So far so good

Caramor - sailing around the world
Franco Ferrero / Kath Mcnulty
Wed 10 Jul 2019 22:33
27:40.5S 176:36.9

Short handed ocean crossings are usually a story of sleep deprivation caused by keeping watches and being knocked around by rough seas. So far this one has been our most positively idyllic to date.

Just what the doctor ordered. Gentle seas and our six hours on and six hours off watch system have meant that we are actually recovering from the exhausting months of refitting Caramor.

We left NZ in what looked like being a good weather window. As a low departed and the gently squeezed isobars of the next high pressure promised favourable but light southerly winds.

Our new light wind sail, a Code Zero, has kept us sailing along even when the winds looked like being too light. Most of the time we are making between 4 and 5 knots. Even in 5 knots of wind we are making 3 knots!

We are now nearly half way to Savu Savu on the island of Vanua Levi, our chosen port of entry into Fiji. Some 549NM completed and about 670 to go.

Last night the winds started to go more easterly and we thought we had managed to sneak around the centre of the high pressure and reach the easterlies to its north. Unfortunately it was not to be and we hit a patch of calms and fluky variable zephyrs. So we motored for six hours and soon after dawn the light easterlies built enough to sail again. These will eventually strengthen as they merge with the south easterly trade winds further north.

After breakfast another first as we ran our small water desalinator and tasted our first home produced fresh water.


Entry by Franco