come night main + genoa.

Problem with making Pizza on the boat is that there's nobody to share them
with. Made dough for five, and, well, eat for of them so far. Sweet sin.

423nm to go

Unbelievable. 1:00pm on the spot wind came up. 8kn from North-East. Since
then mai-sail and gennaker up and sailing along in clear sky and calm sea
with 5kn.

Thursday, 2012-09-27, 12:00 UTC+13, 18:23.275S 175:21.030W, COG 270, SOG 1.0
kn, Wind: nada!.

One of the mysteries of this voyage is that about one hour after every new
blog entry the wind changes. Honestly. Like last night: At 1am it changed
from NE to NW. I pulled the main-sail up, and sailed quite nicely for a few
hours with full genoa, full main, and almost full moon. A few miles SE of me
was a big cloud with continuos vicious lightning inside, and true to form it
moved perpendicular to the wind so no danger for me. Then I saw the lights
of two cargo vessels - the first cargo vessels I saw out on the ocean since
Panama (Not counting Inter-island traffic in French Polynesia)!

So I'm definitely getting closer to civilization again. Makes me all
motivated to cook some real civilization food today: Pizza! Prepared the
dough earlier, fortunately the yeast was still alive. Once the dough's done
rising I'm going to heat this little boat of for real with the oven. Not
that it isn't hot already, especially with no clouds and absolutely no wind
out there. I'm just drifting with the current, again, fortunately pretty
much in the right direction. Unfortunately there's still some swell coming
in, from the side, so the boat's rolling a lot again. Nothing new there.

But according to the correlction of blog entry and wind changes, there
should be some wind in about an hour .

470nm to go.

Thursday, 2012-09-27, 00:00 UTC+13, 18:28.887S 174:51.509W, COG 270, SOG
6kn, Wind 18kn NE,

The rest oft the day was rather nice. The sea calmed down and it rolled
less. For about an hour in the afternoon there was a flock of birds always
just in front of the boat, diving in the water and fishing. But I never saw
them with a fish in their beaks. Then a spectacular sunset - orange, red,
and pink fluffy clouds. An hour ago the wind picked up some.

500nm to go.

Wednesday, 2012-09-26, 11:40 UTC+13, 18:26.019S, 173:49.519W, COG 270, SOG
5.0kn, Wind 15kn NE, sunny

Whoaaaa - Wednesday already! Where did Tuesday go? Tuesday was a victim of
the international date line. Well, almost. The actual, geographical, date
line is 180W, and I'm not quite there. But Tonga and Fiji (and other
islands) have decided to ignore that little detail for political and
economical reasons (Asia, Australia and NZ being closer then the US) and put
themselves on the other side.

And because I'm now just north of Tonga, which has the same time then Niue
but a different date, Tuesday got overtaken by Wednesday in no time at all.
Normally I don't change ship's time until arrival, beacuse it makes keeping
a log so complicated. But I figure a whole day is worth the effort. And
since I have to start communicating with Fiji soon (advance arrival notice)
anyway, it's better to be on the same date.

Another thing that has changed is the wind - to North East. Now that is not
such a great thing, because it means there's a little trough or depression
in the south (again), which means the wind will turn further North then West
as that thingy moves east and I'll be left with pretty much no wind (and
rain) for a day or more, depending on the speed of that thingybob in the
south. Can't be helped. It's all part of that south pacific sailing
experience, right. I signed up for it, now I got it. No complains

But that's a day away. Today the weather is very nice and sunny, and that's
something to be very happy about.

560nm to go.

Tuesday, 2012-09-25, 0:00 UTC-11, 18:46.340S 172.59.100W, COG 320, SOG 4.5,
Wind 15kn ESE

60nm south-east of the Vava'u group which belongs to Tonga. Apparently lots
of yachties there, watching whales and getting ready for a fun regatta this
friday and a full-moon party on the beach. Sounds like good fun, but I have
to pass this time.

Everything ok on the boat. I'm pretty bored though. The boat's rolling too
much to do any concentrated work like editing photos or movies or writing
without getting quesay. Have a few interesting books left to read. But I've
read so much over the last three years ...
Tried listening to an audio book instead but fell asleep after a few
minutes, hehe.

Monday, 2012-09-24, 11:44 UTC-11, 19:02.742S 172:06.745W, COG 280, SOG 5kn,
Wind 15kn ESE

Not much happening here. Lots of clouds and rain during the night. Now less
clouds and nice sun. Not quite sure what to do with the sails. I can't make
it until Friday to Fiji, especially because Fiji is across the international
date line and therefor a whole day ahead of me. If I pull the main half-way
up I'll get there Saturday night or Sunday, and if I just go with the Genoa
I'll arrive Monday. Arriving Monday seems a little smarter then to arrive
Sunday and pay fines. On the other hand the boat rolls significantly less
with the main up - but then I have to be more concerned about reefing and
accidental gybes and all. Always those compromises

Even more important than the question of what sails to fly, is the question
what to cook for lunch today. And more urgend, because I'm pretty hungry! I
gave most of my supplies to other cruisers on Bora Bora and Niue, because
I'll leave the boat in Fiji for a while and they'll just go off. I've still
got more than enough for this week, but the choices are now a little more
limited then before. Hmm, Wraps? Dal? Pasta? Had Dal and Wraps last week,
but didn't have pasta in two weeks, maybe I'll make that. Yep, good idea.
Now let's chop up some veges while they're still fresh.

663nm to go