We thought we had it all sorted before we left. We'd picked up a buoy off Bora Bora Yacht Club where we could gain Internet access on board. We downloaded our weather page and carefully studied the weather for the next 180 hours. On top of that, gratefully, again our best buddy Ian had also reviewed the predictions and texted them to us. What we saw showed us a good looking weather pattern, not too strong and a good direction for the next 120 hours. After that there would be some stronger winds to 180 hours. Perfect for a 8 – 10 day passage. It was also showing that it was going to be a lot lighter the next day, so with our typical impatience we decided to get the most of the light winds now, dropped the mooring and headed off. It all looked so good as we sailed out doing about 5 -6 knots. But by very early the next morning we knew that it was going to be a slow start. Little did we know how slow and for how long!!!
What we had for the first four days was an unusual westerly component to the wind direction for this time of the year. Lucky us, we always seem to find the unusual component in weather! Yep bam, just like that the SE became a SW (and that's the direction we needed to head) and for awhile we got it at 20 knots plus, which was a wet, pounding 12 hours of sailing hard on the wind. In fact, we've sort of been hard on the wind or 70 degrees off it for most of that time. Then just to add to the frustration the winds backed off to sometimes just 4 knots, sometimes 12 knots, sometimes 5 knots and swung constantly 90 degrees in direction, S, SW, SSW, W. Very, very frustrating! In the first four days we averaged about 80 nm a day, but in reality the first 48 hours we probably only did 60 nm a day. Some of the slowest passage days we have EVER done. But it got worse!!! It got lighter! By end of day 4 the seas had dropped, the wind had dropped, though it had become more constant in direction at least. And then every afternoon about 1pm the wind would pick up to around 18 knots for about 10 minute intervals and we would scoot along doing 7 knots, before it would back off to 5 knots again. On and off it would do this all afternoon into the early evening. Allowing us to at least clock up some miles, but then about 8pm it dies off and gets random again in direction. By 11pm we usually have the motor on for an hour or so, before we accept the fact that we can't motor all the way and turn it off. Then we wallow! Sails dropped and rolling about....But as I said at least the sea and swell has dropped off.
'Sea Otter' has proved a pretty decent performer to windward. She doesn't pound too much, she has a very flat underwater bow profile that tends to allow a boat to thump into the seas rather than slice through them. We had expected that she would thump into any seas to windward. But she actually holds her own, with only the odd thump and produces a decent speed. Her design seems to be able to pull off her maximum hull speed pretty quickly. In around about 10 knots of wind, we quickly get up to 5.5+ knots and at around 14 knots breeze we can be easily doing 7 knots. It has been a uncomfortable trip, particularly the last half. We are lucky that no water or leaks find their way below decks, a rarity on most yachts for them to be totally dry below. In all honesty for a day when the seas and swells abated, life on board was pretty comfortable. Great ratio to the other 11 days!!
However, there are times that down below is very uncomfortable. Like when you are going to windward in around 15 – 25 knots and the yacht is permanently at a 10 – 20 degree angle or lean. And if there is any swell and sea, it's jerking about like a mechanical bull, up and down, side to side in a very random order...life below begins to get it's challenges. Depending on which tack you are on, some simple things like; going to the loo require excellent timing. To get your butt on the seat without your head butting the opposite wall, if the loo side of the boat is to windward! Or trying to do toast in the grill, without it flying out at you and landing on the floor. Try cooking pasta and the pot of hot water on your gimbaled stove stays still, but the hot water slops over everything. Ever tried getting pasta into a bowl when the bowl is sliding around the bench? Even if the bowl is kept in place it is likely that the portion control is out of your control as you spoon or tip it in. Going up and down the companionway stairs (especially with my poor old knees) is a workout when the motion of the boat drops in a wave and you are trying to step up a step....wow the gravity pull on your quad muscles and cranky knees is not nice! Even staying in a bunk reading, some times requires prime placement of all your limbs. One foot propped against the table and one propped on the bunk, on hand on the handrail and one on your book. Not to mention getting out from the bunk from the table when it is on the downwind side and you have to climb up 20 degrees to get out!!! Or being on the windward bunk and being thrown half off the bunk by an errant beam wave! Even holding your cuppa can be testing, to try and ensure the contents don't slop out all over you. But my least favourite would have to be... having a bath! Just try putting your bare butt down on a non skid deck, so that you can pour water over yourself (don't even try to bath by standing up) Trust me non- skid works, even on bare butts....but it ain't comfortable... ouch. Ahhhh, just some of the fun of living on board during a passage.
PART II
We have done the classic thing again, that we seem to always have done, that is we are out here mostly on our own. The other yachts back in Bora Bora decided to sit and wait for more wind, but they were still sitting and waiting for a week after us! It has felt like an empty sea, no ships, no other yachts, no dolphins, no fish, no flying fish....quite eerie compared to what you normally see on passage. Until Friday afternoon when I got out a tin of re fried beans, corn chips, grated up some cheese all ready for nachos for dinner. Then Geoff yells from the deck that there is a fish on the line!! Woo hoo, the nachos can wait till tomorrow night. It was a lovely Mahi Mahi about 2 foot long, a much better size than the giant female we caught on passage from San Francisco. Geoff hauled him up on our transom. It works out these flat, step through transoms are a perfect spot for hauling in your fish and filleting it. No more fish smashing around in the cockpit, putting blood and scales everywhere. It's never a pretty picture to kill a fish and on a moving boat with a flapping fish it can get pretty ugly. The Buddhist in me, struggles with this.
I am not sure I mentioned that we had lost our BBQ igniter attachment somewhere on the passage from San Francisco, so we cannot use the BBQ until we can find a replacement. The option of frying your fish down below becomes a pain when you have to deal with the smell that lingers inside the boat. And the greasy fish pan wash up is tough, when your queasy. So, with this lovely Mahi Mahi I did the oven bake method in alfoil with herbs, lemon juice and butter....and guess what? Geoff loved it, so now we can eat us as much fish as we want. Typical we only caught one more fish on passage, even though we tried every day, it was a 2' Bonito a very powerful, solid fish....quite pretty but a very dark flesh fish, which I don' like. So Geoff was facing eating a lot of it (which in the end he couldn't do) it's not the nicest eating fish and he had to throw the a lot away.
It got so boring out there when we realised the passage was going a lot slower than we expected. So one day I suggested to Geoff that we try and do a deck workout. I put up a cockpit cushion and used it as a boxing bag to do some box'ersize. Geoff did jogging on the spot, step ups and sit ups. It allowed us to burn off some energy and get some exercise, now that we aren't swimming, walking or surfing every day. It is pretty hard though when the boat lurches about to try and get that crunch completed and must look down right hilarious. But that only lasted until Day 5/6 when the weather became gloomy and even more unpredictable. We got gusty 10 – 18 knots anywhere from the South to the East. Occasionally hitting around 23 knots. Then throughout the sixth night it backed off until the evening when, just after a squall it thumped in at an increasing 25 to 27 to 30 knots!!! Things got wild, pretty quickly and the seas by the morning of Day 8 (Tuesday) were steep, confused and breaking. Light drizzle really helped cheer us up (NOT) It was on this day that something big ate Geoff's lure, the whole lure and trace???? It was after this, in the rain with another lure on that he caught the Bonito. How fun hauling it onto the heaving transom in the rainy squall, we tried the alcohol method of killing it this time. Which seemed more humane and quicker. But I won't tell the drinkers amongst you what alcohol we used to pour down it 's gullet, as you probably would find it a huge waste!
Conditions deteriorated throughout the afternoon and winds increased solidly to 25 – 33 knots from the SE. We both felt queasy and the motion from the seas was rough, erratic and bruising. It stayed like this for the next full two days, blowing over 25 knots. Seas stacked up on a big SE'erly ground swell from the big New Zealand storm. It really created quite wild uncomfortable conditions. It was pretty horrible. The boat was handling things probably better than we were. Sea Otter has proved herself. Geoff said that if she made it to Tonga without anything breaking he will have new respect for her.... and she did. Even with the shoal draft keel, she handled everything thrown at her on that passage. Thank goodness! By Thursday night (Day 10) the winds just died. Great, now we have very light winds and big mixed up seas coming from about 5 different directions. We motored on and off throughout the night, depending on how well we were taking the rolling, rocking and heaving. Light showers meant for crappy watches that night and by morning of Day 11, we have officially declared this the WORST passage we have ever had!!
Crossing the date line felt good, to be suddenly the next day and the same day as everyone at home (with only 3 hours difference for Tonga) was a cheerful note in a dismal passage. And it seemed to be the watershed, as on Day 11 as we crossed the date line the winds filled in consistently from the ESE and at a reasonable 10 – 20 knots, the seas settled down and we were suddenly enjoying sailing again. The day was clear and our speeds were constant. Surfing down waves on this trip Sea Otter has hit close to 11 knots. Our average speed in the windy conditions was about 7 – 8 knots. Not too shabby.
Typical that after this passage being four days longer than I expected, we would suddenly be confronted with having to try to slow down! On our last day heading in for Vava'u we got great winds, easing seas and good boat speeds meaning....we would arrive at Tonga in the middle of the night! So early Sunday morning we reduced sail to just the main and continued to do 5.5 – 6 knots, arriving off the north east corner of Vava'u at 2 am. Once we rounded the NW corner where you can head into the very protected waters of Vava'u group, we had to hoave-to (back our sails so that the boat moves very slightly sideways) to wait for a safer dawn entrance. Let me tell you, this was the calmest water we have felt in 2 weeks and it felt like heaven!
At dawn we turned the motor on and headed east into the luxury of some of the calmest cruising waters in the South Pacific. Picked up a mooring buoy off the town of Neiafu and sighed the biggest sigh of relief you ever could imagine. Today we awoke refreshed from the best sleep we have had in two weeks and an anchorage so calm you would swear the boat was out of the water. Quiet, calm and cheap (only $6 Aust a night on the moorings) Geoff wants to live here!! The town is simple and friendly, no very modern supermarkets, limited supplies in them, great fresh food market, tons of Cafe's and Restaurants (mostly run by Aussies and Kiwi's) three banks, fresh bread, cheap prices and cheap local beer....what more could you want?
