Bora Bora to Samoa, 28/7/17 – 9/8/17, 1220 Nm
Samoa, 9 August 2017
Arrived Apia 1230 hrs
Quarantine were fast and efficient. Customs made us wait then wanted original clearance documents. We’ll Tahiti gives it electronically now. Wasn’t good enough for her so let’s take my computer to her office. By the time we got there her superiors must have said it’s fine so at least we were driven 100 meters back to the boat. Beer o clock so have internet now. Update when I’m next upright.
Tuesday, 8 August 2017, 1300Hrs
13 13S, 169 56W, Goodbye Monday! Cancelled through lack of interest. Well Joe decided he doesn’t mind the odd Monday so he had what he called Smunday yesterday. Regardless the ships time is now UTC +13 so until Samoa we are now 3 hrs ahead of EST in Australia. The wind kicked in yesterday afternoon after days of motoring so now we are making good speed and hope to be in Apia within 24hrs. Looking forward to catching up with you Phil on Saturday night.
Sunday, 6 August 2017, 1300Hrs
13 33S, 167 49W, Still 233Nm away, At least the weather brought some rain to keep things a little cooler today. Another whale sighting this time with a breach.
Saturday, 5 August 2017, 1300Hrs
13 35S, 166 06W, Only averaging a bit over 4 kts whilst under engine. We could up the revs whilst under engine however with the fuel filter problems (fixed for now) and with no more spares I’m very reluctant to push anything too hard. Still with more than 300Nm to go and a date change coming up its definitely a mid week arrival
Friday, 4 August 2017, 1300Hrs
13 38S, 164 23W, Still over 430Nm to landfall. Have spent all morning cramped into an engine bay trying to stop a small drip from the engine fuel water separator. Hopefully this is the reason the engine cut out last night. Currently waiting on a gasket seal product to set before we can test it. This appears to have been glued closed previously so when draining this filter a week ago we must have broken the previous (temporary?) repair. Fingers crossed that this was the problem.
Dinah please SMS to verify this post has happened, will follow up should I not hear a response.
Thursday, 3 August 2017, 1300Hrs
13 42S, 162 36W, Past half way at least, now we have around 540Nm to go with the wind pretty much directly behind at 10-15 Kts so still slow going under sail at least. Nothing much more to report at the moment. All fine on board.
Tuesday, 1 August 2017, 1300Hrs
14 53 S, 159 13 W, A slow last 24 Hrs, not quite half way as expected by now. The forecasts from Duane are showing winds lightening further so will persevere for today but its looking like we will need to be under engine for the duration to Samoa unfortunately. Currently more than 750 Nm to go with 460 Nm behind us in a crooked line. Note we have changed time to UTC -11Hrs
Monday, 31 July 2017, 1400Hrs
15 22S, 157 49W, Slowly getting somewhere I think. Saw a Whale right up close to the boat this morning but that’s all to report apart from the usual birds out here in the middle of nowhere.
Sunday, 30 July 2017, 1400 Hrs
15 50S, 155 53W, 940Nm to Samoa and 250 Nm behind us. A bit slow going the last 24 Hrs but expecting the wind to pick up a bit and hold until Tuesday night. We may just miss out on Monday and put ourselves on the other side of the dateline tomorrow just for convenience in communications.
Friday July 28, 2017, 1100Hrs
Leaving Bora Bora again. Test of position report via Sattelite has worked so good to go. Joe’s luggage finally arrived this morning so he is currently collecting it now. Have made some adjustments to the rudder alignment and will take another swim to check the hull but hopefully the autopilot will behave itself. Wind looks good so hope to be in Samoa in 8 days plus 1 day for crossing the dateline. Update in a few days.
Thursday, 27 July 2017, 1800 Hrs
Checked out again, “take two” for the leg to Samoa, It was what seems too simple to a matter to remove one crew from the list and add another, particularly after the hassle last November trying to clear out and the red tape involved, I guess because last time the boat was under new ownership when leaving. Anyway welcome aboard to Joe! Will hopefully we will be underway by lunchtime tomorrow with just a few minor tasks like garbage, fresh bread and another look at the hull and a check of the rudder alignment. (still looking for the Gremlin in the Autopilot)
Duane I will send through Joe’s passport and NOK details shortly, I know you are probably on the Farm this weekend but will hear from you no doubt in a couple of days.
Next update on leaving and will do a final Satellite test prior to that.
Wednesday, 26 July 2017, 1430 Hrs
Bora Bora Yacht Club
Final test of uploading position reports to the crew website.
All going well I think the problem has been fixed.
First the iridium mail apps updated and failed on all devices. Windows updated on me yesterday which took out the computer for almost 3 hours. “Postie” the add on to wordpress for posting via email also had and update at some stage to keep up with wordpress updates. Unfortunately I couldn’t update wordpress so nothing was working.
Fortunately the Author of “Postie” was able to get back to me immediately and gave me a link to the version of his “add on” that works on my version of the WordPress site (crew website)
So a big thank you to Wayne Allen for solving my long running frustrations with communication.