19 01S 155 56W 29 Aug 2005
A day on passage in Harmonica:

This is the third day out from Bora-Bora and we expect 2 more days sailing before we reach Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. I lie dozing in the stern berth thinking that I should write an e-mail about the chain wheel which I ordered for our new anchor windlass, and it would be nice to write a circular letter to our friends about The Society Islands of French Polynesia, where we spent the month of August.

A passage always takes a few days to adjust to. We normally expect to feel comfortable after 3 days out. By that time the body has got used to the constant motion of the boat, and the routine of 3 hours on watch / 3 hours off. Day 1 away from Bora-Bora we had 20 to 35 knots of wind on a broad reach, but the sea made it uncomfortable with a washing-machine swell from some weather system in the south mixing with the wind-waves from the east. Day 2 the wind dropped off and the sea flattened out enough for soup at supper time from bowls and spoons in the cockpit. Today, I finished my morning watch at 5.00am and can get about 90 minutes sleep before the sun wakes me up again, so I lay dozing and planning the day at about 6.30 on day 3 and thinking that I would have porridge with sliced banana for breakfast before using the radio to exchange position & weather information with friends, and writing the letters.

Then the wind changed and there was a call from deck to help to change the whisker pole onto the other side. This is the 17 foot metal pole which holds out the jib while we are running with the wind behind us. (It used to be 22 ft long but when the headsail backed on the passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas, we broke it; then cut off the broken end with a hacksaw; screwed the fittings back onto the new end; and eventually found 3 coconut palms the right distance apart to set up a block and tackle to straighten out the residual bend). Anyway, with the jib on the new side, I made the porridge. Washing & dressing are cursory events while sailing in the tropics.

Time to start writing? Yes but the wind dropped so light that the wind vane could not steer any more, and we should start the engine. It is good to run it every few days to ensure that the batteries are charged and to run the water-maker which needs flushing regularly to ensure that bacteria don't build up in the membrane. The engine did not need running yet, but with no wind it was a good time to do it. However, it didn't start. Tried it twice and checked everything. It cranks well, so the batteries are OK, and last month's repair to the starting solenoid is not a problem. Get out the sockets and turn it over by hand and it feels OK so this must be a fuel problem - but why. Note that we are on the port tank which is below the engine so the fuel has to be sucked upwards. Bleed the fuel system and it still won't start. The glow plugs might have gone but measure 12 volts on them and they would not all burn out. The injectors could have clogged - they badly need changing but we don't expect them to all go suddenly and would rather do that in port in New Zealand. We remember that Harmonica's engine has a quirk that air in the return line seems to stop it running. Bleed the injector return lines, rebleed the injector lines then back to the pump and it starts.

Lunch time. The sea is flat and there is hardly a breath of wind so we motor on and play cards in the cockpit and read aloud some articles about New Zealand. The breeze picks up and we set full sail. By the time they are up & pulling, we can turn off the engine and make 5 knots. Time to start writing - we'll do a radio connection first and bring in e-mail. With the breeze we can steer with Sally, the wind vane, and turn off the auto-pilot, which makes a lot of interference on the radio. It is a good time of day for HF propagation to connect to stations in both California & New Zealand. Some e-mail must have got lost for a few days and we get a large quantity of current and out-dated weather information. There is a big high coming off the Tasman Sea NW of New Zealand which will give us reinforced SE trade winds and dominate our weather in a day or so, but first the forecasts show a tiny trough forming over Cooks and Niue which will make our winds back N then NW and finally SW - straight from where we want to go! This is the tropics - aren't we supposed to get trade winds all day every day from the same direction? Well they say that The Trades are unreliable in this part of the Pacific.

With west winds forecast, we alter course to keep further north so that we can hold this tack longer as the wind backs. As we do so, the wind starts to back already. Well its time for supper so lets put on the pressure cooker. By the time we have washed up, we are close reaching with the wind already NNW. Just time for an hour lying down before my first watch of the night.

Night time and the stars are out. The sea is still flat and sailing is good but we are sailing close to the wind which is still backing. Oh but I wasn't going to write about the day's events: My plan had been to write about the Society Islands. I'll write that and send it off soon.

Best wishes to you all

Jan, Dave & Harmonica.

PS The next day the wind did back to the west and on the last day it increased strong to gale force from the south, so it is good to be here in Rarotonga. What is more, there is a warm shower right behind the quay where Harmonica is moored. We are more than 20 degrees south now and we pulled out the quilt last night for the first time in a year or two.