Category Archives: Real-Time

Passage Crew.

Looks like we picked up crew for this passage.

This crew member came from reputable sources that touted his seamanship and excellent fishing abilities. I resisted letting him aboard and even tried to scare him away with wild crazy captain like antics. But alas, I turned my back and again he was begging for a a ride.

I was shouting and running about and carrying on, he stood strong, as only a seasoned sailor would. Only occasionally getting up from his onboard barstool when I got within fighting distance. However, every time I turned to walk away and looked back, damn if the old salt didn’t sit right back down

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Unplanned crew holding his own

Thwarted, I resigned to giving him a chance. Called customs and immigration and had the fowl crew added to the crew list in hopes he would be helpful and contribute on those long shifts and help the peace onboard.

But alas, all this guy would do is stand around and make a mess of the place. I even tried conversations and asked for some fishing tips and locations. However, like any good fisherman his beak was sealed, not even a peep of a tip on how to become a better fisherman. Nary even a fish tale about the one that got away.

He was such a loner. He would not even clean up after himself. By morning all that was left was his mess.. Its like he has never heard of a ‘head’ or ‘poop deck’ before.. Definitely went about created his own instead of asking where ours was!

All I can hope is that he left well rested and (or fell overboard). All that is left this morning is calling customs and immigration and trying to explain what happened and why we didn’t arrive with our crew member in our next port.

Now if you see a sailor wearing Red Booties, just be warned he is not to be trusted. Really more of a boob than a crew.

Too long at the bar, Now just holding on with every wave we take over the bows, thus cleaning the poop deck

All well onboard (minus one crew member)
Ticking off the miles, and sanity.
660 miles left, only a smidgen of sanity.
Sails are up, but motor sailing to aid in keeping them full .

Still out here

Along with some of our closest friends we have an ever met and are really not that physically close.

New Zealand bound boats

You can see the gaggle of boats that left Tonga on the right and boats that left Fiji at the top and outer proposed tracks directly into the wind. 😉

I think it might actually called a fleet of boats? if they are only bound by their destination are they actually related? Might just be a group..

The boats look close together, but there is only one boat within 10 miles of us at this point.

All good out here, 750 miles to go. Engines running making progress toward destination. Making water and batteries are full from the motoring. Looking for positives for listening to the engine noise instead of the wind noise. It is getting cooler but still shorts weather. At least 5 more days to go, especially if we don’t get some favorable winds soon, and it looks like it might be another day or so. For now the waves are way down and only 5 knots of wind on the nose so it’s time to catch up on sleep and just relax.

Cheers

Back to the future again

Just like that, we are in the future again. The dateline is all that separates the past from the future, all this time I thought we needed the Delorean time machine to get to the future. Or just wait around till the future came along.

A good day, lots of wind, a front line, some big waves, couple of sail changes and some napping.

All the boats that are out here going the same direction are all so far away we can’t visually see them, or even on the AIS screen. As soon as they are about 15 miles away they might as well be 100.

Now it’s pitch black, the moon doesn’t rise till almost day break and its 100% cloud cover so nothing to see as we arrive the Eastern Lau group of Fiji. Dodging the small islands and reefs will be the video game of the night watch. Staying 2 Nm offshore of any of these hard things just in case the charts are off is plan. Luckily we have been in these parts before and have some tracks and remember that the charts we have and satellite images are pretty close. .. adding the 2 mile buffer adds to the chances of missing these if something was to go wrong.

Lots of reefs line the path this eve

About 120 Nm left to go, if the winds stay up and the forecast is they should, we can hopefully arrive in daylight. If not, our backup plan is to anchor nearby and clear-in in the morning. of course we have to finish any fresh produce and bacon before arrival. Can’t let bacon go to waste.