Here we go again. Day 2

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Somewhere in the dark hours the perfect winds changed their tunes and shifted into the direction we wanted to go. Not terribly strong but enough to make us head due south when we need to go east too. Gave up when we started getting blown Southwest and decided to put the sails away and turn on the motors and went back to study the forecast. No where was this what was supposed to be. We ended up 20+ miles off course, so burn some diesel till the weather reads its forecasted playbook.

At the same frustrating point, the auto pilot started being finicky and decided he did want to drive for longer than a few minutes at time. He would start his shift and then poof, take his hand off the wheel and yell, I can’t take this any more.. His yelling sounds vaguely like a truck backup alarm. That made it kind of hard to sleep.
Little bit of investigational therapy, nothing seemed to calm his anxieties. And one last chance, but that didn’t work, so he got benched and the backup quarterback was brought on into service. I had signed the backup in NZ, but never finished. Luck would be on our side, I had finished the wiring and commissioning in New Caledonia, signed the contract and dotted the I’s. So with a flick of a switch, Mr Finicky can pout all he wants while sitting on the bench, so long as the backup QB is ready for the long game of 700 nautical miles.

Morning brought the elusive wind shift, and we hoisted sails and were back in a groove again. The backup QB keeping the team together and reeling in the miles. The forecast again said 4-5kts, we had 14-15 and clear blue skies, a perfect sailing day with reasonable calm seas for ocean sailing. Maxed out at 10.7knts of boat speed according to the GPS log.

Upwind sailing at sunset

All well on board,
About 650 miles left till New Zealand 🇳🇿
Big breakfast of bacon and sausages, gotta eat it or customs gets it. Lots of naps during the day, and some good old Cajun Gumbo for dinner.

Here we go again. Day 1

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Another cyclone season is upon us and it’s time to get out of their playground. Those bullies just toss everything around if it’s in what they call their personal sand box. The Atlantic has their own gang too, called the hurricanes. Hells Angles can only aspire to the mayhem the ocean gangs have achieved.

We are bound for our second home again, New Zealand 🇳🇿. The plan was Australia but they decided they had too many tourists. We did get “long stay visas” but they came with restrictions. We could come and go as many times as we liked during our long stay, but we had to leave every 90 days. So for sailors that means finding a spot for the boat in a town with an airport every 90 days and flying out to get passports stamped and fly back. $$$$$ and it’s such a big country it just seemed like a painful way to avoid cyclones. So back to friendly New Zealand where we can happily bring $$$$ in for vessel upgrades and repairs.

We left Noumea after fueling up at 7:30am, the weather window has lots of light winds so the fuel might just come in handy. That and fuel wasn’t terribly expensive with the duty free certificate after you have cleared out of the country.

Fueled up and on our way.

The last baguettes and almond croissant 🥐 were purchased, but the croissant didn’t make it till sails were hoisted.

First 12 hrs down, 800 miles to go. We won’t set any speed or distance records this trip. So hopefully that means it’ll be an uneventful trip back to the land of the long white cloud. And of course the crazy weather systems that roll by with names like former cyclone Gabriel and their gang members.

Bright side, plenty of craft brews to choose from

Cheers

Crossing the Pacific Ocean….Again

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Matt and I are taking the big blue watery road across the Pacific Ocean again.  This time we are departing from the amazingly beautiful country New Caledonia and heading for our beloved New Zealand. Our trip should take between 6 to 6.5 days to cover the roughly 900 nautical miles. Please follow us Crossing the Pacific as Matt blogs “live from the sea” and you can track our progress.

Predict Wind Tracker:

https://www.predictwind.com/tracking/SugarShack?mapMode=useAtlas&windSymbol=WindStreamlines&weatherSource=ECMWF&trackDuration=0 Crossing the Pacific is never easy, but we are hoping for fair winds, calm seas, and no storms. As always, we appreciate your well wishes, prayers, and hopes for a safe and uneventful passage.