The beginning of life in the Tuamotus
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Wed 4 Jun 2003 19:53
|
Raroia, Tuamotus
Atolls.
3rd June
2003.
This webdiary is not designed to make communication one
way. Comments, questions and your news are very welcome to
us.
We left the magnificence of the Marquesan scenery at 0730hrs
on the 29th May. Light or no wind prevailed and we motored for a few hours
before a south easterly came in giving us twelve knots over the deck on the
port tack. From then on a generally pleasant and reasonably fast passage
was made for the 450nm to Raoria. Raoria is the atoll on which the Kon
Tiki with Thor Heyerdahl and his crew were washed up on. Troubadour had
left Nuku Hiva at the same time as ourselves and we met her again at dawn
on the third day off the entrance to our first
true atoll. Stuart and I decided that although the ebb was in full flow we
would try and get in against it by sticking to the northern shore and
hoping for a counter current. In the center of the pass the full ebb
meeting a light onshore breeze was giving some spectacular overfalls.
In reality the entrance was easy and once in we found there was a complete
set of red/green and cardinal marks right up to the village! Whatever else
they can or cannot do the French are marvellous at marking their waters.
We anchored to a light northerly wind in14 meters off the village with two
other yachts, one French the other American. The time was 0900hrs
and we had a couple of beers and went for a snorkel. Great fun
and I saw two sharks as well many colourful fish. We also checked the
anchor which was well dug in but there were numerous large coral heads on the
bottom. Lunch, a sleep and the evening spent having a
tuna bbq on Troubadour of the fish we had both caught en route
finished the day. This was followed by deep relaxed sleep. There was no
hint of trouble on any weather source.
I write the above to set the scene for what was to
follow. I do not find writing the next paragraph easy as it is a
description of how we nearly did the unthinkable to our beloved
Nordlys. It is tempting to miss this bit out but in the end after some
discussion we decided it would not be fair to ourselves or you the
readers.
At just before three in the morning Annette woke me and
told me to get cracking, or words to that effect, as things were
happening. Basically torrents of rain and a strong wind out of the south
east. We were anchored in a cut with reefs to the east and the coral
strewn shore to the west of us. On one side about a hundred meters away
was Troubadour and on the other at the same distance was the American yacht
and nearby the Frenchman. We were thus effectively boxed in. Quickly
the wind rose to over thirty knots sustained speed with gusts of more. It was a
totally black night with no moon. The fetch was some eight miles across
the lagoon. The shore and its reef were about one hundred meters
behind us. Suddenly we saw Troubadour slew round and appear to break
loose. Before fear had overtaken our senses she came up sharply and
held. Later we were to find a large broken coral head on the bottom which
had obviously given way. On our port side the American was all over the
place and appeared to be in danger of dragging on to the
Frenchman. Remember our anchors were now being pulled in a direction one
hundred and fifty degrees from that at which they had been
set. All was okay for the next hour. We crouched under the sprayhood
out of the rain taking constant bearings of the lights ashore. 205, 206,
205 etc degrees. Also the gps showed a constant position. The engine
was running but not being used. All was well. Suddenly a loud bang
and our snubber broke, literally as there was no chafe. The chain started
to make horrible noises as the bows plunged before the inbound seas.
Another huge bang and Nordlys fell away from the wind and the anchor
showed no signs of holding. Basically for the next hour and a half I
motored her into the wind not daring to fall any more astern and see if the
anchor would hold as there was no room between us and the reef. All I will
say is that there were many occasions when I had full power on and it appeared
she would not come back head to wind. The nicest sight any of us have ever
seen was the coming of a grey bleak dawn, but dawn nevertheless. With
light to help us we attempted to get the anchor unwound from the coral and up
without tearing the windlass, stem head or chain to pieces. We
succeeded and eventually re-anchored some hundred meters to windward.
My two ladies did splendid work on a pitching foredeck and coping with a role
reversal, sorry a flying term, as usually I handle the windlass and foredeck
while Annette steers.
The wind continued to howl and we put another anchor out using
the dinghy. This was probably a mistake as getting both up was a nightmare
that ended up with Annabelle and myself emptying tanks of air this morning
recovering our second anchor from under a coral boulder. I had already
emptied one yesterday clearing the mess of nylon that was the rode for one
anchor and the snubber for the other. We had to do all this as mid
morning we got a report that the wind was forecast, ha ha, to go
round to the north again. This would have put us back on the reef. It was
thirteen hours from start to finish. The radio told us that we were not
alone in having an unpleasant time of things.
I am sure you are all totally confused by now so I will
stop. It is the day after the aforementioned goings on and we have met
some delightful local girls who sold my girls some black pearls.
The girl who did this is in fact the daughter of one Gaston with whom Hugh
Marriott went diving when he was here with Tacit in the early
nineties We have tentatively organised to go snorkelling or diving on a
pearl farm but have not yet been ashore due to heavy rain. Life in
paradise is many faceted. However two things are certain there
are always things to learn at sea and the locals here appear to be a
much friendlier breed than those of the Marquesas. More will
follow in a few days when hopefully we will have seen a lot of the good things
about coral atolls.
The girls have just come back from a shore trip and met
amongst others the local doctor. He told them that last night was the
worst onshore wind they had had here since 1996.
Happy times from
Nordlys and her crew
 The mate on watch, mid Pacific, as
photographed by the crew!
Said crew is demanding her own paragraph, who
am I to dare refusal!
Normally David writes the web diary and suggestions
are made by Annette and I. On this occasion I feel that David himself
deserves a special mention. Throughout the thirteen hours, the first few
of which were extremely tense, David was absolutely superb. In
a situation when we were all aware of what could result from a slight
mistake he was calm and patient. Even when exhausted at the end of the
saga he emerged grinning from his last dive brandishing a large oyster.
Unfortunately it contained no treasure!
Christabel
|