Ghosting towards the Tuamotus
Bamboozle
Jamie and Lucy Telfer
Sat 15 May 2010 22:19
We are on the move again and now heading towards the Tuamotus which is a
trip of only just over 500nm but it looks as though we may be following our
fastest ever passage with one of our slowest. After a good start we have
now entered a zone where (apart from the squalls) there is not much wind and
what there is very variable in direction. It swung through a full 360
degrees in under two hours during the night at the same time as it hosed
down with rain which was pretty dull! It would be fine on a small boat with
a full crew but is pretty irritating with 2 masts and 2 people and a poled
out genoa in the dark. Fortunately we had taken in the downwind system just
before sunset as we thought the sky looked a bit threatening which as it
turned out was an excellent decision.
Our destination in the archipelago is probably now Kauehi, rather than
Raroia which was where we were heading when we set off. I was keen to visit
this particular atoll as this was where Thor Heyerdahl made landfall on his
famous Kon Tiki expedition. Having come by raft all the way from South
America he didn't so much land there as just run straight in to it, thrown
by the swell up and on to the reef (remarkably without killing or injuring
anyone on board). I don't fancy taking the same approach with Bamboozle and
our likely time of arrival, the probable direction of the wind and swell, as
well as the time of the tides in the pass are all now making it a less
attractive option. However, Kauehi may(!) be just right if we carry on
through another night so at the moment this is Plan B (with of course Plan C
& D still in hand). We hope to be at the entrance to the pass at around
noon Sunday when we should get a period of slack water to let us in. We are
continuing to sail rather than motor despite the conditions as we need to
cherish our diesel more than usual. We hope to be amongst these atolls for
the next 6-8 weeks and there is little prospect of getting our hands on any
more fuel hence our reticence to fire up the iron donkey and thunder onwards
in a cloud of diesel fumes.
One high point of the passage so far has been that we caught a beautiful big
yellowfin tuna yesterday. Always good for morale, fresh fish is a welcome
addition to the ships provisions and we currently have sashimi, sushi, plain
grilled and fried in a salad wrap all on the menu in the first class dining
room. There is more than ample fresh fish for the two of us so within a day
or two we will increasingly using our imagination to try to keep the meals
interesting to stave off the onset of tuna-fatigue.