3 days of high winds and rough seas - not fun!
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Sun 20 Jun 2010 02:17
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19:03.241S 169:55.457W
Sunday 20th June
All good things come to an end and it was
time for us to leave Raratonga and head for Niue some 600 miles away. Departure
dates and weather conditions had been a hot topic of conversation all week and
we eventually decided to bite the bullet and leave on Wednesday. There was bad
weather down south and we were going to catch the edge of it, high winds and big
seas were forecast - great! If we wanted to see Niue we had no option but to go
for it, no matter what the weather was like, just as we had to leave Bora Bora
when there was no wind. It's amazing the difference a couple of days can make,
we arrived at Raratonga with no wind and the sea was so flat it was like glass,
when we left it was like a washing machine throwing us around and
around.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
were horrendous. I was ill for a few days, Amy had had a bit of bad
news and was in a daze for a few days so Paul sailed pretty much single
handed through 20-30 knots winds and 3-4 metre high waves. We likened it to the
crossing to San Blas except the waves weren't quite as big and we didn't
get knocked down. There were a few hairy moments though with waves crashing all
around us and the boat being knocked from side to side. When
down below the noises the water made as it hit the side of the boat
were horrible, it sounded as if they were going to knock a hole through the
hull. Winds reached up to 40 knots at times and we were flying along with just a
smidgen of sail out.
The last 9 hours were the worst of the
whole trip. The wind speeds were constantly high, the waves were ferocious and
we had one squall after another. Paul and I were sat in the cockpit dressed head
to toe in full wet weather gear with just our faces peaking out. Amy was down
below trying to sleep but she was gave up when she was thrown out of bed
and into the kitchen cabinets. She swapped beds as it sounded as if the contents
in the alcohol cupboard were about to burst out and crush her but she didn't
have much luck elsewhere. We eventually arrived at around 03:30. The moon that
had been lighting up the seas for us disappeared an hour before we arrived and
we were still being hit by one squall after another so it wasn't the best time
to try and pick up a buoy. Thankfully Niue doesn't have a surrounding reef so we
were able to access the anchorage easily and there were mooring buoys in place
for us to pick up. Enchantress and Briet must have heard us on the radio as they
both guided us in and helped us to locate the buoys. Bali Blue weren't far
behind so we waited until they had picked up a buoy, Paul had a gin and tonic to
help relax him and then we all went straight to bed for a well deserved
rest.
After talking with people
today everyone had different experiences. We like Fai Tira were
thinking this isn't what we signed up for, we could think of much better things
to be doing with our time but others found it exhilerating. Although thinking
about it now, Enchantress and Blue Magic who found it exhilerating
arrived a day or two before us whereas Fai Tira and Bali Blue who arrived with
us and early this morning had a similar experience to us - horrendous! Perhaps
being just a little bit behind we had slightly different weather to them,
it certainly picked up on our last night. Anyway, we're here now and I'm sure it
will all be forgotten about in a few days!
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