Tonga to New Zealand, Day 3

Tuesday 10/14, Day 3:

Well……from boredom to sheer fright all in a days passage….arghhhhhhh!!

The boredom part……just ideal trawler weather….very much welcomed after the 12 hour sporty ride last night. The winds were ENE 8-12 kt behind us and a 3-6′ SSW swell that was no bother…..sunny, but a bit cool……so we just watched and read…..very boring and relaxing 🙂 )))

But, tonight is coming the challenging part of our passage…..we knew about it and worked many scenarios to avoid……we probably should have been concerned about last night too, but all the data we had showed it would be a bit rolly, just not burying the bow kind of rolly!!!

Here is what Bob our weather router is saying…

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From Bob:

Thanks for the report– I see you are maintaining a good speed. Yes I agree there may have been a counter current for a while making sea lumpy and boat bumpy/hobby horse action.

Challenging part of the voyage is coming tomorrow night :

Estimated Time of Encounter ETE with the SW winds after the incoming front is now 15 1200UTC – Wednesday 1am local This is likely to also have SW swell 2 to 3 significant metres (3 to 4 occasional metre).

SW winds should be 15 to 20 knots for 6 hours then ease to around 10 knots for another 9 hours.

And there has been dome quake activity around the Kermadecs, so please keep a lookout for PUMICE around 30S

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We’ve already seen some pumice…..sure will be glad when we get past this upcoming trough…..we are on a course of 195M so the SW winds and swell will be on off our starboard bow……that’s better than head or beamy seas, but not as good as behind us, so we will just buckle down and ride it out!!!!

Now the scary story…as in why am I doing this:

Around 1:00 am….I’m asleep and Kathy is on watch….Kathy heard a loud noise….like a big deep horn…..she woke me up and it happened 3-4 more times…..maybe 1-2 minutes apart…..we checked rudder, thrusters, engines and then the tranny oil….oh crapola……no oil……now how can that be….the noise was from the pump cavitating?????

This has happened to us before in the Bahamas….the oil cooler gets a leak and oil is lost to the cooling sea water……but this time there was no contamination in the oil….it was all clear….last time salt water got into the oil as it was very thick and milky color. We added some more oil and again it stayed clear, no contamination but it did seem to be less when we checked 10 minutes later. So, we have a spare oil cooler and changed it out. Sounds easy…right….well, 2.5 hours later all in the 105 deg F engine room, many scraped knuckles and bruises from getting banged around……did I tell you we are in the middle of the frickin ocean with 4-6′ swells…..arghhhhhhh!!!!!

Needless to say we are both a bit shaken up……this really shows how vulnerable we are….a lot of what if scenarios go through your mind…..right now, I just hope we fixed the problem…..as in why did this oil cooler go bad…..it’s only 1700 hours and 2.5 years old…..the first one lasted 2575 hours and over 6.5 years?????

But, how we do love our get home engine….out little Yanmar saved the day again…..she just kept us pointed to NZ doing 5-5.5 kts. I know a lot of people/experts on many of the cruising forums have a lot of reasons why you do not need a get home engine…..well, that is just “boooshit” as Charlie would say in Suwarrow……this little engine has now saved our bacon 3 times…..we just love this engine that can!!!!!

We did lose some time again yesterday…..some from the adverse current and obviously last night running the Yanmar….our ETA is Friday afternoon…..now we are a bit worried about getting in before Customs closes….ugh!!!

GO MYSTIC GO…..

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Stats:

Position: 27 25S 179 31W

Traveled: 167nm today: 459 traveled so far; 601nm to go; ETA Friday 10/18 pm

Course: 195M COG

Wind: 10-15 kts N

Waves: 4-6′ SSW swell 10-12 sec;

Speed: current speed is 8.1 SOG, has varied 6.8-8.1 kts; avg is 7.3 kts; 1600 rpm

Weather: mostly sunny yesterday; 70% cloud cover this am; sea temp 70.5 deg F, brrrrrr!!!

Boat sightings: 0 today, 1 total

Fishing: not started yet, still eating up all the stuff NZ might take away!!

Sail: deployed 🙂 )))

Fuel burn: 1.2 npmg, 6.3 gph today; 1.26 nmpg, 5.9 gph total for trip – the total is about right….we used more fuel yesterday due to the adverse current, we still show about 340 gallons left when we arrive!!

Hope all is well!

John
Mystic Moon