Logs from Lille Ø

After a night well slept, we hoisted anchor at sunrise. Always a big effort at these depths! Then we started ghosting along following the steep shoreline. At the lee of Vava’u, the winds were fickle and progress slow. But we were rewarded by two whales surfacing close to the boat. Once we got to the channel leading to the inner archipelago, wind picked up. What followed was a fun brisk upwind sail amid the small islands. This will be a great cruising ground once we’re cleared in! The Outremer…

In the darkness we crossed over the Tonga Trench, the second deepest trench in the world! Few hours later, at midnight, it was time to change the ship’s clock. From Saturday 12th of September straight to Monday 14th of September. From UTC -11 to UTC +13. A day lost to the abyss. Yet another milestone on this trip! At dawn Swiss catamaran Raija flew past us. Around midday the wind picked up enough to require 1st reef on the main and genoa rolled in about 30%. That also meant that finally we had…

Overnight the wave train settled to the new wind direction, and the cloudy conditions dissipated. As result, we enjoyed quite a smooth ride under a starlit sky. Winds are light making for slow going. But if conditions stay this smooth, what’s an extra day at sea? In the morning hours we were passed by catamaran O2, and the whole day the Polish vessel Matilda has been creeping closer. Distance today: 100NM Lunch: quinoa salad Engine hours: 0

As expected, in the night the wind had veered to NW and was supposed to turn to southerly winds through west over the day. That meant that it was time to go. With any westerly components in the wind Niue mooring field is completely unprotected and the waves will become dangerously big quite quickly. So at first light we dropped the mooring lines and motored past the other boats to set sails and head out. With staysail and first reef we ventured out. The expected wind turn was supposed to come…

Good sailing conditions prevailed until the morning, but then we were back to low winds and slatting sails. Instead of motoring the rest of the way, we chose to gybe our way towards Niue, trying to play with the currents in order to find the more favorable tack. In the afternoon the wind picked up again and we were able to point more or less to our destination. But the time lost in light winds meant arrival after sunset. Luckily the mooring balls at Niue are well marked and easy to find. Now we…

The night started quite rough, with a series of 32kn gusts rolling over the boat. As we had reefed down early, dealing with them meant just doing a slight weather helm correction on the windvane, and then zipping down the dodger backdrop. Such luxury to stay dry in conditions like this! By midnight the worst was over. Around 3am the off-watch was roused for a happier occasion: we had just crossed W166°48’24” of longitude, which happens to be the antimeridian of our home port in Berlin. Now all…

Having gotten through the calms, we were rewarded with almost 24h of the best kind of ocean sailing: wind 13-15kn on the stern quarter, nice waves, and a beautiful sunny blue sea. Around noon watch change the wind started picking up, and we switched directly to staysail and main in the 2nd reef. The forecast has blustery conditions for the night and so it is better to be prepared. Today’s meal was chanterelle risotto, made from what I believe are the last batch of what we picked in Finland in…

In the darkening evening Suski took a look at the bilge. Under the engine in the oil pan a unwanted sight when the motor is running. Oil. Not much, maybe few tablespoons but nevertheless alarming as our engine has never before had any under it. So we stopped the engine and did initial observations and let the engine cool before trying more properly to figure out the source. So over the night we sailed with next to no wind. The electronic autopilot kept us on track, though going dirrctly…

Wind started reducing over night, making for a bit of struggle with slatting sails and windvane that didn’t quite get enough input from the apparent wind. But as our electric autopilot has been out of order, we kept correcting the windvane whenever it drifted off course. Sometimes every few minutes, and sometimes hours would pass without intervention. In the morning we decided to try fixing the autopilot, and were able to do so. The deck plug is still a bit fiddly and will need replacement. But…

In the morning it was time to undo the spiderweb of anchors, land lines and springs between the boats. In about an hour, we were ready to go. We got the privilige of going first, followed by Sea Ya, Tirohanga and 2Easy.In about half an hour, we had all taken our slightly different courses and all the other sails disappeared between the waves. The sea state is still quite big after the storm, currently around 3 meters, but it should ease quickly now. We are sailing into weakening wind expecting…

Before the sun set, we changed to starboard tack. At first it meant that we were going slightly too much north, but as per the forecast, the wind slowly backed towards north and we could point straight towards Aitutaki. The Arutanga harbour is tiny and under construction, the comings and goings are organized through the Aitutaki Welcome Commitee WhatsApp group. As we were coming in, we checked the group and we were instructed to go and side tie to a catamaran. The pass to the harbour is an…

The wind has eased throughout the day and we have been giving us more sail area bit by bit. We are still making excellent progress towards our destination. Watermaker ran the whole day in preparation for Aitutaki harbour as it is not advisable to run the watermaker there. Distance today: 130NM Lunch: Navy bean soup Engine hours: 0

Wind did indeed come back. We entered the night with the main in the first reef, and by morning had switched to 2nd reef and staysail. Seas have been somewhat lumpy and weather squally. But despite that we finished today with higher battery level than yesterday, thanks to the hydrogenerator. Today has also seen a very slow motion chase scene, as a 14m sailboat has spent the last 20 hours slowly passing us and pulling ahead. Apart from that and a tanker going the other way there hasn’t been any…

The wind quieted down for the night, meaning that we had to spend the dark hours with occasionally slatting sails and struggling windvane. But at least we had a good showing of shooting stars to accompany us. It seems we truly left our sea legs into the smooth waters of the atolls. Suski is still working to adjust, and feeling the effects of the motion in the seastate. By afternoon the wind was back, and we’re making good progress westward. Distance today: 110NM Lunch: spaghetti aglio e olio…

We hoisted anchor just before sunrise. Swell outside had settled a bit, and so it was finally time to leave French Polynesia behind. As soon as we rigged up the spinnaker pole, we realized this is the first downwind leg since probably the trip to Nuku Hiva! Passing Ra’iātea, we were hailed by Tahiti JRCC. They were having trouble contacting a vessel, and wanted to do a radio check. We had a brief conversation and exchanged DSC messages successfully both ways. First DSC since radio exam back in…

While we have been waiting for weather for the passage to Cook Islands, we’ve utilized the time building backup communication systems. Starlink changes their policies on August 17th, and it is possible it becomes prohibitively expensive for us. And so now we have tools to publish blog posts and request GRIB weather data over both InReach satellite connection and amateur HF radio. This post is our first test using them. While at sea, photos will be of lower quality, and replaced with high res…

It was quite the workout to raise the anchor from 20 meters deep. But with both of us pulling we managed without our rope to the winch backup plan. Inside the bay we hoisted the mainsail and motored out. Just as we were in deeper water, a pod of humpback whales greeted us. What a majestic sight! As the darkness fell, we changed to staysail and few hours later put in a reef to the main. The night was rainy and fast. The waves were tossing us around and neither of us got much sleep. In the dawn…

Having done a ton of grocery shopping, it was time to leave industrial Tahiti behind. We knew our anchor was stuck on an old mooring, and so we chose a calm morning to detach. Luckily the mooring rope was long enough to reach the surface. We had friends ready to dive for us, but that wasn’t necessary. After the anchor had been cleared, we radioed Papeete Port Control, and were told to again proceed to near the runway and hold position. A moment later an airplane took off and we were given…

After dinner we could slightly ease our course, trading some of our gained height for comfort. The night skies also cleared, and there was a huge shooting star streaming across the skies in the early hours. Pretty soon afterwards we started getting some shelter from the island of Tahiti, making for a more comfortable going. Eventually wind also died, and in the morning we had to motor the remaining miles. We hailed Papeete Port Control on VHF and were given permission to enter ahead of a fast…

Instead of the forecasted 20kn of wind, much of the night was hovering around 10kn. While this did hurt our day distance, it did make for smoother motion. As consequence, we both got pretty good sleep. In the morning the wind picked up again, and we’ve been barreling through the big and now a bit splashy waves towards Tahiti. Skies have remained leaden, giving little solar output. At least the hydrogenerator helps some. Point Venus 73NM, 253°. Distance today: 100NM Lunch: pea soup Engine hours:…

After a couple of days waiting, the wind finally backed to southeast. Not quite as far as we’d like, but as there was nothing better in the horizon, we decided to take this window to get to the Society Islands. Departure from a mooring ball is always easy. Anchor was already packed away, and we could prepare the staysail before letting go of the mooring pendant. Departure from this little blind pass was also easy, with no slack timing to observe. We were greeted with quite big and bouncy seas…

At sunrise we were already outside in the 1kn wind getting the anchor up. After the 360° change in wind, we had a bit of the chain under a rock but we managed to wrangle it out without getting wet. As we were motoring out, the wind picked up a bit and turned southerly, several hours earlier than in the forecast. So we changed our plan. Instead of heading back to the Fakarava south pass, we headed out towards Toau. At least in that direction we had a small chance of sailing. We hit the pass 45…

The winds keep rotating, and so one needs to migrate to the right end of the atoll. Especially here. Fakarava has over 30NM of fetch in the wrong conditions. But we had a chance to snorkel the Unesco Nature site Wall of Sharks, and enjoyed a lovely dinner ashore. And so at sunrise we were again hoisting anchor. What followed was another glorious daysail on a fast beam reach. Unlike most atolls, Fakarava is actually charted and hence one can sail here. In the end we even tacked a bit to get…

After a rough night, at sunrise we hoisted the anchor. Overnight the wind did a 200 degree shift that turned our of anchorage to a shitty one with a lee shore uncomfortably close. But that is life on the atolls. You have never good coverage for big windshifts. After anchor was up, we headed to the pass and went from the tumoltuos sea inside the atoll to the smooth seas of the open ocean. We rolled out the full genoa accompanied by the mainsail and were on our merry way towards Fakarava. In the…

The wind continues to back, so it was again time to move. We spent the morning on boat projects, and then hoisted anchor for a short jump closer to the three atoll passes. Easy trip in light winds, with barely a bommie in sight. We were able to tuck the boat snugly behind the stream of the tiny Passe Otao. As there are no actually good spots for a 270° wind shift, we hope the tidal stream will smoothen the waves a bit. After dropping the hook we ensured none of the nearby coral heads come too…

In expectation of a 360° wind shift, we moved to the NE corner of the atoll. We motored the 5NM towards north and found a bommie-free spot in 6 meters deep after a bit of searching. Now we can explore the close by motus and enjoy a new scenery. Distance today: 5.3NM Breakfast: rye bread with cheese Engine hours: 1.7

After a nap and coffee the sun was high enough, and we hoisted the anchor. Wind was slightly down from sunrise, but still in the 20kn range, driving big rolling waves through the 8NM fetch on the atoll. We decided to motorsail to keep the boat moving despite the excessive hobby horsing. As always, bommie dodging in these uncharted waters was quite challenging, with waves occasionally splashing the lookout standing in the rear of the boat. But it was all worth it, we’re again anchored in a…