Easter weekend spent downwind gybing

Passage Panama to French Polynesia, days 20-21. 8-9 April:
Easter Saturday, 8-April. All day we had good speed, all downwind and no squalls or rain. Winds were steady 15-19kts SSE veering to due east late afternoon.
When this easterly wind sets in, it puts us at least 15-20deg off our course, to the left side, because we don’t want to sail dead downwind (it’s both slow and unsafe, even with a gybe preventer set).
Surprisingly, weather routing indicated that we gybe onto starboard and head north (right) of our intended course, to get into more favorable current, then gybe back tomorrow when the wind goes back to SE. Hmmm, interesting plan. Sometimes the weather routing software throws “ideas” that we wouldn’t otherwise have thought of.
So, at sunset, when we are certain this easterly wind is here to stay, we gybe over on starboard, and for the first time in weeks the boom is on the port side of the boat. What we need now is rain, to wash this other side of the sails before we gybe back tomorrow. But you know rain: wish for it and it won’t happen!

Easter, Sunday 9-April. Last night was cloudy but moonlit, and dawn was also overcast. Oh hum, can’t have a wonderful sunrise every day, right?
All day we head in the direction of Hawaii (!!) on starboard tack, as per PredictWind weather routing. This also puts us slightly across swell, which comfort wise isn’t so “swell” if you see what I mean! Making not a very comfortable day for Oana.

At 3pm, as forecast, the wind started to back to SE again prompting us to gybe back onto port. Gybing the genoa and main from one wing-on-wing tack to the other used to take me at least 30 minutes. And even then, I’d always get some line or another threaded the wrong way somewhere. But with practice it’s now a slick routine, taking me about 10 minutes to do it perfectly safe, even at night with a head torch. It goes like this (a gybe from stbd tack to port tack, in this case):
1. Furl away the genoa.
2. Dip the pole forward (lower pole up-haul, raise pole on mast track) then secure it to the cutter stay to stop it swinging outboard again. Remove from the pole the stbd genoa sheet and stbd fore and aft guys.
3. Dip the pole further, so it’s now on the port side of the cutter stay and connect the port set of genoa sheet and fore&aft guys.
4. The genoa pole is now ready to go up on the new tack. But next is to gybe the mainsail. This has to be a VERY controlled maneuver. If Cloudy’s boom did an uncontrolled gybe (like you might do on a dinghy) for certain big-ticket items would break, not to mention lethally dangerous. Many a person has been killed by an uncontrolled yacht gybe.
5. Back in the cockpit, set autohelm to wind, with S140 wind angle (to ensure the main cannot accidentally gybe while the gybe preventer is removed).
6. Back on deck, remove the boom gybe preventer line from the port bow and stow on the boom.
7. Back in cockpit, pull the mainsheet car to center position, then start sheeting-in the mainsail. When the boom is close to center, press the autohelm -10 button 8 times. This tells the autohelm turn left 80 degrees, to a wind angle of P140 (140 degrees off port bow) and as the boat turns left, the mainsail harmlessly gybes over (wind on its other side)
8. Now ease the mainsheet back out (now on stbd side, “port tack”) all the way to its downwind sailing position.
9. Let the mainsheet car run to the starboard end of its track, being sure it’s not quite touching the end stops.
10. Back on deck, re-secure the boom gybe preventer line for the new tack – to stbd side of the bow.
11. Back in cockpit, pull in mainsheet a little, to ensure good tension on gybe preventer line.
12. With mainsail now out on the new tack and boom preventer securely on again, only now do I set the required course on autohelm (in this case, wind angle P155)
13. Back on the bow. Raise the pole and pull it out to the new side, stbd, with pole up-haul and both pole guys tensioned correctly (each line is marked as such). The pole is now ready to “receive” the genoa.
14. Back in the cockpit, unfurl the genoa, and sheet it in, out to the end of the pole.
15. There, that’s the gybe completed! Now scan the deck and tidy up the lazy lines.
16. While there, visually check the trim of main and genoa and fine tune for wind speed and direction as needed.
All this is greatly helped by having my handheld remote control for the furling, and electric winches all round. Otherwise it’s definitely a 2-person exercise.

Now sail on port tack, we are again pointing directly at our destination – Nuku Hiva. All we can say, Mr. PredictWind, is the favorable current had better show up, because we’ve come a long way off course to be here, and you got bunny seasick again in the process!

ETA Nuku Hiva now looks like Thursday. That would be 24 days from Panama, or 23 if we consider our day off in Galapagos. Not bad for 4000nm. But I really shouldn’t be counting our chickens yet, right? A lot can happen at sea in 4 days!