Flying along.....204 nm in first 24 hours!
Sea Mist > Sold to New Owners July 2016
John and Cheryl Ellsworth
Thu 20 Oct 2011 01:01
We weighed anchor at 11:20 am yesterday at Luganville with 1000 rhumb line
distance to Bundaberg according to our navigation; now, 24 hours later as I
begin to write this short blog entry >>>> we have completed 204 nm through
the water....and 199 nm overland/over the bottom.....which says that there
is very little ocean current effect on this route.
It was a very heavy 12 hour night with wind on the beam at 29 - 32 kts and
with short period (6 seconds) swells knocking us big time.....wave height
through most of that time was 3 - 4 meters with occasional slaps from
something bigger. Since daylight this morning we have had some relief on
both counts > wind is now mostly about 25 - 28 kts - still on the
beam....and seas are about 3 meters...with still the occasional miserable
bigger slap.
Needless-to-say, Sea Mist is not a pleasant place to be in these
conditions.....but we remark many times how we just wouldn't/couldn't do it
in a much smaller boat....and yet we see many boats in the low to mid 30
foot range wandering the Pacific....and surviving! But definitely not for
us....the design of the Oyster 56 makes her very sea worthy and build great
confidence in the crew...even if it is uncomfortable. At least the sea
state is not made of confused swells from multiple directions....just heavy
mix of choppy 10 foot high + walls of water slamming mostly on the beam.
This means the boat rolls with each passing swell but is not doing the
corkscrewing motion when we get confused swells hitting us on one of the aft
quarters.
Our biggest problem ??....>>> to much food for us to be able to get through
it before arriving in Austrailia where the authorities will take it all from
us. These conditions are really not supportive of appetites and eating; it
is all one can do to somehow get up from your secure sitting/lying position
and carefully make it to the head and back as nature forces you....other
than that struggle, it is best to just stay put and not move around AT ALL.
We have 2 reefs to navigate through on this route:
- the first one is Huon Reef at a distance of 85 nm from where we are
currently...so our ETA to pass north of it is approximately 10 pm tonight
- the second one is Chesterfield Reef at a current distance of 360 nm ....so
our ETA to safely negotiate the reef pass there is about daybreak 2 days
from now
Knock on wood!!!....Sea Mist is behaving perfectly...no problems enroute
thus far.
Until tomorrow, we will sign off....our best to all....the Seamisters
DTG to Bundaberg now 795 nm