In the lee of the Antarctic

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Fri 28 May 2010 19:18
Friday May 28th 0800 Local 1800 UTC       
 
17:35.20S 149:36.99W
 
I confess that for some reason I had some trepidation in setting out on what we very much considered the last part of this leg of our circumnavigation. We see Tahiti, the legendary Tahiti as a major milestone in our circumnavigation and the location from which we would visit home and see our children for the first time in almost six months. So I was anxious to ensure that nothing went wrong on this 220 mile overnight passage and just to get Trish and the boat there safely, after coming this far with only a few scars. Mine were physical, Trish's were mental ........
 
I had hoped for, safe and comfortably, but the conditions were such that it was going to be a challenging passage. I have already told you that I got off to a bad start on Wednesday morning with plunging Trish into the wet pacific at the bow of the boat. Outside the pass it was blowing 22 knots and it was going to be, as forecast, right on the beam for our passage. The wind was forecast to be South East and we would be sailing South West to Tahiti. The wind was forecast to increase to 25 knots throughout the afternoon. That is just the gradient winds from the grib files so there would of course be squalls and locally we would see a bit more wind also from time to time.
 
The Tuamotos are strewn across the south pacific in a south east - north west direction and Rangiroa is at the far north west of this archipelago. The 76 coral atolls are spread over 500 miles north to south and they were known as the "dangerous archipelago" to navigators as they are low lying and many of their surrounding reefs are submerged. Many of the passes are challenging but for the most part we got on fine with them.
 
Rangiroa itself is huge, big enough to fit the whole of the island of Tahiti into it. It is 45 miles West to East and 18 miles wide North to South.  Leaving from the western pass, which would now be eight passes we had tackled, we would turn south east to go down the west side of the atoll. We were in the lee of Rangiroa for 20 miles or so and were enjoying sailing in 22 knots of wind on our beam with flat water, close into Rangiroa's western shore. We left the pass third in a group of three and there was an Oyster a couple of miles further up the track. Well, red rag to bull, we stonked off and charged past them very close to their port side where we got some good photographs and video of her at full tilt and they photographed us charging past at 10.5 knots, with a well reefed in main and two reefs in the genoa. We hope to meet them again so we can swap photos, they should look good.   
 
Most of our trip so far, for the long passages we seemed to be continually wishing the wind was 10 or 20 degrees forward from where it was. Today we would be wishing it was 20 or 30 degrees further back than it was! Never happy - eh!   
 
Having sailed the 20 miles in the lee of Rangiroa we passed it's western point and into the lee of the Antarctic some 4000 miles away! It's true, check the chart! The seas were quite large, but were from a southerly direction while the wind was directly on or even slightly forward of our beam. This made for a very uncomfortable motion as the waves hit us on our port side forward, occasionally slamming into the hull and many many times breaking on us and sending white water rolling down the deck over the coach roof and crashing over the spray hood. I had known it from the forecast that it was be a bumpy ride and so it turned out to be. We joined ou our spray hood to our bimini and put up one of the bimini sides to keep the worst of the water and the torrential rain out of the cockpit. This was very effective and as Trish was not very comfortable and this effectively was "the first day out" so normally she would take a stugeron or two till she found her sea legs and so it was. Also it was her "first day out " in three weeks as since arriving in the Tuamotos we had had to motor between the atolls in windless flat water or the passages were very short. So she was lying down mostly sleeping in the cockpit and once again our bimini arrangement came into its own. Not pretty but very practical.
 
The wind built as promised to 25 knots, then stayed steady at 26 - 28 knots and we saw 30 knots also in some of the squalls. This was a solid force six and it was going to be a long night but hey it would only be 24 hours or so and I would take the boat the whole way. We have really been lucky so far with the weather on our circumnavigation and this was no big deal either it was just a bit uncomfortable and we had really been spoiled to date so I have absolutely no grumbles at all. At some point we will get really poor weather and we will just get on with that when it comes. We will feel very grateful always for the fact that we are in a big and very comfortable boat and in that respect are very much more fortunate than most of our fellow cruisers.
 
So on through the night we went making very good time. I tried slowing the boat a couple of times but most times when I reefed the speed just slowly climbed back up to 9 - 9.5 knots, until of course I reached the point a couple of times when I over reefed and slowed the boat too much, which wouldn't do either. So finally Tahiti came into view in the moonlight. It was a full moon and between squalls and when there was no cloud it lit our path beautifully. The skies eventually cleared and the stars and the full moon cast a bright light over us and lit up Moorea over to the west. As we approached Tahiti, out off the lee of the Antarctic and into the lee of Tahiti, the wind fell away and I got back out the genoa and the full main and we glided along at 8 knots in 10 knots of wind slowly decreasing the whole time. The full moon was now starting to set to our west and the sun was rising behind us from the east.
 
I think for the first time on the trip I did not try to speed up the boat, I was totally relaxed, and we sailed her to a complete standsill just outside the harbour at Pape'ete as we savoured the moment, the moonset and the sunrise, the outline of Tahiti and her lights emerging into the sunrise, and reflected on our extreme good fortune to be able to do this trip, to have done so on a ship that had so far been safe and very happy. We had a good cup of Scottish blend tea and oatcakes and cheese to celebrate. It was 0600 and the past hour had washed away any thoughts of a tough passage. We had made it! We have sailed almost 14,000 miles in 8 months so far and now with Caledonia calling us we have to go home lest we become strangers.
 
Tha mi a'dol dhachaidh agus chi mi an ath-seachdain sibh.