In search of wind
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 20 Oct 2008 00:09
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30:52.196S 167:52.476E
It's probably true that sailors are never totally
satisfied with the wind they've been served. Instead, they (we)
are always looking for a different/better direction at a higher/lower
speed. Never satisfied. Too much wind. Not enough
wind. Wind from the wrong direction. Blah, blah, blah.
Big weather complainers and whiners - the whole lot of us.
Today's complaint: Not enough wind. And
if there was more wind, today's complaint would be: Too much wind from the wrong
direction.
Thrown in among the chronic sailing weather
complainers, however, are a small group of sailing weather
optimists. We sometimes fall into this category. Today's weather
report from the sailing weather optimist is: Light wind from the
wrong direction - a good thing as it allows motoring at reasonable speeds
without bow slamming through waves. The cooking sailing weather optimist
would say: Light wind and motoring - perfect conditions under which to
cook up and eat all remaining foodstuffs that would otherwise be seized by New
Zealand quarantine and health officials upon arrival in Opua.
Today we are definitely sailing weather
optimists. Happily motoring along into the light wind toward our
destination while the bacon, sausages and hot dogs are being cooked on the stove
(for some unknown reason, pork meat products are all we have left on board -
good thing none of the crew is Muslim).
We left Norfolk Island yesterday at noon as planned
and for the first twelve hours sailed into the brisk southeast wind, making
progress to the southwest and mostly away from our destination. We had
planned for this situation though and knew that in order to move forward, we
would first have to sail backward. We got far enough south by midnight to
reach the area of light variable wind that normally exists between the southeast
trade winds to the north and the prevailing westerlies to the south.
Sometime tonight or tomorrow morning we should be far enough south to pick up
the westerlies and ride them all the way to Opua (when this happens it's almost
a certainty that no weather complaints will be heard from our mini-fleet -
sailing downwind fast toward a destination is never grounds for
complaint).
In general, we are very lucky to have such benign
weather for this trip. Often a nasty low pressure system sneaks up on
sailboats during this passage, making their lives not so pleasant for
at least part of the six day sail. There is an ugly low pressure forming
over the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand at the moment, but all
reports say we should easily beat it by a full day - arriving in Opua on
New Zealand's east coast before the low even reaches New
Zealand's west coast.
As Des, the 82-year old Opua based sailing and
weather enthusiast that spends his time talking to ocean going sailors like us
on the SSB radio, says to us in his gravelly, heavily New Zealand accented
voice after we report our position, wind conditions, heading and speed
to him every day at 7pm, 'Cheers!'
Anne
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