**… over and over again….

We are changing sails several times a day. I don’t know anymore how many today. Not all are documented in the logbook.

As forsails we used so far the genoa and the 8 m2 jib.
As main sail we used reef 2, reef 1 and no reef (what i call “reef zero”). Reef 3 is what we need in winds at around 30 KN. Such a wind we have not yet experienced during this sail – fortunately because it would have been a “nice” storm.

This morning, pretty early, we wanted to set the gennaker and in the last moment we saw a squall coming over the horizon. We put the gennaker back into his sail bag and hoisted the main with reef 2 and the genoa fully unfurled. Prefect preparation for the approaching squall. We had a nice run in the squall without being forced to reduce the genoa.

What followed thereafter I don’t recall in detail and it doesn’t matter.

Half an hour ago, Tobi, who was sitting at the navigation table, suggested we could possibly use the gennaker. I just woke up from a nap, had a look at the situation and said, “Yes!”.

Now we are flying Big Blue at an AWA of 90 deg STB. After I trimmed the Big Blue, MaRe runs STW of up to 2/3 of TWS. Thus, STW is currently between 3.0 and almost 5 KN.

Not bad!

Wind, sail, and squalls, are the most important topic on board. Still Tobi tries again to catch a fish…

I don’t mind at all to eat another of his fish dishes.

After being frustrated from wind around “no wind” the wind decided to become a better guy.

I pulled up the last sail possible, the 8 m2 storm jib, which I normally use for easier tacking as it functions as a guiding surface for the genoa. I never could confirm how much speed this sail brings when set additionally to the genoa. However, today I also set it to have 8 m2 more sail surface.

When we had breakfast, I got the feeling that MaRe runs a bit faster. About 2 KN. After breakfast we saw sometimes 2.4 KN.
During this time, we also discussed Vili”s email, and I created the motto for these days, “We sail according to the local actual wind, and dream about the forecasted wind”.

Then we started cleaning the cockpit, table, and cushions. In between there were wind shift alarms and we saw that the speed is increasing. Every new and higher value was an incredible pleasure. More than 3 KN became normal. The record we saw was 4.8 KN with MaRe being in around 4 – 6 KN winds.

Before I could upload the above part, the wind turned to WNW. This was the call for the gennaker.

All sails down and gennaker up. While doing this I was afraid that once the gennaker is up the wind will go down. The normal sailing game.

It turned out like I was afraid of.

Still the gennaker pulls more a bit faster forward then the full sails we had before.

Now I just want to have a few KN more windspeed out of WNW. Please keep fingers crossed.

S 13° 25.731
E 168° 05.936

Although we could gain back the distance we lost the day while drifting in an early hours wind of 1 – 2 Bft and changed from reef 2 (safety size of main sail during night hours) to full main sail, we are not really moving forward much.

The wind models I’m looking at are GFS, the US model, and ECMWF, the European model, are showing pretty different fir ecasts. This means the prediction it’s very ẅeak.

Comparing with current wind l experience, than GFS is closer to reality. This model also shows a SE wind coming up in the next hours. However, there is no guarantee.

It’s kind of nerve wrecking.

It seems even the sea birds don’t like this wind situation neither. Normally you see all day long at least one of these excellent fliers sweeping over the waves and through the waves’ valleys. Now, I hardly see one.

Will we get more wind in the next hours?

Last night, Tobi took a big effort to make sushi from the yellow fin tuna, he caught the other day.

He made even “makisushi’, rolled sushi without having a “makisu”, the little bamboo mat needed to make “makisushi”.

I’m am very spoild with excellent sushi rice made by my OBM and from good sushi places in Japan and have to say that his sushi rice, the most important part of sushi, was excellent.

When does he catch the next tuna and makes sushi again?

S 13° 27.731
E 168° 06.328

Although slow, we made progress while sailing in the very low wind.

However, there’s a limit for every wind and now we are drifting again.

If the weather forecast (ECMWF) is right, this will continue until tomorrow with some short weak wind periods in between.

On Friday it is supposed to be good sailing wind. As for Saturday it’s a bit reading the crystal ball.

On board it’s siesta. To hot to do much work. Tobi reads something in his mobile phone, I’m writing these lines and will do a bit of PC work.

251112_02 Speed record of the dayWhile we had breakfast I watched the wind indicator.

This gave me the feeling that we might be able to sail. Some sketches of wind and resulting sailing directions and I got convinced we can move at least slowly forward with a sufficient directional NNW component.

However I’m also aware that we are sailing in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which means, wind is changing very frequently in direction and speed. It also can fall dead in the next moment. Therefore predictions into the next minute and beyond is not very reliable.

Forecasting winds are in these areas is more gambling then science. ECMWF and GFS differ quite a lot which means the reality is somewhere else.

First we thought we will sail on PRT tack, but when the main sail was up, and we tried the AWA we saw the wind changed too much and we went on STB tack. Currently we make 50 % good in direction of our course. Not bad at all!

With current wind and sail setting we will reach the red line in the west in about 10 h. Thus, I hope the wind turns in due time into a good direction.

BTW, the speed record of today under sails is 2.5 KN not bad when we have winds between 1 and 3 Bft.

Where will we be tonight?

Look at the Garmin tracking site!.

S 13° 30.561
E 168° 09.295

At 0700 I decided we go adrift. Wind is blowing weakly on our nose. Even when using the mileage efficient single engine propulsion, we can’t motor much longer to have more than 1/2 tank diesel left for safety reasons.

The wind is, with typically 3 – 5 KN, too weak to use main sail, genoa and jib to sail upwind. Additionally the wind fluctuates too strong in direction as well. No chance to sail right now. However, we watch the development closely and try to sail as early as possible.

The position updates every hour automatically, thus you always see pretty real time where we are.

Just finished breakfast in the wonderful blue surrounding of the western pacific ocean. On SW direction we see the last islands of Vanuatu in the haze of the distance. An atmosphere I’m almost addicted to.

S 14° 14.889
E 167° 48.722

Catching a small yellow coin tuna, was the best of this frustrating day with no wind.

At around 1545, i just talked with my OBM via Signal, when the sound of the bite alarm went off.

Tobi took the rod, to fight the fish. I brought him the fighting belt and prepared harness and gaff to gaff the fish in.

Tobi was happily singing a song with the words “yellow fin tuna….”. More I don’t remember.

In the meantime the fish is gutted and fileted.

What will be the dinner tonight?

S 14° 30.602
E 167° 39.113

I first tried to be fast enough to reach the area with wind while running both engines. As the latest wind forecast indicated that this is not possible, I stopped the PRT engine and run only with the STB engine. About half the fuel but still 2/3 of the speed.

Motoring like this for a while, the wind changed direction and speed due to a squall west of us. With a NW wind of around 5 – 6 KN MaRe runs with almost 5 KN on a NE course. This is pretty good because we can get a margin towards E.

Hope this stays for quite a while like it is and the next squall, NW of us, comes in due time to prolong the sailing conditions we have now.

S 14° 48.471
E 167° 30.817

I knew we will be in calm area when we leave Luganville and we will only get wind when we are sufficiently away from Espritus Santos Island, the island of Luganville.
Partially we could use the genoa to pull some additional speed. However, for most of the time wind is not enough für that.

Looking in the latest weather forecast I saw that the calm area expanded.

Additionally the wind direction is different from the forecast and the GFS and ECMWF forecasts are different. This means we can’t plan according to the forecast.

Not the nicest situation.

Will we be forced to drift already today?