Bora Bora to Vava’u

We left Bora Bora at sunrise on Sunday, headed Vava’u in Tonga. We are routing north of Maupihaa atoll first, in case the forecast turns nasty for the Cook Islands /Tonga. That way we can head for Samoa instead. The wind was initially light, but filled in to around 15-18 knots so we were making good miles. With a swell below 2m and evenly spaced it was very pleasant.

We are dealing with faults on both our DC-DC chargers, so we have to manage power closely. Fortunately, it was quite sunny, and our solar panels managed to get the batteries back to 100% every day.

The wind died just before 10AM Tuesday, marking the arrival of the rain front associated with a low-pressure system hundreds of miles south of our position. The 9AM weather update also showed potential nasty weather moving in over the Tonga area within 24 hours of our predicted arrival time. Bobbing and rolling at 2 knots in barely a breath of wind was not an option, so the motor was started, and we were soon chugging along at around 5 knots towards our destination.

In the afternoon we bagged the staysail and stowed both poles, as downwind sailing is not in our future for the next few days. We motored for almost last 20 hours but, on the upside, the remaining functional but erratic DC-DC charger kept pumping out a steady if disappointing 30 Amps (from our 115 Amp alternator).

The forecast rain started in the late afternoon on Wednesday (why always just as it is about to get dark??) and became torrential with gusty headwinds to 25 knots around 10:30PM. The captain was summoned and, after surveying the scene for an hour, declared that there was nothing to be done, leaving the first mate, by now in life jacket, to keep the ship steady. The rain came and went all night, accompanied by gusty southerly wind. Some diffuse lightning was also visible to the north, but the radar showed nothing except a large cell more than 36 miles to the north.

At daybreak on Thursday the rain eased, and the wind abated to around 5 knots (of course, it was now daylight), revealing a pretty flat sea. “It won’t stay like this”, we said, and sure enough, things started going downhill shortly after. The forecast was for SSE winds at 12 knots, steadily increasing to 16 knots through the day. The reality on the water was a rapid increase to around 20 knots, gusting 25 of winds from the SSW, i.e. forward of the beam. The sea state also rapidly deteriorated into the “washing machine” state. In addition, we the difference between our heading and actual course was 10 to 15 degrees, and it appeared we were making a lot of leeway, requiring a further turn into the wind. We were soon crashing into and over waves with only the triple reefed main and half the small headsail. The winds were gusty too, with even the small sail plan groaning and propelling us to over 8 knots during the gusts.

In last night’s update a deep and extensive low-pressure system south of us had materialised, with the forecast high being squashed to a small ridge. Dave, the skipper on Warrior, who is 100 miles south/ahead of us, sent us an update from his onshore weather router pointing out that the low is visible on the satellite imagery and would torment us for a while longer but that the impacts would abate over the next 24 hours.

It was difficult to keep any sort of pace up in these conditions as Sunny Spells would just launch herself off the top of each wave and crash back into the water with every passing swell. We had to slow down and turn downwind a bit to preserve boat and sanity.

Conditions very slowly improved through the night, mostly as the waves became more regular and our wind angle improved ever so slightly. It is now Friday morning, and the wind is still gusting 26 knots on the beam, so we are not out of the woods just yet.

Back in the Groove

We’re finally sailing again — properly sailing — and what a relief. After the chaotic stillness and squall-dodging of the past week, Sunny Spells is back in her element, humming along with 10 to 14 knots over the beam and a big blue swell behind us. The trades have returned. The days from 28 April to now have been, in a word, restorative.

It’s that glorious stretch of ocean where the wind is just enough — not too much, not too little — and the boat settles into its stride. We’ve been mostly on a beam reach or broad reach, full main and big genoa, averaging 6.5 to 7 knots with barely a hand laid on a winch. The autopilot is content, the sails are happy, and so are we.

We’ve passed a few waypoints that felt more symbolic than geographic — halfway from Galápagos to the Marquesas, 1,000 miles to go, 750… They’re just numbers, but they change the mood. The South Pacific feels real now, not just an idea on a chart.

With good sailing comes better living. We’ve been sleeping deeper, eating better, and catching up on all the small tasks that pile up when you’re too exhausted to care. A few more firmware tweaks to the displays, some overdue cleaning. Amazing what you feel like doing when you’re not battling squalls or running on 3 hours of sleep.

The sea is calmer now too — long, slow swells and the occasional splat from a flying fish. We’ve had a few bird visitors again, though not as bold as the Galápagos gang. Just a noddy or two doing fly-bys at dusk, silhouetted against soft pink skies.

The miles are slipping by now. Most days we’re making between 155 and 165 miles, helped along by the South Equatorial Current which has been kind and steady. We haven’t seen another boat in days, but AIS has picked up a freighter or two far off on the horizon. Mostly, though, it’s just us and the endless roll of the Pacific.

We’ve both commented that this is the kind of sailing we dreamt about — peaceful, purposeful, and quietly exhilarating. It won’t last forever, of course, but for now Sunny Spells is doing what she does best, and we’re just hanging on for the ride.

Windlass Overhaul: Part II (Mod)

I’m now thoroughly bored with trying to fix the windlass

Having cleaned it out and re-fitted the windlass earlier, it worked perfectly, twice! I’ve now had a further two attempts and think I have it licked. This is what I ended up doing:

  • I fitted a sealed bearing to the top of the electric motor (replacing the original, shielded bearing) the part number for this bearing is 6201LLU/2AS. Read an explanation of the difference between open, shielded and sealed bearings if you’re into that sort of thing… This should hopefully prevent a recurrence of the inside of the electric motor being coated with grease. This was the only way of solving this issue as there is simply no room to fit a separate lip seal. You do have to wonder whether a sealed bearing might have been fitted in the first place?
  • I machined the old, worn bronze bush that is meant to support the windlass’ output shaft’s bottom end (and probably the most highly stressed part of the windlass…) to take a HK1512-B drawn cup needle roller bearing insert (I kid you not!). The output shaft was also machined down to 15mm diameter (from 16mm) to suit the new bearing. Once you measure something for machining, you really get a feel for the workmanship that went into it. It was a bit disappointing to find that the accuracy of the machining is not great, with the output shaft top bearing having an interference fit while the drive gear’s fit on the same shaft is a bit “loose”, to say the least.
  • I replaced the electric motor brushes and re-wired the brush holder. This bit really annoyed me, as it required a third removal of the windlass when it only turned about three revolutions under load… It would appear that the brushes had absorbed grease and, under load, the heat of the current flowing through the brushes would cause a film of grease to be deposited on the commutator – end of windlass! Further frustration was caused by the fact that South Pacific wouldn’t sell me the brushes. I was told to send the windlass in for a quote and repair (yeah, right, throw good money after bad?). When I showed the electric motor to my local auto-electrician (Paul Bagnalls in Mona Vale), he was not impressed with the small brushes, given that they had to carry higher currents than your average starter motor. He reluctantly sold me a set of starter motor brushes (thought I was wasting my time and money), which I then sanded down to the correct size using a belt-sander, holding the brushes in the vice! Not elegant, I grant you, but it worked! The brush holder was also re-wired with heavier guage wire.
Sealed bearing fitted to windlass with old bearing for comparison

Sealed Bearing Fitted

Bush machined to take new roller bearing

Machined Bush and Bearing to Suit

New bearing cartridge fitted to gearbox

New Bearing Fitted to Gearbox

Replaced the electric motor brushes and re-wired the brush holder

Brush Holder and (modified) Brushes

Fortunately, it appears the windlass has now had a new lease on life, having picked up the anchor three times on the weekend. My next move was going to be replacement. The modification of the output shaft has removed all the slop and wobble from the capstan – let’s hope it lasts a bit longer than the original!