We got up at 08:00 and I had a more successful attempt at getting the new dinghy deflated and packed in its bag whilst Fliss packed and prepared Naz for sea. I went ashore and visited the Port Captain for our Zarpe (exit papers) and the police station for our passport stamp and we raised the anchor at 11:30. A fair wind was blowing and we reefed the main and set half the jib out on a broad reach pushing over 7 knots.
The main jib winch sounded a bit rough and jumped a cog as I wound it in – Hmmm, not good as we have 3000 miles to next landfall. Anyway, the wind died and we engaged the motor to keep us going across the calm seas and I got the winch off and disassembled it on the cockpit floor. There was no damage; only a lack of maintenance, and cleaning out the gunk and re-greasing sorted it out. The rest of the winches will now need examining but I am absolutely paranoid of losing bits overboard – especially since there are spring components that easily ‘ping’ out from between your fingers and fly off in any direction.
The breeze did not return and eventually we took the sails down. This lack of wind is expected in the first couple of days as the trade winds only really start at about 3 degrees South. We are therefore heading South West in the hope that we will encounter them in a day or so. In the meantime we will make the best of what we get and will motor the rest.
Fliss….
Earlier on in the evening we spotted some sea lions quite a long way from land all you could see was them lying on their backs with their flippers in the air.
A really peaceful watch with a gorgeous starlight night and a gentle swell. Everyone we have spoken to who has done this run has said you’ll have to motor two days to get to the trades.
Tonight, I think I identified another constellation, Libra, I’ll show Pete tomorrow (as long as it’s not cloudy) to get him to confirm it.
The birds have returned and fly in & out of the rigging, I think that they use the steaming light and the wake of the boat to catch fish, they are really chatty and you can here them clicking to each other.
Only 2960 miles to go…..
Friday 18th May 2007
Fliss….
I got up this morning at 07:30am to a beautiful sunny day but no wind! The sea was calm with long undulating swell.
Our plan is to run south in order to pick up the trade winds.
When Pete got up around 11ish we had started to get a slight breeze so we decided to get the cruising chute out, its been a long time since we have flown this sail and I think the last time was running down the Spanish coastline.
Slowly but surely the breeze increased and we were bombing along between 6-7 knots, beautiful bread-reach.
The problem with flying the cruising chute is that you can go from zero to hero in no time so we had to keep a constant eye on the conditions, our plan is to maximise the wind during the day and slow down at night.
Usually when we fly the chute and I serve dinner all hell breaks loose so not to tempt fate we opted for a one pan dinner, noodles and chilli sauce. Pete wasn’t impressed and said that it tasted synthetic, I think he has been spoiled as he always gets a full meal prepared from scratch and not out of a packet!
Well as usual the switch got flicked and the wind died, it always happens around dusk, so motor back on again.
We hope that later on tomorrow we should start picking up the trade winds and if the grib files are true it’ll be twin head sails all the way!
Pete…….
The morning started badly as I washed the cockpit down to get rid of the land-based dirt. The little hatch at the front of the cockpit was open and I splashed some water through it and straight onto the laptop keyboard. An hour and a half later, I had the keyboard off and a large proportion of the keys off and was dabbing with toilet paper. All seems ok now but the ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp key is a bit sticky and I wonder about the long term corrosion problems of salt.
With light winds, the Aries wind-vane does not have enough wind speed to operate it so we use Charlie, the electronic autopilot. Another problem with flying the big Cruising Chute is that it unbalances the boat and it is hard-going on the tiller to keep Nadezhda on a steady course. Charlie is getting RSI and we can hear the grinding of gears as he struggles with the load. So – out came the new secret weapon that I built in Colon. This is a structure that mounts Charlie in front of the wind-vane and allows Charlie to operate the wind-vane itself, which, in turn, converts water power via a rudder into the muscle that is needed. To my astonishment, it works brilliantly and Charlie only needs the smallest and lightest touch to keep us steady. A saving on our grinding gears and a saving on electric power as well.Saturday 19th May 2007
The night skies are wonderful and it’s easy just so sit back and stare at the constellations. Pete and I are trying to identify them but it’s not that easy as the sky is awash with them, it’s difficult knowing where one starts and one finishes. I found a constellation which looks likes Libra (probably isn’t). This star business is quite mind blowing stuff as at the beginning of the evening Libra is upside down and towards the end of my watch it’s the right way up.
We picked up the trades good and proper today and have been stonking along at over 6 knots. There was a brief lull at lunchtime when we got the cruising chute up but after about 45 minutes, the wind returned and we don't like careening along at over 8 knots any more, problem also is that Charlie struggles trying to steer Nadezhda and the loud slamming sound the sail makes as it luffs is unnerving. Pete went to the front of the boat to snuff the chute and I helmed, no wonder Charlie struggles and there is no way I could have helmed for a long time. The plan was that I was to bore away so that the main sail would shadow the chute, hence the saying “taking the wind out of your sails” it worked like a dream, the sail just gently floated and Pete with no effort at all managed to snuff it and pack it away. All good practice as we now know in an emergency it’s easy to take down. Back to the traditional cutter rig. 7.3 knots and very comfortable.
So, we are now making a direct heading for our destination in the hope that we are now South enough to keep these pleasant broad reaches for the next 2 thousand-odd miles. It would certainly make for a fast and smooth passage.
Today we both jumped out of our skins when this huge crashing-surf and blowing sound erupted close by. A ginormous whale had surfaced and spouted 10-15 metres from the starboard side, magnificent. It only surfaced again, probably 100 yards away before it was gone but, due to the bulbous blow-hole and curved dorsal far down its back, we think it was a humpback whale.
Sunday 20th May
What a stonking day!! the trades are in full force with full sail we are screaming along at 7-8 knots, we can really see the miles being eaten up and at the rate we will be there in 2 weeks, long may it last!. At one point we clocked up 85 miles in 12 hours, superb.
Sunset
Nadezhda being comfortable we decided to leave the sail configuration as it was for the night. To be honest it wasn’t really the right call as at night everything seems more intense especially when the moon sets early (set at 08:45pm). I sat there watching the speed consistently exceeding the high 8’s and the sea had changed slightly making us beam on to the waves which weren’t large just side slappers, at 9pm I thought I’d give it 5 more minutes and if it didn’t ease (it was gusty) that I would wake Pete up, strangely a minute later the cabin light went on and he got up he thought I had called him to reef the main…. Premonition? During the course of the night the wind continued to build and 10pm Pete had to get up again to put a 2nd reef in the main. We can’t say how windy it was but 2 reefs in the main and still going along at 7+ knots it must have been windy. I always feel bad about waking Pete up so I always add another hour to his off-watch time, so at 1am when he got up I was tired, wet from the side slapping waves, desperate for some off-watch time and my large vodka and orange.
Today’s menu was bacon chops sautéed in basil & garlic with a tomato, onion and cucumber relish with plantain and potato mash. It was a bit of a miss mash (pardon the pun) but was really delicious.
Total mileage 175 our personal all time best!
Monday 21st May 2007
Lighter winds today so we have no choice but to head south to stop the sails from flogging. All in all not a bad run as we managed 162 miles over the last 24 hours.
It can be difficult finding ways to fill your days as I have no talent for drawing or painting, (I could give Lowry a run for his money as my match stick men are equally as good as his) but I can cook so I spend my days thinking of ways to cook our fresh produce, Pete would have just finished breakfast and I’m already planning dinner. Today’s offering was egg, bacon, onion pie accompanied by mash, we’ll have the left over bacon with pasta tomorrow. It was really good and have enough for dinner another day..
This has to be one of the most remotest place on earth as there are no planes and we haven’t seen another boat since leaving Galapagos, we know our friends Rob & Lilly are out there somewhere (maybe 350 miles behind us) as we had a text a few days ago saying that they were 60 miles off the Galapagos and motoring at 4 knots still with 2960 to go. We think they were running a rhum line straight to the Marquesas but after looking at our lat and long they will head south to pick up the trades.
Not meaning to harp on about how remote and strange it is being out here but Pete said last night (around 1am) that the chances of another boat ever having sailing this exact spot was highly likely as the Pacific is huge, how bizarre is that! How many places in the world would you find that!.
Tuesday 22nd May 2007
The winds have eased just as the grib file suggested a real pain as we have been used to screaming along in relative comfort.
Last nights watch was a pain in the rear end due to light winds and left over sea. I spent my whole watch (7-12am) tweaking aries and the sails trying the keep the slamming of the sails to a minimum, most of the time it worked. The problem was that the waves pushed Nadezhda off course and too far downwind causing all the sails to flog, to remedy this you head back into wind. Great at 1st but the same scenario kept repeating itself….
Pete got up 5 minutes before the end of my watch and made a comment about the sails beating themselves up, this was a badly timed comment and he had to endure a terse and colourful explanation how I had just spent 5 hours tweaking aries, sails and hanging onto the main sheet for dear life trying to minimise the slamming of the main sail, he’ll find out on his watch and he did….
The skipper also had a fun night, not! And has taken to his berth feeling grumpy… poor old grumpy!
Head sail away, engine on!
Wednesday 23rd May 2007
Fliss……………
Most of yesterday we had relatively light winds, too much for the cruising chute but not enoughto avoid the slamming of the sails. The dilemma you have is by keeping full sail up, the slamming can be ferocious and by shortening sail, you slow down making you sitting ducks for the waves. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. We took the staysail down to see if it was interfering with the headsail, it wasn’t, so it went back up again 15 minutes later.
Around 3ish in the afternoon, the winds dropped off so we put the chute up, the difference in speed was superb, 5 knots went to 8-plus. You can see why people are tempted to keep it flying at night, we won’t as it needs constant attention and we don’t fancy sitting up all night in a state of anxiety as it really is a powerful beast. As it happens, the wind increased and we maintained 6-7 knots with the occasional gust taking us to over 8 knots. The good thing is that our course - 252 magnetic (Which we can make at the moment), is a direct run to Fuka Hiva and our 3-day forecast suggests that conditions will remain the same – 13-15 knots of wind.
Last night, Pete repatriated a large flying fish with the sea. This morning, taking my morning exercise (walk around the deck), I picked up one large flying fish, four little ones and the dried up remains of a tiny squid.
One flying fish was so tiny! He can’t have been any bigger than just over an inch and a half and four matchsticks wide. This little critter had managed to project himself out of the water and landed on the winch, it’s a long way up for such a small thing!
We have a nursery onboard and are growing basil (seeds and compost courtesy of Pete’s sister - Liz). There was a small hitch when they nose-dived onto the galley floor but I re-potted them and they’re doing really well. In four days we have seedlings of an inch high.
We have a fridge odour problem and we can’t work out why. It smells of rotten eggs (we don’t keep eggs in the fridge as they last longer un-refrigerated). Two days ago, I took everything out and cleaned the contents and the fridge with bleach. The smell came back again so Pete cleaned it again today. It can’t be the meat as Pete put the packages in water to see if there were any leaks plus, if it was the meat, it would have an iridescent sheen to it. Maybe it’s the bleach? We’ll clean it again with soapy water and see if that cures our problem.
We now have the same distance to travel as our Atlantic crossing was in total so we are possible looking at 17 days until landfall. So, in four-showers time we should be there – showers are one every three days to conserve water.
Today was my mum’s recipe of Tomato and bacon source with pasta – very nice. Pete………….
We are sailing over areas of the world’s surface where no man has gone before. The Pacific Ocean is vast, taking over one third of the planet’s surface and we are on a route from nowhere to nowhere. There are no large urban centres here, where ships might ply their trade, and cruise liners shun the area, their passengers uninterested in featureless horizons.
The chart that we have is criss-crossed with depth-readings of 3000-4000 metres. You can trace the routes that the survey ships took by the lines of soundings on the map. These are readings that record depth at a miniscule point over which the survey ship happened to pass on its way to more interesting shores, yet some inventive souls in the cartographic office have joined the dots to create contour lines on the map. Many of these are drawn as dotted-lines, meaning “Area with inadequate depth information”.Eight hundred miles NNW is “Germaine Bank” that reportedly has a depth of only 20 metres in a surrounding sea nearly 4000 metres deep. This was discovered, we presume, by Mr Germaine, in 1916 but is, as yet, unconfirmed by any authorised sources. Yesterday morning, we passed 70 miles North of a point on the chart marked as “Breakers Seen” – reported by an unknown vessel in 1906. Obviously an area of shallow water – not to be ventured over!! Regardless of this being an obvious hazard, the sighting has not been verified by any official means and the area is encircled on the chart by the “uncertain” dotted lines. How many other undiscovered shallows exist?
We did consider going and having a look. You never know, subterranean upheavals may have created a new island in the intervening years and we could be the discoverers of a new world! Felicity Anderson and Pete Jobson, intrepid explorers, would name it after our joint surnames as “AndJob Island” – a welcome relief for shipwrecked sailors.
Thursday 24th May 2007
The sails are flogging again and Fliss was not too pleased as she handed over the watch. She had been clutching the main-sheet all evening in an attempt to dampen the shock-loads. I decided to roll-in the headsail, which seemed to stabilise the situation and had a more relaxed time until daybreak.
The wind has backed a little and so, with the dawn, I poled the headsail out “goosewinged” and turned a little more away from the wind. This worked a treat even though the wind was still only just abaft the beam and, with an increase in wind-speed, we eventually started a good 12 hour run of 7-8 knots.
In the morning, we had our first confirmed sighting of a shark. It slunk alongside Nadezhda with its dorsal fin and tail fin breaking the surface. After a few minutes, it decided that there was nothing tasty to be had and it slouched off to find breakfast elsewhere.
We put a reef in the mainsail before it went dark in order to ward-off squalls and, apart from an hour of light winds during the night, we maintained over 6 knots.
Fliss….
As night watches go mine was a perfect ten, the sails behaved and we romped along at 7+ knots,
beautiful starlight night so I just sat back with my head torch and read my book.
Failure on the dinner front yesterday as I made a curry from scratch, mixing all the spices and the smell was great but Pete and I agreed there was something missing. We’re going to chuck the left-overs and have something else today… Jamie Oliver needn’t worry at the moment.
Saturday 26th May 2007
Lat: 07’ 07. 9 South Long: 110’ 26. 9 West
Not a lot to say really just another day out at sea.
Yesterday we had good winds and Nadezhda happily sailed along goose-winged at 6-7 knots. The wind did die off slightly in the afternoon so we decided to give the cruising chute another go, the same as before the conditions are little too much for the chute so it didn’t stay up long.
Another perfect night watch for me with full compliment of sails and Naz scooting along at 6-7 knots… I’m nervous about saying this but I’ll chance it! So far we haven’t had any squalls or any adverse conditions and when it has rained it’s lasted for 5 mins max and has hardly wet the deck. People who have run this route say that you get perfect sailing conditions for 2000 miles and then the wind dies off for the last 1000 miles. Probably then we’ll get the squalls, I hope not though. At the moment with the moon being so bright you can see if anything nasty is coming but we won’t get blasé about it. Looking at the grib file it does confirm that the winds nearer the Marquesas are lighter and confused there appears to be a eddy effect at 125 degrees of which no matter how low or high latitude you are, you have to go through it.
The vacuumed packed meat is superb and really worth the money we spent as we tried the pork chops yesterday and they were as good as fresh.
Over the last few days Pete and I have seen a loom on the horizon, we’re puzzled as to what it could be, it can’t be a yacht as the loom is bright and too far away for it to be another cruiser, if it was bigger boat then surely they would have passed us ages ago. I think its Pete’s dad’s aura keeping an eye on us!
Today we heard from our cruising buddies Rob & Lilly on Mariah II from Ottawa they are doing very well and around 520 miles behind us, we are gaining slightly on them each day but when the winds die they probably come into their own and it’ll be a sprint to the finish. Mariah II is 40 years old, 36 foot sloop. To look at their boat you would never believe it, I would imagine that Rob is as boat proud as Pete.
Quite breezy at the moment so we have a reef in the main, full jib and stay sail and were rocketing along at 7+ knots, Pete’s just up after a few hours kip, the poor thing went back to bed shattered as I think he didn’t get any sleep on watch.
I’ve got a sneaky feeling that my old gum problem is rearing its ugly head again as I’ve got a swelling in the same old place. Although its not painful at the moment it’s usually a bad sign. I’ve decided that I’m not visiting any more dentists and if I have to live on antibiotics till New Zealand then so be it.
In a 183 miles time we will hit our half way point then it’s all down hill from there! Here’s hoping that the conditions carry on as if they do we’ll do the passage in 20 days. Realistically were looking at 23 days in total, but you never know.
Sunday 27th May 2007
Pete…………..
Today, we passed the half-way point at 13:40LT and had a mini-celebration. Only 1500 miles to go and dropping! Good winds and reasonable seas got us another 166 miles closer to the Marquesas in 24 hours.
Monday 28th May 2007
Again, we had a mixed bag but fairly good winds for most of the day and clocked another 150 miles. The winds seem to follow a pattern of light airs at around noon and midnight followed by reasonable breezes the rest of the time.
Tuesday 29th May 2007
Fliss….
Light (ish) winds today so we decided to get Don (our downwind sail) out, Don is a great sail to have but is extremely volatile and demands constant attention, in calm seas and light winds he would be very easy to manage but Ocean sailing he can be quite a chore.We have two issues with Don the 1st one is the slamming of the sail when the boat rolls, two, how the hell do you get it down in an emergency. All will be revealed later!.
With night fast approaching we decided that the conditions were stable so we would leave the sails as they were, worst case scenario we could always reef the primary jib.Really it wasn’t a sensible choice but I think a little bit of laziness had crept in. As luck had it we had a few blows in the night but nothing to worry about but both Pete admitted to being slightly nervous on watch, was it really worth it? No, not really.
Pete………
Even though we had light winds for most of the day, we clocked up another 150 miles today. From 12:30 until dawn, we stormed along with our two jibs pulling us at over 8 knots, dead straight as though Nadezhda was on rails. Normally, with the waves from the rear, we start fish-tailing when we get past 8 knots but the ride was really comfortable and the “excess” speed was no problem.
Wednesday 30th May 2007
Fliss….
This morning I got up at 7am to a very excited skipper “Look Fliss another Yacht we must have caught them up” his hopes were dashed when slowly but surely that pulled away from us, the buggers must have overtaken us in the night!!! Pete was looking forward to sailing past, giving them a nice wave and gloating. I had to do some emergency ego management and said to Pete “It must have been a super yacht but without a doubt she won’t be as pretty and sea worthy as Naz” Pete’s still licking his wounds. Were both competitive and hate to be beaten. It’s not over yet we’ll get them at the end on tactics!
Pete………
Yup. As dawn came and the sun streamed across the seas, it lit-up the sails of another yacht that must have been 4 miles away dead-ahead. I set my sights on him and did a little tweaking here and there with sails and course – let’s ‘ave ‘im – bring it on!
I also wanted to pass him close by and find out who it was, where they are going and have a chat on the VHF. We haven’t spoken to anyone since we left the Galapagos.
An hour later and the sails ahead were definitely smaller and they eventually passed from sight. They must have crept stealthily past very close to us before dawn without navigation lights
like……ships passing in the night?
Fliss………
Jobbo retired to bed at midday so I was Mistress & Commander of the Good Ship Nadezhda and had the joys of looking after Don. The seas were quite choppy and with every role Don would slam hard back, you could feel the vibrations through the boat. In an earlier pow wow Pete and I had decided that in these circumstances we would let the sail out wait till Nadezhda had stabilised and winch Don back in, see what I mean about hard work!
Sausage casserole & mash for early dinner, which was very nice but slightly salty for our tastes, I reckon it was due to the re-hydrated veggies that we had bought in Spain.
In the afternoon we found 5 little squids in the gunnels by the cockpit, god knows how they got there! they must have jumped onboard as we hadn’t had the gunnels under. Gorgeous quirky things, iridescent pink with big eyes and two had squirted black ink in their death throws, shame we hadn’t seen them alive as we would have thrown them back.We couldn’t avoid it any longer we had to practise taking Don down! The cunning plan was to gibe Don forcing it against to main jib, Pete was to then catch the line of which I would be slowly letting out, once he had the line he would secure it against a cleat, I would then rush forward letting the halyard down for Pete to scoop the sail onto the boat, all in all it went well but we were doing it in calm conditions, good help us in an emergency! It turned out to be the right decision to take it down.
Pete……..
In the burst of activity that comprised taking Don down and putting the mainsail up, the through-hull fitting for the autopilot got knocked or caught and tore out. It will only take tiny screws to hold it and was bound to happen one day. Fortunately, the wind had increased and so the Aries took over for the night and, after a bit of jury-rigging, the job of re-fixing left for daylight.
Fliss was very tired since I had snaffled her afternoon rest period by sleeping through it so I took a long watch from 21:00 till 05:00. The winds slowly increased and we were gunning along at over 8 knots until the seas built and the jib needed reefing. Even so, we continued with 2 reefs in the main and half the jib at 7-8 knots. I went below to roll a cigarette and bang, whoosh – a wave drenched the cockpit and soaked the cushions. They were partly dry on the underside so I turned them over and settled down again. About 2 hours later, I went to make a plot on the chart and, bang, whoosh – another wave crashed into the cockpit soaking the other side of the cushions. I was as dry as a bone – you gotta have a bit of luck eh?
Friday 1st June 2007
Fliss…..
Last night I was attacked!!!!!!!! a large flying fish with evil on his mind jumped out of the water and hit me on the back!!! it did make me jump.. it ended up in the back of the boat by the
rudder once it calmed down we threw it back... he won't remember anything in the morning but will have a sore nose.
I did get a bit stressed this morning as I get nervous of down wind sailing and accidentally crash gybing the main.... I think that I’m tired as long passages are shattering especially in light winds and bumpy seas... plus only 5 hours sleep it all adds up.
Late afternoon it gets it so hot in the cockpit and you can't find shade anywhere.....
Really not far to go now only 716 miles and we are averaging 150-160 a day.... Pete gets cross with me as I push it as much as possible as I really want to get there... he gets cross as I get stressed.... he's be happy if it takes another week, I'm not 3 weeks at sea is a long time.... our friends Richard & Sam felt the same.
Saturday 3rd June 2007
Pete…..
We have had another very good 24 hours sailing. The night before last, the wind was dead behind and was forcing us South-ish and so great care was needed to keep a best course and to prevent accidental gybing especially as the short swell was playing games with us. At about 04:00, a couple of dark clouds came over and had us reefing the headsail significantly (we already had 2 reefs in the main) and, at about 05:00 we got a more consistent wind that allowed us to head back due West.
I went off watch at 06:00 yesterday and left Fliss to it. She got me up about 3 hours later and we put the third reef in the mainsail. I was a little bleary but remember that there were an awful lot of white caps around. Anyway, I can't comment any further as I went straight back to bed and left her to it for the next 5 hours!!! By the time I awoke, the conditions had eased and we shook a reef out.
Last night, the sea eventually settled down and the steep-sided swell of the previous 3 days seemed to level out and become more comfortable. We started the night with increased wind that had us going at 7.5-8.5 knots for about the first four hours. With the eased swell, this was fast, yet comfortable. The wind has gradually eased overnight but, this morning, we are still doing 6-6.5 knots and the latest GRIB forecast shows that conditions should remain fairly stable for the next 3 days. We travelled 180 miles between 04:00 and 04:00 this morning.
Yesterday morning, the GPS finally started showing the number of hours ETA and, at our current speed, we are approximately 70 hours away from our waypoint (09 deg 50 S, 138 deg 50 W). The problem with watching the hourly countdown is that a drop of half a knot in speed will add a significant number of hours to the ETA. In fact, we have been due to arrive in 70 hours for the last 5 hours.....oh! it is now showing 75 hours!.
On the gourmet front, we have been a little lazy of late. We have had Marks & Sparks lamb curry, rice and Pan bread and, last night we decided that we would try Marks & Sparks chicken curry, rice and Pan bread. Both of them are very nice and have been hoarded with the Pacific in mind - luckily, we have bilges full of them, and other easy-cook tins.
Fliss
There was a big sea running and I felt very uncomfortable surfing down waves at well over 8 knots. The waves were climbing up the back of other waves and then exploding into breaking surf. After three hours of watching the waves my nerves could take no more so I got Pete up, he wasn’t impressed!
Nadezhda immediately felt more comfortable and we were still sailing along at 7+ knots. One wave hit us side on so violently that the boat was pushed to hard to port making us side onto the waves, thankfully Aries immediately pushed the boat back on course. I was so relieved that we had reefed and Aries was steering, without a doubt Charlie wouldn’t have reacted so quickly.
Eventually the seas calmed down and I was able to relax and read a book.
Tuesday 5th June 2007
Pete…..
Yesterday, the winds were light and we eventually ended up doing about 3.5 knots. Fliss was all ready to turn the engine on but I insisted that the winds would return. After about 4 hours, a gentle breeze kicked in that had us doing 6 knots again all through the night. We had both been a bit tired with fluky wind and too much wind the previous evening and so the stable conditions were welcome.
This morning, Fliss woke me because we had black clouds coming from the rear. About 30 minutes later, the wind increased and we had the most torrential downpour that I have seen in a long time. The clouds kept coming and, with them, more wind. It looked as though there was clearer sky behind and so we rode on with 2 reefs and a scrap of headsail but the wind increased again so we put the 3rd reef in the mainsail just after attaining the max speed that Naz has ever reached - 9.27 knots. We are back to full headsail now but will keep the 3rd reef in the mainsail for the time being.
We have started seeing more varieties of birds. Little black ones with white flashes under their armpits that we saw for the first time near the Galapagos and also we have seen a couple of frigate birds. Land must be near here somewhere???!
We are hoping now for a settled and consistent breeze to take us gently to Hiva Oa so that we reach there at about 10:00 in the morning. We have gone past 135 degrees West and must put our clocks back another hour.
Fliss
As the sun rose I saw a huge bank of black clouds, which looked very ominous, I waited to see whether or not they would miss us but when the small black tentacles of clouds went over us I thought it was about time to get Pete up. It turned out to be a good call as within 20 minutes all hell broke loose, these must have been the conditions are friends Richard & Sam experienced when flying their spinnaker at 4am in the morning, they must have been terrified.Pete decided that I’d be more useful cooking, so whilst he did squall management I made a egg, bacon, cheese and onion pan bread, you couldn’t feel the conditions outside but you certainly could hear it.
It all passed within an hour or so and then left us with fabulous sailing conditions for the rest of the day.
We decided to change watches as Pete likes to get as much rest as possible before landfall, I had 8-12 off and Pete would get 1-4 off. It didn’t work for me at all as I had been so used to going to bed between 1-2am so at 21:45 I got up and Pete went down below. I had a wonderful watch, clear skies, easy seas and cruising along nicely at 7-8 knots. Given the conditions, plus a good book that I wanted to finish I left him in bed till 03:30am, with strict instructions to wake me up when he spotted land.
Wednesday 6th June 2007
Landfall at Hiva Oa
We made it!!!! we are in the Marquesas and land is a wonderful thing, it’s a novelty seeing other boats, trees & people.
Hiva Oa is a tall peaky volcanic island where the land gently drops into the water in lush green
folds, everything is so lush and verdant.
Everywhere you look is mountains and trees and the small black beach is fringed with coconut
trees.
We spotted some other boats that we had met in the Galapagos Islands and a couple of them had managed to do the crossing in 17 days, we thought we had done it in super fast time!
The anchorage was quite full so all boats had anchored with bow and stern anchors, we would also do this, another new experience.
After a celebration glass of wine (it was midday so we didn’t feel to bad about it) we ventured over to our neighbours to check if they were happy with us anchoring so close. They invited us onboard for a drink, I think Pete was a little disappointed when coke or ice water was offered! We were going to visit the Gendarme but they saved us the walk as they told us that they only checked boats in between 7:30 – 11am.
Back to the boat, dinner, few more drinks and then bed….
We are happy to be here!
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