Sunday Sailing
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 27 Aug 2008 10:47
|
Hi Folks,
Eventful day as it happens , all started with a 7
o/c trip to the supermarket in Fare , last minute bread stock up before we
departed to Raiatea.
The other three boats Rhythm,Slipnier, and
Free Spirit all set off between 8 o/c and 9 o/c , we pulled up our hook at 09:00
we had been watching the other boats sail config to see what everybody else was
using , the winds around the islands are variable until you get offshore, we
selected the Yankee poled out so rigged up accordingly, as it turns out by the
time we cleared the reef at 9:30 the wind had dropped , so it was all change for
the gennaker , the others were fading into the distance and it was at this point
that Ruth banged her head on the spinnaker pole( they say it comes in threes
this was No 1)
Up went the gennaker and off went the Z in hot
pursuit of the others , we overhauled Rhythm about 5 miles out, scooshing along
at 6 to 7 knots it was a magic sail , caught up with Free Spirit at about 5
miles to the entrance, Paul offered to take some photos of us as we went by so
we came in close and snapped away at each others boats, neither of us have any
photos of our boats with sail up !.
After speeding by we heard from Wolfgang on
Slipnier say that they had reached the entrance, as we were nearing the entrance
we prepared to roll in the gennaker , as we furled the continuous line snapped
, ( No 2) so with much shouting and struggling we attempted to get to
windward hold it there and try and furl in using a single line , pulling it in
so far , stopping it off and getting enough line back to pull some more in, it
was at this point that the wind got up a little more , just our luck and after
three attempts, one of which involved my watch being pulled off my wrist by an
unfurling gennaker shackle, we then decided to pull it down by hand , after
what seemed an eternity we finally wrestled the beast to the deck with all four
of us at some point trying to collapse the sail, by this time all the boats had
passed us into the reef entrance .. it ain't over till the fat lady sings Oh how
true that was !!!!!!
We came in through the reef entrance, the sun
by this time was in our faces and we had difficulty seeing the day markers, but
it is a wide channel well marked with can buoys, and the crashing waves on the
reef sides are a strong incentive to get your entrance position correct, no
muddy bottoms here to bounce off ! .. as we pulled through the entrance it
was obvious that the shallows there were coral bottom, so after getting info
from the boats in front we proceeded up the channel around the inside reef to
the other side, where it was reported that there was an anchorage, after a five
mile trip through the reef edges we at the head of the airport runway, having
seen the signs call the airport on Ch 16 earlier on our passage,and having noted
that not a single yacht had called the airport we meandered down the runway
end, Rob spotted an incoming aircraft out of the sun, just like a jap
kamikaze plane quite low at this stage and on his final approach , "Oh
shit" was the cry
we thought speeding up was the answer, bit stupid
really , plane doing 200 knots and us a mere 4 knots, it was like a Red arrows
reunion , we could see the whites of his eyes, its a wonder he didn't bounce his
landing gear off of our radar reflector on the top of our mast .. we all gazed
at it like four rabbits caught in the lights on the M25 ..the only skid marks
fortunately we found in our under pants ... by the time we arrived at
the anchorage, full of mooring buoys , the other guys had pick up on these
as the depth starts at 26m ... they don't have enough chain for these depths so
these buoys are a god send, we dropped in 29 m away from the pack of moorings
near a Oyster 65 , we were hanging out with the nobs for a change.. all our
chain out at 85m , the other guys were moved off the moorings and found others
empty so we guess they have had a good nights sleep ..
Day sailing is such hard work, I'd rather do a
three thousand mile trip any day.
A worn out crew
|