Tag Archives: passage

Passage day, Sunday day of rest?

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Starts out beautiful, tho not quite heading on course to New Zealand. On the horizon is a nice wall of clouds that further changes the cours.. Shorten sail, you never know what you are going to get. As momma used to say about a box of chocolates. And nothing really but a wind shift and now cloudy day.

New Zealand says, “Not today!”. We are home of Team Emirates, you must “want” to sail to come here!

At least the ‘Noser-lys’ were in the forecast where the wind was predicted to come straight at you for day or so. Our little pointy thing at the top of the mast is pointing to New Zealand as that is exactly where the wind is coming from. This is definitely NOT champagne sailing more of Jagger-Bomb sailing.

With Jagger-Bombs you never do them by yourself, same with this passage we are all swilling the Jagger today The top circles are the boats that left Fiji, and the others from Vanuatu and Tonga. Vanuatu boats were waiting for a bit, but they the cyclone activity pressed them into action. As the boats from Tonga had already made minerva reef when the activity picked up and initially forecast to head that direction too. Makes for a busy ocean out here.

Can’t go directly into the wind, unless you are in an airplane, or car, or well anything but a cruising sailboat

Morning can’t come soon enough for the Advil in the form of another wind shift(high pressure), this time favorable, that lets everyone recover from the Jagger-Bombs and remember that champagne sailing is why we do it..

Just short of being half way: 590 miles to go, all well shaken up on board. James bond would be proud.

Passage Crew.

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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

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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