Fatu Hiva!!!

Hi Guys,

              Anchored in very spectacular Hanavave, Bay of Virgins etc, in torrential rain, after a tough squall filled night. In fact the squalls gave us such a hurry on, that we arrived 2 hours before dawn, and had to nerd around in the rain, with 4 other boats also looking to get in and anchor. We have just changed out of our 2nd or 3rd set of sodden clothing, and are going to sit down with a bowl of hot porridge, and a cup of coffee laced with rum, to celebrate our arrival in the very wet, but very beautifull looking, Fatu Hiva! We have anchored in the shallow section (22 mts), and put out every inch of our 60mts chain, The whole bay is chocolate brown, and filled with floating coconuts, branches etc, washed down by the rivers. Cant wait to see it in a pristine clean state, but that can wait! After breakfast... its a loooooong sleep! The 3018 miles took us 20 days and 18 hours, and it was, and will be,  the longest sail we will ever do in our lives!

 Cheers for now! Love and regards, a tired  but chuffed, Sheer Tenacity crew! 

Day 20 ends well!

Hi Folk,

             The breeze picked up a bit and we ended the day on 139mile, leaving us just 71 to go. I fact we deliberately started slowing down for the last two hours, as there is no point in arriving in a difficult new anchorage at night. As it is, we will have to dawdle through the night, to arrive at first light.Yesterdays gribs indicated a squally night, which is the last thing we feel like, so lets hope they prove to be wrong!  There is a rocky island about 17miles out, which we shall give a wide birt, and I would expect the same wind acceleration zone around the Northern tip of Fatu Hiva, and plan to go around the top with reduced sails in case.... not that one can reduce 3 reefs much further, anyway. We have poles out on both sides, and I also dont feel like taking them down at night, with squalls threaening! We will probably take them down before dark, and change our point of sail so that we can go the rest of the way ,off the wind,            Both Steve(Scott Free) and I have been trying hard to catch some more fish for the freezer, before we get to the islands, where fish is expensive, and rules are unclear about cruisers fishing. In the last two days, Steve has hooked, fought , and in each case, lost alongside the boat, 3 enormous Dorado, and  a six foot sailfish! I have had two lines out for 3 days, with not the slightest touch! Still a few hour left today to get lucky! Mary and I are really looking forward to getting there, setting the anchor, and just letting go!!We know that it will take a good 2 to 3 days to handstitch and repair rhe main, but think that a bit of sleep and a swim or two are more important now! The sides of the boat are streaming bright green weed, and the rudder is encrusted with gooseneck barnacles. It's amazing how all this stuff can grow, while we are sailing pretty fast. It gives us a good excuse to swim! A funny time change here!! 30 minutes!! We are currently 8 hour behind UTC, and 10 behind RSA. In Marquesis, we will be 10hrs 30 minutes behind!

        There is no internet on Fatu Hive, and so we will have to use the satphone, which ,I'm afraid means no photos.. even little ones, as they take too long ,and often block all our coms.

                Next message from the Bay of Virgins !

 Love and regards to all,

 Rod & Mary

Moving better than expected again!

Hi Guys,

                Two things have changed that have made life altogether more comfortable aboard ST  ! Firstly, the twin headsail rig is a revelation to us. As mentioned, we have centred the little main with its 3 reefs, and poled out the genoa to starboard. (about 70%). We are flying a no.#3 North Sail  I bought from Craig Middleton before we left, on a port rigged pole, hanked on to  the removable 3rd forestay. It is positioned on the stem of the boat, and is secured through the bowsprit to a plate under the bow.  We are managing between 5 and 6 knots, dead down wind, in 12-14 knots, without much rolling at all. We will definitely use this rig again, as its so easy to control, even when the wind gets up.Secondly, the wind picked up from the 7 to 8 knots to about 12-14, and got us on the move again.

              We did 125 miles on day 19, and have 210 left. We can expect to do another 120 by noon tomorrow, and should hopefully arrive during Wednesday morning, as the winds , at this stage look like staying around the 10-15 range. When we drop the hook, I expect to have done about 3118 mile on the log, and the rhumb line route was 2910. Its been quite a long slog, but our preparations and provisioning have been great. We sorted out the freezer this morning, still have 57 double meals , plus a whole range or our own par cooked vegetables, such as red/yellow/green peppers, carrots. etc We still have 1 apple, 1/2 pineapple, 2 cabbages, onions ,garlic and potatoes for at least another 2 weeks  Lunch today is Thai red curry chicken, one of the 7 remaining pre-cooked meals, which are not included in the above! I must say, that after our 5 years out cruising, Mary & I have got the food side all sorted! The only thing we keep underestimating, is the beer reserves we should carry! (Also, we do not have the space to store much!!)            I have also got a mail back from Quantum telling me about Rutgerson batten cars, which sound rather what I was looking for. Until I can find an internet contact, I cannot have a look at  them. Take a look for me Justin, and give me your thoughts please??

                 love and regards to all,                                                         Rod & Mary

Crawling to the finish!

Hi Folk,

           At one time or other ,during the night,both of us declared that...." we cant take any more of this bloody rolling!" Neither of us have everexperienced anything quite like it. Going downwind, in 10-12 knots of breeze, with 2 to 3mt swells coming at you from all directions. It was definitely exacerbated by having an uneven split of the triple reefed mainsail  By morning, the wind had dropped to 8 knots, not enough to even fly "Jocko". We were both going ballistic with frustration! In desperation, we unpacked the aft cabin, and pulled out our No #3 hank on jib, which is intended for beating, and is flown from the new removable forestay,attached at the bow of the boat. We then rigged up the second spinnaker pole on port, hanked on the No #3, fed the sheet throught h pole, centered the main to midships,left the genoa poled out on stbd, and gave that a go! It did'nt stop the rolling, but it reduced it to the extent that we no longer wanted to jump overboard!

          No sooner had we finished doing all those changes, than we noticed a dark black line approaching on the horizon behind us. Radar confirmed a whole host of squalls, lining up to nail us! We waited, and waited... one would miss us to port, and one would miss to stbd. When we got lucky, we got hit!! They packed about 26-28knots of wind, buckets of rain, and lasted all of 5 or 6 minutes! During  half that time, we would scream along at 7-8knots, and just get drowned in the other half waiting for the wind to hit us! Just after lunch, there was a break in their line up and the sun came out! So Mary and I decided that it was a good time to take of all our clothes and have a nice warm cockpit shower. One really should'nt tempt fate! Mary had barely finished drying herself, and I was all full of soap suds, when the sun vanished, and the next squall appeared out of nowhwere! Right now the wind is back down to 4-5 knots, and we are hoping to get hit by another sqall just so that we can move a bit!

     By 12.00 noon, we had scraped together 116nm, leaving only 339 to go. The gribs indicate winds of 10knots or less, plus a huge band of squalls through the night! Just what we really would have wanted..... an nice smooth and easy run home!

It looks like we will have to content ourselves with an arrival in Fatu Hiva, on Wednesday morning, as there is now no way we will get there before dark on Tuesday evening with the winds forecaste! So now we can just chill,get used to the idea of 3 more night of watchkeeping, and look forward to Tuesday! After all, that will still be the morning of our 21st day since we left Galapagos, which is quite a bit quicker than we had anticipated!

Cheers for now, lets see how things pan out!      Love and regards, Rod & Mary

Slowing down with the end in sight!

Hi Guys,

             Quite apart form the discomfort of rolling around like marbles all day, the wind has started to die down, and the gribs show that this trend is likely to continue! We managed 134miles on day 17, leaving us 460 to go. We are only doing about 5 knots, sailing directly down wind with our remaining mainsail to port( 3rd reef), and a matching poled out genoa on the other side. The sea state is causing most of the rolling, and the slow speed makes it seem even worse. as we feel like we are rolling left and right at about 100mph, and not moving forward at all! When the wind drops to below 15, perhaps the sea will moderate, and it will be worth flying "Jocko" and gybing back and forth instead of enduring this blooming death roll any more!

I have got a quote from Quantum for a new mainsail, and are waiting for Cheryl to come up with a quote for the freight to Papeete. I appears that I could use the old batterns in the new sail, but I feel sure that there must be an improved battern into back of slide car system, without having to change the whole track to a Harken batcar system as well. If so , thats what I want, and if they need special new batterns, then so be it. I have just written  to this effect, to Tony Strutt, at Quantum, who is dealing with my order. It appears that Craig must be in the Med cruising again! I will see what he comes up with!!

          Thats as much as I can type in these conditions!! So cheers for now! love and regards to all,                                                                                                                                                               Us 

Into Week 3.....

Hi Folk,

               As we come to the end of day 15, we are now beginning to wish that the Marquesis were just a little bit closer! We have now sailed 2280 miles, and have 745 left before we can set the hook in Fatu Hiva! I know I speak for Mary, and our mates on Scott Free, that we are now really on the count down, and wishing we were there already! Lumpy seas, too little sleep, and 24 hour per day non stop isometric excercise, takes it out of old toppies like us.. especially on boats with a crew of only 2 !

Crews get moody ,fractious and just plain bloody irritable , dropping things, spilling food and drinks etc etc. Before we set off, Mary and I chatted about the third week being the most tiresome, so we are doing our best to slow down when we move about... try not to do too much.... lie down and rest more... put books and Soduku away.... there are enough challenges in just keeping things running smoothly, not to have to worry about entertainment, and keeping the mind sharp!

           Today was another 25 hour day, having crossed over 120W a couple of days ago, putting us 8 hours behind UTC, and 10 behind RSA. We will have one more time change just before, or as we reach Fatu Hiva, as that is at 138degsW. We clocked up another156 miles , and we are hoping, if all things go smoothly, to make landfall in 6 days.  When we left , we said to ourselves that we should prepare for a 25 day crossing, so we will be very happy to cut a few days off that estimate!

 By the way, Perkins put in a protest about his loss of title of "Lord Perkins", claiming that it was not his fault that he gave us grief! He claimed it was the fault of those who marinised him,and painted him blue, for putting all those stupid little relays everywhere! He has a point! There are thousands of land based versions of him powering Massey Ferguson tractors all over the world, who manage perfectly well without them! In deference to his hard feelings, we have upgraded him to "Sir Perkins" for a trial period of 3 months, and have promised him that if he behaves himself, he can get his full title back! He als sends a special thank you to Justin and Jeremy!            Love and best regards to all,                                                       Rod & Mary at 08.53S, 126.18W

More Letters from the PACIFIC, par SATPHONE

THE SMILE IS BACK!

Hi Folk,

           "Sheer Tenacity" is happy to have her heart beat back, thanks to the combined efforts of team Hout Bay ! (Justin,Jeremy & Rod!) My plea for assistance with Mr Perkins, ( yes he has been downgraded from previous title of" Lord Perkins", due to bad behaviour!), was immediately taken up by Justin, who obviously hit the net, the phone and any other number of contacts, including our long lost cruising buddy ,Jeremy.  He was back in RSA on a home visit, for Yvonnes mothers 90th birthday!

Justin and I exchanged emails between mid Pacific and  Noordhoek, before ageeing upon a plan of action. Having isolated the poitive and negative wires between the starter button and the relay, the idea was to check each separately, trace the faulty circuit, and create a new starter switch using a new wire to replace the faulty one, and ignoring the rest of the ignition loom. The problem was that both pos and neg wire to the relay worked. I assumed it must be the relay, but the spare in my spares locker had different poles for the high amp wires. I checked the pos and neg wires on the new relay, and they went click at the right moment. I decided to do the same test on the old one. It also went click at the right moment! Damn, I thought, it must be somewhere between the relay and the solenoid! But, last check.....does a click mean its making contact? I made up 2 leads to match up the eyelet fittings from the old relay ,into male push on fittings for the new one, wired it all up ... and a great happiness was to be had on board! The old relay could talk the talk, but couldn't walk the walk!  Mary can now have her fridge back, and Fred can get his daily recharge again, and the little Honda emergency fellow, can go back to his locker!

          Last night we passed the 1000 mile to go mark, but the sea was far too uncomfortable to even think of sundowners. Besides ,we were both still knackered from our all night battle with the squalls, the previous night. Today is only mildly better, but we have two reasons to celebrate, so we will make a plan! We were both able to get some sleep last night, hence our determination to solve Perkies problem. Our days run for this uncomfortable ride, was 155miles, leaving us a further 886 to go. A 6.5knot average ,in these huge lumpy seas is pretty impressive, but we feel a bit battered and bruised, and are hoping it will calm down soon!  The gribs indicate at least another 2 days of 20kn +, so I guess we will just have to live with it, and get there sooner!                   

           Love and regards to all! ,  Rod & Mary

NIGHT FROM HELL!

Hi Folk,

             Up until last night, it has all been a huge adventure! Last  night and today has set about balancing the picture! It all started when I tried to start the engine for our evening battery charge session. Nada! Clearly there is a wiring problem between the ignition switch, the starter button, the starter relay and the solonoid.  I know there are ways to bypass each of these components, but I need to get some noddy language input from a mechanic or knowledgeable guy to talk me through it. The engine is a Perkins Prima M60, and any half decent mechanic could do it in one second. Dave at Southern Marine would know. But I dont! I would love a quick simple instruction email on how to do it!

            While taking out the little honda genset, to run in the cockpit, a few nasty squalls appeared, which generated winds up to 25/28, and lots of rain. But that was only the beginning.At about 9pm a big mother arrived, with winds of 35, huge seas, and the real problem was a sudden 120 ded change in wind direction fromSE to N. It blew like that all night, and all this morning. Mom and I are pretty knackered haveing both been up all night, and most of the morning too,  The wind now seams to hav settled back to a 24/5 knot easterly, with huge following seas, making our slow down wind passage bloody uncomfortable. Hopefully the gribs will tell us when it will all calm down, sor that we can get on with trying to fix the engines electrical problem, and make progress towards the Marquesis. Despite all the chaos, we still posted 134nm, leaving us 1044 nm to go. A couple of good days are needed now to restore the wah.... plus some notes on how to start the perkins... please? love and regards , Us

 LONG WAY TO GO STILL

Hi Folk,

           Another good day under the belt, (Day 12 ,167nm), but when it came to plotting our position onto our paper charts, I needed to change pages, from #62, to #607, which revealed another huge expanse of ocean which still lies ahead! Granted , it is on a larger scale, which, until one starts plotting daily runs, just looks huge!! Not a bad thing actually, as it re-inforces quite how far out, and remote we are, which serves as a timely reminder, to pull in ones horns a bit! Yesterday we took a good look at the remaining slab of the mainsail, from the 3d reef to the headboard, and spotted a rather shiney and thin bit of sail cloth in the middle of one panel. We realised that this was the result of it rubbing against the old crows nest, which used to sit on the first stb spreader. (We removed it in Grenada, when we first got there) Suddenly, the thought of losing the rest of the mainsail, took on a different perspective. So while we were sailing along on relatively flat seas, I donned the climbing harness,and using topping lift as a safety line,  climbed up the mast on the steps, from which I was able to apply "sticky back" sail repair strips to either side of the vulnerable section. For the last day or so, the winds have been blowing between 15 and 25 knots , and the seas have built a little more, creating a beam swell, which not only makes life a little more uncomfortable, but also puts a whole heap more pressure on the autopilot ,to keep us on track. The wind is at present ,on the beam as well, and given our smaller mainsail, we have now dropped the staysail, and trimmed the genoa, to reduce the strain on the autohelm, as well as ourselves! We are still managing about 6.5 knots, but without any of the adrenalin pumping 8 -9 knot surfs!

We now have about 1160 miles to go, and should be able to celebrate getting down to below 1000 , sometime tomorrow evening. By then, we will also have crossed the 120Deg W longitude, and should, in theory, be winding the clock back yet another hour!! We are now 7 behind UTC, and 9 behind RSA, so the next change will bring us up to 10! We then only have to average about 130nm per day, to get to Fatu Hiva in another 8 days. So, whats the rush? Take it carefully , and look after the boat and ourselves for the next week or so!

Love and regards to all,

                                    Rod & Mary

Letters from the PACIFIC, par SATPHONE

CONTINUING WITH TORN MAIN AT GOOD SPEED

Hi Folk,

             We have hardly missed a beat, considering that we are having to sail with 3 reefs in the main, in NO reef winds! We managed 149 miles by the end of Day 11, having done 1666, with1326 to go. On rhum line course is 252Degs, but the winds got lighter and lighter, and more East than anything else, with the swells still coming up from the SE. It forced us to harden up on the wind to keep moving, and we ended up this morning quite a long way South of our preferred course. At dawn this morning we resumed our wing on wing down wind set up, with the triple reefed main to Stb and poled out Genoa to port. Well it worked.....sort of, in that we were making 4.5 knots through the water, with a 90 deg roll to each side , about twice a minute!! It was horrible, so we decided to fly the Asymetric again. Now when I first bought this sail from Quantum, a certain sailmaker there, referred to it as the Flying Jockstrap, as the design was the RSA flag. Last time we flew it , in its recut form in the company of Scott Free, I made the mistake of referring to it as My "Flying Jockstrap", much to the hilarity of Chris and Steve, who promptly took photo of us, and posted them on their blog, titled...."The Flying Jockstrap".

           Well, as soon as we had it up and well set, on our ideal course, the speed jumped to between 6 and 7, and the ride was smooth , comfortable and effortless! Mary has totally fallen in love with "Jocko", as she now calls it, and is so happy with our new quick release system, that she is even entertaining the idea of letting me  fly it during the night again!! You see what love can do? No, not for me... for "Jocko!"

          I am just about to download gribs, to see what we can expect for the next couple of days. What we have accepted, as have most other cruisers , is that the Gribs generally under report the predicted winds by one full Force ( (about 5knots). When they predict 10-15, we will more than likely get 14-19. When they predict 20knots, expect 25/26, and also that the changes predicted usually start a little earlier than the file indicate. Once one understands this, it is still a fantastic aid to sail planning, and I would never choose to sail with out access to the Grib files. Having said all that, I notice that the wind right now is 9-10 knots ( exactly what the Gribs predicted yesterday!), and that "Jocko" is still pulling us along at 5.8  to 6.5 knots, while Mary is catching up on some extra sleep!

                                        Go you good thing , "Jocko'!

MAINSAIL TEARS IN HALF

Hi Folk,

          Today represents a big milestone in our Puddle Jump!  Another 162 mile day takes us to the half way mark today. We have now done 1517 miles in 10 days,with 1469 to go. Scott free and ourselves have decided to to throw a "Half way in the Middle of no-where Party"  . All cruisers invited ! Just as I was sitting in the cockpit dreaming up the plans for the day, I heard a loud .. SHE,E,E,I.I.I.T !!!!  With a perfect bit of timing, our 20 year old" Bullet proof" Hood Mainsail decided to add to the days drama, by tearing right in half  from the leach to the Luff!  I immediately echoed the sails heart felt sentiment, then called up Mary to help me sort things out, and take in the 3rd reef, which was thankfully above the split. She took one look at the sail, and repeated the same sentiment all over again! Mary and I set about the task, and assessing our chances of effecting a workable repair, then Radio'd Scott Free, to warn them that we would be slowing down somewhat, explaining the situation to Chris and Steve, who once again repeated the sound of the mainsail ripping!

What are our options, with so far still to sail? Prize one, will be to do Nothing! Leave the main with the 3rd reef in place, and carry on sailing on a broad reach to the Marquesis, playing with varying amounts of genoa and Staysail as we go. Quite frankly, there is a very good chance that this is exactly what we will do, as we are now well into the trades, and the direction and wind strenghths should be settled.

Option 2. If the wind drops below 10 knots, we will head up to wind, drop the main, remove the batterns, and haul the sail into the cockpit to try and repair. The fabric is torn for about a meter from the leach, and the rest of the3 meter rip is just the seam stitching having let go. We have enough heavy duty sticky back to repair the tear, and overstitch a sail cloth panel to re inforce the weak leach point. The rest of the split seam we will use our spinaker sticky back tol hold the seam together, while we hand stitch entire split. Could take 2 to 3 days to do, Hopefully there will be enough wind to sail under headsails alone, and Asymetric if necesary, while we do this. At the very worst, we will take a couple of extra days to get there! So whats the rush??

Whether we take the 21 days we planned, or a couple more... no problem!

          In the meantime, I have sent an email to Craig and Jannie at Quantum, thanking them for the great job they did on the cruising chute, and asking for a quote fo a new mainsail shipped to Papeete , Tahiti,  Even after we have repaired this old baby, I'm not sure I coul feel happy going down to NZ, or back accross the Indian with it now!!!

                                                                                                                              Back to the middle of No-Where party!

                                                                                                                                                                                         Regards , Rod & Mary

FLYING ALONG! 

Hi Guys,

             What a ride!! We've still got 2 reefs in the main,  a staysail, and halfa genoa in around 20  knots of wind. Have just done 169 miles for day 9, and were doing 9 knots a moment ago in a 25knot gust! All great, except for the bumpy ride, which makes sleeping very difficult, cooking, washing, and every thing else too! Have now done 1355 miles with 1623 to go. Tomorrow should mark the half way mark, which would be worth a celebration, if we could summon up the energy!

           This boat is just such a cruising machine! For the last 48 hours, Scott Free and ourselves have been no more than a mile or two apart. Because of our slightly different sail configurations, we sometimes need slightly different points of sail, which has resulted on us cutting backwards and forwards behind each other, in what Chris describes as a "Pacific Passe Doble". They have posted a couple of pics of this criss crossing on their blog.( Google Scott-Free blog, and you should find it)        I have photographed the no 2 battern slide and eyelet damage, and we are pretty confident that we will be able to repair it well enough to get us to a sailmaker somewhere. We are missing the right SS eyelet, so will use a small rope thimble, with leather re inforcement around the luff, and on each side of the sail. We will just have to wait for a suitable moment to drop the main and be able to work on it on deck, while sailing under genoa ,as we do the repair Have just put in a request for a grib file, which might give us our best opportunity. If it shows the same 15-23 knot wind, we will just keep trucking as we are, as I dont think there is any risk of the sail deteriorating in the current set up.

 We were too far away from Galavanter, to catch up with the news on their steering problem. I will try and find out via sailamail/iridium emails.

                                Cheers for now! Guess whats for lunch? More Dorado!

                                                          Love and regards to all,                                                                                 Rod & Mary

GOOD WIND AND TWO DORADO!

Hi Guys,

              Guess we got lucky on three counts! Firstly the wind filled in a little earlier than expected, and we got a move on, again. When I woke up this morning to start my watch at 07.00hr, it was still dark.....ting a ling... we crossed over 105Degs W on Tuesday, and should have changed the clock one hour earlier. No problem..do it today, and have a 25 hour day, that can only help our day's run!! It sure did, as we clocked another 146mile day , despite the slow start.

            Thirdly, in the middle of a big sail change , from full sails, from poled out Genoa, and full main on preventer, we were putting a reef in the main, and gybing the Genoa, and had a double Dorado strike, which caused a bit of chaos! I pulled in the first on the handline ( a 6kg Female), and then set about trying to bring in the one one the rod. This guy only wanted to go on the wrong side of the boat, so Mary was steering the boat, fetching Cheap Vodka (fish tranqualiser),getting the gaff ready all at the same time!The second one was a male of about a meter.             We finished the sail changes , just in time, as the wind got up, had lunch, and then set about filleting and packing away about 15 full meals into the fridges and freezer. Just made it! No more fishing for three weeks now!

The gribs indicated 15 knots for this afternoon. Its still pomping 22knots now having calmed down quite a bit! When putting in the second reef, I noticed that the 2nd batton slide & eyelet was tearing out quite badly, so we will have to wait for a drop in the wind, take the main down, and effect a repair somehow. Just another challenge to keep us on our toes! Winds beginning to wind up again, so I'd better see whats going on!  Cheers! Rod

WIND DIES, HALFWAY MARK CELEBRATIONS

Hi Guys,

               The wind has died on us, just as we have reached the area where the trades are supposed to be reliable! Never mind, it can't last too long, and gives us time to relax a little. Also lost 2 Dorado today, one during morning coffee, and another a moment ago... their luck can't last either! We managed 134miles on day 6, and have now done over 1000 miles, with 1898 still to go, so are 1/3 of the way there. We heard this morning, that another of our cruising mates, Galivant, with whom we left Panama, and who decided to head for Gambier , instead of Marquesis, are hove to, in 35knots, having lost their steering. Another of our cruising friends(Salliander, with whom we transitted the canal) are quite close by, and on their way to help them, when the wind subsides. Gambier is a lot further south,(23S,134W), below the bottom of the Tuamotos, and prone to stronger winds.    So perhaps we should just be grateful that we are bobbling along at 4-5 knots, in a 10-12 knot breeze.. At the rate we are going now, we will be lucky to do 100miles for day 7, but whats the rush anyway! The gribs I downloaded yesterday showed a bit of an increase by tomorrow lunch time, so we will just have to wait and see!

 Scott Free are about 1 mile away on our starboard, and we share a lot of VHF banter on Ch 16.....as  there is no-one else with 100miles of us!              We had Dorado (surprise!) for lunch, and are planning a cheese platter (sans the wine),biscuits and salami for our light supper. We have got into the routine of having our main meal at lunch time, and a light snack between 5 and 6 for supper, so that the off watch person does not have to try and sleep after a full meal. We tend to do our own thing for breakfast, in keeping with our watches. Seems to be working well for oth of us.

 Cheer for now, love and regards to all,                                                                Us  PS Decided to splash out and have a glass of wine with supper , to celebrate our 1000 mile mark!

Normality returns!

HI Guys,

              Normality returns!The Tortuga Express has slowed down! We enjoyed a lovely gentle night, without a cloud in sight, and all the stars as clear and bright as one would ever wish to see. Running down the equator, it is interesting to be able to see both Northern and Southern hemisphere constelations at the same time.Cant stop myself from humming/singing/(wishful thinking) the line "When you see the Southern Cross for the very first time...", from the song of the same name by "Watershed", which was clearly written while doing just this crossing, from Galapagos to the Marquesis. The other amazing thing, is that the nights here on the equator, are still cold enough to require fleecy jackets after 8.00pm!

 We decided to fly the asymetric again today, and just as we were about to hoist, we hooked and landed Dorado No.3. They have all been the most ideal size to catch, bteween 2 and 3 kg, which makes them quick to boat,clean, fillet, bag and stick in the freezer .Tonight we are having Dorado sushimi for dinner, with our sundowner.( note the singular!) Once No 3 was packed away, we hoisted the bag , and enjoyed about 8 hours of ideal sailing at between 6 and 7,5 knots. Routine inspection revealed some bad chafing in  the tack sheet, as the block had got twisted under the roller furling drum, and the sheet( thats rope Shirl!) was being cut by the drum.

 The wind angle during the last week has made our point of sail  take us about 20 miles south of our rhum line ,( no big deal when a single tack is 2900miles!), so we decided to go back to the rolly old wing on wing sail confuguration, and take the 20 miles back, while we sorted out the damaged sheet. We ended up doing 148miles on day 6, and have now done  900miles, with 2010 to go. One of the boats behind us, had to turn back to Galapagos yesterday, due to autopilot problems. He was 600 miles out, and it will take him 50% longer to double back. We really feel for them, and it makes us all very aware of the fact, that this is the single longest leg in any circumnavigation, and of the importance of regular checks and maintainance routines. Are we glad we decided to pension off our "Old Fred" before this leg ..... his expensive Raymariine replacement ,"New Fred" has been brilliant so far... no moaning and whinging!  Love and best wishes to all!  Rod & Mary    (once again courtesy of satphone from the mid-pacific!)

More mid-Pacific magic!

Photos credi to Steve and Chris Rawlinson, onboard SV Scott Free. They detoured to meet Sheer tenacity mid Pacific to get these pics, and emailed them immediately (a few hours ago) to me via their Satphone, with some unbelievable compression software. The pics are 12k each! These are pretty much "live" from  mid-pacific!!

Hi Guys,

              As I said , we had  a flying finish to yesterdays noon to noon days run, and it did not come to a sudden stop  either!! We continued to make good progress, and the seas did flatten out in time for sundowners ! We decided to stick with the 2 reefs during the night, as neither of us felt like reefing heroics in the dark, after being close to our own safety limits the previous night! Besides, we were on a broad reach, and we could use both headsails to the full, with the double reefed main. Thw wind dropped a little during the night, and also backed a little , making it more of a down wind run than "Sheer" appreciates. Our sailing buddies on" Scott-Free', Chris and Steve, have a wing keeled  Contest 43, thrive on down wind sailing, and we found ourselves some 5 or 6 miles behind them at day break. With the wind down to 12-13, it was time to give our recut Asymetric a run. When we flew back to RSA in January, we took it back to Quantum for a recut, as it was simply too big for the boat. Being an RSA flag design, we thought the chances of Jannie being able to cut it down, by 2 meters, still get it to fly , and look half decent, might be something of a challenge. As a guideline, I said ,make it fly first, and dont worry too much about matching up all the stripes! Well.they did a supurb job ! The recut sail was shipped back to us in Panama, together with the new genoa we had ordered.  We put it up, and it set beautifully... for about 5 minutes, before the quick release Wichard clip decided to try itself out, un invited! Take 2, had us picking up speed to an impressive 7-8 knots in the light breeze. We started to recover the ground we had lost to Scott Free during the night, and so began another of our fabulous sailing challenges. Steve saw it as a great mid ocean photographic opportunity, and changed course to meet us at close range , to take some unusual photos of Sheer Tenacity, flying her Asymetric, in mid Paciic!  Of course, the wind then filled in getting up to 19-20 knots, which made Steves approach quite a challenge, as by moving from his down wind angle, he got onto a reach, and was approaching at about 9.0 knots ! He got Scott Free into the right position, and took a bunch of still pics and video footage.... one of which you will have the privaledge of seeing before we can! ( More about that later!)  The wind was now pushing 20 knots, and had veered bach to SE, so the sensible thing was to drop the bag, and go back to the genoa. This time the Wichard Quick release worked when it was supposed to, and Steve has got that on film too!In all this excitement, we lost track of time, and found it was 12.40, and we had missed our 12.00noon log update. We did it immediately, at 12.40, and Mary recorded our speed as 9.3knots! The days run, (including the extra 40 minutes) , turned out to be 181miles for Day 5.... Not too Shabby ! We have now done a a quarter of the journey (730), with 2180 miles  to go!

           Back to the photo ! Steve has some very good compression software on his satcoms, and will be sending one  or two of the pictures he took , to Justin, to post on the HBYC and Sheer Tenacity blog  sites. He might put a few more on to their own Scott Free blog site, which he might ( or might not!) give to Justin, for other cruisers to follow!

                                 Regards to you all, and just remember our plagiarised new motto! "Adventure before Dementia !!!"

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Rod & Mary , per satphone.                               

Cooking and Smokin' !!

Hi Guys,

              I really did'nt mean to upset the guy who controls the wind machine, when I complained about the only thing cooking on the boat was yesterdays Dorado ( Which was delicious !) We enjoyed a nice, chill,...a relaxing day, bumbling along at speeds between 2 and 4 knots. We caught up on some sleep, did some reading etc, and looked forward to a nice gentle night sail. Well Mr Wind Machine obviously took umbrage, and waited until dark, before switching on his machine again.... no, not the 11 to 13 knots promissed on the gribs, but 19 to 24 just to add a touch of excitement. He also knew that the moon would only rise at 3.00am, and that the cloud cover would hide the stars as well! He also understood that we had every bit of sail up, to try and coax a little more speed out of Sheer! We are now down to 2 reefs in the main, staysail and half the genoa, and still doing 8.8 knots!

             In the first 10 hours yesterday, we did 36 miles. In the next 14 we did another 114miles, ending Day 4 on 149 miles! The average speed for that last 14 hours was 8,1knots, which was impressive, but uncomfortable, for genteel geriatric cruisers such as ourselves. The seas were'nt too bad through the night, but by dawn we had to put the first reef in the main, after having reduced the headsail during the early hours. By lunch time today, the cumalative effect of 20-24 knots, had turned the placid Pacific into a nasty cockpit invading nuisance, and we put in the 2nd reef. As is so often  the case, we have hardly dropped any speed at all, and are just sailing that much more comfortably.

          For those who would like to look on a map, we are now 100 degs W, and 03.2 degs S, about 10 miles below the rhum line between Isabela and Fatu Hiva. Only another 2355 miles to go! Every morning we have a radio net, which connects together as many boats that can tune in, from those still in Galapagos, to those nearing the Marquesis.Some days the propigation is better than others, and we can hear guys 1000 miles ahead of us, and 550 behind us. At least one does not feel quite so isolated! Our net is called the Tortuga Net. Tortuga, is Spanish forTortoise, as we are amongst the last to leave Galapagos, and will thus be amongst the last to arrive in the Marquesis. All I can say is that this is some super charged blooming tortoise!

 Cheers for now, Rod & Mary 

(sent via satphone so no pics yet!)