Author Archives: Andrew

Auto pilot died and Fire Extinguisher attacks Sue

GPS: 26 56.197S 178 41.774W

Run: 84.7nm (153.3km)
Avg: 3.5knts
24hr: 84.2nm

Made a detour in the middle of the night around a large bommie. A bommie is a tower of coral. Some of these in this area are created by volcanic vents.It went from 3000 meters deep up to only 18 meters. This was a rather annoying and long detour but we still managed to make 90 nm in the right direction. Shortly after navigating our way around this obstacle the autopilot cut out… so a night of hand steering with no moon and many clouds, not an easy task. The sea finally subsided slightly just an hour or so ago to allow us to fix the problem. Good steering practice for us all though.

Sue ran into a bit of trouble first thing in the morning, getting entangled in the fire extinguisher and in fear of moving in case she filled the boat with dry powder. Luckily the captain was handy to free her from the evil clutches of the extinguisher. Tony entertained the crew with a unique performance titled “Doing the laundry”. This satire was preformed with a straight face, a plunger and even an agitation mode. It did however lead to questions when he started stuffing his many pockets on his freshly washed cargo shorts with socks… foiled by high winds he was forced to display everything in the windows of the cockpit in hopes the sun would dry it.

A slither of the moon has appeared to shed a bit of light through our night.

Good night all

Happy birthday Mauna – from Stella

From East to West longitude

GPS: 27 50.269S 179 37.875W

Run: 129.9nm (235.1km)
Avg: 5.2knts
24hr: 125.7nm

Winds overnight where extremely changeable, ranging from 9knots to 30. Not allowing much sleep for the crew. Nothing too stressful just got a bit thrown around. Today was a quiet day with steady winds and many naps. We have passed from the Eastern longitude to the Western. Not much more to report today. Hoping for a calmer night and a good sleep.

Stella says hello to her friends and family and looks forward to talking to them soon, as do the rest of us. Now about to eat steak! 

High wind & water invasion

GPS: 30 56.191S 178 13.145E

Run: 120.8nm (218.6km)
Avg: 5knts
24hr: 120.3nm

Once again at 8pm the winds got up and we had 3 squalls come through. Wind varied up to 35knots, leaving us in early hours of the morning with no wind. This left us about 20 nautical miles west of our course.

Slight sea invasion in the front quarters quickly fixed with a tub of Vaseline. The remainder of the day was spent getting back on course, otherwise uneventful. Crew mainly slept today, shifts shared by everyone. Stella is in the galley cooking up something Mexican/Italian.

We’ve put an extra reef in the mainsail in the hopes of a better night’s sleep tonight. Will let you know the results tomorrow.

Amore, el cinco amigos