A challenging voyage
Mon Oct 13 2025 11:46:00 GMT+0200
The sailing voyage to New Zealand is a special one. A challenging one. The first part of 600 miles is easy. That is just tradewind. But the second half can be with calms and storms. Most boats take lots of diesel with them, to go through the calms. Or much more. 300 liter is no exception. Many boats can even motor more than 5 days, and with a speed of 5 knots. We are happy with 4 knots average on sail, and motoring, no. Well, if we are desperate and when the battery bank is full we can do 48 hours 2 knots in a complete calm. With this limitation it is extra challenging. We have to keep sailing. We have to navigate precise and secure. We will have to make detours to prevent that we would find ourselves in a calm, being imprisoned, when after it a storm will hit us. That is the challenging part.
We rely on the three of us: Peter, Maurits and Ya.
Wet
Tue Oct 14 2025 06:44:00 GMT+0200
We experience a rather choppy sea state our first day.
Tonight it was Maurits’ first watch. He took over from Peter, who went to bed. Maurits stepped into te cockpit and splash! A big wave just broke on the hull and Maurits was soaking wet. Baptised, welcome to the sea.
The strange pointy waves also manifested this morning. We were fixing a small repair on the bowsprit and a wave exploded when Peter was lying there: wet pants. Then, Maurits got the next one: wet head.
These funny, sharp waves followed us even to the toilet. The waves even managed to push the water through the outlet of the toilet sink and wet the toilet roll next to it.
Energy
Wed Oct 15 2025 06:05:00 GMT+0200
Two weeks ago, sailing from Va’vau, the wind was good, so the speed was good, so next to the wind generator, also the hydro generators delivered much. And there was pretty much sun, so a lot of solar energy. When anchored in Tongatapu, the battery bank was full. Some meals prepared, and that costs energy, but there was pretty much wind and with the wind generator in the aft mast 7 meters high, it delivered more than necessary.
We left with a full battery bank. Now, we don’t use the hydro generators, just the solar and wind energy is already enough.
What to do with all this energy? Tonight we will sail into a calm. That will last for one whole day. We have the plan use a lot of the battery bank by slowly motoring through this. Tomorrow we will tell you how it works out.
We ate paksoi and salted meat, with rice and a sniff of Asian tastes.
Through the calm
Thu Oct 16 2025 07:44:00 GMT+0200
We promised to tell you how we would motor through a 24 hour calm. It was predicted from last night till this night. We thought this would be a good chance to get the battery from the 100% .
And yes, we sailed straight into it. But the Ya can sail and we can sail Ya, so we managed to keep her going on her sails. The speed was only some 2 knots, but we made progress. Then in the morning the wind dropped till nearly nothing. Then we started motoring. Again, only 2 knots, just enough to steer well. It only costs 1 percent per hour on energy so we can go far.
But already in the afternoon the wind picked up and we started sailing again. We only spent 10% and the props are charging the bank again. So our experiment was not so successful because it lacked a serious lack of wind 
Perhaps the next calm is bigger and with a real lack of wind, we keep you posted. But, we doubt whether we will manage to seriously empty the battery bank, because the Ya sails well in light winds.
The weather, from God to PredictWind
Fri Oct 17 2025 08:47:00 GMT+0200
Like everybody, Ulysses sacrificed a lamb or sheep, to Neptune before he chose sea. They did this alreadyfor thousands of years.
Some 100 years ago things started changing. One could read the weather. Peter got a heavy examen on Meteorology on his nautical college. Also the old fashioned yacht sailors started to study a bit of it. You learn about High’s and Lows, about depressions and the isobars, how the sky looks like when good or bad weather may appear.
Yes, this is old fashioned. Nowadays you check a weather app. Peter sees Maurits working with the PredictWind and after a week he knows all smart shortcuts that Peter has not even discovered in 5 years. And Peter still looks at the cirrus in the key, then the cumulus, slowly forming a beautiful tradewind pattern for the next days, he knows, while Maurits calls the exact numbers of the windspeed and directions for the next days.
Till 20 years ago, a yacht skipper prepared his schip well for the voyage from Tonga to New Zealand. Enough food on board? For three weeks at least, because a series of depressions could hit you.
People now all think of the food to take on board. Like the barbecue meat to put in the freezer for the extra stop at the Minerva reef. There you check the weather app through your satellite connection for a good weather window. And when that is right, you go lol together wilh the other yachts.
Now, the forecast is democratized like the position finding has been 20 year earlier: it is for all yachties who can buy the app and the acces to the satellites.
Halfway
Sat Oct 18 2025 07:05:00 GMT+0200
Today we are halfway our route to New Zealand. So far, we still sail in the Tradewinds. As of tomorrow, we will be out of the tradewinds. From then, the winds can come from any direction. The day after tomorrow we start with a calm, as predicted. It will turn to any direction for a day. Then, the winds will be a Northern and Western wind. PredictWind forecasts a 25 knots blow, and that is unpleasant. Then, we will have a Southern wind for a day or two. With all these changes in strength and direction, the navigation is a challenge. Same with the sail setting, everything, including the cooking.
Sofar, we have done the easy part.
We have passed the 180 degree meridian. From then we will sail the Eastern hemisphere, and that feels like the Ya is half way the fossilfree circumnavigation.