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.

S 18° 39.430,
W 173° 58.977

We arrived safe and sound in Vava’u after an epic sail from NZ to Tonga.

This time, for inbound clearance, we got immediate told to use the customs dock. Lucky as we were, a customs officer came down to the dock and took our lines. This helped because the dock is not yacht friendly at all. We are the guests and are happy with what we got.

After waiting for health clearance for quite some hours, we moved to a buoy in front of the mango restaurant. I moored there in October 2024.

Last night I felt asleep before my head touched the pillow. I was a bit exhausted from this sail. It was the most difficult on MaRe so far and is in the row with two other difficult sails I had in the 90s on monohulls in Japan.

From friends we met again here in Vava’u we learned that all boats sailing from NZ got beaten up. So we are nothing special.

Today on Saturday we left early for going at land. In the restaurant I touched base with the owner of the restaurant so w are known again.

Walking through the streets good memories came back. First I walked the streets with Shigeo and later with Boh.

My visit to the dental department was only partially successful. About 3 days ago an inlay fell out of a tooth. I got it made 30+ years ago in Japan. I can’t complain.

The doctor told me they don’t have the needed cement here on Vava’u and it takes a month to get from Tongatapu, the capital group of islands in the South of Vava’u. At the end we agreed on using a material for a permanent filling as a cement for my inlay. Sounds technically good to me. But, there’s always a but, it can only be done on Monday afternoon because there is no assistant on duty today. Island understanding. I’m looking forward to meet the friendly lady again on Monday.

A quick walk to the market, and I met again one of the market ladies from who we bought veggies an fruits in October 2024.
Bought some fresh fruits.

Joe, who’s mobile phone seems to have a short in the USB connector got a new one at the local Digicel shop; she is currently working on the set-up of her new phone.

In the next days I’ll upload a few narrations already written as their backs.

S 26° 40.408, E 178° 48.937

I’m lazy and MaRe is lazy.

MaRe was running nicely but then the wind took a few breaks. It seems it was exhausted from blowing strongly and consistently during the last days. In it’s breaks, the wind went down about 4 – 5 KN.. MaRe almost stopped. But then it picked up again.

Unfortunately the wind changed direction. Over the day from 140 deg to E and sometimes even north of E. This was definitively not the nicest move by the wind.

As I did not want MaRe to run a closed hauled course, I started setting the wind vane angle to 60 deg STB. However, about half an hour ago I decided for an AWA of 56 deg. Tomorrow morning I’ll put up the small jib sail as a second head sail and then let her run on a closed haul course.

Nevertheless, we will have to tack at least twice before we reach the entrance in the northern Minerva Reef.

I continued a bit writing my Raymarine report and looked into the alarm setting that all alarms run through my new auxiliary alarm. I’m curious which setting enables all alarms to the auxiliary alarm. While doing this I also cleared up settings for displayed parameters. Wanted to do this since long. Today I did it

S 25° 20.404,E 179° 02.834

The wind direction continuous to be lousy. With east and sometimes even north of east TWD, we are about 45 deg off from the WPT we want to go to. It’s too early to tack already now. Tomorrow we will have to tack.

I set the small jib as a second head sail. This because MaRe should be a bit faster with the two head sails. To establish a real proof of my assumption is pretty difficult and time consuming. “I never attempted it!”, says a physicist.

When a rain front approached from east, I reefed the genoa. To gain more speed at an AWA of 48 deg, qI flattened the headsails and adjusted the main sail traveler a bit to windward. Tell tales are streaming nicely.

All the sail work was a good exercise for Joe. She picks up things. As homework she got certain chapters in two books marked for studying. The combination of theory and practical work is what IMHO helps people to grow into new fields.

Where will be be tomorrow morning?
Where will we tack?
How is the sea condition at the entrance of the narrow channel inside the reef?

S 30° 17.727,E 177° 37.262

At noon I calculated the day distance again. It turned out to be “only” 178 NM. We are again ahead of the planned sailing time up to the northern Minerva Reef.

Although the nights are still a bit chilly – I needed a blanket while sleeping on the salon sofa during off watch at night – temperature rises. Now at 1400 h I’m sitting with short sleeved shirt beside the open salon door and feel comfortable. The thermometer shows 21 degC. In 450 NM, at the Minerva Reef, a temperature of 23 degC is forecasted. We are approaching the barefoot route again!

Joe feels after dinner and breakfast still good. This gives hope that she fed the fishes only as a start up exercise.

I worked for quite a while on longer email to the CEO of Raymarine. He asks for feedback and I’m give him feedback. It just takes time to write down what I experienced in almost 10 years in the way that all is understood.

I’m also enjoying watching the blue ocean again. The deep blue and the shiny sunlight on the smallest ripples on the water surface. The swell got longer, about 100 m with a wave height of still around 3 m. Very comfortable sailing. I’m back out on the ocean again and like to be here.

Joe gets used to work in the galley while MaRe is moving. That’s good because she wants to see how she can sail in a few years on her own.

Just now the coffee is ready in time for the typical German coffee time at 1500… Sounds as of I have every day at 1500 my coffee.

S 31° 55.362,
E 176° 46.335

This is the location at which in writing this narration. I’ll use the location information from now on

Due to a not functioning Starlink, several narrations will be uploaded the same time when I get internet access again.

Yes, MaRe made 180 NM in the first day out. That’s pretty good and also enough. I’m cruising but racing. It looks as if she will make it again.

Starlink doesn’t work yet. The chatbot, which I can reach through the Starlink app, is too stupid to understand my situation and a human support can only be reached if I either have internet access for my emails or my NZ phone number works while I’m already about 300 NM away from NZ. A bit stupid.

The day was good and filled with admin work; listing up my expenses for a longer period of time. A big junk is done, but more is left.

Joe is doing fine again. I hope it stays like this. In the afternoon she started eating a bit and could keep it inside. In the late afternoon she said she’s hungry and she wants to cook. I recommended she cooks what SHE likes to eat. She made rice and chilli con carne, with the carne being a bit of chorizo. Delicious! After dinner she cleaned up during her first watch starting at 1900. I do it always like that so the one in kitchen can be on watch duty and do work in kitchen. It makes the first watch feeling shorter.

I’m now in my first watch, starting at 2200. For a while I worked on the Starlink issue with the result sketched above. One way or the other I’ll find the solution. Hope to meet a sailor at the Minerva Reef who had Starlink on board.

During the day the wind was weaker, thus I used the genoa at full size. However in the late afternoon the wind increased again and I furled the genoa a bit. With this size of genoa and the main with reef 2, she runs fine. She was several times above 12 KN STW and 12.6 KN is the peak I saw. Sufficiently fast because I’m cruising and not racing.

Today the ride is not as bumpy as yesterday, but sometimes, already in the evening, a bigger wave rocks MaRe and some things fell down.

I need to replace door lockers for stronger ones. Unfortunately I can’t attached the Japanese earthquake lockers for cabinet doors. They are really the best. I’ll use what I still have on board from the excellent carpenter in Spain.

It’s almost 0100 and my first watch comes to an end. How will Joe feel when she wakes up?

S 31° 55.362,E 176° 46.335

This is the location at which in writing this narration. I’ll use the location information from now on

Due to a not functioning Starlink, several narrations will be uploaded the same time when I get internet access again.

Yes, MaRe made 180 NM in the first day out. That’s pretty good and also enough. I’m cruising but racing. It looks as if she will make it again.

Starlink doesn’t work yet. The chatbot, which I can reach through the Starlink app, is a bit stupid but I could understand that I need to do a roaming setting in my account. To edit my account a 2 factor authentication is needed. This can only be done by email, for which I need internet or by SMS to my NZ mobile phone, which is a bit difficult when being 300 NM away from NZ. It could be arranged through the Starlink app. Unfortunately no no app developer thought about this.

The day was good and filled with admin work; listing up my expenses for a longer period of time. A big junk is done, but more is left.

Joe is doing fine again. I hope it stays like this. In the afternoon she started eating a bit and could keep it inside. In the late afternoon she said she’s hungry and she wants to cook. I recommended she cooks what SHE likes to eat. She made rice and chilli con carne, with the carne being a bit of chorizo. Delicious! After dinner she cleaned up during her first watch starting at 1900. I do it always like that so the one in kitchen can be on watch duty and do work in kitchen. It makes the first watch feeling shorter.

I’m now in my first watch, starting at 2200. For a while I worked on the Starlink issue with the result sketched above. One way or the other I’ll find the solution. Hope to meet a sailor at the Minerva Reef who had Starlink on board.

During the day the wind was weaker, thus I used the genoa at full size. However in the late afternoon the wind increased again and I furled the genoa a bit. With this size of genoa and the main with reef 2, she runs fine. She was several times above 12 KN STW and 12.6 KN is the peak I saw. Sufficiently fast because I’m cruising and not racing.

Today the ride is not as bumpy as yesterday, but sometimes, already in the evening, a bigger wave rocks MaRe and some things fell down.

I need to replace door lockers for stronger ones. Unfortunately I can’t attached the Japanese earthquake lockers for cabinet doors. They are really the best. I’ll use what I still have on board from the excellent carpenter in Spain.

It’s almost 0100 and my first watch comes to an end. How will Joe feel when she wakes up?

Lat: S 35°35.3135′
Lon: E 174°45.9575′

Today’s sailing is pretty bumpy. We have currently around 20 KN TWS and an AWS of around 80 deg. Wind waves are modest with around 2 n, and a light swell with a distance of less than 100 m between two waves and a height of 2 – 3 m. The short distance between the waves makes sailing pretty bumpy today

Although the average SOG is only 7.8 KN during the last hours, MaRe sails with peaks of 10 KN. Thus she’s fast.

Not the nicest weather for Joe to start a longer distance. But she appears to be a fighter.

S 35° 43.707, E174° 41.076

Once we reached the WPT South of Head Breams we set sail with
wind abeam on STB.

As Joe is a beginner, I decided for a safety approach and set main only with reef 2. Still MaRe make often more the 8 KN STW. A nice speed.

The sky is for most of the time completely overcast. The sea is grey. Temperature at the navigation desk is 15 degC.

However, with every NM we sail on course, we make about 0.9 NM good towards the warmth. I wonder when we feel the increase in temperature…

The generator was really a big source of troubles. This morning, during the last oil check before starting the engines, I saw again leaking coolant. You might be able to know the words coming out of the hole beneath my nose…. It started with F.

Looking careful at the coolant in the base plate and at the filler neck, I understood it can only come from a small leak of a hose. After arrival at Marsden Cove Marina, I went back to my beloved genset, removed again exhaust hose and the right side enclosure and found a tiny bit of coolant just below a coolant hose. I tightened the hose clamp very carefully a bit more. Then kept the genset running for an hour. No coolant leakage was to be seen. It was a very YES, which came out of the aforementioned hole beneath nose.

Now genset enclosures and exhaust hose is reinstalled again.

As a happy man in writing these lines.

Tomorrow morning at 1000 we’ll go to the fuel station, and bunker some 200 l diesel. I hope I can keep MaRe at the refuelling dock and make outbound clearance at the office by 1030. For that time I have an appointment with customs. The procedure should last only 10 min.

Then back to the boat and back into the Pacific Ocean and heading north where it’s will be warm again.

The wind looks good until next Friday. Then we need to see how the wind will be and what which sails we set how.

2 – 3 days at the Minerva Reef and then heading directly to Vava’u, Tonga…..

You all have the link to my blog (PredictWind) and track (Garmin). They are 2 different links now. With them you will see where we are and what we are experiencing.

Sailing is an adventure. I always say “yes” to new adventures. Günther you recognize your famous sentence?!