25.02.15S 162.11.76E
The Adventures of Sunboy the Sailboat
Al Sparkes and Deb Swain
Fri 24 Sep 2010 22:48
We left Noumea on Wednesday morning about 7.00am ever so grateful to be able to leave under our own engine power thanks to the incredible work done by Claude the engineer. We motored out to the pass which was a distance of about 9 miles with beautiful calm conditions and thank goodness we had an engine as there was just no breeze. Some dolphins accompanied us for a while and lots and lots of big fast R.I.B.S flew past us and as we neared the pass we realised where they were going and why they were going there. There was a beautiful swell running into the reef and heaps of surfers were there to ride the breaks. Made pretty good passage for the first day and then in the evening the wind eased and the swell increased so our speed dropped back big time. Yesterday morning had us put the engine back on to help get through the swell as well as charging our batteries for us. The biggest of the swells was the biggest we have seen so far on the trip, guestimating topping about 8 metres with consistant swells of 4 - 5 metres. After dinner the wind started to pick up, gusting up to 30 knots and we were smoking along at 8.5 to 8.8 knots with 2 reegs in the main and a partially furled head sail so we went to a 3rd reef and reduced the head sail even further to make it as comfortable as possible which again meant our speed dropped over night but boat and crew didnt encounter any problems. Wind died back this morning about 4.30 so the headsail was unfurled and a bit later the reef shaken out but only to the 2nd reef as with our apparent wind angle of 90 degrees, the full headsail and double reefed main is a great combination giving us great boat speed and lots of comfort. As at 7.00am this morning we had sailed just about 290 miles which is pretty good considering the low speeds we had been attaining for a lot of the trip. At this stage we have about 570 miles to go and may be in by Tuesday but will update as we go along. Hope all are well. Take care,
Alsy