Gentle Wind has arrived in French Polynesia after a 7-day
trip
south from Christmas Island.
Original plan was to go the Marquesas, but the southeast
trades
were already blowing so we decided to skip that and go
straight
to Rangiroa in the Tuamotus. Two days out from Xmas the
wind
shifted and everything was right on the nose. It was quite
uncomfortable and we had water ingress into the crew's
sleeping
quarters so we decided to skip Rangiroa and go directly to
the
main island of Tahiti - a course change of about 20 degrees.
This helped for a while but then the seas matched our course
change and once again we had 8-foot head seas at 4 to 5 sec
interval. So another course change was made, heading
directly
to Raiatea - 125 NM west of Tahiti (but still in French
Polynesia).
We arrived at the dock at 6 AM, went to the Gendarmerie to
check in, and zere told to come back at 2 PM. But in the
interim
we were told it would be OK to leave the boat before
formalities
are completed.
We will stay here a couple days then when seas settle we'll
make an overnight run east back to Papeete where we need to
find a nez crez member - the young kid we picked up back in
Honolulu has to head home this week.
Crew issues seem to be our biggest problem. It's hard to
find volunteers who will treat the boat as a home rather
than
a hotel room. It's truly amazing how many "slobs" there
are!!!
So far we've done about 2800NM and put about 500 hours on
the mains (more on the gen sets). Fuel burn has remained
close to 1 gal/NM. And with two exceptions there've been no
real problems with the boat.
-
The Naiads started leaking oil (leak == 1 quart/hour) and
until we found the problem we ran with no stabilization for
over 24 hours.
-
In short head seas we have water ingress into the
sleeping
quarters so crew ends up in the salon or whereever. Makes
for difficult house-keeping with sleeping bodies all over
the
boat, and really difficult to cook a decent meal in the
galley.
Gentle Wind has arrived in French Polynesia after a 7-day
trip
south from Christmas Island.
Original plan was to go the Marquesas, but the southeast
trades
were already blowing so we decided to skip that and go
straight
to Rangiroa in the Tuamotus. Two days out from Xmas the
wind
shifted and everything was right on the nose. It was quite
uncomfortable and we had water ingress into the crew's
sleeping
quarters so we decided to skip Rangiroa and go directly to
the
main island of Tahiti - a course change of about 20 degrees.
This helped for a while but then the seas matched our course
change and once again we had 8-foot head seas at 4 to 5 sec
interval. So another course change was made, heading
directly
to Raiatea - 125 NM west of Tahiti (but still in French
Polynesia).
We arrived at the dock at 6 AM, went to the Gendarmerie to
check in, and zere told to come back at 2 PM. But in the
interim
we were told it would be OK to leave the boat before
formalities
are completed.
We will stay here a couple days then when seas settle we'll
make an overnight run east back to Papeete where we need to
find a nez crez member - the young kid we picked up back in
Honolulu has to head home this week.
Crew issues seem to be our biggest problem. It's hard to
find volunteers who will treat the boat as a home rather
than
a hotel room. It's truly amazing how many "slobs" there
are!!!
So far we've done about 2800NM and put about 500 hours on
the mains (more on the gen sets). Fuel burn has remained
close to 1 gal/NM. And with two exceptions there've been no
real problems with the boat.
1. The Naiads started leaking oil (leak == 1 quart/hour) and
until we found the problem we ran with no stabilization for
over 24 hours.
2. In short head seas we have water ingress into the
sleeping
quarters so crew ends up in the salon or whereever. Makes
for difficult house-keeping with sleeping bodies all over
the
boat, and really difficult to cook a decent meal in the
galley.
