Passage to Fiji - 27th May 2010

Splash Tango
Piers Lennox-King
Thu 27 May 2010 02:12

 

Wednesday 26th May 2010. Passage Auckland to Fiji.

 

 

The summer cruising season is well and truly over and the warm weather suddenly seems a long way off as we slide headlong into winter. A lot of leaves swirling around outside and fires burning in the grate and Splash Tango sitting on the marina is looking as though she is as keen as I am to be heading north. Provisionally (as in weather and other things notwithstanding) 24th May was set for departure date. However the 24th heralded 60kt winds from the North so with age and reason not being so keen on bashing straight upwind in those conditions we delayed departure 48 hrs.

 

 

It’s always a compromise when you have a crew who have taken time of and we don’t have the luxury of waiting for the perfect weather window so today’s westerly wind of 30 kts, squally and overcast with NW40kts forecast, looks not so bad. It would appear we might get a bit of gnarly weather for the first couple of days and then some reasonable sailing. It’s about the best we can hope for anyway with the incredibly unsettled weather we have been having for the last month.

 

About to leave the dock at Westhaven , Dick Rax : Steve White : Holger (Adolf) Behrendsen : PL-K.

 

Cleared customs 1040hrs and set the main off the container terminal 1050hrs.

 

Bodacious was fueling up and leaving just after us. We had arranged a radio sked but the frequency was a bit loose as Simon wasn’t sure which he had tuned in to his transceiver. We agreed to listen in to Opua Offshore and make contact there to move to another frequency. The best laid plans… We didn’t hear from them the rest of the passage.

 

Squally weather for the first 2 days. Just about off Bream Bay on day one.

 

So we rounded North head shortly after 1100 and headed for the Tiri channel. Broke out Steve’s B&E pie in the Tiri channel for lunch and thought I should make a note to make it a regular for the start of passage. The sailing was pleasant as was the angle of the wind giving us a brisk broad reach to slingshot us out of the gulf. Once around cape Rodney the wind came forward of the beam. We were close hauled but still were able to lay the outside of the Hen and Chicks and close outside Poor Nights.

 

It was my watch as we passed The Poor Nights at the same time as  a large freighter passed us to Starboard heading north. He wasn’t travelling fast and took a long time to pass us before coming in front to head for the Brett as we continued North. Another came up shortly after passing astern of us, one hopes it wasn’t co-incidence and that they did actually see us. At times like these I think in shipping lanes an A.I.S. on board is almost mandatory. It is top of my wish list anyway. So we rocket along into the night with 30kts out of the west rolling us along at 8.5 – 9.5kts. 2 reefs in the main and full jib.

By midnight we had force 8 (gusting 40 kts) from the WNW. We have 6 rolls in the headsail which makes us a little more upright and comfortable, and 2 reefs in the main but still plenty of crash and bang as we plough along at 8.5kts.

 

Day 2 and the wind died away by 0830hrs with drizzle and a lumpy uncomfortable sea. We had to motor for all of half an hour before the wind came back in from the north, and by mid afternoon was back to force 9 constantly gusting 45kts. We seemed to be on the NE side of the low and gut knocked which ever tack we chose. Too rough to cook so we wound up with cold leftover B&E pie for dinner. Very wet and uncomfortable, if fact getting close to one of those nights you wonder quite what you’re doing out here.