Whales, UFO's, kicker's & Palmerston
Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Sat 31 Jul 2010 23:56
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Well this certainly hasn't been a dull trip!
We got a few e-mails from friends in front of us
saying they were leaving Palmerston due to bad inbound weather. Great news when
you're still 200+ nm's away! There are 6 mooring balls on the outside of
Palmerston atoll (ie: a thin shelf of reef between 5000m and the fringe
reef) where it is safe to stay if the prevailing winds stay SE (trades). If
the wind changes to N, S or worst off all W you are at the full mercy of the
Pacific winds and swell... We had been following the status of some
fronts and tropical systems since before leaving Bora Bora but they had been
pretty stationary. A bit of investigation showed a front was building right on
top of Palmerston and promised 35+ knot winds and 4.5m seas from S/SW -
nice... Calculations said we could stay one, possibly 2 nights at Palmerston but
would then have to move on and possibly have missed the good wind window to
get to Niue. We did a fly-by all along the southern reef and motu's of
Palmerston, close enough to get a good look at the islands and see the swell
pounding the outer reef (no accurate charts, so quite unnerving!). It's
very odd to see a lone atoll out here on it's own, yet reassuring to know
you're not the only life for 1000 miles...
We radio-ed a yacht we knew just off the
settlement who said you had to pay for immigration and to go ashore etc, so
we decided it wasn't worth it for a night or two and continued on our way. It
will still be there next time and only another 350 nm to Niue!
So our 600nm trip has become 1000nm - we have food
and water, no worries.... That's until the boom vang/kicker fell of the boom
last night! It basically stops the boom rising when the sail fills and falling
onto the deck when you let the main sail down. The track had metal fatigue and
basically snapped into 3 pieces (must be French), the vang falling onto the deck
with an almighty bang. We managed to rig a rope version (and a topping
lift needed as well now) with pulleys this morning and it looks really
nice, hopefully it'll last until Fiji ;-)
I've also had a flirt with the
supernatural. Maybe I was delirious with lack of sleep but I saw a single light
low enough to pass beneath the clouds and it looked almost like it was falling
on a parachute. A quite uniform motion for a while, then very erratic. I looked
through bino's and could see a black silhouette but no idea what it was. I was
mildly perturbed (like the badger) and woke Sammy up to ask what she thought. I
won't repeat what she told me to do.... Maybe I'm just like Fox and want to
believe.
Apart from that life is as usual. Eating way to
much Dorado - can't decide if I prefer it lightly toasted in sesame seeds or
in tacos with Chinese 5-spice!
Actually, we did have another amazing experience...
I thought I saw a dolphin surfing through a large wave just behind us, then
realised it would have to have been a mutant, steroid dolphin (it
was quite massive) - in fact it was a humpback whale calf! It was
following the boat scarily close and jumping right next to us. It was amazing
but the Mother would have to be pretty close and they do get territorial... and
ram yachts... until they sink... So we fired up the engine and ran away from it.
Would it go away? No, it kept following us for ages and putting on a great
show. Sammy wouldn't let me take off my life jacket for the
next few hours and she finally put the emergency grab bag back
downstairs!
So here we are on our way to Niue. The weather is
supposed to turn horrible tonight so we'll no doubt have a crappy last 200nm
sail. But the beer will taste that much better at the end of
it!
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