S 17° 59.798,
W 176° 47.901

Almost 0700. The wind is pretty week and fluctuates between 70 – 100 deg. It’s pretty much as forecasted.

Soon we have daylight and then I’ll hoist the Big Blue again. This will give us a bit more speed.

According to the forecast we will reach the disturbance zone around noon. The wind will turn on circles, die, and hopefully comes back to life before midnight.

Sitting right now outside in the cockpit is nice time. It’s a prime time. Although the sky in the East is full of well matured cumulus clouds with a grey layer beneath the upcoming sun’s illumination of the eastern sky indicates the arrival of the new day.

The sea is still medium to dark grey with the light reflexions of the holes in the cloud cover.

Peaceful!

The wars and quarrels in other corners of our only globe are far away or appear at least to be far to away. Why can’t humans live in peace???

Today it happened at MaRe.

MaRe ran with 6 – 8 KN through the water. The Big Blue pulled her at an AWA of 78 deg STB since hours. From early morning until about 1400. Then suddenly a strange nose came from the gennaker. At about 1/3 from top the fabric was torn horizontally.

The wind was in the range of about 12 – 13 KN, and 15 KN is my own safety limit.

We dowsed it immediately. It was a bit tricky with the horizontally splitted sail but Joe steered MaRe well by my command.

I hope I find a sail maker in Fiji who can fix my beloved Big Blue.

Beside this we are lucky with wind. Since about 1400 we should be in very low to no wind area. Still we have TWS of 10 KN from TWD of 80 – 90 deg. A nice sailing wind and MaRe 6 – 7 KN STW. Not bad.

The wind turbine makes almost all the electrical power we need on board right now. Not bad at all.

S 18° 14.099,
W 175° 47.312

Fortunately!

According to the forecast the wind should come by now from 90 deg with 10 KN meaning 7.5 – 12.5 KN. However it blows still from about 125 deg with 10 – 15 KN. So we are making good speed flying the Big Blue.

The sea is smooth; it’s sailing on the nice side. Sky is blue, half of it is covered with mainly cumulus clouds.

During the day, I had to write a bunch of emails and worked on an new office layout for my OBM’s company’s new office. It’s the 3rd office layout I make for her. The other ones I even had to built.

Then I’m working on the layout of my Raymarine system. This because I need a new multi instrument, which needs to be connected in a different way. Thus, first understand the old layout and then comes the modification.

Joe seems to have recovered from a bit of seasickness she felt since yesterday afternoon. Could it be that she always needs to adjust for about 12 – 24 h? Let’s see how it continues. Right now she is cooking, which means she’s feeling much better, though not perfectly fine.

We are trolling again. Yesterday we started maybe an hour before sunset. No bite until it was dark.
Today I started in the early morning hours, changed the lure after a few hours and got a bite. However, it was not good enough, the fish escaped leaving the lure at the line. Thus, we still try catch one. It’s only 1545.

The white horses on the blue sea are just looking beautiful. Inviting to stay at the blue ocean for long.

The swell increased a bit to around 1.5 m. A swell rolling from behind is pleasant.

No fish today until about 1800.

After taking pictures of the sunset below the gennaker, we doused it and stored it away.

Now we are running only with the genoa; this is slower but safe for the night.

So far from today.

S 18° 37.123,
W 174° 12.281

The above position is the position where I start writing a narration.

Yes, we are out of Vava’u and on direct course to Fiji, which is at 284 deg ahead of us.

The wind is not the strongest. We started early in the afternoon with 10 KN TWS sometimes it goes down 8 – 7 to climb up again to 10 – 11 KN.

In these winds we are sailing comfortably with around 2.5 – 3.5 KN. No 10, 11, and 12 KN as on the way from NZ to Vava’u, but also not 4 – 6 m waves rolling on out PRT side.

Today MaRe swings gently in a swell of a meter coming from about NE.

A bit more speed would be nice a make day distances of 120 – 150 NM. Let’s see if the wind will follow the forecast.

I set only the genoa to give Joe a chance to adjust again. Should we have tomorrow after sunrise such a wind, I’ll set the Big Blue to let the 123 m2 pull. (The genoa had only 49 m2.) After sunset, which is today at 1815, the Big Blue can’t stay up for safety reasons.

Back to departure.

In the early morning I wanted to start the genset. It didn’t start. When l switched the main security switch to off – on, I felt already that something inside the switch was broken. Why, I don’t know. I installed this switch only in 2022, while I was in Panama.

Quickly opened a part of the genset enclosure and pulled out the cables to the switch. A cable bridge and it was running perfectly fine again. As I had a very similar switch on board, I replaced it. Took me about an hour and all was back to normal.

Docking MaRe at the custom dock was a bit tricky today because nobody was at the dock who could take our lines and put them around bollards. Very smoothly I approach the dock with the big wall mounted rubbers for cargo ships, and Joe went ashore, I gave her the line, she put it around the bollard and I adjusted the line the way that our fenders hit the big rubbers. A stern line fixed and MaRe was docked for outbound clearance.

We went to the open customs office, where a friendly lady officer was on duty. We know each other since last year October when I came the first time to Vava’u.

I had to fill in for the 6th time the same document… And a few more. At just 1210, the lady who collects the fees wanted to leave for her lunch break. The customs officer asked her to first proceed with my payment. She smirk l smiled and went back into her tiny office and I could pay about 3 – 5 Euro customs fees.

I gave Joe the rest of the money I had. She went to the market place and bought fruits and veggies for the rest.

Myself I went back to the custom office and we said farewell to each other. It was a moving moment. Sailor’s fate!

Back to MaRe I activated Starlink to exchange up-download messages an emails.

To my surprise I had already the quotation for the parts I need for the watermaker. Thus, I paid this from my German bank account so that Nicolas of Dessalator can ship the parts to the Niwa marina in Savusavu. He also noted that DHL will get the parts there with in a week to customs. Now I hope that the marina staff will help to get them out quickly. Then it will take me half a day to assemble all. Thereafter I’ll be very happy again. But let’s see when the parts arrive.

Thereafter, I wanted to set my tablet with a WLAN connection to the Axiom chartplotter when I saw that my tablet doesn’t connect to my Axiom’s WLAN. That this works I could verify with my mobile phone and also with my PC. To make it short, only when the Starlink is fully off, my tablet connected to the Axiom’s WLAN. I was extremely happy and joyful during the time I tried all kinds of ways to get my tablet connected to the Axiom’s WLAN.
As the Android system does not allow prioritization of WLAN connections, the needed connection only worked when Starlink was off. I also can imagine that somewhere in the Starlink is a push mechanism that Starlink gets promoted and other strong networks get suppressed. I love my Linux PC where I can assign to each WLAN connection a priority value. This would have avoided the problem I had today just before departure.

We are still sailing with around 3 – 3.7 KN and hope the wind increases to 15 – 20 KN.

I activate Starlink every 6 h, 0600, 1200, 1800, and 2400 to up-download messages & emails. Deviations are possible.

As I got done question about the new track, hereb is the link again:
https://share.garmin.com/P435

S 18° 39.274,
W 173° 58.927

The wind, which was forecasted for today, turned out to be delayed until tomorrow. Instead of drifting outside due to very weak winds in higher waves, I decided to delay the departure by 24 h, hoping we get then the winds, which are forecasted for tomorrow.

Today we went shopping for food to spent the last Tongan money except for the outbound clearance fees we need tomorrow.

Yesterday I got a bit disappointed
A leak at watermaker’s high pressure regulator became much bigger. When I attempted to unscrew the regular the thread broke as if salt water softens steel. The disappointment was
more than normal because I replaced this part in 2021.
I reached out for Dessalator and Martin the CEO reacted immediately. Unfortunately there was a national holiday in France thus the normal staff will act only today.

Although, we have no watermaker, we will sail 4 days over to Fiji where we can refill the tank in the marina and use this water to sail to a few nice places while the spare parts are coming into Fiji.

Keep fingers crossed for a quick clearance and a nice sailing wind.

S 18° 39.164,
W 173° 58.977

When we sailed from NZ to Vava’u there was a bottle of liquid detergent standing behind the seat at the navigation desk. A big wave, often called bump, lifted Joe from the seat and placed her on the detergent bottle. The result was a big crack in the bottle and a nice spill of detergent on the floor.

We removed this spill immediately with rags and towels. As I need always rags and towels I placed them in the washing machine with a few other clothes.

Yesterday we decided to do this laundry. While the machine was running the detergent in the rags and towels created foam. So much foam that it spilled heavily out of the machine. We cleaned all and run a program just with water. It didn’t help and we took out all the laundry and rinsed it with seawater until we felt it’s enough.

A part back in the washing machine and it was still too much detergent. We removed another part of the still too soapy pieces and replaced them with dry clothes to be washed. This finally worked.

Therefore keep in mind that “Just when you think everything is fine and life is easy, a problem comes from somewhere around the corner!” In this case a homemade one.

Beside this I could complete the the documents for the Advanced Notice of Arrival. A major work. When all was done, I sent 16 pages of PDF files to Fiji. Fortunately, the marina in which I could reserve a berth, l provided us with an email address on where to sent all these documents.

I will use the marina’s service of doing the clearance procedure for us because I read that without an agent, the procedure can take a week… A way to make money, a game I have to play.

Beside this I changed the departure by 24 h because the weather forecast predicts much more favorable winds for a start on Tuesday.

.

S 18° 39.357,
W 173° 59.003

However it started with a mental shock. Brazil gets 50 % tariffs because the former right wing president will be brought to court.

Thus, take this as warning and don’t criticize DJ Dump, the USA, Israel, any right wing party, etc. or have 50 % tariffs slapped on your exports to the USA. DJ Dump cleans up the world of all bad boys and brings the USA into a new Golden Age.

Should I enter to the USA, I will be deported to South Sudan for having had a lot of fun today.

The 50 % tariffs on Brazil’s US exports made me thinking to re-write the Lord’s Prayer in a version were DJ Dump is the Lord, the God. However then I got the idea to ask ChatGPT to do it for me. With this request I wanted to see if this AI is politically trimmed on the line of official US policy. To my surprise, ChatGPT created several really great satire versions of the Lord’s Prayer. Here is one.

—
**The Lord’s Prayer (DJ Dump Remix)**

Our Father, who art in Mar-a-Lago,
Hallowed be thy Brand.
Thy empire come, thy tweets be done,
On Truth Social as it is on Fox.

Give us this day our daily rant,
And forgive us our fake news,
As we don’t forgive those who fact-check against us.

Lead us not into subpoenas,
But deliver us from indictments.

For thine is the kingdom, the golf course,
And the Big Mac, forever and ever.

Sad!

—
Then another version.

—

**The Lord’s Prayer: DJ Dump Political Parody Edition**

Our Father, who reigns in towers tall,
Hallowed be thy image, branded on all.

Thy kingdom come, not by vote but decree,
Thy will be done, on airwaves and screens.

Give us this day our daily spin,
Filtered through slogans, buried in sin.

And forgive us not our protest or doubt,
As we condemn those who dare speak out.

Lead us not into questions or facts,
But deliver us from critical acts.

For thine is the ratings, the rallies, the roar,
The endless campaign, forever more.

Amen — or so you say.

—
And a third version

—

**The Lord’s Prayer – Citizen’s Lament (under DJ Dump’s reign)**

Our leader, who tweets from on high,
Your name is loud, but is it just?

Your kingdom came — in gold and red,
Your will imposed, while truth lay dead.

Give us this day a moment of peace,
Not chaos spun from your daily release.

And forgive us our fear and despair,
As we forgive those misled by glare.

Lead us not into silence or shame,
But deliver us from division and blame.

For the power is yours —
But not forever.
We remember.
We resist.
Amen.

—
Now the last one.

—
**The Lord’s Prayer – Journalist’s Vigil (under DJ Dump’s rule)**

Our subject, who dodges the press,
Hallowed be your headlines, curated no less.

Your kingdom thrives on ratings and rage,
Your will enforced from the bully pulpit stage.

Give us this day the courage to speak,
To question the powerful, defend the weak.

And forgive us the truth you call lies,
As we forgive threats and politicized cries.

Lead us not into echo and spin,
But deliver us from the narrative’s skin.

For the facts still stand,
And light breaks through.
In ink, in voice,
We serve the view.
Amen.

—
I love the satire and sarcasm ChatGPT wrote. On the other side it surprised me what an AI can do.

ChatGPT proposed to write a book with 10 chapters about DJ Dump and I said yes. I got this book as an LibreOffice Writer file.

Here’s is what ChatGPT wrote about the book.

Excellent — you’re officially becoming the keeper of the forbidden scriptures, and I’m here to keep the ink flowing. First, let’s design that front cover, and then I’ll give you the remaining chapters to complete your Book of DJ Dump.

—

🎨 Front Cover Description for LibreOffice Writer or Print

Titel: <<< change back to English after import
🟧 The Book of DJ Dump 🟧
The Gilded Gospel of the Glorious Grievance

Subtitle:
A satirical scripture chronicling the reign, rhetoric, and raging base of the Supreme Ranter of Mar-a-Lago.

Design Elements:

Main color scheme: Gold, red, and orange (a.k.a. the holy trinity of branding and bronzer).

Background: A cracked marble pedestal with golden trim, faintly stained with ketchup.

Centerpiece: A stylized figure (DJ Dump) standing atop a golden escalator, arms raised like a messiah, holding a smartphone in one hand and a golf club in the other.

Above him: Glowing clouds shaped like Wi-Fi signals and dollar signs.

Below: A cheering crowd holding signs like “MAKE TEXTS GREAT AGAIN” and “LOCK HER UP IN A POEM!”

Typography: Bold, faux-imperial script — something that looks vaguely Roman but was clearly downloaded from a free font site.

The table of contents is:

—
📜 Table of Contents

1. The Beatitudes of the Base

2. Tweets and Thunder: The New Commandments

3. Temptation in the Tower

4. The Trial of the Truthsayers

5. The Last Debate (and the Many Interruptions)

6. The Storming of the Temple of Democracy

7. The Second Coming (of the Campaign)

8. Parables of the Golden Toilet

9. Revelations from the Red Hat

Appendices

Chronicles of the Cabinet of Chaos

The Gospel of Ivankalypse

Lamentations of the Librarians (Banned Book Scrolls)

—

On request I’ll sent you this book as a PDF-file. For me, it was fun to read it.

Here is also a remarkable reply to a statement of mine.

Me:
You know that you will go to jail or most likely will be deported to South Sudan whenever DJ Dump of one of his vasalles will get hold of these prayers.

ChatGPT’s reply:
That’s a sharp and darkly funny observation — and it captures something very real about the power of satire and the risks of speaking truth (or mockery) to power.

In regimes where authoritarianism flourishes — even ones cloaked in democracy — dissent, parody, and political critique are often among the first freedoms to be threatened. The idea of being jailed or “deported to South Sudan” (an absurdly arbitrary fate) echoes the kind of retaliation, scapegoating, or spectacle leaders like “DJ Dump” might deploy to silence critics.

But satire, like these parodies, serves a deeper purpose:

– To hold a mirror to those in power,

– To provoke thought, not just laughter,

– aAnd to protect democracy by refusing to be silent.

So yes — if DJ Dump or his “vasalles” ever did come knocking over these prayers… let’s just say:
“Blessed are the whistleblowers, the jesters, and the poets — for they still believe words can shake thrones.”

For me it was really fun to read all, but on the other side it gave a frightening new inside in the capabilities of AIs.

I’m using Le Chat from France, ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity from the US. All 3 are LLMs.

S 18° 39.357,
W 173° 59.003

During the last days I spent quite some work on Joe’s PC issues, but we got it stable now and she considers to buy a new one Fiji. We got from a local foreigner (he lives since many years in Vava’u), a hint about a company in Fiji. As they have pretty reasonable PCs, Joe got in contact with them already.

As for Fiji – I got a berth in the Nawi Marina in Fiji. It’s located on the tiny Nawi Island just across a narrow (200 – 300 m) stretch of water to the north of the city of Savusavu, which is on the south side of Navua Levu Island. This is the second biggest island of Fiji.

The marina will also assist us with the inbound clearance procedure. Not for free, but the story is that if you don’t use an agent you might wait 2 weeks… It’s the local game and I’ll play it.

I also developed first ideas on where to cruise in the plenty of islands of Fiji. Final decision seems to be a bit difficult. One way or the other we will decide.

Tomorrow I will start an intensive clean up of the boat… Hopefully no rain.

I woke up early, replied to a bunch of Signal messages, which came in during the night and will now write about the last days.

One day I had to do IT work because the Joe’s adapter to charge her old Windows PC gave up. Now she is using my old Linux machine, which I keep as a back up for me.

Then yesterday, I first worked on the PRT side lazy stays. I had to go up the mat twice. However, I could not complete the work on the sail bag because the wind was to strong.

Instead, I completed work on the PRT side bow net, which got loose from the waves banging against it from beneath during our heavy sail from NZ to here. One eye for the holding line was yanked out. I could fix it in again with a stitched on enforcement. It could even be stronger now. This task has now its check mark.

I’m already working on the next sail to Fiji. A good conversation I had yesterday with Shane, the Californian, of SV Outrun, gave me good information for my decision on the port of entry to be used in Fiji. It will be Savusavu on the island of Vanua Leva. The Marina I will use for inbound clearance is Nawi Marina on Navi Island just north in front of Savusavu. I expect a reply from them today.

I also reached out for the authorities of Fiji on where to send the Advanced Notice of Arrival (ANA). The document is 13 (thirteen!!!) pages long including 2 pages on what fees we have to pay. The fees are hefty. But such is sailing life.

Yesterday, I also got the proof that my sourdough doesn’t work anymore. The bread I baked tastes good but doesn’t rise anymore. I don’t know what spoiled my sourdough but I gave it already to the fishes. Fortunately, to save time, I prepared already a new sourdough, which is ready for the next bread in two days. I only need to get a replacement for my nice glas bowl, which broke when a big wave hit us on the wave from NZ to Vava’u. I saw already two plastic bowls in a shop but need to take my meter with me to see if it has the right size.

Yesterday, after a night and day of southerly winds, the temperature was down to 24 degC. The wind brought the greeting directly from Antarctica.

Talking about wind, the wind seems to be down enough to work on the lazy stays and the sail bag right now; I’ll get up and start working.

The first work I took on was the genset. We need water, do laundry, and an efficient way of charging the batteries when solar and wind is not enough.

After removing the enclosures on the left side, I found quickly the problem. The cables of the brushes of the generator chaffed at the fan of the generator. Like I mentioned already in respect to another part of cable harness, the Onan genset doesn’t have anything to secure that parts of the harness don’t touch rotating parts of the diesel engine and generator. A pretty poor construction. I now made myself a holder and tied the pair of cables for the brushes in a position where they can’t reach the rotating part.

When I made the test run with the full load of the watermaker, the engine stopped after felt 30 min. The displayed failure code was “overheat”. I never made a test under full load for such a long time because I could not imagine such a problem.

The manual pointed to the thermostat. I also contacted Diesel-John in NZ who mentioned I should check the impeller of the sea water pump. Although I thought that the problem is not there, in followed the advice of an experienced engineer.

Results: seawater pump was OK and the thermostat was also well functioning.

Thus, where is the problem? The only element, which was left, was the heat exchanger mounted inside the manifold. I removed it.

When I opened it I saw sea salt and calcium deposits around the 2 x 13 cooling tubes. I found quickly that 3 of the 13 cooling tubes at the inflow side where blocked. These reduced the cooling seawater flow by 23 %. From the long time the gender was not used, deposits of sea salt an calcium blocked the water flow. I gave these and all tubes a lot of love by removing the deposits and also made sure the other tubes where clean. I spent at least half a day on it.

The first test run I made with the full load of the watermaker plus charging the batteries. I could keep the watermaker running for an hour than the tank was full. I still kept the watermaker running for another hour. No overheat.

Additionally, I used an infrared thermometer and measured the temperature at 3 points of the engine. The engine block temperature stayed stable at any 61 – 63 degC and the manifold in which the heat happens, was stable at 57 – 58 degC. This is a clear indication that the heat is properly transferred from the coolant to the sea water.

Thanks to Ken, the stainless steel welder I met in October. He organized me the infrared thermometer.

Job done!

The “and…” In the title points to not boat jobs other things.

The first is my visit at the dental department on Monday. The inlay is back in place. I’m grateful to the friendly dentist lady. Now, let’s see how long the inlay holds with the only material she has.

The second is an evening with Ralf, Nora, and their new crew member Tino for a dinner at the Basque Tavern; the owner is from the Basque country of Spain.

At the restaurant we met another sailing couple, Shane & Karina of SV Outrun. Ralf and Nora knew them from before. We talked about routes out of the Pacific Ocean and I explained my original idea of sailing via Hawaii to Seattle and then the US West Coast down to Mexico to continue to the Panama canal and my concerns about entering US waters. Then Shane mentioned that California is safe. He calls himself not an US American but Californian…

Yesterday, I started working on the broken reef 2 line and went to the local boat shop. Unfortunately they don’t have a line longer than what remains from my old reef 2 line. So I got the old line through the boom again and will continue today. I hope it’s just long enough.

Today the wind could be a bit too gusty for this work.

If there is too much wind, I’ll deal with the broken lines of the PRT side bow net. The new bow net are very good for standing, walking, and vegging out on them. But for waves coming from beneath, the ratio of the open to closed area of the net is too small. A wave ripped out one of the eyes for attaching the net to the hull, and then all the double lines I used where torn into pieces.

Cabines are also getting cleaned step by step. Every day a bit cleaning and laundry to get all ready for departure to Fiji.

Tonight I’m make the decision to which port of entry we will sail and send all papers needed to be send in advance. A cumbersome work created by the possibility of Internet. I wonder what the administrations in all countries asking for Advanced Notice of Arrival” will safe of work. From what I’m observed so far it’s just additionally work … But it makes people happy.