The PredictWind Offshore app is one most bug filled apps I’m still forced to use.

I use this app to download my weather forecasts and upload my narrations in my blog. This one is just an example.

I wrote last night another narration, which should appear before this one.

In the meantime I tried more than a dozen times to upload the previous narration. I even restarted my mobile phone at least a handful of times. The narration is still in this phone.

You might say that there could be the problem is in the IridiumGO phone and the satellite connection in between. However, I uploaded and downloaded a bunch of emails via the same satellite phone only using a different app. Therefore the IridiumGO phone and satellite connection can be excluded.

The problem is in the app and/or in the connection to the PredictWind servers. Visible for me is the app and that’s not functioning. Knowing so many other bugs this app, I conclude that also here the Offshore app is the culprit.

If you think that I’m frustrated with the Offshore app, you are right. If you think that I’m happy finding something better, you are right as well.

Now it’s 10:26 at UTC-10 and I’m curious when the last 2 messages get sent out.

Today I have the watch from 0100 to 0400.

After having done since work inside, I’m sitting now outside at the helm station. A pleasant warn wind reaches me. It simply feels good

When I’m looking STB the moon river of the half moon let’s the wind and swell wave well too be seen. We have wind waves of about 1/2 m to a 1 m. The swell is a bit difficult till be recognized and judged. Maybe 1 1/2 m high but less then 100 m apart.

Wind varies between 12 and 20 KN and MaRe’s STW goes from mid 5 KN to 8 KN. Not bad für having only the genoa unfurled.

MaRe runs smoothly through the nightly sea.

My mind is occupied with the arrival at Raroia. Do we get a good timing for the passage into the lagoon? Which route do we take across the lagoon to the eastern inner side of the lagoon?
How good so we see the commies down at the ground?

I’m tired tonight. Very tired although I slept almost at least 4 hours. I might take a 15 min nap. It helps.

I took 2 naps and I’m feeling better now.

The decision to use only the genoa proved to be right. The wind turned even more towards N. Thus, we are perfectly fine in respect to the direct line and speed.

Today it’s back! 100 % back. The “lovely” monkey with the tin tool.

In the morning we had nice sailing wind just a little bit N of E.

But then the “lovely” monkey with the tin tool appeared at the NE horizon and started deviating the wind more and more N. Not that much at once, but also it closed the throttle of the wind. Ok. No problem. We change from reef 2 in the main to reef 1 to gain speed in the weaker wind.

As soon as the main was up with reef 1 and the genoa fully unfurled, I saw the “lovely” monkey with the tin tool deviating the wind even more N. Too much N for sailing somehow on course with the main and the genoa.

Ok, I thought. You deviate the wind and I get the main sail down and use only the genoa as a simple countermeasure.

However, the “lovely” beast, yes, it is a beast, closed the wind throttle. Wind speed went down to 6 KN TWS and fluctuated between 7 and 10 KN. Not much for a genoa.

I still have a joker I thought. At this wind speed me new gennaker, my Big Blue, can pull us forward much faster. It’s size is 123 m2 compared to the 49 m2 of the genoa.

We all worked on setting up the gennaker. There are quite some things to be done until the sock of genoa can be pulled up.

Still running with the genoa, we laid out the 2 genoa sheets. Then we furled the genoa. OBM started the engines just to make sure we are somehow on course.

Next we did the rest of the preparation work. While doing I found that I better get a soft shackle for the gennaker’s clew. For the time being, I found a work around.

When everything was ready for pulling the sock up to release the gennaker full size, I felt it’s better to check the TWS again. The monkey with the tin tool opened the throttle. We had a TWS of 14 – 16 KN. Just the wind speed at which I would need to douse the gennaker.

I lost again!

At the end I decided to use only the genoa and accept the speed I can get with.

When the gennaker was stored away and genoa was out again and opened with the barber hauler, the monkey with the tin tool got tired playing his “nice” games with us.

Result: MaRe runs fine with only the genoa on the direct course to next WPT being about 100 NM away.

Yesterday, when we reefed the main sail, we dressed MaRe into her pyjama; main sail at reef 2 and the genoa fully out. Until we need to put a reef into the genoa wind can increase above 20 KN.

The first part of the night, starting at 1900, was not too fast but also not slow.

Then past 0400 a squall came closer and we got 20 KN is wind. MaRe really ran down here course.

With TWS of more than 15 KN, right now 17 – 18 KN, she runs between high 7 and low 9 KN STW. This and the crew still in their cabins, I’m reluctant to change to reef 1. With reef 1 she would most like run 10 KN and maybe a bit more. But there are also a bunch of very low hanging nimbus clouds around us. Each of them has its own wind system.

While I wrote above line, one of them load its wind on us. Pretty quickly we had 26 KN TWS and for safety reasons I reduced the genoa. A bit slower, but safer.

The swell got higher now. Sometimes it reaches 2 m and runs at angle of around 110 PRT on to MaRe. Wind waves are above a meter. While sitting in the helm station I hope I don’t get a full body shower. However, so far I’m dry.

Looking at the TWD (True Wind Direction) I hope it turns back to E. Currently it blows from ENE.

I like to watch MaRe how she deals easily with the waves. She just climbes up the waves and glides – never surfs – them down. Only very seldom she bounces hard into the back of a wave in front of her.

Caused by the position of the sun, the sea mostly appears blue-grey. It’s a powerful come color showing that she requests respect and will not tolerate fooling around.

Extrapolating what she made in the last 9.8 h under sail, the day distance will become 165 NM. Pretty good for sailing most of the time in her pyjama.

Will see soon the real day distance.

At 2200 Ruslana woke me up because my watch started.
I had a good sleep because she needed to wake me up only once. I expected more often.

The reason for waking me up was that the wind shifted slowly more N and MaRe, running in wind vane mode turned too far E and the COG was out of the given range.

I took the chance to explain how the wind angle in this mode can be adjusted. I assume that she made a few adjustment; I’ll ask her tomorrow.

I was also spoiled by Ruslana. She warmed up some left over from yesterday’s evening’s warm meal. Then she went to bed.

To be even spoiled more, my OBM made a thermos of hot coffee. If I only would know where my 2 ladies stored the cookies!

I continued baking my bread but saw that another sailboat showed up on the AIS screen. The SV SAUDE ETERNA, a 15 m sail boat with a UK registration, sailing a COG of 249 deg with a bit less then 5 KN. This information I can see from her AIS data.
My AIS indicates further that we reach the CPA (Closes Point of Approach) of 450 m at a TCPA (Time to CPA) of about 1 1/4 h, I need to have a good eye on this while working on my bread.

So far she is still 5 NM away from us in direction of 10 o’clock seen from MaRe. No lights are too be seen yet.

I wonder where she comes from.
Will er have a short VHF radio chat?

For me it’s one of many nights I sailed in the wide Pacific Ocean.

My OBM sailed some nights with me in the Mediterranean and Caribbeans and one in the Marquesas.

For Ruslana it’s the first. The sea is very friendly, not too bumpy, and not rough at all. I asked her how she feels about this first night. “Overall it’s a positive experience!” she replied. I like this answer.

About 1715 I suddenly “smelled” an wind increased caused by squall E of us. We got the main sail down from reef 1 to reef 2 in a pretty short time. With the genoa fully unfurled and main with reef 2 the squall came closer but didn’t really hit us. With TWS of 17 – 19 KN MaRe accelerated to almost 10 KN. This was nice and fast sailing. Unfortunately the winds from the squalls never last long. The “Kartoffelacker”-sea which follows a squall, was not too bad.
(Kartoffelacker-sea is literally translated a “potato field – sea”. It means, no structure in the waves, only bumps, like a potato field after the potatoes have been harvested.)

Currently we have 4 Bft wind and MaRe makes good progress through the night.

For Ruslana I prepared a cheat-sheet with a few parameters and their limits. She also got a first introduction on how to use the radar system. Once there is a parameter our of the given range or there is something on the radar screen, she will wake me up

In nights like this, I’m always laying down on the sofa in the salon, fully dressed so I can be up and functioning within a second.

Questions will come – that’s normal – and I have to wake up to give answers or do something.

How often this night…

When I looked at the weather forecast at around 0600 it looked as if we can use the Big Blue all day long until sunset. But there’s always a but.

At 0800 we had breakfast in the cockpit and watch a pod of dolphins, about 30 animals swimming from one side of the bay to the other and back. Sometimes they jumped. Thus it seems they try to get and keep fishes in the bay.

At 0905, OBM lifted the hook and Ruslana steered out of the bay. I was sitting in the cockpit sipping my alcohol free morning cocktail. Gosh it’s wonderful to sail with 2 ladies doing all what needs to be done…

We pretty early went on the course to the next WPT almost 300 NM SSW of Tahuata. The up to 600 m high mountains have a strong lee effect. So we had even winds coming from more western than eastern direction.

By the time the wind became more stable I got already the impression that we will get more wind then forecasted. When we were clear of Cap Tehopeotekeho, we finally got the real wind: solid 4 Bft towards 5 Bft. Thus, the Big Blue was out of discussions. I decided for reef 1 and the genoa fully out. With these sails, we area running in average SOG of 5.4 KN
This shows, we currently have a strong current against us because the average speed through water is 6.2. The wind also varies in speed because sometimes we sail with 7 + KN.

It’s not MaRe’s top speed but a day distance of 130 NM can still be the result. Let’s see.

Now I have to work on my dough for a fresh bread later the afternoon.

It was a day with still a lot of activities.

I went twice into the water to finish the hull cleaning. They are now fine for a good speed. One knot more on speed over a distance of a bit more than 400 NM will reduce the time. Assuming an average SOG of 5 KN, makes a gain of almost a full day

As the outboard motor still makes troubles, we used the oars to get OBM and Ruslana at land. OBM needed a WLAN connection for some last work and Ruslana wanted to get fruits. Ruslana was successful and got a nice quantity of shaddocks (Pampelmuse) lime, and green banana.

If someone has an idea about a 4-stroke single cylinder motor, the symptoms are: It starts perfectly fine and runs for about 2 min then the motor stops. Opening the throttle fully it starts again and runs about 15 sec. When I removed the cover I saw fuel coming out of the air inlet. Somehow the motor gets too much fuel. In the next days I’ll try to find the route cause and hopefully a remedy. Should one have a repair hint, please send it to skipper-cat-mare@myiridium.net

By 0900, after breakfast we will lift the anchor.

Yesterday, at noon we left the Tahauku Bay of Hiva-Oa finally.

Some last minute preparations and the couple from SV Moana gave us a hand with the stern lines.

The anchor spot in the Tahauku bay with the stern with long lines was really a special one. Depending on the wind, MaRe moved forward until the long stern lines pulled her back. Then she accelerated and moved back towards the pier that it pulled on my nerves. At about 4 meters from the wall she finally got stopped by her anchor. This was always pulling a bit on my nerves.
It also was good time to leave this anchor spot because in the following night the next supply ship comes in. Then we cannot stay with the stern to the pier.

When getting out of the bay, there was, as forecasted, no wind to sail with. So we used the engines. After turning into the Canal du Bordelaise, we the pulled out the genoa but we didn’t gain much speed. The wind of 2 – 3 Bft was just too weak.

Being around the NW corner of Tauhata, we saw that the Hanamoenoa Bay was pretty crowded with boats. So I expected the Vaitahu Bay being also crowed.

It turned out this way. Thus, I chose an anchor spot at the N side of the bay. The hook is down at about 18 m of water and MaRe has almost 80 m of chain.

I’m now the third time in this bay, which normally has only winds from E with the wind coming down a valley. Yesterday in afternoon the wind blew from W.

As I want to have clean the hulls I started yesterday already and completed both keels.

OBM cleaned a part of the waterline where there always precipitations.

Finally, in the last daylight, I moved the outboard motor too the cockpit where I gave the carburator some love. After 3 – 4 month the carburator always needs a cleaning because the fuel filter doesn’t stop this very fine dirt.

About today I’m write at the end of the day

I needed to go back into the bay to complete the repair of the STBR engine.

This was quite a headache for me in advance. It’s there a space in the bay where I could drop the hook? I had no idea!

The alternative I had was going at the pier with two long lines from the stern and the anchor in front. At the end, this was what I had to do.

But, how to make such a maneuver with only the PRT side engine?

I found place at the pier and I was lucky. Lucky, because there was Mark, an American sailor who helped me. Once he got the lines at land, where the technician tied them at 2 pollards, Mark helped me with his dinghy to control MaRe’s bow to drop the anchor at a suitable spot.

My most tricky maneuver was done and MaRe was ready for the repair of the STB engine