Tag Archives: parasail

6 Days at Sea

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Matt and I left Marsden Cove Marina on a beautiful day.  We cleared out with Customs and had to leave immediately after fueling.  No time to dilly dally.  The passage from NZ to Vanuatu was scheduled to 8 days according to Predict Wind (using our customized boat polars).  Ugh…being at sea is my least favorite part of being a cruiser/sailor.  Sounds ridiculous right? But we are only at sea about 20% of the year and the other 80% is truly enjoyable.

Our first day started out rather nice. We had consistent, medium strong winds (18-20kts) on the beam with a 1m swell both coming from the SW.  Pushing us along really nicely.  In fact on the first 24 hours we averaged 8kts and we made the elusive 200nm day.

Alas, it is still super cold so I find myself bundled up and hiding from the wind.  A few of you have inquired as to what we are wear during these cold and chilly passage days at sea.  Long under garments (merino wool), pants, and my foul weather overalls (plus socks and rain boots). On top I have 2 merino wool long sleeve shirts, a jumper (sweater), and my foul weather jacket plus ear coverage.  Matt has long undergarments, jeans, 2 shirts and his dry suit on.

The moon is almost full and lighting our way at night which is lovely.  

First Breakage

Day 2 found our first breakage.  Our pretty new Harken jib car lost a nut and the piece broke off.  We had to do a “make-shift” solution until the sun came out and we could fix it properly.  Of course our jib sheet is under a lot of pressure as the wind is howling!

There is a lot of pressure on the working jib sheet which then gets transferred to the jib car.  Now she has a backup line in case she decides to quit on us again.  Which she did the following night.

With so many storms came lots of rainbows and even a moonbow at night.  Night 2.

Night 2 at sea

Night 2 at sea

Doing our daily dance with the squalls all night.  At least it is a full moon so we can see to the horizon and prepare ahead of time.  The two photos on the right are from sunset night 3 and the one on the left is the beautiful moon at daybreak on day 4.

Day 5 at Sea

Somewhere in the early evening of night 4 we lost the wind and could not find it anywhere.  We knew this was coming as it was on our weather models but it still was a bit disappointing.  We had such great conditions and boat speed for almost 3 days.  Running the motor has its pros and cons.  Pros: still gives us forward movement and it gives us a good night shifts as you don’t have to worry about constantly trimming the sails.  Cons: it is loud, vibrates the boat, costs money and we don’t go as fast as when there is wind in our sails.

We flew both our 125m2 and 175m2 parasails to see if they could fly in the light winds and the answer was not really.  So not even enough wind to keep our light sails full.   This is our brand new ISTEC Parasail and she is gorgeous!

Day 6-6.8

The wind tried to come up several times.  Each time we would unfurl the genoa bring back the engine and give it a whirl.  It would last for a few hours and then the wind would disappear again.  This went on until our last night.

On our last night the wind picked up!  At first we thought it was a massive squall but to be honest we were not sure.  We were seeing 30-35kts of wind and 3.5 meter seas.  Absolutely horrible conditions.  We really wanted to arrive after day break so we kept furling the genoa (the main was already down).  Finally around 3am we rolled up the genoa and turned on the engines and kept them in neutral and we were still making 6kts! Crazy.

We had all of our equipment on using them for navigation into this new pass.  (2) iPads, (2) computers, Garmen, B&G, and my phone.  Each had a different chart of the same area.  This ensured we stayed safe and off the reefs.  Lucky for us, the winds calmed to 20-25 kts and the seas came down to 1.5-2 meters.  We had a safe entrance and are anchor down.

Vanuatu

Port Resolution is on the island of Tanna.  It is famous for Mt. Yasur a very active volcano.  As we approached the island we could see the bright red and plumes which was so very cool.  On the top photo you will see the volcano and the little nook (far right) where we anchored.

Passage Stats:

  • Total Moving Time:      6.8 days (marina to anchorage)
  • Total Miles Sailed:      1,030 (only had a 17nm cross track)
  • Estimated Miles:         1,013
  • Max Speed:                 14.7
  • Average Speed:            6.4 (first 3 days average speed was 8kt)
  • Sails Used:                  Working sails (main & genoa), 125m2 & 175m2 parasail
  • Hours Motors:            Port: 30 hours & Starboard:  34 hours

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events. This passage at sea took place the  few weeks in May.  In our last blog post you can read about formalities clearing out of NZ and clearing into Vanuatu.

Boatyard Boat Projects Before We leave

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Were you wondering what Matt and I do while the Norsand boatyard crew was working hard on our repairs?  Well, you know we can’t just be idle so we finished up a few more boat projects which honestly seems like an endless list.

The cover photo is Sugar Shack at Norsand Boatyard.  Photo courtesy of Yum Yum who took it as they passed by heading up river.

Boatyard Boat Projects on the List

  • Replace Dinghy non-skid (under warranty, Aakron Express to repair)
  • Repair Anchor Chain Caddy
  • Replace (2) anchor chain rollers and several bolts at caddy (RH Precision)
  • Repair genoa North sail (random strings showing)
  • Re-Certify Life raft and (4) PFDs (Personal Floatation Device)
  • Clean and polish exterior stainless steel
  • Apply anti-foul to old/spare rudder and stow in forward bow
  • Get the Bauer Dive Compressor Working
  • Install bathroom accessories (see next blog post “Final Touches on Sugar Shack”
  • Installed a MeLE Mini PC
  • Service, Test, and Fill Propane Tank

Repairing the Non-Skid on Sweetie

The non-skid came off the floor, again, so we reached out to Aakron Express / Highfield to come out and fix it, again.  Luckily they were pretty responsive and willing to do the repairs.  I am glad this is not one of my boat projects (lots of glue/adhesive removal).

Last time they just pulled up the pieces that were coming lose and reglued them.  And surprise, surprise, they did not stick and came unglued again.  So, this time they completely removed all of the non-skid pieces, cleaned the bottom flooring and adhered new non-skid.  Let’s hope this sticks better.

I’m trying not to be annoyed that they did not replace the non-skid on the step.  As you can see it is still a little dirty which I can live with but it is a different color!  Ugh!

Bow Rollers for Anchor Chain

We took in two of our 5 bow rollers to RH Precision with the hopes of having new ones fabricated.  Rob, is truly the coolest dude ever!   He put in the specs into his CNC machine (bottom left) and showed us how they will look (purple lines).  As you can see, the bolts are way overdue for replacement so we replaced those as well.  The black will be our new roller (top left).

Rob surprised Matt by allowing him to come into the shop to assist in fabricating the rollers !  He showed him how to program the machine, figure out the math and then hit “go.”  Matt was thrilled which was so darn cute to see.

While the anchor chain caddy was taken apart, Matt decided to fix a few more things.  He added strong plastic to the inside panels which were indented from the chain, and he added chivs/spacers to prevent the bolts from rattling.

North Sail Genoa Repair

Our brand new North Sail Genoa had a few random strings (top right photo below) that worried us and it was not furling properly.  Roger from North Sails came by and collected it and we all took it to the large North Sail Loft in Auckland for repairs.

You can see how wrinkled the sail is when it is unfurled and it shouldn’t be that way (top left).  Guy at North Sails showed us what the 3Di fabric looks like when it comes apart (middle photo with black fabric and white strings) and that does not look like ours so they are “not concerned” with the random string we found.

The North sails engineers added more foam guides at the luff to help it roll better.  However, we discovered another potential problem with our forestay.  There were black marks on the luff of the genoa which usually indicates something is amiss with the forestay.  So, we bring in a rigger…more to come on this in an upcoming blog titled “Fine Tuning the Rig.”

Liferaft and PFDs

Our Viking Liferaft was due for service (every 3 years) so we took it to Denray Marine.  They inflated it, checked all seams and connection points, replaced the canister, and added some emergency supplies.  I know it looks like the liferaft is locked down, but it can easily be deployed with a single push of a button.

We also serviced 3 of our PFD’s and bought Matt a new one.

Cleaning up the Stainless

We have lots and lots of stainless on the boat.  It is one of my many jobs to keep it shiny and clean.  So, every 3 months I use super toxic chemicals such as Opsho, CLR, or Grunt to clean up the stainless.  However, our friends at Absolute Stainless turned me on to Chemico Paste Cleaner for our stainless counter tops. I thought I’d give it a try on our stainless exterior pieces and HOLY COW it worked amazing!  This will make this particular boat project a lot easier in the future.

We have stainless stanchions, turn buckles, line guards, pad eyes, and railings.  Each piece has to be meticulously cleaned and polished.  Most of the stainless just looks like it has a brown stain or spots which drives me crazy.  It’s hard to see in the sun, but trust me it looks bad.

The gates (upper left) get so corroded that they don’t easily open (this is after 3 months).

The pad eyes seem to get the worst corrosion, but they clean up nicely.

Spare Rudder

As you might recall, we replaced both of our rudders in November 2023 (as we lost one rudder).  We decided to keep the other “old” rudder as a spare (just in case), but it needed to be painted with anti-foul.   Matt sanded it down and I applied 4 coats of anti-foul paint so she is ready to go back into storage.

The spare rudder will be stowed in our forward port bow locked.  We stow a lot of stuff in here including: 15 fenders, 2 SUPs, passerelle, 2 folding chairs, 8 PFDs (personal flotation vests), 2 inflatable animals, SUP pump, ladder, and now a spare rudder.

Bauer Dive Compressor

Matt and I love to dive.  However, we have not had a dive compressor onboard to re-fill our dive tanks.  So, we either have had to find a local company or a friendly cruiser to fill our tanks or we just didn’t go diving (which was always a shame). 

We were able to buy a used Bauer Jr. Dive Compressor a few months ago despite the fact that we knew it would be a challenge to get it started.

The Bauer Jr. requires a lot of power to start up.  We purchased a soft start (an electrical device designed to gradually and smoothly control the starting and stopping of a compressor motor) to aid our Mastervolt inverter/charger (MASS COMBI 12/3000W-160A 220v) and our Honda EU20i portable generator.  Unfortunately, this did not start the dive compressor.  

We did verify that it started by plugging it into shore power.  So that is good news.  We talked at length to Mastervolt, the dive shop that sold us the soft start, and our electrician and they all said it should work – but it did not.

So, we purchased a new Honda EU32i portable Generator and a parallel cable.  Using the inverter/charger, the two generators, and the soft start the compressor finally started!  Yeah.  But we really did not want to have 2 Honda generators onboard – (imagine me smacking my face)!

Small Projects

As you might recall, we sort of blew up our Mastervolt inverter charger when we tried to start our “new to us” Bauer Jr. II dive compressor.  The good news, it was still under warranty as it was only a few months old!  So, Matt installed this new baby to give us 220 power!

We also finally received our brand new ITSEC 175m2 parasail.  I am so excited about this sail!  I cannot wait to fly her!  We love our new ISTEC Parasail (175m2) – she is gorgeous!

Bathroom Accessories

We also worked on our new bathroom accessory upgrades which are coming up in the next blog post titled “Final Touches on Sugar Shack.”  They are the prettiest toilets on the sea!

Programming

We use Synology Diskstation for a number of things including storage of our files, movies, books, and music.  But it is also used to monitor our electronics and run our music.  The problem is that Diskstation can be a bit of a power hog running at 3+ amps per hour.  When you are plugged into shore power or at a home it is not a big deal.  However, when you are making your own electricity and you have other power hungry sources, 3 amps can be huge.

So, Matt decided to try out a MeLE Mini-PC which is no bigger than a deck of cards.  It has no monitor and no keyboard.  But that is not a problem as we already have those.  It took Matt several days to program it, but it is working like a charm and only draws 1amp per hour!  Big Win.

The mini-PC will not be on the navigation table with all of those wires.  The photo was taken as Matt was programming it.  It will go below the nav station with diskstation.

Propane Tank

We have several propane tanks on the boat, for cooking and for the bbq. Our main propane tank is aluminum.  These tanks are supposed to be tested every 10 years but it is often difficult to find a place that will test them.  We had been filling this tank at El Gas for two seasons and they never said anything, until this time.  He refused to fill it until we got it tested at Firewatch.  it did not take long, but it did cost is $120NZ (we got a new valve as well).  The problem was she accidently stamped the tank as a 10lb instead of  20lb.  We did not realize it until we took it to El Gas and he had us take it back.  So she hammered out the incorrect info and restamped it.  Gesh what a pain.

There are two large boat projects that will get their own blog: Caulking the Sugar Scoop Teaks and Caulking the Sugar Scoop Teak.

As you can see we made the most of this haul out in the boatyard.  We completed a few more boat projects and are feeling good about our NZ departure.  We were anxious to get back in the water as we prepare to head to a new country, Vanuatu.

Best Seat in the House

We got the best spot in the yard!  We were parked right by the river on the corner which gave us great views and a beautiful breeze. The top photo is out our bedroom cabin window at dawn and the bottom is a shot from the bow.  It is not terrible to do boat projects when you have this view.

Our blog posts run several weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post on boat projects occurred April-May 2024.  In our last blog post we show you how to repair your teak deck – did you catch it?

Passage: French Polynesia to Fiji

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It feels like we have been preparing for this long passage for months.  Way longer than the actual passage.  But it’s all in the preparations to make for a smooth and easy sail.

Matt posted “live blogs” during the passage (which took place in June 2022) so I will try not to duplicate him, but if you are interested in reading them (he is super funny).  Click here to read the first of his 12 posts during our passage.

We left from Bora Bora and our friends from Askari managed to get a departing photo with the Bora Bora caldera in the background.

Departing Bora Bora

Departing Bora Bora

Trip Details

  • Departure Date and Time: Saturday, 4 June 2022 at 12:30pm
  • Miles to Destination (as the crow flies): 50
  • Engine Hours: Port: 4213 and Starboard: 4374
  • Estimated Arrival Time: 19 June 2022 (Fiji is 22 hours ahead of Tahiti so we lost a day)

Shifts:

Matt and I do 3 hours on and 3 hours off for passages.  Basically, Matt works the 8p-11p shift, I work the 11p-2a, Matt is back up 2a-5a and I am up from 5a-8a.  During the day we rotate however we want (sort of light schedule).   Averaging 5 hours of broken sleep a night is challenging at best.

Day 1

We purposely picked this weather window because it had light winds for the first few days.  This is crucial for me because I am prone to sea sickness.  Having light winds allows me to slowly get my “sea legs.”   Weather predictions are really guessing as they are often wrong.  But usually the first 3 days are somewhat accurate.  Four different forecasts had us going way North increasing our cross track to over 100 miles (meaning we went over 100 miles out of our way to ensure we stayed in the wind zone).

Forecasts Routing

Forecasts Routing

We flew wing on wing (main sail on port and jib on starboard) and then tried to fly the parasail.  We lost sight of land at dark, just a mere 6 hours after we started our passage.

Day 2 & 3

Lovely days with light winds.  We flew the parasail for most of the day and managed to maintain a 6.5 boat speed.  Another boat showed up on AIS (radar) called Moondance.  They were mirroring us which was odd.  We headed to port, then they did, we headed to starboard, then they did.  We eventually lost them and left them in the dust.

Parasail

Parasail

We leave French waters and enter Cook Islands territory.  The closest island is Suwarrow which is south and still over 300nm away (2-2.5 days).

Crossing into Cook Islands

Crossing into Cook Islands

Day 4:

A rather large squall came through in the wee hours of the morning bringing over 35kts of wind and super strong, large rain drops.  Just as we finished dropping all the sails, the winds picked up to 35kts and the rain pelted us.  It was a downpour and both Matt and I were soaked to the bone.  We motored during the worse part of the storm and then it left us with no wind when it passed.   Drat, we ended up using the motors for close to 20 hours.  Since it was a motor day, I made chocolate chip mint cookies.  We need all the sugar and caffeine we can get to keep us awake during the night shifts.

Day 5

We finally broke the 1000nm mark.  Yeah what a relief.  In addition, we reduced our cross track bringing us closer to our destination.

Medium Spinnaker 150m

Medium Spinnaker 150m

At night we rely a lot on our instruments.  We are running weather forecasts on Matt’s computer, we have radar on (bottom circular diagram), Vesper Marine, and B&G instruments all running at the same time.  In addition, we have 2 iPads that are running different charts.

Day 6

Two things to celebrate: (1) We reached the half way mark of 832 nm to go.  Of course, that is as the crow flies and does not take into account that we have to sail around islands (vs through them).  The second thing we celebrated was a beautiful pod of whales.  I saw a spout and thought was that a spout or just the wind kicking up sea spray?  It turned out to be a spout.  At least 4 whales played around Sugar Shack for about 20 minutes.  One came alongside our boat and then went under the boat.  Super cool, but holy h3ll that could have been disastrous if he breached the surface while under Sugar Shack.

The photos are not very good as I was frozen in place when they breached.  But they were there, I promise.

Day 7-8

We alternate between our medium spinnaker, the parasail, and the working sails.  Depends on the winds and gusts.  We had particularly calm weather and decided to swap out our sails.  As we hoisted the medium spinnaker a gust came up and made a slight tear at the top.  We had to bring her down to avoid total destruction.  Matt was able to repair the sail and get it back in the rotation a few days later.

On a good note, we caught (2) male mahi mahi in the afternoon.  The first line went “zing” and as we went to pull in the other lines a 2nd line went zing!

These are the winning lures that caught our tasty fish.

Day 9:

We enter the waters of Tonga.  I sure wish Tonga was open but alas she is shut down due to Covid still.  So, we sail on through longingly looking at the beautiful islands from a far.  Kidding we can’t see anything as it is way too far away.  But the longing is still there.

Day 10:

Another beautiful day on passage.  We were changing sails from the jib to the parasail when we had another little mishap.  Matt was raising the sock (with the sail inside) as per usual.  However, I noticed that the sock looked empty so I shouted at Matt to stop, but he couldn’t hear me over the roar of the wind.  I stepped up my vocal cords and got his attention just as the entire parasail came out of the sock and into the sea.  Holy cow!

It is 3am and raining.  We are both at the bow trying to pull in the sail.  Just as we got the sail onboard, the sock goes under the boat.  You’ve got to be kidding!  We manage to salvage both the sail and the sock and bring them back to the cockpit. What happened?  Well, there is a shackle at the top of the sock that holds the sail inside.  That shackle opened up and we nearly lost the sail.  Lucky for us, an easy fix.

Day 11

We make our first land sighting at 122nm to go.  Super cool to see land after being at sea for 11 days.  The islands are far off in the distance, but you can certainly make out the beautiful mountains.  We had a very squally and rainy day today which makes it hard to fly the lighter sails (spinnaker and parasail) which make us go faster.  But we continued on averaging 5-6kts for the day.  Today was my last day as net controller on the Poly Mag Net an SSB radio net that I’ve been volunteering for over the last 2 years.  It was hard to let go.

Day 12

We arrive into the island of Vanua Levu and go to Savusavu bay to clear into customs.  We arrived around 10:30am which was 11 days and 23 hours after we picked up the hook in Bora Bora!  Not bad, not bad at all!  We had anticipated it taking 2 full weeks and we made it in 12 days.

Trip Details:

  • Miles to Destination: 1,664
  • Actual Miles Sailed: 1,777
  • Average Speed over 12 days: 2
  • Max Speed: 9
  • Engine Hours: Port: 4233 and starboard 4384

We motored about 20 hours with the majority of that time being right after the large squall on day 4.  The rest of the time we were able to sail.

Here is our track from French Polynesia to Fiji.

French Poly to Fiji Track

How did I entertained myself?

I read 3 books, I watched Season 2 of Bridgerton and S1 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and watched 2 movies.  Of course, there were lots of games of solitaire and word puzzles too.

Some beautiful moon pictures.  The moon came out during the second half of our passage and lit our way through the darkness.

And a collection of sunset photos during our passage.

Sunsets during passage

Sunsets during passage

We prepare to vamoose from French Polynesia in our blast blog.  Events from this blog occurred in early June.  Please note that our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.