New Caledonia to New Zealand: a full moon passage

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For the passage from New Caledonia to New Zealand we were joined by fellow Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania members/former officers Andrew Boon and Ian Turnbull. Andrew and Ian arrived at Ile des Pins on 11 October, so they were able to make a big contribution to our happy passage, not least helping us get ADAGIO ready to sail again.

For three weeks our passage weather challenge has been the forecasted headwinds on our track to New Zealand. Usually we like high pressure in the Tasman Sea, provided the HI center moves on along to the east. This is because, as the HI center approaches it brings headwinds to the north half of the passage. Then as the high moves off it brings favorable winds for the beginning of the passage. Very, very roughly, in October before the equinox, it could be a good time to sail out of Newcal when the HI center reaches a position north of NZ North Cape (at a latitude midway between Newcal and NZ). A fast boat like ADAGIO has a chance of keeping pace with a “typical HI” to avoid the headwinds and gales of the next approaching Tasman system.

Our problem has been a series of slow moving and intense Tasman Sea high pressure systems. As we watched eagerly for a high to move off we would see the models predicting a replacement high emerging off the Australian coast around 32S. The models were right. The result was the Tasman Sea high pressure was being continuously refurbished and was not moving east as we wished. In early October we also had the challenge of forecasted southeasterly (i.e., headwind) gales developing in the 30-34S zone approaching NZ. Both factors kept coloring the weather outlook “unfavorable” for our NZ passage.

Finally, on October 30th our routing discussions with Rick Shema indicate coming relief from the headwinds. We decide to sail on the 31st, expecting about a day of headwinds turning more westerly and beamy. We just hope the winds do not also go too light on us if the angles deepen as predicted. The good news is the Tasman looks like it will fill with high pressure – so if the winds do go light on us we are unlikely to encounter on-the-nose gales approaching North Cape. When highs are moving smartly across the Tasman that is a very possible development — the first 2/3 of the passage has favorable winds, then the next high system kicks up southerly quadrant headwinds in the NZ “approach zone”.

Before heading out of Noumea, given the lightish wind outlook, we loaded 1,100 litres of diesel to make darn sure we have enough fuel to motor or motorsail through any light winds.

The first part of the passage is going to be a beat, sailing as high as we can stand, as we want to preserve decent downwind angles in the second half of the passage. If we slide off too far to the west, then we are likely to be sailing dead-downwind in less than 10kn.

Andrew and Ian overcame their seasickness the first couple of days with sheer determination. By the morning of 2 November the wind is down in the low teens, and the seas are down from 3 meters to 2 meters, so life aboard is more comfortable. Soon we will be fishing, enjoying moonlight silver seas, spotting the Wandering Albatross and meteorites burning up and a bit of playing with the dolphins.

By 4 November Ian is feeling eager to go to the top of the mast to investigate a rythmic squeak — diagnosed as the reacher halyard sheave (a bumpy trip in that seaway but fortunately no major bruises). Earlier on the 4th Ian had logged “All quite on the floating restaurant. Can recomend the banana cake.”

This will be a rare-for-ADAGIO full moon passage. The official full moon will be about the half-way point on 3 November. So long as the skies are clear we should have some glorious night watches!

October 31, 2009: After enjoying Ilot Maitre we had a reasonable weather outlook for the passage to New Zealand. We hoisted the mainsail at 0737 and began beating towards Amedee Light, which marks the primary reef pass into New Caledonia’s western lagoon.

Following are excerpts from the ADAGIO log.

0737 Depart for New Zealand. We hoisted our mainsail while still attached to the mooring buoy. Andrew, Ian and Steve pushed two of the three lower battens further into the sail to get rid of the wrinkles. Worked like a charm.

0930 Tacking to Amedee Light , Passe de Boulari. Sailing freeish at apparent wind angle (AWA) 42 tacking through bit less than 90 deg.

1049 DAY 1: Passage New Caledonia to New Zealand: Clear of Passe de Boulari (south) now off soundings. Impressive reef breaks both sides, especially to port.

1110 Wind has backed a LOT. We’re steering to apparent wind angle (AWA) 45 in 19kn true wind. Now bashing into head seas to Ricks AP1. First reef in main plus jib.

1147 Wind has eased slightly and veered 20 deg. Small squall ahead might be responsible for this. Seas over the windows which are wonderfully clear due to Rain-X treatment by crew. We saw a lone gannet circling the boat. We can see a catamaran ahead to leeward. Tried hailing MIND THE GAP, but no answer. The boat is bucking like a bronco. Ian freed the std jib tweaker line that was jammed under the machinery space hatch, at the hinge.

1245 After we passed through the small squall with a little rain, our true wind speed (TWS) picked up and veered more. Seas up the front windows and some down the steps into the cockpit. This might be the best wind we have the entire passage. It would be more cofortable if the seas would go down, as forecast for tomorrow.

1310 The sloop BRETON hailed us as we passed under them. Also enroute OPUA (French accent, good English). BRETON is 35-40ft sailing 5-10 deg higher than Adagio, but at least a knot slower. NOTE: we never saw or heard of BRETON in New Zealand. They may have been turned back by the bashing.

1443 Seas continue to build, ride is getting noticeably rougher. It’s tempting to crack off 5 or 10 degrees, which we will do if it gets much rougher. Our average course over ground (COG) for the past 2 hours is 188 deg. as header (veering) tendency seems to have stabilized around 120 deg magnetic.

1754 I came up 10 deg as the seas have eased a bit, and the course was going too far west. Ian trimmed the sails. This got us back on course. The sun is setting.

2104 Requesting new GFS model for 4 days, just for the immediate area. Seas still rough, but down a bit (to 2.5?) from 1600 hours.

2138 No ship targets on AIS nor radar targets within a range of 36 nm.

2245 Wind has backed a lot – around to 87 deg. Wind speed trend is down.

November 1, 2009

0040 DAY 2

0103 The moon is almost full. Lovely. We have been experiencing some big wave washes, and underwing slams earlier in the day. Calmer tonight.

0206 Wind is back up a bit as is boat speed.

0646 Around 0300 wind rose to 23 true wind speed (TWS) to 28 apparent wind speed (AWS) –> sea state built up until we were ocean walloping again. So we cracked off 10 deg to reduce banging.

0911 Speed over ground (SOG) is frequently 10 kts or more, but mostly around 9-9.5 kts. Seas are still up, and a beautiful dark blue. Sky looks like a Dutch sky, all types of clouds. We need to keep a close watch on the wet towels under the leaking front window portlight behind the Azimuth compass. Andrew said that water came down onto the nav station table top near the engine keys. He has been wringing out the white towel that is catching the drip. I added a couple more towels.

0930 193 nm from 0930 to 0930 (first day). I closed the back door because salt spray was coming in. Water was washing down the backs of the cockpit seats next to the winches, and out the scuppers to the floor of the cockpit. Water cascades down the cockpit stairs. SOG hits 11 kts from time to time. Occasional Very Big underwing slams.

1049 195 nm from 1049 to 1049 second day. Had to estimate log at 1049 from last entry at 0911.

1538 Set full main, retrimmed for best close hauled velocity made good (VMG). Got new wx model and did new optimal routings — We want to sail high and fast then tack on stbd when we are headed about 1102 afternoon.

1651 8kn SOG after full main wind increased to 14 kn range – thought it was just a cloud overhead but the lift and windspeed have persisted.

1731 TWS increases and decreases. More squalls ahead, so we might pick up some speed again soon. I put away our New Caledonia and Pacific islands charts, and got out our New Zealand charts. The nearly full moon is off to port, white against a powder blue sky.

November 2, 2009

0047 DAY 3 All quiet

0121 Beautiful moon-lit night. Baro is up again. Seas have decreased with the decreasing wind speed. 650 nm to the Bay of Islands

0501 Pilot 2 back to ECON. Wind down to TWS 10, seas down to mostly swell.

0602 Motorsailing on port engine at 2200 rpms.

0850 3 birds flew past. Rain cells about 9 nm.

1011 A gentler motion over the seas this morning, in bright sunshine. Ian and Andrew are setting up our fishing line. Yesterday a fish took the hooks. ETA Opua 5 Nov 2135 hrs.

1200 I tested sail only with no engine, trimmed main+jib to 40 deg – only managed about 4 ot 5kn or 50% of polar.

1248 Tacked onto STBD, furled jib. Strapped main in for about AWA 25 => pilot on AWA 26. Switch to STBD engine 2400 rpms to balance helm.

1652 Motoring. Seas going down.

1816 Sunset. No green flash, but very orange sky. Rick’s latest email message says to expect no wind for the remainder of the voyage. There are swells from the ESE.

2107 Stunning full moon to port about 45° altitude.

November 3, 2009

0059 DAY 4

0121 Change in TWD. We are into the westerlies. A silver night with moonlight shining on the clouds and water. 474 nm to North Cape, NZ.

0241 Occasional showers; gentle swells. Yesterday Andrew spotted several seabirds, and then we saw what might have been an albatross — very long wings and soaring above the wave tops.

0517 Wind up to 15 kn over the past 3 hours. Set reacher only.

0627 Trim reacher fro AWA 90 deg.

0655 Try steering to AWA 95 deg – seems to pay off adding 0.5 to 1kn in boat speed.

1148 Wind has veered again –>> about 5 to 6 deg off course. Will retrim for deeper angle.

1155 Retrimmed to AWA 110 as wind veers.

1429 Now through the squall line, wind dropped from 18 kn to 8 kn, backed 50 deg – so far. Furled reacher, tried jib, but had to steer 10 -15deg low of course. Probably made a little VMG as jib added about .5 to .9kn

1648 No more rain, quietly motoring.

1716 8.3kn boat speed. We unfurled the reacher and turned off the engine, then headed off 10 deg to port. Nice speed, and quiet. Beautiful clouds in a blue sky. An albatross just flew past our port side.

1810 Switched pilot to AWA 65 deg – seem to have about .7 to 1.0 kn foul current. Data trend indicates veering continues + increasing TWS.

1850 While Andrew on HF radio, we experienced another pilot glitch while steering to wind angle.

2033 Squeak at masthead. Stopped by unloading reacher by steering off.

2127 Just saw meteor burning out at about 1 o’clock or bearing 100 deg magnetic.

2241 Wind down to 6 kts speed down to 3 kts. Furled reacher.

November 4, 2009

0049 DAY 5 All quiet. No fish, no meteorites.

0108 Full moon off our port quarter — big and beautiful. Seas are down. Sky clouding up ahead. Easy going on this beautiful night, motoring along towards NZ . 319 nm to North Cape.

0405 All quite on the floating restaurant. Can recomend the banana cake.

0638 Changed pilot to 113 as currents change.

0851 Several albatross seen

0945 266 nm to North Cape, NZ. Light winds and swell just forward of our starboard beam. Blue sky with a mix of clouds. A quiet morning. Ian and Andrew are setting out several fishing lines, determined to catch something. Andrew was listining to Australian radio when I came on watch. He has prepared a list of frequencies for us to refer to. Higher frrequencies best in the morning. Lower frequencies at night. Last night Adrew tuned into Tas Coast Radio, and he gave our position report, and spoke to John Cerruty on ARIEL who are CYCT members. They are currently in Pittwater, having sailed from SE Asia, and are on theri way home to Hobart.

1045 Set reacher at AWA 60 deg. Halyard squeaks are back, of course.

1117 Ian going up the mast to inspect the reacher halyard and take photos.

1355 Furl reacher; back to port engine

1652 All quiet, no fish but a beautiful afternoon.

1841 Got a fish on port Shimano but lost it when drag increased.

1941 Current is setting our course to stbd.

November 5, 2009

0047 DAY 6 All quiet. Wind indicator doing 360s. Radio Australia on HF M Ch 59-79 incl.

0507 Wind has veered to dead downwind (DDW) , at 10 kts; now useless.

0854 Motor off, reacher and jib set. Our friends aboard Mind The Gap are 15 M astern, Southern Sky 30 M E.

0959 Getting ready to swap reacher for chute, spinnaker.

1041 Crew voted to keep with the reacher and jib. We gybed both, and are wing on wing with reacher on stb gybe. ETA for BOI is tomorrow 6 Nov., 1100 hours.

1226 Wind veered so furled jib and left reacher alone. Mind the gap 11 miles behind with full main and spinnaker doing 6.9kts in just 11 kts breeze.

1316 Set jib + reacher.

1700 Peaceful afternoon. Jib and reacher. Put VMC voice weather frequencies into Kenwood HF radio, ch 84-89.

1735 We were sailing about 5deg high of course – but after adjusting AWA too deep – try 111.

2105 35 nm from North Cape

November 6, 2009

0110 DAY 7: Wind refuses to back! Jib and reacher, dead down wind.

0125 Rain showers came up from astern. Misty. No need to rinse the salt off the sails when we are in port.

0154 The wind is backing steadily, allowing us to clear North Cape by 1-1/2 to 2 nm.

0226 I furled the jib and trimmed in the reacher, altering course to Taheke Roc waypoint. North Cape is 1 nm abeam to starboard. Wind continues to back.

0255 Wind backed suddenly about 90 degrees as we rounded North Cape. Furled the reacher and set the jib.

0316 Port engine at 1600 rpms. Needed to run the genset anyway. Need to hoist the main but will wait for Steve’s watch.

0517 After clearing North Cape the wind snapped down to SW 190 deg magnetic. We set main 2nd reef + jib steering AWA 50 deg. Ian and Andrew landed a nice Wahoo fish, and Ian filleted it. We ate all of it before making landfall.

0528 Cracked off to AWA 58 to lay Cavalli Islands on course of 128T – ride is much better now with main at 2nd reef

0827 Ship (bulk carrier?) at 4.4nm 74mg on AIS and radar.

0906 Main to full hoist.

1346 Cavalli Islands to starboard

1414 Turn for Ninepin – caught another barracuda but it got off taking the skirted lure Andrew bought for us

1613 Ninepin – furl the main

0752 DAY 7: Landfall New Zealand. We arrived at Opua Marina at 1800 hrs on Friday 6 Nov, just at the Twilight race was starting. The race boats sailed past going out as we were coming into the harbor. Great photos. The 18 ft skiff was leading. Customs and Immigration had closed. We were the only boat on the Customs Dock, but by morning there were 8 others. On Saturday morning we were processed with no dramas, and moved to an end tie on E dock. David Radtke came to wave hello on Friday, and deliver our mail to the marina office. Steve visited Alan and Pauline Legge while Dorothy shopped for food in Paihia with Lorna from Mind the Gap. We invited David and Susan aboard for dinner on Sunday night.

2022 We anchored in Waipiro Bay, just off the port quarter of MAGIC DRAGON. Jane and Shelly came aboard ADAGIO for coffee and bickies, then at 1800 hours we went aboard MAGIC DRAGON for champagne and nibbles. We caught up on a lot of news and stories.

4. Hawaii to New Caledonia — Landfall

Aug 1, 2009 to Aug 15, 2009: landfall New Caledonia 0511 August 15th.

We lost our sailing breeze for the rest of the passage south of Tuvalu on August 7th. From here to New Caledonia we will be mostly motor-sailing on one engine, with intermittent teasers of 10 to 14kn wind speed where we set full main and reacher. The light conditions gave us time for more reading, more successful fishing and some very fine sunrises and sunsets.

On August 13 – 15 we logged the slowest passage speeds we’ve experienced so far (ranging from 2.5 to 3.3kn over the bottom). We are motor-sailing very slowly to delay our arrival in Havannah Pass to avoid the tide rips. As it turned out we needn’t have worried, but when the Pilot bold-faces their warnings to mariners we favor the cautious option.

August 8, 2009

1650 Set jib + full main. Can’t steer with pilot set to apparent wind angle because too unstable.

1849 #2 mainsail batten came loose 2-feet due to flogging in jerky sea light air. Dorothy restitched with help from Leo and George. Leo removed old stitching – the batten had pushed out above the velcro, so the stitching was not adequate to keep batten trapped by velcro. Also velcro is old and is not holding the batten in the way it should.

2137 Mainsail furled completely. Motoring only, no sail.

August 9, 2009

0100 Leo and I removed the main halyard from the sail because it was banging against the mast. Swell is still moving the boat around, making work a little tedious. Otherwise a pretty moon, puffy clouds, and only distant small squalls on the radar. A peaceful night, waiting for the trade winds to return. We seem to have a 1 kt favorable current.

0544 Set full main + jib. Moved Balmoral waypoint to leave it to port so we can sail free at AWA 48 deg.. Can take reef either side. Squalls at 20nm off port quarter.

0846 Freed sheets 20 degrees, to allow more W course. 143 nm in past 24 hrs, slowest day so far due to slow motoring in no wind.

1021 Furled the jib and set the reacher. ADAGIO is flying along now across bumpy seas. At this speed we will be at Havannah Pass on August 12. Breeze for sailing and for cooling the air temperature aboard. 718 nm to Havannah Pass. Now that the engines are off we will resume turning the genset on and off by one person going forward into the machinery space to connect and disconnect the wires.

1056 We altered course to AWA 90 deg. for better motion and to make the Balmoral Reef waypoint. Steve says since we do not have AWA, apparent wind on the reacher is OK as long as the TWD remains aft of the beam. Leo put out the fishing line.

1140 A fish took our lure and got off before we could reel him in. No gear lost this time.

1239 As I was doing the log we had a strike. Everyone is in the cockpit . I took Adagio to 130 deg. to slow the boat to reel in the fish. Over half an hour later a nice fat tuna was landed. Filleting and cleaning took another hour!

1327 Full main only until Dorothy finishes cleaning the tuna. Then back to reacher.

1411 Reacher reset. Bowling along at 9 knots in a pretty, smooth sea.

1921 Altered course to leave Balmoral shallow patch to starboard. Angles too tight, so started engine.

2054 We are heading west between the two Balmoral reefs, then will turn SW to our waypoint south of Vanuatu. At this rate we are due at Havannah Pass on Aug. 13, give or take. Sailing under full main and reacher. Moon has just appeared as a golden orb in the east, before being obscured by clouds on the horizon. Seas seem less boisterous than this afternoon.

August 10, 2009

0056 Altered waypoint to Aneityum Island.

0231 Plotted waypoint about where Rick forecasts cold front passage.

0256 Maybe 0.5kn gain in boat speed. Not much. Shook out first reef in the mainsail. Then first dialed up 20 deg COMPASS steering. Traveler was down 60%. Just kept luff tension tight.

0258 Two rain squalls off the starboard bow, 12nm ahead.

0258 Change pilot from COMPASS steering to to 80 deg apparent wind angle. I’m planning to sail a bit low of rhumb for better angles in light stuff after cold front.

0332 Still true wind speed varies 16-18 kts, lots of 11 knots of boat speed over the ground.

0614 AWA set to 90 deg when TWS 15 kts. Wind is now slowly backing which brings us closer to course. Dawn is beginning off to port. There is a sharp banging sound to stbd of the guest bed which keeps Penelope awake. It might be chain in the anchor locker that’s knocking about. Sky is more overcast than usual. A band of dark grey clouds ahead. We could be sailing into a weather system. Although the radar is clear.

1344 Stowed main. Battens 2 and 5 removed. They had escaped luff batten pockets. All batten pockets except top two are showing wear at luff. We gybed boom out to port end of traveler to give a clear line for the battens to be pulled out past the mast.

1530 Motoring in 5 knots of wind.

1641 510 nm to Havannah Pass: 3 days 12 hrs. Gentle swell with wind ripples. A booby bird circled ADAGIO for a while, but did not land. Sky more and more overcast. According to SatC weather forecast, we have crossed the axis of the first trough and are 320 nm from the second trough. The forecast rains and squally thunderstorms have not materialized. We are peacefully motoring again, reading, napping, visiting.

1944 Jib up close hauled. This added about 0.8 to 1.0 knots, enough to offset the windage speed loss.

2159 Stbd engine, slow down a bit to reduce wave-bashing. BIG difference between 5kn and 6kn into seas.

2345 Wind speed 19 to 21 kn ; direction fairly stable.

August 11, 2009

0212 Seas rough. We must be crossing the cold front that Rick mentioned in his update. Moon overhead. Radar clear. Wind speed is decreasing slowly and slightly. 459 nm to Havannah Pass.

0432 Great circus ride and hoorah no more anchor rolling. George has put a tournequet on the chains. Loosened lazy reacher sheet which is now lying quietly along the deck and not flogging. Penelope will sleep better now.

0810 Hoisted damaged main sail to second reef + jib, engine OFF, charge 92P. Fill daytank for accurate range.

1206 Careering south at 5+ knots boat speed in very bouncy seas. When ADAGIO lands after flying she judders just like a dog shakes after a swim.

1300 Put second reef in main with jib set. Rocking and rolling. T hinking of setting the reacher.

1330 Set reacher + main with second reef . The GFS model says wind will back to 106T until 0811 12Z.

1558 The ride is smoother and faster and closer to our course to Havannah Pass. It’s a beautiful day, cooler than yesterday. The Nadi weather forecast shows a trough in our vicinity bringing squally thunderstorms and scattered showers, but we are not seeing it out of our windows, only lovely fair weather cumulus and blue skies.

2251 Vessel sighted 4nm ahead bearing 231.

2320 Pilot error. I turned pilot off then on again, then re-set it to mode Wind. We are very slowly gaining on the boat ahead of us, tracking it on radar. I hailed it on the VHF radio and received no response. I got Steve out of bed. He set up the radar to better track the other boat. On the stabilized binoculars I see one white light, so we are seeing the stern light probably of another sail boat.

2349 Not enough wind to keep the autopilot happy, so I turned on the port engine to 1600 rpms and set the pilot to compass mode to 219 deg. Main and reacher are happier. Pilot happy. Radar was hung so I turned it off then on again. Autopilot on Compass mode keeps the other boat safely off to our stbd side, unless he changes course.

August 12, 2009

0243 White light disappeared over the horizon on our beam, so we are leaving the other boat behind. They seemed to be asleep. Clouds clearing, moon shining.

0732 Calm dawn; no sign of breeze.

0821 An overcast, moist morning with the sun trying to peek through the clouds astern. Wind is very slowly increasing. 281 nm to Havannah Pass.

0948 Engine Revs up to 2300 rpms. Now in the South Sub Tropical Current – setting us 1 kn to WNW. Steering 30 degrees higher to counter the current and get more south.

1211 It’s raining.

1304 Set reacher and full main.

1412 Wind backed 90-100 deg putting us on course for Australia. Furled reacher and main. Motoring.

1658 Land Ho!! Aneityum Island off the starboard bow, at 40 nm distant.

2157 Persistant rain.

2221 Port fresh water transfer pump running continiously. Turned off. No 1 Fresh Water pump functioning correctly. Check tank water levels and water pump every half hour for this watch.

August 13, 2009

0509 Steve has set the radar for us to use the A/C Auto button to suppress the rain clouds to better see other targets. Turned on No. 2 fresh water pump that Leo had turned off after turning off the water maker. Still raining. Clean boat. 177 nm, 1 day, 12 hours, to Havannah Pass at our current speed.

0702 As dawn broke the persistant rain took off. Sea is silky calm

0832 large container ship Pacific Destiny passing to port on recriproal course bearing 180 deg. 4 miles away, course 55deg. Sun appeared for a brief moment through leaden skies.

1302 Engine off. Sailing under full main and jib, beating towards the SE, in anticipation of a wind change so we can tack and make our course. George earned another gold medal for repairing the port side head. Fair weather cumulus clouds surround us. Dorothy phoned the marina on the island of Lifou to ask if ADAGIO would fit into their marina. Our plan would be to make landfall there, and have Steve fly to Noumea to check us in to customs and immigration. The answer was “Non”. ADAGIO is too large. So we are still heading towards Havannah Pass. We checked the tidal current tables on the chart which are referenced to Zhangjiang, China, to plan to arrive at the pass at slack low tide.

1502 Tacked towards Mare Island 66nm ahead in very bouncy seas, big swells off port bow in 15 kts true wind after sailing for 10 miles at right angles to our course away from destination. We are experiencing southwesterly winds in the SE trades.

1824 Sewing machine in action driven by Penelope converting French bicolour into a tricolour, whilst Adagio powers to windward.

2158 Slow progress in a rough sea. Southern Cross off port bow.

2259 Brightest stars ever! Persied meteor showers. Earlier this afternoon as we were reefing the main sail, batten number four popped out of the batten pocket at the luff. The pressure on the sail forces the batten forward of the luff and the feeder at the luff of the sail cuts through the batten pocket fabric. Leo and George came forward to help remove the batten from the pocket and stow it along side the dinghy. We can no longer reef the main down wind without losing battens. Steve turned the boat up into the wind to finish taking in the reef. We furled the jib after an hour’s bashing to windward to give us an easier ride. So we are motor sailing with two reefs in the main.

2338 Ship on radar off our port bow, range 13.4 nm bearing 188.9 deg M, course 223.7 M, speed 15.7 kts on a course parallel to ours. Quarter moon astern in rain-catch position. 98 nm to Havannah Pass, 31 hours.

August 14, 2009

0200 Moon atern, stars ahead.

0518 Our first view of New Caledonia is Mare Island, sighted on radar at 24 nm distant.

0615 Visual Land Ho! Mare Island, New Caledonia.

0832 Beautiful morning. Pity about the southerly wind direction. Slow progress in a lumpy sea.

1420 Land! Grande Terre sighted from 43 miles. By sunset, several peaks were in view.

August 15, 2009

0511 Landfall New Caledonia. We are 7.28 nm to our Havannah Pass waypoint. We have picked up the navigation light both visually and on the radar. ETA 1 hour 40 minuttes. Seas are calm. Quarter moon and stars. George and Leo took Steve’s watch. Stave stayed up last night to convert waypoints on our chart which is not chart datum WGS84.

1830 Arrive Noumea, New Caledonia, 3,623 nautical miles from Hawaii. As we approached Petite Rade, a nasty squall flattened the seas and reduced visibility. We had short tacked all the way from Canal Woodin to arrive before the official offices closed for the day. Sadly a loud “BANG” indicated that the bolt from the end of the boom had sheered so the main had to come down. It’s time we finished this amazing voyage. We berthed at the Visitor’s pontoon in Port de Moselle, most happy to have arrived safely and soundly, with all of our fingers and toes in tact, and all of our crew still on board, and still smiling.

We had traveled 3,623 nautical miles in 23 days, with an average of 156 nautical miles traveled per day.

Daily distances made good:

Day	Date	Time of Day	Log	Distance
1	7/23/09	1005	3739	175
2	7/24/09	1039	3914	196
3	7/25/09	1007	4110	225
4	7/26/09	1056	4335	192
5	7/27/09	1041	4527	203
6	7/28/09	959	4730	170
7	7/29/09	1036	4900	115
8	7/30/09	1020	5015	153
9	7/31/09	1038	5168	163
10	8/1/09	916	5331	217
11	8/2/09	1030	5548	194
12	8/3/09	924	5742	162
13	8/4/09	955	5904	177
14	8/5/09	1019	6081	171
	8/6/09
15	8/7/09	923	6252	156
16	8/8/09	1021	6408	146
17	8/9/09	1021	6554	184
18	8/10/09	1022	6738	132
19	8/11/09	1010	6870	143
20	8/12/09	1022	7013	127
21	8/13/09	1030	7140	106
22	8/14/09	1132	7246	84
23	8/15/09	1030	7330	32
			7362

3. Hawaii to New Caledonia — Best Sunrise, more booby pics

Aug 7, 2009:
… was August 7th, an easy pick. “Penelope and Dorothy were changing watches when the best sunrise of the passage occurred.”

2. Hawaii to New Caledonia — Crossing the Equator

Aug 1, 2009 to Aug 6, 2009:

To frame our evolving weather situation for this stage of the passage, here is Rick’s wx update received via Sailmail Sunday, July 26, 2009 3:18 AM

Hi Steve:

You are making great progress! There was an article about Adagio’s voyages in Latitude 38 daily electronic newsletter today. Very interesting. You have sailed a lot of miles.

Weather Summary:

1. As of 26 Jul 00Z

2. High pressure ridge dominates your weather until south of 10N. Winds continue to be ENEerly direction in the 20kt range.

3. On Jul 27th, direction backs to NEerly 20kts then abates to 15kts by Jul 28/2100Z. Approaching 10N, winds abate further to 10-13kts

4. ITCZ: Is active with deep convection, embedded thunderstorms and squalls between 160W to 170W. Downdraft winds in squalls have been measured by satellite to 40-50kts recently. Last record in the area between 165W to 170W and south of 10N indicated Eerly winds in rain at 20-25kts. The southern boundary of the ITCZ is near 02 30N where the winds veer to SEerly.

5. Route: You may want to avoid the area of deep convection between 160W to 170. Therefore suggest adjust to AP1 10N 175W. Then AP2 to 04N 175W. Crossing ITCZ may offer less chance of encountering the severest of squalls and thunderstorms. I realize this may put the apparent wind angle near 180deg. Therefore, suggest adjusting course as necessary for safe ride.

6. Forecast (to adjusted AP1 and AP2)

Date/Time UTC Wind kts Sig Wv ft

26Jul0600-28Jul1200 NE 18-23 5-7

28Jul1200-29Jul1800 NE 12-18 4-6

29Jul1800-31Jul1200 NE-SE 2-12 2-4

7. Sky conditions: Partly to mostly cloudy with isolated rainshowers to 10N. South of 10N, mostly cloudy with increased chances of squalls and thunderstorms.

We crossed the Equator today, August 1st, roughly the halfway point in our passage to New Caledonia. The equatorial weather doesn’t favor our original routing via Apia, Western Samoa. So we have elected for ‘Plan B’ which is Hawaii direct to New Caledonia.

Our course to avoid the ITCZ took us too far to the west for Apia to be a sensible stopover. We made it through the ITCZ with no dramas, having to motor for only one day. Now we are in the SE trade winds, and enjoying a brisk sail across benign seas beneath starry skies. It does not get better than this. Below are samples from our ship’s log for the second week of our voyaging.

August 1, 2009

0004 We are half way through our Gatorade instant mix powder which we turn into “Jungle Juice” over ice cubes. I made a banana cake yesterday and it is slowly disappearing. We estimate 10 days remaining to New Caledonia. We have plenty of food, but the fresh produce is running low. We’ll cross the Equator at about midnight tomorrow. We have one Pollywog aboard (George). The radar is clear; only a few wispy clouds in the sky which is filled with moonlight. We are looking forward to the full moon in a few days. Weather forecast is for more of the same wind and seas south of the Equator.

0352 Beautiful night quarter moon shining across the sea, wind and speed steady, sea down.

0618 Set reacher with 1st reef main – picked up 2.5kn at least and decreased AWS by 1 kn.

0853 Set full main. Headed a bit to around 96mag. Dorothy thinks yesterday’s rough seas may be due to the Equatorial counter current.

0916 Making good speed in moderate conditions.

1405 Boat spd between 8-10 kts under full main and reacher. Steve and Leo replaced the failed port water transfer pump (which also serves as an instant backup to our primary dual pressure water pumps).

1740 Changed B&G damping to 30 seconds on boat speed and TWS.

1952 Quiet period as we approach the Equator. Today is also our daughter’s birthday!

2207 We just crossed the Equator – George inducted to order of Shellbacks by King Neptune accompanied by a bottle of Charles Heidsieck champagne — which George & Penelope hand-carried halfway around the planet for this occasion.

2352 Wind wandering and the sea is flat and velvet with the moon shining.

August 2, 2009

0135 Course to steer (CTS) 216 degrees, leaving Winslow Reef to port. Steering AWA 60 deg watching actual course closely. Reacher trimmed about as tight as possible.

0617 We continue to make 9 kn over the bottom in 12 kn TWS. All night long ADAGIO has glided across benign seas, maintaining her course under an exceptionally brilliant stary sky. It does not get better than this!

August 2, 2009

0849 Glorious morning, sun shining, already over 80 deg F, seas calm, ADAGIO rushing along.
1030 Wind backing.

1147 Success to the fisherman: 7 lb Yellow Fin Tuna landed after repaired line had been set for less than 20 minutes.

1402 Reacher sheet leads reset to give clearance from deck.

1644 This is some of the most beautiful sailing ever, under full main and reacher, surrounded by puffy cumulus clouds. We lunched on tuna sashimi in a soy and ginger dipping sauce. We’ll poach the remainder of the fish in soy and mirin with sesame seeds and green onions for dinner. I put up our IKEA triangular awning over the cockpit for shade. It made a big difference on this hot afternoon.

2012 Twenty or more dolphins came swimming and leaping towards us from astern, and played in our bows for a while. Pacific White-sided dolphins we think.

August 3, 2009

0202 Moon almost full, ahead. Weather forecast for our course includes two Convergence Zones and two troughs. Seas are up a little so the ride is slightly bumpy. Otherwise, nothing has changed except for the veering wind. We turned the boat down to 120 AWA so that Leo could go forward to the machinery space and make the connection while Dorothy started the genset in the shop. Will check the genset every 30 minutes, while the batteries are charging. They started off at 59 percent at 0200 hours. This is the procedure that we follow to allow us to continue to use the genset in spite of a problem with it. Radar is clear. Sky is clear. Leo showed me that we are 16 nm above our course to the next waypoint, but not to worry at this time. We’ll make more easting in the morning.

0343 True wind speed has decreased and brought the boat speed down, but only temporarily.

0821 We furled the reacher and set the jib, and altered course to windward by 15 degrees. This will enable us to make back the easting that we had lost during the night as the wind veered. We have traded boat speed for distance. A beautiful morning, fair weather cumulus clouds all around, blue sky up above, seas are down. 356 nm to our waypoint near Funafuti.

0924 We are about 1,506 nm to Noumea, New Caledonia.

1158 Calm conditions; full main and jib. Making ground back to the rhumb line (near 20 miles).

1612 A ship appeared on the horizon bearing 250 deg and slow moving. Must be a fishing boat. He was on a parallel course and we passed him easily. Not visible on AIS. A few showers around us. Scattered cumulus. Jib and full main.

2227 Rolicking along under full main and jib. The radar is clear. Sitting out in the cockpit enjoying the show. Another beautiful evening, even better than yesterday, with the almost full moon lighting up the puffy small cumulus clouds and sparkling on the water.

August 4, 2009

0415 Before we switched to jib we were averaging a course of 212 deg. I sketched the 212 course back from Funafuti to estimate where we switch back to reacher at AWA 60.
0837 We furled the jib and unfurled the reacher, set the pilot to 70 AWA, and increased boat speed by two knots. A beautiful morning with blue skies and fair weather cumulus ahead and to port. A few showers astern but they should cross our wake. We are now to port of our rhumb line and headed straight for our waypoint, distant 212 nm, 22 hours sailing time estimated.

0955 Stbd reacher turning block post failed – missed Leo, hit Dorothy very hard in right arm above elbow – very big bruise, but no bone or tissue damage. Should have had a Dyneema safety rigged on that turning block.

1110 Steering direct for Aneityum waypoint. Reacher set again.
1404 Wind backed 20 deg and then veered back. Sailed at 70 deg to the wind for 30 minutes.

2053 Reeled in large Spanish mackerel who sadly got off the line as we were landing him and swam away.
2155 Enjoyed a quiet watch in the cockpit watching the stars with George.

August 5, 2009

0003 Ship sighted on radar at 9nm and on AIS bearing 166 deg, range 6, CPA 5nm in 10 minutes. Speed 10kn. Visual with binoculars at 5nm was intermittent in waves.
0036 Wind up to 15.5 knots; AWA down to 90 deg; still really slamming into waves.
0146 Wind lighter, up to 90 deg AWA. Rain squalls following us about 20nm aft of port quarter.
0405 Tuvalu to starboard. Tokelau to port. Samoa is 550 nm to the SE. Fiji is 180 nm to the south. Havannah Pass at New Caledonia is 1,155 nm to the SW. True wind speed is light at 10 kts. Sloppy seas so sails are flopping around. A few small squalls 6 nm astern. Almost full moon peeking through the clouds; comfortable air temperature. At this slow speed we will arrive at Havannah Pass on August 13. There is a small island 86 nm ahead called Nukulaelae.

0434 The little squalls have caught up with us from astern bringing increased wind speed and boat speed. TWD has backed 20 deg. I came down 10 deg. to 100 AWA.

0455 Wind backed to 33 deg TWA, now is veering. Rain — good, we needed a wash down. Radar shows a series of small cells following us. TWS backup to 20kts. Boat speed backup to 9 kts.

0504 Heavy rain. TWD now backed to 33 deg. TWS up to 22 knots, and now down to 16 kts. Boat speed up to 10 kts, now down to 8 kts. Squall is passing.

0511 TWD at 17 deg. Wind has backed a lot, so we are headed off to the SE. I hope it veers to its original direction.
0516 Squall has passed. Wind has died. Rain ended. TWD is still backing. Wind staying in the NNE.

1534 Pilot AWA to 70 to leave the island Nukulaelae to stbd. It is 18 nm ahead of us.

August 6, 2009

1800 Ships time changed to NZ time +1 day and 2 hours

2150 It is a beautiful evening with full moon and stars, clear skies, gentle breeze, and pleasant sail under full main and jib. We are winding our way through seamounts and atolls of the island group of Tuvalu.

Does it get even better!? You will have to read on….

1. Hawaii to New Caledonia – dodging the hurricanes

Jul 23, 2009 to July 31, 2009:

On July 16, ADAGIO’s population increased again when we were joined by Leo Foley, Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania (Hobart, Tasmania), and fellow OCC sailors Penelope and George Curtis (Oxfordshire, UK).

We’ve had eleven days in Hawaii to prepare for the passage to New Caledonia via Western Samoa. Admiral Dorothy has been performing actual miracles provisioning ADAGIO so we will have fresh and yummy food for five people for a passage that could easily take more than three weeks. As we did for the San Francisco to Hawaii passage, we have converted our freezer to function as a cool-store veggie box. The freezer function for meat has been reassigned to the bottom drawer of the fridge. So we have lots of cubics for fresh veggies. We shall keep you informed on whether we are digging out the tinned green beans as the passage is ending.

Isn’t passage-making mostly about good food? We think so, and from our time together here at Ko Olina, Oahu, it seems that George, Leo and Penelope agree. So we are all looking forward to more-cooks-in-the-galley (and Steve is looking forward to more-dishwashers-in-the-galley). The Bosch dishwasher has defied heroic efforts to restore it to full health — entirely due to the challenge of servicing 240VAC/50Hz appliances in the land of 120VAC/60Hz. Parts are non-obtanium and service techs are either much-too-busy or not-willing-to-work-on-boats or we-don’t-do-240-volt.

The mainsail batten pockets have been reworked by North Sails Hawaii, who somehow managed to get our main onto the loft floor in spite of Honolulu rapidly filling up with Transpac race boat arrivals. “THE LIST” of maintenance items that MUST BE DONE is done. All we need now is reasonable weather to sail the 3,400 rhumb line nautical miles to Noumea with a shot at a peaceable equator crossing and as little ungentlemanly upwind sailing as we can arrange. We expect to sail a good bit further than the rhumb line for the usual reasons, including a stopover at Apia in Western Samoa, managing the ocean currents and winds that don’t seem to have read our optimum routing plan, finding a narrowish waist in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and missing a number of lovely tropical islands and rocky bits that clutter the ocean between here and there.

As we studied the patterns of tropical storms and cyclones heading our way, ADAGIO’s long-time weather router/consultant Rick Shema has been a big help. In July, the risk of these storms being dangerous (if they make it to Hawaii) is typically not very high. That said, if the Tropical Prediction Center (National Hurricane Center) is forecasting a named storm to intersect our planned track, then we prefer to sail into the not-yet-known risks. Recently the intensity of convection in the equatorial region west of us went from relatively quiet to relatively active/high. Which means more squalls, thunderstorms and just generally not-nice weather ahead. We are watching for predictions of a quieter convection phase on our planned route to Western Samoa.

We are also dealing with an intensifying El Nino, which is not what we want for the passage, but it is what we’ve got. As Rick noted via email:

El Nino implies higher that normal sea surface temps in equatorial EPAC and lighter trades there. Also, enhanced convection and precip in central North Pacific waters. There is a correlation with increased tropical cyclone activity in EPAC. About three times normal.

By July 21st the convection on our track is moderating a bit, and the approaching cyclones look to be offering us a “passing lane” to get out of Hawaii before the next TC gets organized. So we firm up the departure date/time with Rick so he has time to prepare a WX departure package for us.

On Thursday July 23rd we take on a full load diesel fuel at Ko Olina Marina, which with a full day tank, is almost 1,600 litres. It is impossible to predict on a long passage how much motorsailing we may want to do. So Skipper Steve reckons the least-worst-choice is to push the weight of maybe-not-needed fuel along, rather than get stuck in a hole sailing at 3 kn for a week because we don’t wish to risk our reserve fuel in order to scoot out of the hole. By 1000 we are underway into about 7kn of true wind from 150T — i.e., a light headwind. As we sail out of U.S. waters, we are motorsailing under full main and jib, easy sailing at 6 to 7kn into one meter seas.

With a few squalls and visiting boobies, these will be our conditions until around 0900 on the 24th, when the true wind has built to 17 kn and we are Rocketing along on a tight reach. Seas are down from the overnight light winds, but are building quickly now that we have steady 17-18kn TWS. With luck wind will starting backing soon so we’ll get aligned with the bumps. We’re starting to reach the upper wind limits of the reacher – will have to head off a bit if wind builds further.

Following are a few tidbits from ADAGIO’s log:

July 24, 2009

1039 This is good tradewind sailing. We furled the reacher and set the jib. Boat speed down a knot, but much more comfortable ride. Full main sail. Booby continues to circle the boat, landing on the eyebrow awnings occasionally. Outdoor temperature is 82 deg F. Blue sky with cumulus all around and some showers off in the distance. The deepwater buoy Y”51003” is due west of us at 34 nm distance. High cirrus clouds in the north astern of us. We need a diamond shaped yellow sign saying “Boobies aboard”.. Our booby has perched on the starboard bow pulpit and is preening its feathers, enduring occasional spray from the sea.

1350 Comfortable under jib and full main. Third boobie aboard, liking the spray on pulpit.

1444 Spoke to fishing boat passing close to starboard, heading to Hawaii with his catch. Booby departed.

1603 Change apparent wind angle ( AWA) from 70 down to 80 – noticeably better ride.

July 25, 2009

0924 Our red-footed booby has moved to the port stern pulpit. He/she preens feathers full-time. Seas are still a bit confused; sun is shining; mixed clouds of fair weather cumulus ahead; cumulus and stratus on our port side and astern. All crew members come up for breakfast and visiting. Two-hour long watches is certainly wonderful. We are all rested and enjoying the ride. Outdoor temperature is 81 deg F. We are passing through an area of many seamounts with names such as Hassayampa Seamount, Monsoon Seamount and Sea Dragon Ridge.

1950 We received an update from Rick Shema advising us to travel to longitude 175 W before turning south through the ITCZ. So we have furled the jib and unfurled the reacher to alter our course to more westerly. We changed the next two way points from 170 W to 175 W. New course to steer is 241 degrees.

2151 Quiet watch; smoother ride; reacher doing its work

July 26, 2009

0359 We are sailing under full main and reacher. TWS varies from 17 to 21 kts; boat speed varies from 9 to 12 kts. Our red-footed booby is sleeping on the port stern pulpit this evening. All is steady: wind speed, boat speed. Seas are not so rough as during the day. A little lightning in the sky off our port stern in the distance. It is a very black night. Radar is clear. 733 nm to our turnig point before we head south across the ITCZ.

0511 We just surfed at 16.5 kts. Not sure what the true wind speed (TWS) was, but as soon as we stopped surfing the TWS was 18 kts.

0925 With a steady TWS of 20 knots, and our boat speed 11+ knots, I came down 10 degrees to 150 degrees apparent wind speed (AWA) on the pilot.

1218 Put 4th reef into mainsail with boom 24” above the coach roof. Furled nicely all the way from full hoist to 4th reef. Overtrimmed reacher to partially backwind the main. Main traveler car at centerline. Set jib and reacher wing-on-wing. Very comfortable ride. I discovered that the fourth batten from the top of the mainsail has chaffed through the sail and the chafe tape, from the main sail bearing on the upper shrouds. I stuck on a long piece of Kevlar sticky back sail repair tape on top of the chafe guard tape already on the sail.

1748 Our red-footed booby whom we have named Albert, sat on its perch throughout the sail changes, tolerating noisy electric winches and our movements inside and outside of the cockpit. It’s a brave bird. Occasionally Albert will fly away for food, and then return after about 10 minutes absence. Following seas boost our speed every few minutes as we catch a surfing wave. 637 nm to our turning point when we will head south across the ITCZ.

1757 Under twin headsails, Adagio is enjoying a lovely downwind sail. Albert disgraced himself by chewing the line attaching the webbing to the aft steps and was chased away. He returned briefly whilst the webbing was taped but has now left us. We miss him!

2225 Chasin’ moonbeams (between clouds)

July 27, 2009

0011 Bright stars overhead. Radar is clear. Seas are from astern and regular. ADAGIO has found a comfortable groove with winged out reacher and jib and 4th reef in the mainsail. We are sleeping well. We are on course with 570 nm to go to our waypoint AP1, where we turn south. Still no sign of Albert.

0150 TWD has backed 15 degrees, from 71 deg to 60 deg, so our heading is slightly south of our course to steer. Stars are now covered by clouds.

0401 Quiet watch; stars shining

1041 Still a smooth roller coaster ride with occasional underwing slams. Steady trade winds with following seas. We could not ask for more.

1243 After analyzing the text weather forecast, we decided to head directly for AP2. This will let us avoid an area of thunderstorms that lay across our track to AP1. In addition, by heading SW now, we can make it through a gap in the ITCZ that is located south and southwest of us. I sent an email message to Rick S. describing our analysis. Steve sent a message to Rick describing our altered course. Rick agreed that a southwesterly course is good, and that we should make the best speed possible, within the bounds of comfort.

1303 Sailing under reacher and 4th reefed main.

July 28, 2009

0159 Phosphorescence – we haven’t see that for a while!

0258 TWS up to 25 knots. Rounding up on pilot = NORM, so fall off 10 deg; ease overtrimmed reacher.

0454 Squall overhead at 0440; wind up to 28 briefly, some rain. No problem really. Bear away 10 degrees.

0604 Sunrise just beginning as the clouds are clearing astern. TWS 16 to 23 kts. Boat speed 8 to 13 kts.

0704 How quickly things change. A band of rain clouds is approaching from our port quarter, a bright spot on the radar, bringing more showers, perhaps, or maybe not.

0748 We have entered the region of the ITCZ. The rain clouds passed overhead leaving a rainbow in their wake. No dramas this time.The radar shows more shower clouds coming towards us, but they have very little convection.

0849 Rain squall brought gust of 30 kts. I came down 10 deg AWA to 143.

0932 Sky has cleared. Convection clouds off to port are moving away.

1237 Dodged up to AWA 110 to miss two wet squalls, down to 120 which seems about the right course now.

1624 Wind speed is decreasing and backing. I decreased the AWA to 100, which brought us back on course, then beyond. So I increased the AWA to 105 and we are sailing close to our course. With the wind becoming lighter, the boat is moved around by the waves a bit more.

1730 Full main; fall off 5 deg; ease reacher.

1845 Mainsail first reef taken in and reacher furled to slow down as suggested by Rick.

2006 Steering to SHOAL Waypoint then to new AP2 latitude 00N longitude 169.5W.

July 29, 2009

0202 Tonight we have the brightest display of stars ever. A few lightning flashes off our starboard (stbd) stern in the distance. No threat to us. Sailing under jib and one reef in the main sail. Three more days sailing before we reach the equator, at the present speed.

0354 While watching the stars I saw a plane fly over, high in the sky, lights flashing. TWS from 10 kts to 14 kts.

0600 Stars still shining; quiet watch

0653 Wind headed. Squall 4 miles astern

0839 Set full main + reacher

0954 Huge wind veer

1036 TWS up to 25, furled reacher; set jib. Wind probably due to squall to port

1229 We were triming the reacher with the stbd tweaker, and the double turning block for tweakers on the stbd stern pulled out of the deck. The generator stopped running. Two unrelated events. We furled the reacher.

1442 Underway again, genset fixed, stbd reacher sheet block jury rigged.

1452 Reacher furled; port engine started; wind is dying.

1544 After a couple hours of frantic activity in the hot sun (89 deg F) we all tucked into banana icecream thanks to Dorothy’s gelato ice cream maker! Adagio is underway again all systems go!

1657 Furled main about 4nm before rain squall.

1811 George and Steve have cut out chafe from the port reacher tack line, rigged short piece of hose pipe and used a piece of line to tie off the stbd reacher tack line to prevent chafe.

2004 Port engine temp went to 90C so switched to stbd engine to see if it is the same in this 84F water.

2214 Mostly 5 kts true wind speed, except when a grey cloud passes over the boat and then the TWS increases to 15 – 16 kts. Six or more small cloud targets on the radar to port. Quiet evening. No sails set, motoring as we are expecting some turbulence during the night. Quarter moon and stars shine between the clouds.

2330 The biggest squall came upon us from port aft quarter and port side. Wind speed steady at 20-23 kts, on the nose, so boat speed down to 4 kts. Waves boisterious. Good thing that we have no sail up. No rain, just wind. Big clouds come out at night. Now it’s raining.

July 30, 2009

0030 Wind dropping all the time; no more squals visible on the radar for 20 miles.

0200 A few stars have appeared and the radar is still showing no squalls – a quiet watch

0440 Radar shows no rain. Bright light baring 61 deg and 5 deg above horizon. No radar return. Could it be the reflection of the sun on a sattelite? No. it is a planet; very bright when just above the horizon.

0538 Messages received from and sent to Rick.

1040 Full main and jib

1145 Full main and reacher are driving us smartly over the water at 8 to 9 ktsw.

1726 Squall at 1700 meant reacher furled, and motor sailing. Wind did not return to previous strength after the squall had passed.

1831 Line squall with heavy rain flattened seas, and crew happy to be motor sailing. After, put 1 reef in main. 30 minutes later, 12 kn true encouraged the reacher again. Nice! 7+ knots boat speed and feels good.

July 31, 2009

0034 Line of rain squalls 12 nm to starboard – about 8 squalls.

0114 Prepare for squalls – furl reacher, 1st-reefed main to centerline. Reefed upwind in about 10 AWS. Switch pilot to compass steering.

0135 Squalls petered out at our position. 35deg veer but TWS maxed at 16 for first squall. Now there is a line of squalls.

0319 Motor-sailing; Large squall passed across our bow. Now clear, but wind only 8-9 knots.

0400 Motorsailing under the Milky Way. First reef in the main sail. Headsails furled. There is a squall on the radar, 12 nm ahead off our port bow. I’ll keep an eye on it. We are still monitoring the genset every 30 minutes. . Urgent message on the Inmarsat C terminal: “TROPICAL STORM LANA NEAR 13.3N 144.6W AT 0900 UTC JUL 31 MOVING W OR 285 DEG AT 17 KT.” Our position is latitude 3 deg 53′ N longitude 170 deg 59.6 ‘ W.

0447 Squall 3 nm off our port bow. I have headed up 20 deg to try to miss it.

0746 Reacher set; speed increased to 9kts.

0833 Changed to jib.

1751 Conditions stable, no sail changes, beautiful afternoon excellent visibility. Two white morph boobies landed on the sea nearby and gave us a lovely aerial display before flying away. No squalls since dawn.

2121 No squalls on radar, wind has backed/lifted about 20° in last 2 hours – makes the ride noticeably better.

2334 Quiet watch under a (not quite) full moon.

More to follow, next we cross the Equator…

4. San Francisco to Hawaii

ADAGIO made landfall at Ko Olina, Hawaii at 0857 July 12th. Our GPS log shows the passage was 2208 nm and 12 days passage time (with 6 days of sloooow motorsailing on one engine). Our average daily run from San Francisco to Oahu – 186.3 nautical miles.

As we sailed past Honolulu, a “flock” of about 20 tiny, silver flying fish took off from the water and fluttered together across the waves. They were much smaller than most of the flying fish we usually see. It is the sort of wildlife sighting that occurs very quickly, and when it’s over you can’t believe that you saw it, and you are happy that you happened to be looking in the right direction when it happened.

We made landfall in excellent weather conditions, in daylight, and to a welcoming, modern marina, surrounded by civilization. We immediately began to research how to get our main sail repaired in time for our departure for Samoa.

Shaun unpacked our garden hose and thoroughly scrubbed and rinsed the salt from the decks and hardware. Then he hurried off to Honolulu where he will spend the next several days as a volunteer with the race committee, greeting the Transpac Race boats who are beginning to arrive from Los Angeles.

When I spoke to Rick Shema, our weather router, he told me that the 100 foot long super-maxi yacht named ALPHA ROMEO broke all records winning the Transpac Race this year. The owner runs the Alpha Romeo and Mazaratti dealerships in New Zealand and Australia. He knocked 25 hours off of the record set by the 80 foot yacht MORNING GLORY in 2005. ALPHA ROMEO sailed from Los Angeles to Hawaii in 5 days, 14 hours. By my calculations, the boat was maintaining a boat speed that was more than double ADAGIO’S boat speed. It must have been a heck of a ride.

Here’s a summary of our daily runs over 12 days:

Day 1 – 154 nautical miles

Day 2 – 222

Day 3 – 190

Day 4 – 157

Day 5 – 157

Day 6 – 151

Day 7 – 154

Day 8 – 205

Day 9 – 193

Day 10 – 194

Day 11 – 204

Day 12 – 227 nautical miles

Here is a sampling from the ship’s log over the last few days to the passage:

July 11 2009

0011 Shaun moved the tack of the reacher way up to windward. The boat is loving this wind and sea state. Quiet speed. 269 nm to Oahu. 30 hrs to go at this rate.

0124 There is a ship behind us that does not show up on the radar. I see its lights clearly. I woke Steve and he retuned the radar. This ship allowed us to verify that the AIS is not working – we had no way to verify 7 days with no ship traffic. We found two more ships 20 nm behind us as well.

0319 Wind veered to 80mg – head up to AWA 120

0352 Cluster of 3 rain squalls on radar at 7 oclock

0420 Squalls on our tail – wind rapidly up to 28-29kn – down to AWA 150 to cut apparent wind speed. Pilot to DWIND.

0429 Up 10 deg. Squalls have passed us to stbd – TWD backed about 20 deg – gradually over 20 minutes

0840 Prolonged squalls follwed by a calmer period.Computer fell over – now taped. One ship seen.

0913 Wind is coming back. Last 24 hrs we traveled 204 nm. 190 nm to go to Oahu, approx 23 hrs. Showers all around. Blue sky ahead also some tallish cumulus. Rain showers on the radar show a squall off our port stern 8 nm distant and heading towards us.

1004 Winds 19 to 25 kts. Boat speed 10 to 16 kts due to a small cell passing over us.

1053 Pilot is set to 125 app wind angle for the lulls; change to 135 or 145 for the puffs/squalls. Up in the lulls; down in the puffs. Sky is clearing to windward.

1507 Constant conditions moving us closer to our destination. 110 nm to go in 11 hours at this speed. ETA in Ko Olina approx 0830 Sunday. Deep blue seas sparkling in the sunshine, blue skies, pufy white clouds. No squalls; no ships.

1840 As we put the first reef in the main we noticed that the battens are poking through the sail just aft of the luff tape. It was first evident on the second batten from the bottom a few days ago, now is showing on several battens, and the second from bottom batten has almost poked through the fabric.

2347 30NM to go to Kawi channel. Picking up Molokai and Oahu on radar. Continued wind variation up and down. Occasional showers.

July 12, 2009

0029 Cruise ship coming out of the channel will pass us port to port at 5 nm away. 23 nm to Kaiwi Channel. Winds 19 to 22 kts. Boat speed 9 to 15 kts.

0053 Another boat ahead to stbd. Radar won’t track it yet. Reacher and 1st reef in main.

0215 8.66 nm to first waypoint southeast of Oahu; 1 hour. ETA 0315 to waypoint. A few lights ahead. I can see the street lights of Oahu.

0520 Passed Diamond Head 10 min ago.

0857 Arrival Ko Olina, Hawaii – reported in to US Custom CBP Officer Lavally

All the best from ADAGIO and her crew,

Dorothy, Steve and Shaun Peck

s/v ADAGIO

Oahu, Hawaii

Latitude 21 deg 19.736 minutes

Longitude 158 deg 07.110 minutes

3. San Francisco to Hawaii

Friday, July 10,2009

Before going off watch this afternoon, Steve put out our fishing lure. While he slept, we hooked a mahi mahi, and by the time Steve had finished his nap, Shaun and I had subdued the fish, filleted it, iced it down, and cleaned the blood from the stern steps. We won’t be having chicken for dinner tonight or tomorrow as planned.

We continue to make good progress towards Oahu. The trade winds have filled in, and the seas have come down. As I write this, we are 404 nautical miles from our destination. Winds are 18 to 22 knots and boat speed is 9 to 13 knots. We have been sailing under our large reacher most of the time plus full main or main with first reef.

Occasional showers rinse the salt water from the decks, and a full moon casts a silver pathway for us to follow.

Here are some excerpts from our navigation log:

July 7, 2009

2048 Small squall passed thru – max wind about 23-24kn but also veered to TWD 69mg or 20deg veer.

2325 One very heavy rainshower with wind to 22KN. A second squall to 21 KN without rain.

July 8, 2009

0014 Mostly cloudy with moon peeking out occasionally, rain cells here and there on the radar. We are making good time. A little bumpy. No ships on AIS. A rollicking good ride under full main and reacher. I am ready to furl the reacher if a squall comes through.

0536 In the light phases of wind cycle need to hot up the angle to 130 or 125. Then down to 140-150 when wind gets back up in the 16-20 range.

0837 Mostly moderate wind with 130 W/A but last 20 mins 20-23KN and steering 150 off wind.

1143 Wind speed has leveled off to 18 to 22 kts Boat speed is 9 to 11 kts, with surfs to 13 kts. Squalls cross our wake, and cross ahead of us, so none are threatening. Seas are more boisterous. Cumulus clouds are growing as the day goes on. Still some patches of blue, and occasional sunshine. Model shows us arriving in Oahu on July 11. But things can change to put is in on July 12. It is lovely out here on the ocean.

1403 Gybed the boat onto port – maybe the last gybe before Hawaii. at TWS 20kn we’re needing about 3-4° of rudder to offset weather helm from the main. Wind is on a backing trend – 30° over the last 2 hours.

1729 Wind variable 17-22KN. Steering angle 140. 150 with stronger wind. Batteries charged.

1847 Sea temp is 75 deg F. Beautiful sailing under fair weather cumulus and blue skies. Boat speeds 9 – 10 kts. Seas a bit confused. Full main and reacher.

2102 622nm to Diamond Head. Coming on watch I set pilot down another 5deg to 150 AWA while wind is up in the 18+ range. We are really rockin ‘n rolling close to rhumb, with a fair bit of surfing in the 12 – 14 kn range when wind gets to 19+. Sitting in cockpit reading Beth Leonard’s new edition before my watch was most pleasant, with the sounds of surfing much more fun than piloting from the nav station!

2113 Our new Garmin GPS log just turned over 3000nm. These Garmin’s only have 4 digits so we have to keep track of the 10,000s. And also the unrecorded miles when we have forgotten to reset the GPS on rollover, or when GPS has failed.

2159 MacENC shows AIS is not working. Reboot MacPro – nojoy. Reboot AIS.

July 9, 2009

0232 Wind increases every 1/2 hr or so. Boat speed up to 17.3 KN on one surf.

0334 Seas really rolly and wind speed is down so we started the port engine, furled the reacher, set the jib and hauled the boom down to prevent slatting. Hopefully the seas will settle down soon. The past 3-4 hours have been quite rambunctious. 618 nautical miles to Oahu.

0631 Beautiful nearly full moon ahead. Seas are still confused.

0830 Pilot 2 to NORM. We are rockin ‘n rolling close to rhumb again. I struck jib, set reacher and full main for about 130 AWA. Still steering compass 220 until it’s clear what AWA is doing at higher boat speeds. Wind has veered to 78T / 66 mg offering hotter angles on rhumbline.

1456 We furled the reacher and turned dead downwind to quiet the motion of the boat while Steve went into the engine room to replace a filter. Even so we continued to make 7 kts boat speed. Now with the reacher set, we are making 9 to 10 kts, depending on the wind speed. I am making bread again.

1559 Wind is up, boat speed is up, occasional surfing to 11 kts. Small rainshower ahead to port.

1925 First reef started in 22kn at 20” pilot AWA 150 (should have tried 165)- first batten was pressing hard forcing track to rotate way around to stbd. Increased boom to 24” went smoothly then. Traveler up to center, couldn’t bankwind with jib – had reacher up. To start put mainsheet on traveler winch – made it much easier to raise boom another 4″. Also engaged pawl at start so at reef mark just released furling line and tensioned luff via halyard. Shaun was disappointed because he had been having great fun surfing ADAGIO at 14 and 15 kts.

2158 Beautiful, soft sunset. The seas are down, and the wind is down, so tonight will be better for sleeping than last night.

2324 The wind has piped up, so we are moving faster towards our destination. Oahu is 467 nautical miles ahead, ETA about 55 hours at this speed. The stars overhead are spectacular!

2355 Wind trend is up a bit, continuing to veer almost to east True.

July 10, 2009

0254 Stunning cloud formations backlighted by almost full moon.

0542 Suprising swings in wind speed and direction. One rain shower. 415NM to go to Kawi channel.

0604 Boat speed steady 9 to 13 knots. Wind 17 to 24 kts. Still sailing under reacher and first reef in main. Earlier today Shaun found a black plastic ring on the stbd trampoline. Tonight Steve determined that it had fallen off of the light on the front of our mast. Cloudy skies clearing ahead.with bright moon.

0822 Rainclouds ahead to port. Miles traveled past 24 hrs is 194. Sunrise astern and on the tops of the rainclouds ahead.

1501 Wind fairly steady. Caught a approx 8 lb Mahi Mahi. Cabin temp 81F

1617 Wind has eased and boat speed is down. We received instructions from Rick Shema regarding our approach to Diamond Head and on to Ko Olina. We are studying the charts now.

1955 Set full main & reacher

2322 Some lively surges with surfs up to 15 KN. Sea state much more kindly than two nights ago. Less cross sea.

We are certainly enjoying a fast downwind ride to Hawaii. Shaun is a pleasure to have aboard. He quickly picked up the sail handling and our navigation techniques, and is carrying more than his share of the work load. He also seems to be having a good time.

We can comfortably sit in the cockpit to read or socialize while sailing. We sail with the back door open, day and night. Cooking has been a bit of a challenge today, with the motion from the seas, but not really a problem.

We can’t hear the ukeleles yet, but I think I occasionally catch a whiff of tropical flowers. A gannet circled the boat today, so that’s a sure sign of land ahead.

Here are our daily runs:

Day 1 – 154 nautical miles

Day 2 – 222

Day 3 – 190

Day 4 – 157

Day 5 – 157

Day 6 – 151

Day 7 – 154

Day 8 – 205

Day 9 – 193

Day 10 – 194

2. San Francisco to Hawaii

July 7, 2009

We have found the wind and fine sailing conditions. It’s not the fastest way to Hawaii, but one of the most comfortable and beautiful ways. At 5:30 PM when I am writing this, we are 865 nautical miles from Diamond Head, Oahu, about 5 days sailing. The sea sparkles all around us. The air is dry. The air temperature is comfortable for short sleeves and shorts and sunscreen.

The following excerpts from our navigation log were written by all three of us, Steve, Dorothy and Shaun:

07/04/09
0536 A quiet watch. Barometer down again. Moon now clouded over. Charging at 26.8 Volts steadily.
0805 AIS reported on a ship 225 nm to the north of us. Beautiful sunrise at 0700 astern. Blue skies with cottony long, low clouds . Undulating soft rolling seas, pink in the sunrise. A dark colored shearwater bird has been circling the boat as it fishes in the troughs of the swells — very pretty. Shearwater?s long, high aspect wings allows it to soar and turn with its wingtip just touching the surface of the sea. I took some photos of the shearwater and of the sunset. Air temperature in the cockpit is 64 deg F. A beautiful, quiet morning, as we motor towards Hawaii. Distance traveled so far is approximately 723 nautical miles. Distance traveled since 0800 yesterday morning is 157 nm. We are due north of the Moonless MOuntains McKinley Seamount.
1150 Range under power estimated at 1562nm + daytank. Alpha regulator may be failing. On my 0300 watch Link10 indicated 29.4VDC overcharge. Fiddling with throttle and stbd engine I got it to stop overcharging
1514 Steve removed Alpha regulator. Now we need to generate power from Genset only. Getting warmer 77F outside and 80 F inside.
1630 Happy US Independence Day! At the current speed we will be at sea for 8 more days. The peaceful Pacific Ocean. Soft, long swells come from astern and lift us forward. The light breeze is cooling us, as the outdoor temperature reads 75 deg F, warming up as we head south. I need to contact Pantaneus to tell them that we are at sea again. I?ll also send an email to Ko Olina Marina giving our ETA.
2045 Trying motorsailing full main + jib + reduced revs. Guess boat speed up ~0.5kn. Avg course is 15 to 25 deg south of Rick?s routing.
2056 Test no revs – engine adding roughly 3.5kn
2204 Motor sailing – full main and jib. Calm sea. Full moon at times.Warmer 69F
2337 Lighter wind again. Steering to compass course.

070509
0016 Quiet night, with a nearly full moon off our port bow. Motorsailing in the best wind we could find. 1244 nm to Oahu. That would take 6.6 days at this speed, ETA July 11, Saturday next week.
0526 Wind light in 3-5kn range so motorsailing = balancing on razor blade. Can?t steer to AWA – unstable. Until wind increases to 8kn+, steer to TWA around 75 (AWA around 40)
0617 Found an area of rain squalls with a bit of wind – up to 12kn @ 350mg – fall off and ease sails
0631 Coming up as wind veers – don?t think this is going to last – left squalls at 0700 direction
0759 Reset course to 240. Set Reacher. Stilll need motor. Temp 69F
0953 It is good to be sailing again, albeit motorsailing under full main and reacher. Steve says that motorsailing on one engine we have sufficient diesel fuel to make it to Oahu. Sky has cleared; swell has gone down; wind ripples on the water?s surface. We are almost to our halfway point to Oahu. Forecast is for more light wind around 10 kts.
1730 Fishing line out. 75.4F outside. 78.8F in cabin.
1851 I have calculated that the half way point our log will read 2548. We are approx 86 nm to half way pt. I am baking a banana cake, and have prepared dough for tortillas for dinner and pizza dough for tomorrow.
2111 No luck trimming main to exploit wind increase and veer to 9kn – slight sea knocks wind of main every second or two
2223 15kn winds not till 7-7 0400. Set course for AP2- given we are motoring this is fastest route to the 15kn+ wind zone. D/L new GFS model, ran new routing

070609
0228 Quiet watch. Bright moon. Great Banana cake. Connected to Winlink K6CYC on 40 Meters (7-7.3MHZ) to
1247 Daytank refill. We have traveled 29 nautical miles beyond the half way point of our passage. Steve and Shaun think there might be something caught on our stbd rudder or propeller, so this afternoon when it is warm we will stop the boat and Shaun has volunteered to go over the side to have a look and cut away anything that might be there.
1542 Motoring on stb engine now. We stopped the boat and visually checked the rudders and propellers and concluded that there is no debris caught on them. TWS has eased a bit. Cargo ship passed 14 miles in front of us but we never saw it. I am baking Boatmeal cookies. EGC message describes a tropical storm named Bianca forming off the coast of Mexico, near Acapulco. We plotted it on our storm plotting sheet and will follow its progress.
2135 We received a new routing report from Rick calling for some downwind sailing beginning tomorrow. We had dinner in the cockpit today. All hatches open to catch the breeze. Pretty red sunset surrounded by pinking fair weather cumulus clouds. Moon has risen and is peeking through the clouds to port. Gentlly swaying ADAGIO in the slight seas. Outdoor temperature 72 deg F .

070709
0520 Quiet watch. Waiting for wind to fill in. Warm night with full moon.
0625 Full moon ahead, beaming a path across the water for ADAGIO to follow. Dawn beginning to break astern. Boat speed has increased a little.
0731 Ship TORM ROTNA will pass us at 8 nm CPA. Rain squalls astern (10 nm)and to stbd )15 nm), coming towards us, visible on the radar, 12 miles astern.
0850 Ship TORM ROTNA is now visible on both the radar and with my eyes, astern of us 9 nm. CPA 7 nm. Dark clouds and showers astern and to stbd, seem to be getting closer so we are likely to get a little rain.. A few cloudy areas visible on the radar.
1011 Wind speed up to 15-18kn for almost an hour. Now back down to 6-8kn just as I was about to set jib to weather, reacher to leeward. Rain squalls about 240mg 11nm ahead
1236 Set full main + reacher on stbd jybe – doing about 70% of target VMG target speed about 9.5, doing 7.5. Sailing 25deg north of rhumb
1559 TWS increasing, now is 17 kts. Boat speed is increasing, occasionally to 10 kts. Fair weather cumulus clouds and a blue sky.
1734 TWS is decreasing, so boat speed is down. We might have been the cause of a DISTRESS alert on our EGC satellite email broadcasts.

First LES 7-JUL-2009 08:37:04 625981 SUBJECT: **POSSIBLE VESSEL ON FIRE**
MESSAGE: AT 0800 UTC 07 JULY 09,THE US COAST RECEIVED A REPORT OF
A POSSIBLE VESSEL ON FIRE BY A PASSING AIRCRAFT IN POSITION 25-33N 150-15W.

Then LES 7-JUL-2009 10:57:25 639170
THE U.S. COAST GUARD HAS RECEIVED A REPORT FROM AN AIRLINER SIGHTING A
BRIGHT ORANGE VESSEL, POSSIBLE ON FIRE, APPROXIMATELY 1275NM WEST OF SAN DIEGO, CA IN POSITION 31-08N Eik 138-59W.

Finally: Eik LES 7-JUL-2009 11:31:48 642461
RCC ALAMEDA IS CANCELING THE SAFETY NET 639170. THE LIGHTS OBSERVED IN
POSITION 31-08N 138-59W HAVE BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO DECK LIGHTS AND NOT A
VESSEL ON FIRE.

ADAGIO was in that area and I had the deck lights turned on to check the set of the sails. Shaun had said that he had seen several commercial planes fly over. It’s good to know that some one is paying attention up there.

We wish you were here to see this beautiful ocean and sky.

Love and hugs,
Steve and Dorothy
s/v ASAGIO
Pacific Ocean
latitude 28 deg 40 min N
longitude 143 deg 59 min W

1. San Francisco to Hawaii

Friday, July 3, 2009

Hello from Adagio on day 3.

We are having a fine passage. I just calculated our daily runs.

Day 1 – 154 nautical miles
Day 2 – 222 nautical miles
Day 3 – 190 nautical miles

Today we have almost no wind, and a low, smooth rolling swell, with wind ripples on the surface. We have furled the sails and are motoring on one engine. Air temperature outdoors is 71 deg F. One ship in the distance on AIS. None close enough to be seen. Rick Shema sent new route changes, putting our route more on the rhumb line to Oahu. Light winds are forecast for the next 2-1/2 days. Second loaf of bread is in the oven. We finished the first loaf at lunch today.

Our first three days at sea were a rollicking good sail. We were truly “ocean walloping”, with wind speed up to 27 knots, and boat speeds up to 16 knots. The seas were 3 – 4 meters high, but not breaking, and they just lifted ADAGIO like a feather, and then thundered under her.

I have been having this “Ahah” moment several times a day: That I am traveling to Hawaii in my own home! What a delightful concept.

Here are a few notes from our log:

6/30/09 Tuesday:
0753 Just crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge.
0946 Set full main and jib, close reaching in light stuff, steering for Rick’s waypoints north of rhumb line.
0958 Ship on our track per AIS, not on radar at 12nm scale. Redo the setup ‘adjusting tune/video’
1311 TWS decreased to 8 kts; sails were flapping. So I turned on the port engine at 1500 revs. Boat speed improved. . After about 15 minutes the wind increased to12-13 kts. Steve set the AWA on the pilot to 80, which helped the sails to fill. Our boat speed increased to 8 kts.
1404 TWS up to 13 – 15 kts. Boat speed is up to 8 to 9 kts. Sleigh ride! 3 ships approaching the GG, but nowhere near our course.
1641 Furled reacher, trimmed main, port engine on to 2500 trying to reach the windline to the west sooner
2115 So little wind that we have changed course to point directly at our waypoint. we should have more wind by morning. Several ships around, but not threatening.

07/01/09 Wednesday:
0644 Shaun and I set full main and reacher and turned off the engines.
0734 9 to 10 knots boat speed; waves washing up the windows, underwing slams. Sunshine at last!
0849 I put the first reef in the main sail, furled the reacher, and set the jib. The boat’s motion is more comfortable, and we are still hitting 9 knots from time to time. Leaking right side window over the nav station; only drips.
1320 Wind dropped. Port Engine on. Now have full main and reacher
1347 Port Engine off. Full main and jib. Ocean walloping now. A few minor hatch leaks (drips). Shaun says that this is the sailing he came for, like the ocean racing he has done in the past.
1732 We reefed main to first reef – height = 17?. Set pilot onto TWA = 165. Set jib tight to backwind the main. Traveler up to center, stablized boom with preventer
1857 Confused sea, wind waves atop swell – bumpy but fast on first reef and jib.
1949 Beam seas are really bashing the boat. We’ll try steering off 20deg and see how that rides. Set pilot response = NORMAL.
2251 Wind fairly constant 19-23KN. Boat speed up to 14 KN surfing down waves at times. Boat well under control.

07/02/09 Thursday:
0007 One reef in main and jib. Boat well under control in a large cross swell. Boat speed is 10 knots.
One reef in main; jib. Wind is still up. Boat is moving fast; fewer underwing slams than 2 hours ago..TWD steady. O ccasional speed of 13 or 14 kts, but mostly 9 to 11 kts. A ship 20 nm to our south is going to cross our bows. Need to watch it carefully. All is well.
0227 TWS 20 to 27 kts. Seas might be decreasing some what. Boat speed still 10 to 14 kts. All is quiet.. Trimble is beeping — messages received?
0316 Fast and bumpy- new Rick Shema forecast just received = OK to set CTS to 235T = 220M
0321 Steve Surfed to 16 knots.
0351 Falling off for easier ride by 10 deg to 220M
0805 Boat maintaining steady course with no sail or rudder change on this watch.
0952 Sea is now BLUE! Not much has changed over the past several hours. Seas are still moving the boat around, but the auto pilot manages to keep us on course. Still cloudy . Baro is rising now. Ride is more comfortable than it was last night. No ships on the AIS.. Several of the small port hatches are leaking slightly — drips: over nav station, in the shop, in the master shower. Shaun as had a very few tiny leaks from the hatch over the guest bed.
1231 Strike jib, set reacher – traveler up to weather about 2-ft. Main still first-reef.
1551 Shaun & Steve shook out first reef –> full main and reacher. Very little speed improvement so far.
1810 Shaun and Dorothy put the first reef in the main. Dorothy making bread.
2027 Wind is easing, beautiful sunset with beams of light rays spreading from the bases of clouds to the ocean surface. Long, soft clouds, pale blue sky. Much quieter tonight than last night. We have traveled 480 nautical miles from the GG Bridge.
2249 Finally! 1/4 waxing moon visible!

07/03/09 Friday:
0136 Wind getting lighter. Reacher tack more to windward. Steered 10 degree more to stbd.
0352 TWD is moving around. Difficulty keeping the sails full.
0818 Furl reacher which doesn’t work motorsailing light air deep angles (standing on a razor blade).
1411 Low, smooth rolling swell, with wind ripples on the surface. Air temperature outdoors is 71 deg F. One ship in the distance on AIS. None close enough to be seen. Rick Shema sent new route changes, more on the rhumb line to Oahu. Light winds forecast for the next 2-1/2 days. Second loaf of bread is in the oven. We finished the first loaf at lunch today.

We have traveled 623 nautical miles since sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. About 1400 nautical miles to go.

All is well. We are having a fun passage. The Pacific Ocean is being good to us so far. ADAGIO keeps us warm and dry, and performs beautifully — our magic carpet to Hawaii!

Love and hugs,
Steve & Dorothy
s/v ADAGIO
Pacific Ocean
latitude 34 deg 22 min N
longitude 133 deg 50 min W