Posted by Graham Cox
Given the somewhat notorious reputation of weather conditions between Tahiti to Tonga, it is not surprising that MGR skippers approached this passage with caution. To put it in context, in July 1960, Eric and Susan Hiscock took over 16 days between Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, and Nukualofa, the southern Capital of the Tongan Archipelago, a distance of 858 nm, aboard the 30ft, 16,000 lbs displacement sloop, WANDERER III, during which time they spent 3 days 14 hours hove-to, 1 day 9 hours lying a-hull, and 2 days 16 hours lying to their sea-anchor. Eric broke a rib after a heavy fall in the cockpit, and a stanchion was torn out of the deck.
John Guzzwell approached the northern Tongan island of Vavau from the NE, sailing down from Samoa in early May 1956. Although TREKKA encountered a few squalls enroute, the passage was largely marked by light winds, and it seems that sailing well north of the rhumb line between Tahiti and Tonga is more likely to produce favourable conditions than the southern route. A well-trodden cruising route, for this reason among others, is from Tahiti to one of the Northern Cook Islands, like Penrhyn or Suwarrow Atolls, then on to Samoa and Vavau.
Most of the 2025 MGR skippers came to this conclusion, aided by advanced weather forecasting from services like Windy, and it paid off, despite the leading pack experiencing some squalls. Keri Harris, on ORIGAMI, chose to dive south, looking for stronger winds in the hope of closing the gap with the leaders, and it is fair to say he had something of a Hiscock-like experience!
Renaud led the pack all the way, only slowing briefly in light winds about two-thirds of the way across, during which time he averaged around 2.7 knots for several hours. There is always some luck involved in ocean passage races, and the large wind hole that looked at one stage as if it might engulf him filled in quickly and he sped on his way. Like most of the leading five boats, he experienced squalls in the first half of the passage, but as usual he made it look a lot easier than it probably was.
He timed his landfall on Vavau perfectly, reaching his approach waypoint at 0400 on Sunday, 01 June, then proceeding into the Port of Refuge (Puatalefusi or Lolo-ʻa-Halaevalu, to give it its local name), as the harbour fronting the settlement of Neiafu is called. His final approaches went smoothly, though he did record that the lighthouse on the western side of the island was out of action. Because Tonga shuts up tight on Sundays, he had to remain on board CAPUCINETTE, anchored in the shallows near the town centre, until Monday morning.
By Sunday evening on 01 June, Tonga time, Dan Turner and IMMORTAL GAME were about 40 nm from Vavau, having paced Renaud all the way. He was relieved, in the last few days, to finally escape from the squalls, thunderstorms and erratic winds, and to get some rest. In a video posted online during this time, his smile was so large you needed a wide-angled camera lens to capture it.
He reported: ‘I have been enjoying my last few days at sea in decent (albeit rolly) sailing conditions as I make my way towards Tonga. I’ve been passing time the last few days fishing, reading, listening to music, and even watching a few shows via Starlink with the wife back home.
‘Only annoying thing is that I snapped my new 80lb line fishing line, so I’m not having much luck in the that department of late. Also, I’m about to cross the International Date Line, so will lose a day sometime tonight. I am not really sure what the normal process at sea is when crossing this, so I’ll make it up and have some rum.’
As he made his final approaches to land, he caught a medium-sized tuna. He later reported: ‘Arrived in Tonga. Managed to clear customs thanks to some help of offering some Tuna! Was also met by Renaud Stitelmann, who had a cold six-pack waiting for me! I love Tonga already.’
After Dan Turk’s traumatic experience of LITTLE BEA being knocked flat by a squall in the middle of the night last week, he was looking more than happy with light winds this week, snapping pictures of himself reclining under his sunshade. He wrote: ‘The sunshade, made by my friend, Jan, has more than one function. It also doubles as a rain collector – it has a spigot in the centre of the fabric so I can attach a hose. I can use the rainwater to wash dishes and shower, so I don’t use up water brought from the ports of call.’
He is still experiencing power issues, with only 100 watts of solar panels available, despite a reasonable amount of sunshine in recent days, and is hoping to upgrade his system in either Tonga or Fiji. He keeps his AIS and navigation lights switched on at night, but only turns the Echomax and VHF radio on if there is the likelihood of other shipping, or if he is approaching land. Otherwise, he gets up every two hours and carefully checks for boats, squalls or other problems.
He was planning to get as much sleep as possible after his call, as it was likely he’d get very little the following night, approaching Vavau. At 2300 on 3 June, Tongan time, LITTLE BEA had made the final approaches to Neiafu’s Port of Refuge harbour but then turned away towards the SW, so Dan’s final destination remains unclear. Perhaps he has decided to follow Renaud, who took off late afternoon for Pangai. It is never over ‘til it’s over!
It took Dan a while to recover from the shock of LITTLE BEA’s knockdown, and to feel comfortable having sail up at night, let alone his asymmetric spinnakers. At the time of his call, he was running wing and wing with the A7 and A 5 flying. He does not use the mainsail much unless the wind is well out on the quarter, as in his experience it causes LITTLE BEA to round up in gusts if he is pushing hard. His Sailormat self-steering unit is very robust and reliable, but he feels that the boats with Hydrovanes have some advantage in fresh following winds.
He is nonetheless making good time. At the time of his call, both he and Pilar Pasanau, with whom he has a friendly rivalry, were sailing at 5.4 knots, and he was around 75 miles astern of Pilar. He said that he’d chosen Neiafu as his landfall, as he preferred to spend his 8-day mandatory stopover in a place where he could be guaranteed fresh provisions, but might cruise down to Pangai later.
All is good aboard LITTLE BEA as usual, and there is little work to do apart from general maintenance. He is hoping to lift the boat out of the water in Fiji and re-burnish the Coppercoat antifouling, though the bottom is still quite clean. LITTLE BEA has been sailing consistently fast and he has been closing the gap with the leaders. If he could just pass Pilar, life would be perfect!
There seems little chance of that. PETER PUNK has been sailing consistently fast and Pilar has recently taken 3rd position from Keri, aided no doubt by his sore back, although his detour to the south would not have helped. Pilar is determined to hang onto, and if possible, improve upon her podium position. Although she’d sailed north of the rhumb line to avoid the strong winds and seas further south, the swell coming up from that disturbance forced her to do a significant amount of hand-steering in order to sail competitively, with little sleep. Her passage had therefore been quite tiring, but she was pleased with the result. She was photographed ashore in Neiafu on Tuesday, socialising with Dan and Renaud, while all three boats were rafted up in the harbour.
Christian Sauer reported that ARGO was sailing in pleasant conditions, with steady SE winds, though he said the sea-state was confused, and as a result it was sometimes hard to get the self-steering unit to hold the course. There had been a few squalls at night, especially in the first days out of Tahiti, though it had been mostly clear since.
If it wasn’t for his health issues, he said, the passage would be delightful. He is somewhat concerned that the ruptured ligaments in his shoulder, which make handling the boat painful at times, might bring his voyage to a premature end. He has received conflicting medical advice but is hoping to clarify the situation when he gets to Fiji. The skin infections that have plagued him since Panama are not fully healed yet, either, as he was unable to get pathology investigations done in French Polynesia, and the condition is not responding to the antibiotics as well as might be hoped.
He is still keen to continue with the voyage, and mentioned how transformational the experience has been. Being that close to the raw beauty of nature, the joy of being alone at sea with time to contemplate life, the spirit of adventure and the sense of living so vividly, have left a mark on him. He cannot see himself going returning to a conventional life ashore, back to the 9-to-5 existence, or, as he joked, the 7-to-20! (He spent long hours building ARGO.)
He said he had decided to make landfall on Vavau, which was only 350 nm away at the time of his call, then perhaps sail down to Pangai after a few days, and leave for Fiji from there. He feels he has enough battery power to motor up the inlet into the harbour, though could short tack up most of the way if needed. He still has some issues with the efficiency of his solar panels, though has managed to improve the situation by rewiring them.
Other than that, ARGO is mostly in good condition, though he is having trouble with his roller-furler units. He thinks they will last until he gets to Fiji but will then need serious attention. He also spent a few hours on the foredeck recently, renewing the stitching on his A 5. Because the weather was so pleasant, he found it an easy and enjoyable task, and he mentioned that when projects come together like that, he really enjoys the work.
Adam Waugh has been on a ‘lucky streak’ with the weather ever since leaving the Marquesas, missing the severe squalls that plagued the front-runners. Apart from one squall shortly after leaving Papeete that lasted for an hour, the passage to Tonga has been free of squalls or rain for the previous 7 days.
On the evening of 2 June, shipboard time, LITTLE WREN had 240 nm to go to Vavau, Adam’s chosen landfall, and had been steadily averaging around 5 knots for days, often with the A7 poled out opposite the A5. At the time he called, the wind had picked up to about 18 knots, and he had reduced sail to the A7 and double-reefed mainsail. As usual, the South Atlantic windvane was steering the boat while he relaxed below.
He is so relaxed, and the conditions so settled, that the night before his call he only physically got out of his bunk once to check things. The rest of the time, he’d wake every couple of hours, check the compass course, listen to the ship forging along, then go back to sleep.
Apart from a glimpse of trees as he passed close to Palmerston Island at dusk (there were no lights visible from the settlement), he has not seen signs of human life out there. Along with his navigation lights, he leaves the AIS on all night, but switches the chartplotter off most of the time, along with his VHF radio. His batteries are therefore in good shape. For those who are interested, he catalogued LITTLE WREN’s energy consumption for one night: his chart plotter combined with AIS used 0.95 amps; AIS on its own, 0.32 amps; VHF, 0.42 amps; nav lights, 0.24 amps; Echomax, 0.1 amps, and his spotlight in the cabin, 0.15 amps.
We had a laugh about his comment to Don McIntyre earlier in the week that, after 10,000 nm, he was getting used to being out there alone, not just in terms of handling the boat, but also psychologically. He said he does not really feel lonely now, but misses family and friends. Boredom is still an issue, but he spends time listening to audiobooks and music. He also gained a lot of confidence from completing the 4000nm passage between Panama and the Marquesas, and this shorter passage, which will probably be completed in 12 days, seems easy by comparison.
Also, it means he won’t have to eat boat food for weeks on end, as he was able to carry fresh produce for the first few days. He says it is always a low day when he runs out of fresh supplies. He does not eat freeze-dried meals, and his enthusiasm for tinned stuff is limited. He liked tinned sardines when he started out from Lagos, eating a tin a day, occasionally two, but by the time he reached Tahiti found it hard to look at them! He has a few tins left but has no appetite for them. Breakfast cereal holds more appeal at the moment, and he is looking forward to the culinary delights of Tonga.
As with other entrants, Starlink has been a blessing, allowing him to stay in contact with family and friends, as well as access weather information, news and other entertainment. He has his unit permanently chocked on deck and hard-wired into his electrical system, so that all he has to do is flick a switch to fire it up or shut it down. He feels that not only is this more convenient, it reduces the chances of problems with the unit’s cable connections.
He is expecting the SE wind to pick up to 25 knots or so before landfall, and has therefore bent on his second working jib to the twin-foil on his roller-furling unit. He has not used this set-up since the Atlantic crossing, as he finds the A7 fine up until around 22 knots of wind. In lighter winds, he poles his jib out to windward, or if it is really light, poles out the A7 opposite the A5. Although Adam is definitely racing, his strategy is to go as fast as possible without the windvane losing control, and the boat rounding up. Like this scribe, he is not a fan of hand-steering (I tell people it is against my religion).
He also mentioned that these days he holds on with both hands when moving around, especially when making the transition between deck and cockpit, which is where he fell on the occasion he broke his ribs. Adam was a competent sailor before setting out on the MGR, working as an RYA yachtmaster cruising instructor, but has since evolved into a veteran long-distance solo voyager. This is one of the gifts that participation in the MGR confers upon entrants.
Ertan was looking very relaxed when he checked in via video call. As always, he was cleanly-shaven and wearing a spotless, white shirt. He noted that the passage from Papeete had been very easy, and was getting easier by the day as the wind and seas abated. For the first few days, the wind had been fresh, with a developed and somewhat confused sea-state of 2-3m, but it had all been behind TREKKA, so he had no complaints. As usual, he reefed down until the Hydrovane could manage. He says that as long as he does not push TREKKA beyond 4.5-5 knots, the boat always self-steers. The vane will also steer the boat in very light winds, as long as TREKKA is making 1.5-2 knots through the water.
He was running under A7 and reefed main when he called, but said he might go down to the jib after we finished our call, because the wind had freshened a little and TREKKA was edging up over 5.2 knots, which he thought was pushing it a bit. He will happily set the A5 and even the A3 during the day when conditions fall light, but always reduces to jib at night, usually with some mainsail.
During the previous night, he’d gone on deck and triple-reefed the mainsail, because the wind had built up a little. TREKKA continued to log around 4.2 knots afterwards. He acknowledges that he could sail faster if he hand-steered. Besides not wanting to, he says he can only concentrate on holding a course for 3 minutes! He prefers to sleep at night, often going to bed around sundown and sleeping until 0300 hours local time, when he gets up and makes calls to family and friends back in Europe, does his banking, checks on business matters, follows world events, etc. He calls his sister in the USA during the day, and speaks to Arzu, his wife, at least twice a day. The day before, he’d enjoyed watching the Spanish Grand Prix.
Despite using Starlink a lot, his batteries are never lower than 90% at dawn, and usually back up to 100% mid-morning. Even if he has periods of overcast skies, his battery capacity never gets below 80%. Switching to Lithium batteries in Antigua was a significant upgrade, since you can use so much more of a given amp-hour capacity, but he also manages his electrical energy usage with care.
He briefly switches his GPS unit on for a fix once a day, unless close to land, then just steers TREKKA by old-fashioned glances at the ship’s compass, and running a dead-reckoning position, though he admits he mostly does that in his head when far away from land. He has an iPad with Navionics for plotting courses and close-quarters navigation. He charges that up during the day when there is plenty of electricity being produced by the solar panels, along with other devices like the sat-phone and YB tracker. When in open water, he just lives for the day, and as the dusk gathers, his thoughts turn to the coming night. He seldom thinks much beyond that.
He also has spares for his spares – triple everything, he jokes – spare batteries, spare solar panels, spare electronics. He even loaned one of his spare solar panels to Dan Turk and LITTLE BEA in Papeete. Having sailed solo non-stop to Cape Town in the 2022 GGR, he knows what it takes to keep a boat going. As an aside, his GGR yacht was in perfect condition when he arrived in Cape Town, but he retired from the GGR as he missed his family too much, something he has elegantly resolved this time, courtesy of Starlink.
All of this preparation and cautious seamanship keeps TREKKA trucking along without incident, while Ertan relaxes in his ‘cot’, the fore-and-aft bunk he has set up amidships, listening to his podcasts and chatting with family, friends and associates. He is as happy as a clam, except that he has been unable to catch a fish. Seeing pictures (via Starlink) of the fat tuna Dan Turner caught just before arriving in Vavau made him wish he could catch one too. He loves fresh, raw tuna. His favourite eatery in Papeete was Vini Vini Fish and Chill, which serves exquisite sushi, and became a favourite hangout for MGR skippers.
Eric Marsh has been keeping up the pace, with SUNBEAR regularly clocking more than five knots and averaging over 120 miles a day. He is currently in 7th position, just behind Christian on ARGO, with only around 150 nm to go to landfall in Pangai. He said the wind was a steady 15-17 knots, and the seas about 1.5 to 2 metres, though the sea-state was confused, throwing the boat around and making life hard for the self-steering.
He had the A5 and a triple-reefed mainsail up during our chat, though had been carrying the A3 most of the day and hand-steering, only taking it down to engage the South Atlantic windvane when he called me. He planned to put the A 3 back up as soon as the call was over, and said that SUNBEAR had been flying all day! He has to slow down a bit when he wants to rest, though often steers long hours at night as well, after retreating from the sun for a few hours in the daytime. He often carries the A 5 while he is sleeping if he thinks the likelihood of squalls is low.
Everything aboard SUNBEAR is in good condition, although one of Eric’s batteries seems a bit low, down to 70%. He has AGM batteries, and runs most of his systems at night – navigation lights, chartplotter, AIS, VHF radio and Echomax. He switches them off when he is on deck during the day. He has seen no other vessels since departing Papeete, but the alarm on his Echomax activated the night before. He thinks it was probably Christian, who was close to him, about five miles away. Christian said earlier that he was going to Neiafu, but late evening on 6 June, Tonga time, he was still paralleling Eric, on course towards Pangai.
Eric was thoroughly enjoying the moderate weather, and also the thrill of hand-steering, pushing SUNBEAR as hard as he thought reasonable. He sets up the windvane and fiddles with it until it is controlling the boat, then disconnects the tiller lines and takes over the helm. That way, he can quickly engage the vane if he needs to adjust sails, eat, or whatever. He finds hand-steering when the boat is hooting along to be huge fun, though admitted he was beginning to feel a bit tired. Perhaps because it is a shorter leg, and also because Brenda, his wife and manager, rendezvoused with him in Papeete, he is not feeling as lonely on this leg as he did while coming down from Panama. He’s grateful, though, to have three bears, including his Sitran bear, to keep him company.
Being a veteran ocean racer, his take on sail balance when the wind is well-aft is interesting. He likes to leave a triple-reefed mainsail up in when sailing downwind with twin headsails. He only drops the mainsail in very light winds while flying the A3 opposite the A5, when he feels it steals too much wind from the kites. He puts a preventer on the mainsail-boom, but instead of flattening the sail by triangulating the foreguy against the main-sheet, thus pulling the boom down, he lifts the boom up with his topping lift, giving the triple-reefed sail some belly.
This, I suspect moves the CE of the reefed mainsail forward, as well as adding more drive to it, and possibly spilling some wind in gusts. The square top of the sail presses against the spreaders, but because it is relatively narrow, Eric does not feel that it places undue pressure on the spreaders, as the sail would if it was fully-hoisted. Anyway, he has not cracked his spreaders yet!
This practice also keeps the mainsail preventer clear of the asymmetric spinnaker sheet, therefore stopping chafe, something he discovered the hard way. As usual, chafe is a major enemy on long passages and he is always on the lookout for it. Otherwise, the sails and rigging are in good condition, though the mainsail is showing signs of stretching around the reef points. This is SUNBEAR’s original mainsail, so it has clocked up a lot of miles. Eric would love a new one, but it will probably have to see him around the world. Luckily, most of the voyage should be downwind! This reminds me of John Guzzwell nursing TREKKA’s old cotton sails most of the way around the world. Eventually, his mainsail stretched so much he had to roll a few turns around the boom to keep it clear of the dinghy stowed over TREKKA’s coachroof.
Eric lives on freeze-dried food after his fresh stuff has gone, but Brenda brought him some new meals from Mountain House to try this time, and he has been enjoying the variety. Variety, it seems, is the key to happy provisioning, whatever your choices. He takes a multivitamin tablet daily, and feels it is a healthy-enough diet, though he does get tired. As he says, that’s not surprising, as he gets up before dawn, stays up most of the day, apart from a short nap in the afternoon whenever possible, then is lucky to get 3-4 hours’ sleep a night. It would tire a man half his age (he turned 72 while in Tahiti).
Gary Swindail set sail a couple of days ago, chasing the fleet as always, though he did manage to see Josh Kali and Captain Coconut in Papeete. Because he is so far behind, he has been given permission to bypass Tonga and head straight for Fiji. Once QUESTION 2 starts Leg 3 from Vuda Point Marina on 26 July, Gary will finally be sailing in company with the fleet. He is also looking forwards to spending more time with them in Fiji.
Fate being as fickle as it can be (the gods are jokers), QUESTION 2 found light winds after setting sail, and at the time Gary called, he and QUESTION 2 were only just trickling along at 2-3 knots, west of Moorea, barely able to keep the poled-out A3 and A5 flying. Gary was having doldrums déjà vu, but was able to laugh about it. Stronger winds were forecast in a day or so, though the following day he was still only averaging 3.8 knots, with around 1760 nm to the finish line off Vuda Point Marina. At least the swell, which had been horrible the first night, had eased off to around half a metre, making life more comfortable.
The wind was SW when he left Papeete, and became quite fresh as he beat to windward to get clear of Moorea, then a weird-looking cloud came along and sucked all the wind up into it – or so it seemed – as it passed. Since then, the wind had been SE to E, all over the place really. The Hydrovane didn’t have quite enough wind to be left to its own devices – he had to give it a shove now and then – though he could leave it for short periods.
He really enjoyed Papeete, met some good people there, including one old friend he has known since they were in kindergarten together. He didn’t get much time to explore the island, being busy sorting the boat out, checking the rig etc. Unfortunately, he spent enough time ashore to catch a mild respiratory infection, but was hoping it would soon clear up. He liked Papeete Marina, though noted that the wakes from the frequent ferries gave his fenders a good workout, and on occasion made him feel anxious about damaging the boat. Nonetheless, he fell under the spell of Tahiti and would like to return one day.
He stocked up with lots of delicious snacks in Papeete, to boost morale, plus some fresh fruit etc. Most important of all, his old Kindergarten friend brought him some Vegemite, which he says goes quite well with the baguettes he bought in Papeete, enough to make a French gourmand turn in his grave! (I am a naturalised Sussie, and proud of it, but in one sense I fail the cultural test – I think Vegemite tastes like axle grease!)
Jasmine’s mum reported that: ‘Life on the Pacific Ocean since leaving Tahiti has been a bit bumpy and squally. Jasmine has chosen to keep her sail power slightly reduced so she can react quickly to changing conditions. Despite being cautious. she took big knocks to her knee and elbow when the boat broached suddenly, and topped that off with face planting the tiller, so has got a black eye!’
By 01 June, she was halfway between Tahiti and Tonga, and making steady progress of over 100 miles a day. She should arrive in Tonga by next weekend, though her mum says that she’s not sure if the cake supplies from Tahiti will quite stretch that far, but she has plenty of chocolate on board! It’s been overcast, so the batteries are a bit lower than she’d like, but everything is ok. She sails with the pink and blue spinnakers up during the day, and then reduces to jib only overnight, so that when a squall hits, she doesn’t get overpowered.
Keri Harris’s tactic of heading south to find more wind was certainly successful, though it did not give him the advantage he hoped for, and he has now surrendered 3rd place to Pilar Pasanau on PETER PUNK. He reported very rough seas as he passed the Cook Islands, and posted a video of himself wearing his crash helmet.
Later, the tracker showed ORIGAMI had slowed, and was heading back NW. When Keri finally reported in on 27May, it was with the news that he had damaged his back during the rough weather. He was unable to get on deck to handle sails without excruciating pain, and had taken to his bunk, dosing himself with painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs from the extensive medical kit that all entrants are required to carry. He posted a video of himself lying in his bunk, saying: ‘ORIGAMI has been wending her own way towards Tonga (and briefly Palmerstone Island), while I experience life as ‘watch-dodging sick bay ranger, professing a salt-water activated back injury… ´ Now there’s a moniker I never expected to confer on myself!’ (I think this is Royal Navy jargon for ‘slacker’!)
In the days since, ORIGAMI has once again increased speed and by the evening of 01 June, had sailed 122 nm in the previous 24 hours, logging speeds of 5 knots. He missed his scheduled call this week, but reported to Don McIntyre that he had been unable to get out of his bunk for the previous four days and was heading for Pangai, the nearest port of entry. By midnight on 03 June, Tongan time, Keri was sailing at 6.1 knots and approaching his destination.
Jakub Ziemkiewicz has been sailing consistently well, holding onto 8th position and averaging 4-5 to 5 knots. He has posted a couple of videos which show him looking full of enthusiasm for the adventure, as usual, showing him on deck enjoying the sunrise, among other things. There has been no news of Josh Kali this week – he is one of the few entrants who do not have Starlink aboard – but SKOOKUM continues her steady course westwards, approaching Palmerston Atoll at 4.5 knots. There has also been no news from the Blenkinsop duo, who are still hanging out on the west coast of Tahuata Island, just south of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, enjoying what has evolved into a South Pacific cruise.
