This week Ya’s crew sailed from Port Moresby to the Great Barrier Reef, the Strait of Torres (or Zenadh Key), safely into the Arafura sea. And they caught a Wahoo!
Change course in the mouth of a Wahoo
Saturday Jun 06 2026
The weather prediction promised 22-25 knots (Force 6) for just the 1 1/2 day when we would be in the Great Barrier Reef, We even have to tack our way through the coral patches, in the night. And the NW currents would not be in our favour. This is asking for problems. Some writer wrote in a book: A good skipper can resist bad conditions, but the best skipper avoids them.
So we checked the chart again.
Some 150 miles to the South there is another entrance to the Great Barrier reef. To get there, we have to sail close hauled, upwind. But that is on the ocean. Once in the Graat Barrier Reef, we can sail with the wind and go in straight legs along the coral. And the current is in our favour,
So we went for the new course.
And not even an hour later, who did we meet? Kgggh,kkgggrrr. A Wahoo. This fish is more than a meter, pretty much 20 kilo. It took half an hour to get him on board and two hours to cut them in parts. Our fridge and freezer are fully packed now.
A recipe
- Bake toast
- Cut some spring unions
- Balsmico vinegar
- Ricotta
Then get yourself a fresh Mahu Mahu from the ocean, mince meat a part and put the ingredients to it.
You ‘ll never eat something delicious like that.
Exiting navigation moments to come
Sunday June 07th 2026
Always exciting moments if you go into a little hole inlands. Especially now, because the bottom of the ocean is 2 kilometer deep and the Great Barrier reef, 10 miles to the West, is only 10 or 12. Or even washing coral. Especially the last part is difficult, when it goes from 200 to 20 meters in just 2 miles. Or, that is the part that we take, because it could als go from 250 to 2 meters. There the waves break, and you don’t want to get there.
First we circle around a first islet of coral. This breaks the huge ocean waves. Then, in the relative calm, where the depth is ‘only’ 230 meters we will head west. There it will go from 150 to 30 meter and then slowly less. This should work. The wind is around 20 knots lowering, the waves at sea 2,5 meters, but they will build up along the shore. Thats why we make sure there is a reef behind us, first taking the big waves.
In about one hour we start with the manoeuvre.
Tomorrow you will hear from us.
Patient on board
Monday June 08th 2026
It was evening, clouded, no moon, dark.
Then, BANG. Peter jumped into the cockpit and saw a booby. That is a short beautiful oversized seagull. He must have missed the Ya.
Normally you chase these big boobies away because they shit like hell, but this one was crippled. He just sat. We left him seated. When he was in the way, Peter took him up and gave him a place in the corner. A booby hospitalized. He didnot want anything, not even a piece of our great Wahoo.
The night passed and he was a silent companion of Geerhard. Then, with the first daylight, our patient simply flew away. We cleaned the cockpit. All stains of blood everywhere, he must have suffered.
When he can fly, he can chase and catch fish. He will make it.
Navigating by night through the Torres Strait
Tuesday June 09th 2026
Just when Peters watch began, we entered the Strait of Torres. It is not simply a straight channel, but a zig zagging route of channels with lanes in it as safe routes. With the limits that sailing brings, it is a challenge to navigate through. There are lights to help you, but sometimes many lights. You don’t see the distance of the light, so you have to figure out if it is the one nearby of that one which is 10 miles further. Peter loves it. We got lucky with the weather, because the wind decreased to force 4, a fresh breeze, nice to deal with when gybing throught the channels and around the islands and coral patches.
Six hours later we were through it. There is an open Sea of Arafura to get through, the next 1000 miles.
Old fashioned tradewind yacht sailing
Wednesday Jun 10th 2026
This is for sailors.
This is one of the few times we do the trade wind sailing. The old fashioned trade wind sailng by a yacht is done with a double staysail, both poled out. So you do about a 180 degrees wind angle, so dead down the wind. Advantage is that you easily stay on a downwind course. Disadvantage is that the ship starts rolling, a motion that makes you roll in your bunk and you want a hammock. That is annoying. So we normally have a mainsail with a second reef, a staysail and on the bowsprit we sail a jib poled out aluff. We sail a running course, about 160 degrees true wind angle
Now we have to much wind for that much sail. Normally we take away the jib. Disadvantage is that the mainsail makes you luff up a bit. with every bigger wave it changes course and before the windvane steering has corrected the course, you made another 10 meters to windward of your rhumbline. A pity, because we want to go more downwind. Now we tried it without the mainsail, and kept the jib up. So we have the jib poled out and the staysail on lee. We didnot change the windvane steering and remained the 160 degrees true wind angle. The result is amazing: the Ya keeps its 160 degrees and it doesnot luff up with every wave. So we sail much more in a straight way. The motion is like sailing in nearly flat water.
Food
Thuesday June 11th 2026
When everything has its pace on board, food becomes the main topic. Every day we discuss about what the meal will be. Today we even discussed lunch
We had some cooked left overs of Wahoo, so Geerhardt made a splendid big salad .
It was pretty much so we even discuussed dinner time, and we ate rather late Tonight we ate a pasta bolognese, great with fresh garlic, paprika an some friendly galepinos. We expect rougher weatther, or especially the waves, so he makde plenty for a next time we can eat in about three days.
Yesterday we ate thin lamb chops with cucumber salad and potatoes with a sauce. For lunch Geerhard prefered salami and Peter took a part of the Wahoo again, what we ate the day before.
Now for tomorrow, everything is open for discussion. But we leave that discussion for tomorrow.
Sailplan
Thursday June 12th 2026
Some days ago we described our new sailplan. Just a staysail and a job on the pole. Meanwhile we sail with about 20-22 knots (Force 5-6). Since this morning we get squalls with 30 knots of wind, and our sailplan prooved itself. We only went faster. The Ya stayed beautifully on course.
Sometimes the wind changes 40 to 50 degrees. Often it is difficult to estimate if it is caused by large squall or that it is a permanent direction change. So sometimes we gybe for nothing and we have to ride out the squall before we can gybe back. So if you see our course a bit zig zagging, it is because we made a mistake. We enjoy sailing, so what the heck if we make some extra miles?
We ate cubes of Wahoo with potatoes, carrots and haricots verts. Life is good here.
Energy
Sat Jun 13th 2026
We miss one motor so we charge less. But the wind is that strong that we continuously have a loaded battery bank.
OK the solar panels are less effective when the sails are up. Also, when we sail the tradewinds, we mostly sail with the wind, and that makes the wind generator less effective. Normally we have two motors to compensate that, and that always works, the motor overcompensate. And we arrive on our destination with a full battery bank.
Now, it has already happened a week before arrival. Main cause is that the wind is blowing that strong, that the wind generator also delivers when sailing with the wind. And, because of our high speed, averaging some 6 knots, the only motor delivers well.
So today we hit the 100%.
In about 5 days we are close to Kupang and then the wind will be still. so then we will need our battery bank to motor a fulll day to Kupang. So perhaps we will arrive with a low battery?
We will see.
