Thursday 29 August 2019

Monday, August 26
26 51.6S
164 39.8W

Another fairly good week, despite a couple of setbacks. During this second week of our passage from Whangarei to Papeete, we sailed 653 miles (563 made good) and passed the half way mark! Only 1,006 miles left on this 2,200 mile passage.

The week wasn't without its 'exciting' moments with both gear and weather. We also had an interesting mystery to keep us occupied.

First, the gear problem. Gjoa has two, hot-switchable, autopilot computers which is a very good thing. One stops working, you just flip a switch to use the other one. The only problem is that they both send steering signals to a single, continuous running hydraulic pump. If this pump stops, so, do both autopilots and we'd have to hand-steer (almost impossible to do for extended periods with a short-handed crew). It's too expensive and complex to have two pumps, so, next best thing is to keep spares in case of breakdown. As I have mentioned previously, we have done a lot of work on the hydraulic system and replaced its pump motor just a few months ago. We rebuilt the old motor to keep as a spare and ordered extra brushes and seals for the new motor. Lucky we did. The pump runs 24/7 and it does create noise. At first, this was a big irritant. Now, the sound of the pump humming along is quite comforting and lets us know all is well with the steering. Until it stops! Just before dark, there was an anguished groan from the bowels of the engine room and then, silence. Some quick troubleshooting led us to believe that it was probably the brushes that needed replacing. Sounds easy, doesn't it? The problem is the motor location which is in the engine room underneath a lot of plumbing and wiring. The motor has to be dismantled from the pump to get access to the brushes. It took G most of the night and a lot of engine room gymnastics to get the old motor out, the new brushes in and the motor reinstalled. By 0230 we were underway again, what a feat. That was a week ago and it's been running fine ever since. The brushes were down to 11mm and shouldn't have needed replacing until they were 8mm. The recommended maintenance is to inspect them every 500 hours. Easier said than done. Actually, with something working 24/7, five hundred hours is only twenty days, so, on a lengthy passage they are likely to need replacing. Now there's a new item on our pre-passage departure checklist. Replace autopilot motor brushes whether they need it or not!

Next in line for a little bit of excitement was the weather. It seems like we can never have a passage without at least one gale, no matter what ocean or where in the world we are. This passage was no exception. The barometer went from 1014 to 1002 in just four hours. We knew we were in for it. The gribs showed two separate fronts would be hitting us quickly over the next thirty-six hours, one after the other, with a brief interlude in-between. And so it was. The first one came on, the waves were huge. It was a shock to the system (ours), so we hove-to for a while. When the interlude between the two fronts arrived, the wind dropped down to almost nothing and we couldn't maintain our hove-to position any longer and had to start sailing again. When the second front arrived we just kept going. It was a crazy night, dark, very fast and a rocky ride, winds 35+ for twenty-four hours. We had another twelve hours of moderating winds to finish off.

The mystery came on the day following the overnight gale. We hadn't seen a single ship on this passage. Then, all of a sudden we had six AIS (automatic identification system) targets pop up on our chartplotter screen and we were right in the middle of them! It looked like a fishing fleet, the target movements were erratic and slow. When we got within two miles of one of them we were unable to see it? Ok, the seas were high after the gale, but, we should be able to see even a small boat two miles off? Hmmm.... The ship names on the AIS info offered a clue. The ships were all named Chun I NO.218-xx (where xx was two digits: 19,20,21 etc.) All we could think of was that there must be a mother ship somewhere that had dropped nets with AIS transponders on them. We did eventually see a real ship: CHUN I NO 218, mmsi 416174900 with a valid call sign. One of the numbered progeny had an mmsi of 81562542 and an invalid call sign of @@@@@@. We'll be looking these up when we get back to shore to see just what it was we landed in the middle of. Can very large (assumed), unmanned nets floating around by themselves be a good thing? Are they motorized somehow to trawl by themselves, or, are they just moving with the waves? How do they keep their shape if they're not being towed? How large and deep are they and what were they catching in them? All interesting questions. Maybe there should be a new category of AIS for non-ship objects like this? I remember the first time we came across a buoy that had an AIS transponder on it we also spent a long time scanning the horizon for a ship only to realize it was a tiny buoy transmitting the signal. Great that they can be identified so easily, but, sometimes confusing.

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Tuesday 27 August 2019

Monday, August 19
31 50.1S
173 48.6W

Violent wind, rain and lightning blew through Marsden Cove Marina the night before we left. We were heeled over while tied to the pontoon. The morning's forecast, however, looked great. One last 'minor trough' was going to pass through in the afternoon and then it was supposed to be five days of SW 15, perfect for our NE course to Tahiti (sounding too good to be true?). The best time to leave port is usually right after a low pressure system passes through, the idea being that it will be at least a few days before the next low pressure arrives. We've chastised ourselves in the past for not leaving quickly enough after a low passes. This time, we weren't going to fall into that trap. So, after a last minute weather check and a meeting with the Customs/Immigration officer, we left around 11 a.m. and made our way out to sea to be ready at the gate when the minor trough passed over. It seemed kind of rough and there was a brisk wind, but, on we went. At 1630, a weather bulletin was announced on the VHF radio for a strong wind advisory. The forecast had been changed from a minor trough followed by SW 10 at midnight, to 25-35 knots this afternoon, increasing to 30-40 knots (gale force) overnight and not abating before tomorrow afternoon! It was too late to turn around, so, we stuck it out. Our hopes were dashed for a gentle start to this passage.

It did eventually pass, but, not without making us cold, wet and miserable first. It got quieter and the sailing much better. As we approached the International Date Line (longitude 180E/180W) we had a full moon to guide us and we often were making a perfect course with good speed mostly under a second-reefed main and full staysail combination. Doesn't get much better. Our new solar panels worked really well and took care of all our electrical needs when the sun was out.

We only had one minor breakage, a batten car above the third reef came apart. Should be able to fix it as soon as we can lower the main. We ended up with a week's run of 738 miles (631 made good), not a bad start. 1569 miles(of 2200 total) to go. The rhumb line from Whangarei to Papeete is approximately 2200 miles direct. The conventional wisdom for this route is to head south from NZ to around 40S latitude where, it is hoped, prevailing westerly winds would speed you along to around 155W longitude (directly below Tahiti) where a sharp left to the north is taken. This route adds a lot of extra miles and time to the passage. We knew of at least four boats this year that had taken the direct route and they all seemed to make a success of it. So, we've decided to follow them and take the direct route, hope we don't regret it!

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Thursday 22 August 2019

Finally, on August 2, after twelve+ weeks of waiting, our last new window was installed on Gjoa. Eleven of the twelve windows we'd ordered had been installed the week before, but, for some reason, we had to wait another week for the very last one. It wasn't too bad living without windows for the last three months. However, in the last couple of weeks the 'winter' weather here in Whangarei, NZ had taken a turn for the worse and any exterior boat work had to be squeezed in between torrential downpours. Anyway, we got there in the end and we're very happy with the final result. They look great, the level of tinting is just fine and we can see out the windows for the first time! What a difference it has made. The windows are 14mm thick, consisting of an 8mm toughened, tinted glass exterior layer laminated with a 1mm laminate to a toughened, clear glass 5mm interior layer. Hopefully, this will stand up to the rigors that boat windows can be put through. If we have the misfortune to drop sideways off a wave and smash one, the theory is that the laminate will hold the shattered, toughened glass together and at least we won't have a giant hole in the boat. This should buy some time, enabling us to effect emergency coverage of the weakened pane. We hope we never have to test the theory. Due to the extended delivery time (it was supposed to be 6-8 weeks) that has delayed our departure, our only disappointment is in not having enough time to trim out the carpentry on the inside of the boat. So, that's another boat job that we'll carry with us for the next go-round of boat work.




On the same day the last window was installed, our solar panels finally showed up. They were also overdue, three weeks, they had to come on a ship from Australia. So, it was a mad scramble to get those installed so we could be on our way. The supports had already been welded on and luckily, everything fit with a few minor adjustments. We installed two, 24V/190W monocrystalline panels and a Victron MPPT controller. Wired in series these will produce up to 86.4 VOC and we expect them to fully carry our electrical load, even the power-hungry hydraulic autopilot pump, while the sun shines. It was very exciting to flick the switch and see those volts start to flow into the batteries. The solar panels that came with the boat had never worked.



As part of the solar install we were doing some electrical measuring and found that the 24V alternator attached to the Yanmar had a significant current leak. Another must-do job was added to the list. A local electrician was able to quickly source a new one that would fit without major adjustment. As a bonus, it was an 80 amp alternator, an upgrade from the 65 amp old one. We'd have liked to consider installing a 100 amp, large-case alternator, but, that would have meant significant rework and we didn't want to delay our departure any longer. The 80 amp version was installed within two days. At the same time, we installed a new leak detector so we can easily and quickly check for any future current leaks. It's a bargraph and will measure anything between 1-50 milliamps. Anything less than 8mA should be ok. Anything above that needs to be found and fixed immediately to avoid any corrosion to the boat.

We changed the colour of our bottom and did new primer and two topcoats.


We added a new anchor, a Spade S160 to replace a stainless CQR.


So, that was it, we'd gotten to the end of our must-do before departure list. On August 9, we left Riverside Drive Marina, our NZ home for the last 4-1/2 months and headed the fourteen miles back down the Hatea River towards the sea and Marsden Cove Marina where we needed to go to refuel and check out of the country. The weather hadn't been good for weeks and actually it wasn't great for the next few days either, but, it looked like it might improve enough in the next week to at least get us started on our way to French Polynesia, our next port of call.

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