Yacht Delivery Blog

 Yesterday was pretty routine, with no surprises other than how cold it is. The wind was pretty steady, keeping at around 20 knots true, but was a little further east than I would like. After the sun went down, the moon quickly followed and it was completely black, and that's the exact time things always start changing. The wind picked up to 30 knots and it poured with rain, then the wind dropped to 5 knots and the rain stopped. Back to 30 knots 20 minutes later, and it switched to ENE, so we had to gybe at midnight. Then it rained again and the wind eased off to 15 knots and came back to the east. So we are now heading slightly north of Fiji, but going mostly the right way, which is the main thing! The long-term forecasts still show we can make a run straight through to Fiji.

The last 24 hours have seen some positive changes, and a major one is that the wind has picked up to around 20 knots true, 15 apparent, and we are sailing with just the headsail as the angle is hovering around 150 degrees. Every now and again we have to turn a little to port as the wind gets a little more easterly and comes around to 170 degrees, which is a little deep for comfort. At around 150 degrees, the main tends to blanket the headsail, so keeping the main up would mean heading higher and sailing further than necessary, as well as being pushed further south, which I am trying to avoid. So there is little advantage. I am trying not to get pushed too far south as the wind is definitely stronger further south. The other improvement is the long-term forecast. Big high pressures are still a dominant feature, but they are sitting below 1030 hPa, and the ones that had been causing the strong wind were 1035, so with less of a pressure gradient, the wind is slightly more manageable. Ther...

 So after waiting weeks to get away from Raiatea as a huge area of poor weather had been blocking our planned route, we finally left yesterday morning at 6am, and not before time.   French Polynesia is a beautiful spot but prohibitively expensive. And why are the French so rude? I seldom left the boat as I had nowhere to go or do, but on one memorable occasion I was in the supermarket and the assistant swiped what appeared to be the last of my items and then just stood there staring down the aisle. I thought she was waiting for a price check or something, as she didn't acknowledge that she was finished. And then she said, “Why are you staring at me? The price isn't written on my 'ed', it's on ze machine.” So that was quite amusing. It's been very calm since we left, with less than 10 knots of apparent wind directly behind for most of the time, which actually suits me as I like to ease into a new boat. You have to identify noises and squeaks: should I adjust the ...

We're down to about 70 miles to go, but it's looking unlikely we'll make the marina before sunset. Normally that wouldn't bother me too much, but this is Southeast Asia. Trying to pick your way into an unfamiliar harbour after dark, with fish traps, unlit obstacles and local traffic doing its own thing, is generally a poor choice. So another night at sea is looking more and more likely. There's an old sailor's saying: "All the wrecks are on the rocks." The point being that if you don't put yourself close to the rocks in the first place, you're already a long way towards avoiding becoming one of the wrecks. Another night at sea has very rarely been the thing that caused the accident. We'll make the call later today. The route into Phuket is littered with fish traps and other hazards, and I'd much rather arrive with the sun high enough to actually see what I'm trying to avoid. Last night provided another reminder of why. Many of the ...

We're definitely on the homeward leg now with less than 200 miles to go. If you've been looking at our track over the last 24 hours, you might be wondering what on earth we were doing. I was thinking yesterday after we left the TSS it might be worth heading back and sticking close to the unofficial shipping lanes would probably offer a bit of protection from fishing boats and the more creative navigation styles you encounter out here. It didn't. So we made a course change direct to Phuket. We ended up making several further course changes to avoid large concentrations of fishing boats and then, just as things were settling down, a cable-laying ship called us on the VHF and asked if we'd alter 20 degrees to port and give them a wide berth. Fair enough—it's easier for us to move than them—but it added another little kink to the track. The biggest surprise of the day, though, was seeing some of the worst FADs I've ever come across. Most of the Indonesian ones at le...

 At about 3 am last night we officially exited the structured anarchy of the Malacca Strait Traffic Separation Scheme and entered the marine equivalent of the Wild West, where might is right and the law of tonnage is king. The TSS at least had rules. Sure, not everyone followed them, and there were plenty of times I found myself shaking my head wondering what the heck they were thinking. One ship of about 600 feet decided he'd drive the wrong way between the streams of traffic, managing to be port-to-port with one ship while simultaneously starboard-to-starboard with another. Surely it would have been easier to cross over to the correct side and drive the right way, but apparently that was asking too much. Now we've left all that behind. Out here there are no nice orderly lanes. Ships are going in every conceivable direction and the rules don't so much get ignored as simply not turn up. We've got about another 300 miles of this before we reach the relative safety of Phu...