Day 1 S18:51:6 E174:10:98

Superted V
Jean & Matt Findlay
Mon 26 Aug 2013 22:46

Departed Lutoka, Fiji at 10.20 am along with a bunch of boats all seeing a good weather window for travelling west. The grib files showed 20 knots for the first 24 hours ish then gradually decreasing and moving from south to south east round to the east as the week went on.  Sounded perfect – we would be able to sail low to start and head towards Vanuatu then as the wind came round to the east we would luff up for New Caledonia as the wind eased so keeping the apparent wind speed up.  We’ve found that the grib files are useful but sometimes do underestimate wind strength a tad.  Yesterday was no exception – we had 25 – 30 knots from the south with 2-3 m seas for the first 14 hours.  Not the comfortable ride I was hoping for to start the passage.  I lasted until mid afternoon until the bucket came out.  We were reefed right down and with staysail were still doing between 8 and 9 knots.  The winds have decreased though and are now around 15 – 18 knots from the SSE.  The sea has also calmed a little but it’s still not great. Now back under full sail and still doing 8-9 k, so good progress. position.

 

24 hour distance: 203 miles