Position: 31 degrees, 05 minutes south; 173 degrees, 53 minutes west

Even after the main part of the storm it was still smokin'

After a long second night, the wind and waves finally eased this morning and we were able to take down the storm sails and put up our regular ones. We’re still double reefed on the main, but the wind is only 15-20 and the waves are down to maybe 6 feet. It still seems a bit boisterous because we hard on the wind-which means we’re going into the waves and Charisma is tilted on a 40 degree angle, but at least we’re sailing again instead of just hanging on.

First off, the crew of the boat I mentioned yesterday that got in trouble have been rescued. A large ship diverted and they were picked up after waiting 15 hours for the ship and then for the seas to subside enough for the ship to deploy a boat to pick them up. It appears that early reports of a crew washed over were incorrect, so it seems all are OK. I don’t know what the disposition of the boat is-whether they are going to scuttle it or if it will just float around and people will have to watch out. Hopefully the former. I hate to think about having that thing floating out here in the night seas with no lights.

Our night last night was long because in the after effects of the storm there was a combination of moderate wind in the high 20’s and gusty squalls into the low 30’s. The combination made the sea state incredibly confused and we were bouncing around like a cork. The combination of the storm day and last night where we couldn’t really control our course and just went with the wind and seas put us around 140 miles off course to the southwest. Fortunately there’s a wind shift coming in a day or so that should help us get back to where we need to go. It’s predicted to shift from the southeast, which is where it is now, around to the south (not good for us since we’re going south) and then around the other side to the southwest and then west. These last two shifts will allow us to tack and then run downwind into Opua. We’ll probably be a half day later than planned on the optimistic side and maybe 36 hours late if the wind doesn’t shift at favorable times. For now we’re sailing a course of 220 degrees True which puts us north of the north island of New Zealand. At any rate, we’ve got a day or so before we need to worry about what tactic to use to get southeast.

One thing about going south. Even though it’s Spring down here going to Summer, it’s getting colder. It’s like going from Mexico to San Francisco. The flip flops we’ve been wearing for a year now have been replaced by wool socks and sea boots and we’re both layering. Tonight I’m going with thermal underwear, a vest, a sweater and a jacket with wool cap. Ann’s following a similar route. Part of it is that we’ve been in the tropics so long now. For instance I was very cold last night sitting in the cabin and decided to look at the thermometer to see if it had hit freezing yet. It was 65 degrees F! So I guess we have some acclimatizing to do now that we’re away from the equatorial regions.

But, I miss my flip flops.

Position: 30 degrees, 06 minutes south; 175 degrees, 23 minutes east

This is about 12 hours before the storm. Once it hit, we were kinda busy...

We got pushed about 100 miles west of where we wanted to be.

Wow, last night was a very long night. Before I tell about it, I’ll say that we’re doing well right now. Just had dinner, the wind is moderating and the seas are going down. We’re still under storm sails and will leave them up all night tonight if for no other reason than to have low maintenance and be able to get some sleep.

So, the storm. It was almost a cyclone. Labeled a “Tropical Depression”, it was a doozy. Very good that we were not further to the north where the center was. Up there the storm brought up to 74 mile/hour winds.

In fact (and very unfortunately) about 300 miles north of us a boat that was too late in leaving got caught right in the middle of it and apparently rolled sometime in the night or early morning. Their EPIRB, or emergency beacon went off and there was a search started. The boat has been found. One person is missing and presumed washed overboard in the rollover (why we wear harnesses at night and day during inclement weather) and there is some other injury on board. We don’t know any more, but it’s going to be 15 hours before a ship can get to them. The New Zealand search and rescue is flying planes looking for the person washed over. Our prayers are with them all. This all happened in the vicinity of Minerva Reef which is where we were a few days ago and is why we didn’t stop there. We were literally racing south to get away from it.

As for us, we were very glad to have switched to storm sails before the big winds and waves hit during the night. The wind was sustained over 35 knots gusting to 45 knots. I saw a 47 as the top speed when I was watching. The average sea height was in the range of 16 feet and I believe some were higher although tough to see in the dark. What you see is a white glow which is the top of the wave breaking and if it’s substantially above your head you duck and hang on, so not a lot of time to assess wave heights although this morning when they were still up I have to say they were impressive!

Charisma did well. Reaching along with the storm jib and trysail at about 6 knots, we were able to parallel the waves for the most part. If they had gotten much taller or the wind exceeded 45 knots for any length of time I would have hove to, as we were close to going too fast. We took a couple big hits, one was so big I involuntarily shouted, “Oh!” when it hit. The boat shuddered which I could feel through my feet and up my spine, but after shaking it off, Charisma was back on her feet and moving forward again. There’s no damage. One of the jerry cans of water came loose on the foredeck and I had to go up there. It was too heavy to mess around with in those conditions, so I just emptied it and brought it into the cabin. The Monitor wind vane did an excellent job steering so we could just hunker down in the cabin. At one point the steering lines came off the wheel, but Charisma kept more or less on course until I had time to put on foul weather gear, PFD, harness and go out and fix it.

There’s been some other miscellaneous damage to the fleet that we heard about on the net during the morning roll call. A couple of boats have blown out sails, one boat had a port hole blown and took on some water before they patched it and you could hear how tired and stressed people were. For our part, other than the jerry can, the head isn’t working. The water intake isn’t letting water in for flushing, so we have resorted to a flat bucket we have that we put under the seat and then dump over side. It’s working without too much trouble for now. I’m just too tired to deal with it at this point, but will fix it in the days to come.

Speaking of days; unfortunately we had to “run off” a bit to keep from smashing into the big waves, so our schedule has been delayed by a day or two. We were hoping for landfall on Sunday, but at this point with the wind changes coming that are moving the wind around to the south (which is right where we want to go) we’re looking at more like Monday or Tuesday. Tonight’s going to be slow because the wind is alternating between the mid-twenties and low thirties and the waves are very confused and still steep although not as tall, but it all adds up to the fact that we can’t make any kind of speed in the right direction. So we’re kind of trimmed to go slowly but comfortably (and safely) and we’ll catch up on sleep. Tomorrow should bring better conditions and we’ll drop the storm sails and get going again. Fortunately we have lots of food, rum and beer, so we’re set.

There it is. We’re in the Tasman, we met Gale and she was a beaut.

P.S. For Orcinius watchers-they reported on the afternoon net that they are two hours from Opua as of 4:30 this afternoon (the 8th in New Zealand. The 7th for you all). We are thrilled for them and a bit jealous too! Soon we will join them. Our advance team has landed!

Position: 29 degrees, 03 minutes south; 177 degrees, 16 minutes east

…Changed from the big jib to the small one while the weather was nice Took down the mainsail and put up the storm trysail Took down the staysail and put up the storm jib In general, battened down the hatches

Because it’s blowing and the waves are getting large. We’re definitely in the Southern Ocean. As one of the other boats said on the radio net this evening; “I’m in the Southern Ocean and I don’t like it!”

It’s dark now and we’re glad we made all the changes because it’s no fun to go up on the foredeck in the middle of the night with waves breaking over the bow and 38 knots of wind trying to turn the sail you’re trying to take down into a raging beast that’s struggling to toss you over the side.

This all started yesterday when we sailed through a squall line. I didn’t realize at the time that since the barometer had dropped two millibars, this squall line was actually a weather front. We had been tooling along in 12 knots of wind and as we sailed through the rain and out the other side, the wind literally jumped to 25 knots and the waves went from a couple feet to 6 feet. That fast. So we went with it but after dinner had a discussion about the weather forecast we had and decided we had better drop the mainsail and go with the storm trysail. It would be a bit slower, but we wouldn’t have to wrestle with it at 3 in the morning if the wind came up as advertised. Well, not 30 minutes after we made the change the wind came up to sustained 28 gusting into the 30’s and seas doubled in height and became confused and very rough. Dodged a bullet there. A little later in the evening a breaking wave dropped into the cockpit. There was so much water it literally floated one of the floorboards out of place.

The seas are so steep and rough as Charisma goes up them you’re eyes sink into your cheeks from the acceleration and then on the way back down you lift off your seat like being in an elevator. We have to be very careful when moving around that we don’t just fly off into space.

So, we made it through the night OK, although it was a little nerve wracking. We still had the stays’l up and the wind was getting past its limits. So, this morning we decided to drop that and go with the storm jib. Well again, good thing because now the wind is sustained in the 30’s gusting to 40 (with rain squalls) last I looked. We don’t even see 20’s anymore on the annenometer. It’s blowing hard and the seas are getting really nasty. But at least we’re snug with our smallest sails. Two little sails, each about the size of a Laser sail, but we’re still doing 6 and 7 knots. Other than the seas slamming into the side of the boat and occasionally going over the top, we’re pretty snug. We’re keeping the hatches closed and sitting down below. We get up every ten minutes or so stick our heads out and look around, usually with eyes bugged out watching the size of the waves, then as one is about to break on us, duck back into the cabin and close the hatch. This is supposed to get worse through tonight and then (hopefully) ease sometime tomorrow, but I haven’t checked the latest weather GRIB yet, so we’re not sure.

Such is life right now in the Southern Ocean. We’re about half way across to New Zealand. It stopped being fun a while ago, but will be fun to talk about someday (maybe).

Position: 27 degrees, 12 minutes south; 178 degrees, 16 minutes east

Today was a slice of heaven. Sitting in the cockpit enjoying one of my favorite lunches. I finally made the meatloaf right, so the leftovers made perfect sandwiches. Ann made some of her great pressure cooker bread and I had a Maka-which is a Tongan beer. Yes, life was especially good today on Charisma. Last night and most of today were pretty nice sailing although the wind was up and down, so I had to make a lot of sail adjustments. One especially happy note was that we had light enough wind this morning that we could take down the big jib and put up the yankee. I should have done that in Tonga but I was thinking of the light air we might sail through not the heavy air. The reality though is that big jib really reduced our options in heavy air. I’m so happy to have it down and packed away-especially now that it’s so windy.

The last couple days have been nice, but we’re paying for it now. Late in the day we sailed through a squall line and what did we find on the other side? 25 knots of wind and two meter seas. It has gotten snarly out. We’re down to a double reefed main and just the stays’l and doing 6 knots close reaching toward Kiwi Land. The next step to reduce sail will be dropping the main and going with the storm trysail. Probably around 30 knots of wind or so. Getting to New Zealand means four days of this and the bonus is that sometime, probably on Friday (which for those in the US will be Thursday) we’re likely to see a gale. Winds in the 40 knot range. We’ll see. We can always hope that we’ll get far enough south to avoid that. Knowing we have some rough weather ahead, I made a green curry eggplant dish with rice today and put it in the fridge. All we have to do for a hot meal is heat it. So, if it’s stormy, we’ll have an easy hot meal with no prep.

That’s our report from the “other” side of the international date line.

Pumice on the water (this pic is actually the day before when there was little wind for a while)

Position: 25 degrees, 24 minutes south; 179 degrees, 14 minutes EAST

We’ve crossed the official date line of 180 degrees longitude. We’re now on the east side of the line versus the west side. Now today is officially your tomorrow even though Tonga has already designated they are in the east side time zone.

So…lumpy, bumpy. That’s the gist of the day. Last night was a nice ride but this morning the wind picked up around 0400 and built into the 20’s. In SF Bay that’s not a big deal, but out here the seas make it much different. You just can’t keep as much sail up or you’ll break something flying off a big wave. You have to slow down. So, I’ve been changing sails all day long. I think I reefed and unreefed the main about five times, the jib at least twice and put up the staysail, then took it down and now it’s back up again because the wind was getting back into the mid-twenties with 6 plus foot very steep and confused seas. We were going really well, but now the wind has dropped again and I’m thinking I’ll have to take it down in the dark sometime tonight and unfurl the bigger jib so we can keep moving. Not my favorite chore, especially if I just woke up and am sleepy. Oh well.

Keep moving. That’s the order of the day. It’s why we didn’t stop at Minerva Reef. We were within three miles of it but there’s a tropical depression building over in Fiji that is scheduled to move on toward Tonga and Minerva Reef by Wednesday. We considered spending the night anchored inside the reef’s lagoon, but decided that the time would be better used moving southwards away from the storm. The weather gurus are saying it might even turn into the first cyclone of the season. That’s a lot of motivation to move south fast, which is what we’re doing. We should miss it, but we’ll catch the outside of the low pressure area and probably see 20-40 knot winds at some point in the next couple days. The boats that didn’t make it out of Tonga in time-and it’s too late now- won’t have fun either as they will have to worry whether their anchor will hold as they get blasted and buffeted by 40+ knot winds. There are going to be a lot of stories to tell next week one way or another.

We took a lot of blue water over the bow today and guess what it netted us? Pumice! Yup, there’s a bunch of pumice in the scuppers that we scooped up by burying the bow into waves full of it.

That’s the news from Charisma for the day.

And…Happy Birthday to my daughter Christine who turns 25 today (the 4th for you)! Have a great one Chris!!

Position: 24 degrees, 04 degrees south; 179 degrees, 24 minutes west

Silently gliding through the night sea. Moonlight and friendly stars guiding us toward our next destination.

It never ceases to amaze and give joy-the wind gently pushing Charisma along. This is one of the nights where it all comes together. Gentle breeze, waves travelling thousands of miles to greet us, lifting us-for a moment- then softly setting us down, thousands more miles for them yet to go. Ancient light from the stars, hundreds of years old, reaching out to us just now. What message does it bring?

Following seas, the moon, stars and the bow slicing through the night, the water parts as we pass, gently gurgling like a mountain stream. Our wake glistening in the moonlight leaving a trail into the distance and for a few moments a trace of something that shows we were there.

And there’s not another soul out here in this expanse except us.

Position: 22 degrees, 27 minutes south; 177 degrees, 31 minutes west

Sea and sky. Never get tired of this view.

We launched our final rubber duckie. It has our blog and email written on it and we noted the Lat/Lon where we tossed it. Fun to see if anyone ever finds it.

A slow day. There’s not much wind right now, so we’re sailing in 6-8 knots of breeze at 4-5 knots boatspeed. Sometimes a little slower. It’s a little ironic that there’s so little wind right now because we’re likely to get plenty of wind in the latter half of this leg of the trip.

There’s talk on the radio of a tropical depression stretching from Fiji to North New Zealand this coming Wednesday. I’m seeing some heavy rain and moderate wind on the GRIB files, but don’t know what this might turn into at this point. I don’t think the water is warm enough yet to develop a cyclone-those usually don’t start until December, which is why we’re all leaving the tropics this time of year. Anyway, a big low won’t be any fun and we’ll hope to be south of it before it comes across this way. We should get a better read on its size and direction in the next day or so but at the very least it’s existence is likely to cause us to skip our planned stop at Minerva Reef and put some more miles in the bank to get further south by the time it’s due to come through.

Oh well, that’s part of cruising. Preparing for the worst and doing stuff to avoid it. We did a lot of work on Charisma in Nuku’alofa in anticipation of some tough weather along the way. We’ve got fresh oil and filters in the engine in case we need it in a crunch and the storm sails are rigged and hanked on all ready for high winds. We’ll take what we get, but seek to avoid the tough stuff if we can.

In the meantime, we’re enjoying some beautiful weather. The sunset was spectacular and the night is clear as can be. Some great stars and a late moon are up for our watches tonight. Here’s hoping there’s enough wind to enjoy them in peace and quiet instead of with the grinding of the diesel engine (although I’m not complaining mind you-life would be much tougher without our trusty diesel).

I almost forgot! We sailed through a pumice patch today. There’s a volcano somewhat around that’s throwing the stuff out. There were a lot of small pieces the size of a potato that alerted me to its existence, but finally I saw the patch. It was about 150 yards long and maybe 30 yards wide. Several actually and we sailed right through one of them. It’s just lots of floating pumice debris, most of which is about the size of pea gravel, but it’s very colorful. On a sunny day like today, the patch turned the water golden. Very dramatic.

Eight more days (more or less) and then New Zealand!

Position: 21 degrees, 13 minutes south; 175 degrees, 42 minutes west

Today was the day. The weather has switched. The wind is starting to come out of the southeast making it possible to sail on a more or less straight line southwest. We’re on a heading of 220 degrees magnetic in 8 knots of wind doing about 4 or so knots. Minerva Reef is hopefully our next stop unless the winds won’t allow it. That would be about two days from now- or around 220 miles.

We got up early this morning and Ed from Quixotic was nice enough to run us over to town to pick up fresh veggies and fruit. Then we took the rental car back and headed back. Ann and I bid Ed and Nila goodbye for this season. They are staying in Tonga and have rented a cyclone mooring which is basically a really strong mooring that is certified to hold in case of a cyclone. They should have fun staying around for Tongan summer. Fewer people/boats, although more rain and the possibility of a cyclone adds a little excitement to the stay. We hope to be able to meet up with them next season in Fiji which is our next step back up to the north come April.

When we got back to Charisma we did some final prep work, and a little cooking (we now have three dinners and a bunch of snacks pre-prepared so all we have to do is warm them). Then a quick trip onto Pangai Motu to say goodbye to Big Mama and thank her for the great hospitality, Once the dinghy was deflated and stored on the foredeck, we hoisted anchor and headed out. It took a couple hours to get out past the reefs, but we’re now in deep water and headed south(ish).

It’s kind of exciting being on the last leg into New Zealand. That’s about 1000 miles and nine days from now.

The east coast of Nuku'alofa and the blowholes

Tonga's version of Stonehenge

Lunch with Ed and Nila from Quixotic

Since we finished most of our boat work, we took a day off today, rented a car and drove around the Kingdom of Tonga with Ed and Nila on Quixotic. Actually, they were nice enough to invite us on the expedition, so Ed drove and we got to sightsee.

First impression: A very, very rural country/island. There is very little infrastructure here. It consists mostly of the 8-acre farms that we’ve learned about on other islands. Every adult male gets his 8 acres. We saw lots of those little plots that were being farmed. All of them mostly by hand. There are very few tractors or other mechanical devices here. During the whole day, I saw only two tractors. Most of the little plots looked like they were being tended entirely by hand-including hoeing the weeds. Lots of taro, manioc, some bananas, tomatoes, carrots and sundry other crops. All of the fields also kept their coconut trees for that element of the local diet. In fact, it would appear that the most dangerous part of farming here is the risk of being hit by a falling coconut-and they can be deadly. There is lots of evidence of cars parked under the trees in town. Cracked windshields.

So, a fun day. Now it looks as if there is a weather window tomorrow. Our weather router, Bob McDavitt is sending us a route plan tonight, but he hinted in an email today that tomorrow is a good day to leave for Minerva Reef. This is a spot 220 miles SW of here. It’s an atoll type reef a mile or so in diameter that is hollow on the inside. You can enter through the pass and then anchor in the sand around the periphery. Very much like Beverage Reef where we stayed a month or so ago on our crossing from Palmerston to Nuie. The holding is sand, so it’s a great place to just “camp” while waiting out a blow or better weather for the final 5 or so days to NZ.

Anyway, tomorrow early we’ll go into town and stock up on fresh produce and fruits. Ed (Quixotic) has graciously offered to pick us up at 0730 and drive us to the market and back, then he’ll return the rental car and hopefully we’ll be back on Charisma by 1000 and leave. We’ll see-and we don’t have a final passage plan yet from Bob McD so things might change.

Stayed tuned tomorrow.

P.S. We’ve been listening to all the boats who have left here the last three days or so and they are reporting head winds and seas that are making for a long and bumpy passage. I don’t know what made them decide to go, but am glad that we chose to stay here. Most are well into three days and the voyage with favorable winds should only be 48 hours at most. That’s the biggest thing we’re seeing change-the wind shifting from southwest to southeast or even east, which means going from a headwind to a following wind.

Cross fingers and check in tomorrow to see.

Yep, that's us with Big Mama

Charisma waiting at the fuel dock

The fuel station. "Lincoln" the manager is in the middle.

A run through the market for fresh veggies and fruit

Yes, lots of boat work followed by dinner and cards with Big Mama (and our new friends Nila and Ed on Quixotic).

So, count-down time to New Zealand. Today we went over to the mainland first thing in the morning and fueled up, filled the water tank and got a few groceries. Then back to Pangai Motu and boat projects including Ann cleaning the hull some more and making a batch of cookie dough and Bob changing the filters and the oil. Good thing on the filters as I found about an ounce of water in the fuel filter (Racor). First time I’ve ever seen water in there. South Seas diesel isn’t as clean as we’re used to in the US. We took about 50 gallons of diesel, which was the first we’ve taken since mid-August so we’re doing pretty well in not running the engine much.

We finished our boat projects in the mid-afternoon, so had a chance to walk around the island (Pangai). Nice sand all the way around. Took about 45 minutes. Back to the boat for a Charisma just before sundown and then in to Big Mama’s where we met up with Ed and Nila. We were joined by Big Mama herself as well. We all had dinner together and then played Whist out on the deck over the water looking out over Nuku’alofa. Can’t beat the view and the company.

Tomorrow, it looks like we’ll rent a car and tour Nuku’alofa a bit, then hit the market for fresh produce, then back to Charisma to prepare some food for the passage. We’re likely to leave on Friday or Saturday latest. We’ll make some pasta salad, hard-boiled eggs for late snacking (better than stuff with sugar which makes you fall asleep) and I’ll make a stew in the pressure cooker so we don’t have to cook the first day or so.

Counting down. Ready to go. We’ve done a ton of boat work the last two days and feel really ready for sea. Just waiting for a weather window so we’re going downwind instead of upwind. Right now everyone out there is motoring because of headwinds. Saturday looks like a switch to easterly or downwind weather. We’ll wait ’till then.