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Land Ho!

Ship's time is still on Raiatea time, so it's around 4am when I get up for my watch and there is a glow on the horizon 10 nm in front that I hope is Vava'u. We have to go around the side of the island and then back all the way into a long indent where the port area is. I am not overly enthused about the check-in requirements, which mean tying up to a commercial wharf. I'd have thought they would have something a little more yacht-friendly. The last 24-hour run was 146 nm, and we had much the same weather as the rest of the passage, i.e. 12knts to the mid-20s, occasional rain and gloomy periods followed by sunshine. Apparently, the cold we are experiencing is indirectly an El Niño influence. The exact mechanics are a little beyond me, but El Niño helps shift the location and behaviour of the large anticyclones, and the circulation around them is sucking a nice stream of cold air north and straight into my cabin. If you look closely the is a darker black strip - Vavau ...
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Chilly Tropics

Well, we are looking at the last night at sea until Tonga. It's not been a long trip, around 1,400 nm, and we left on the 13th. We had a slow start with very little wind, a rainy middle and some mechanical adventures. And did I mention it's so cold? It's 140 nm to Vava'u, so we will be there first thing in the morning, and I am looking forward to having a stable platform to work on things. It really adds a new dimension to the project when the screwdriver you put down has rolled into the bilge and the packet of cable ties has slipped out of arm's reach. On a bit of a tangent, I heard a funny story yesterday, but I will have to give the background. Sometimes when we are about to leave on a huge passage, short-handed on a boat with a big freezer, I will go to McDonald's and buy 50 cheeseburgers and freeze them. Forty-five seconds in a microwave and they're perfect. A great snack if no one wants to make food because the weather is poor or they are t...
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Cold And Fast 2

The conditions remain variable and swing from blue sky and a nice 'trade wind' day to grey and miserable within a few hours. The wind is from 14 to 23 knots, and we are reefed down to the highest gust, and also to take the load off the autopilot. The 24-hour run was 156 nm. We have had a few big waves into the cockpit, which makes the mission to the engine room a little more exciting, but whether from timing, luck or both, there hasn't been any splashing-type incidents into the engine room.  It's not all gloom                        The galley pump on the engine seems to be happy in its new role, and everything is working better than I hoped. I only run the engine for charging for one hour at a time, though, as that seems to be the limit for the pump to start getting warm. It's a duty-cycle pump, so better not to push it beyond its limits. It's surprisingly cold out here. At night I am wearing a jacket, long pa...
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Cold, Wet and Fast

We are still keeping on. It's a little gloomy and rainy, the wind hasn't been able to make up its mind how much it wants to blow, and it's been anywhere from 11 to slightly over 20 knots. There has been significant progress in the engine department. Yesterday I tried everything I could think of to get water flowing through the cooling system, and nothing worked. I had a few minor successes, but even when I could get water flowing, it wasn't enough. With limited spares and tools on board, I am a little restricted in what I can do, but I managed to hook up a 12-volt fresh water pump to the engine plumbing and power it from the alternator with the only piece of wire I have on the boat. There was duct tape involved! It means I have to go into the engine room to connect the wires, and then we can start the engine and get it to run for charging. Given both engines have similar hours, I suspect the other engine can't be far behind, so I am saving that one to ge...
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Fast

 It's been a hectic 24 hours. The wind filled in yesterday evening and we pulled up the main and got the headsail out and have been making good time since then. Unfortunately, Robert didn't remain anyone's father's brother for longer than a day, so I am a bit stumped on that issue. I will have to dive down into the engine room when it gets a little calmer. At the moment it's 15 to 20 knots from the south and we are making great time, but it's a little 'splashy' to be opening hatches on deck above critical machinery, even if the machinery isn't machining currently. A couple of other minor gremlins have raised their heads and, while not major issues, they do need to be looked at. So unless I can work some magic over the next 48 hours, we will be stopping in Vava'u, northern Tonga, to iron out the hiccups. It's a tough call to make. Fiji has better facilities, but it's 500 miles further and there is a lot of reef and islands to n...
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Slow With Headwinds

 At the moment we are motoring directly into a light headwind that is blowing directly from Fiji. It's only around 6 knots, but it doesn't take much at sea to slow you down. Yesterday was mostly light and fickle wind from the north, and even though we didn't break any records, we made respectable time. I jumped into the engine room and investigated the raw water issue and luckily wasn't followed by a wall of water. There are a few usual suspects to check, and when none of them turned up anything obvious, I had to slowly start looking at things less obvious. Part of my investigation relied on the fact the engines had had a comprehensive service before we departed. So when the next few checks didn't turn up anything to explain the lack of cooling water, I had to challenge that. I took out the impeller and immediately realised the engine had not, in fact, had a full service. It was intact, with no bent or broken vanes, but it was clearly used and didn't feel new in...
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Warmer

Yesterday was pretty reasonable conditions, with the apparent wind sitting at around 10 to 12 knots all day and never really shifting from 150 degrees apparent. We sat at 4.5 to 5 knots the whole day and were going almost the right way. The forecast is looking good right through the entire model run on both the GFS and ECMWF. Today was going to be engine maintenance day, as it's forecast for the wind to die down, and I don't really like going into the engine room at sea. Not just because it's small, cramped and difficult to work in with the boat moving around on waves, but lifting up the hatch to go into the engine room, no matter how hard you try to time it, is going to be the exact moment a wave goes over the back of the boat and straight down the hatch.  With the conditions looking relatively calm, it's also a good chance to have a proper look around rather than just dealing with anything that needs attention as it comes up. I'll check the engines, belts, fluids,...
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