In the lee of the Antarctic
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Fri 28 May 2010 19:18
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Friday May 28th 0800 Local 1800
UTC
17:35.20S 149:36.99W
I confess that for some reason I had some
trepidation in setting out on what we very much considered the last part of this
leg of our circumnavigation. We see Tahiti, the legendary Tahiti as a major
milestone in our circumnavigation and the location from which we would
visit home and see our children for the first time in almost six months. So I
was anxious to ensure that nothing went wrong on this 220 mile overnight passage
and just to get Trish and the boat there safely, after coming this far with
only a few scars. Mine were physical, Trish's were mental ........
I had hoped for, safe and comfortably, but the
conditions were such that it was going to be a challenging passage. I have
already told you that I got off to a bad start on Wednesday morning with
plunging Trish into the wet pacific at the bow of the boat. Outside the
pass it was blowing 22 knots and it was going to be, as forecast, right on the
beam for our passage. The wind was forecast
to be South East and we would be sailing South West to Tahiti. The wind was
forecast to increase to 25 knots throughout the afternoon. That is just the
gradient winds from the grib files so there would of course be squalls and
locally we would see a bit more wind also from time to time.
The Tuamotos are strewn across the south pacific in
a south east - north west direction and Rangiroa is at the far north west of
this archipelago. The 76 coral atolls are spread over 500 miles north to south
and they were known as the "dangerous archipelago" to navigators as they
are low lying and many of their surrounding reefs are submerged. Many of the
passes are challenging but for the most part we got on fine with them.
Rangiroa itself is huge, big enough to fit the
whole of the island of Tahiti into it. It is 45 miles West to East and 18
miles wide North to South. Leaving from the western pass, which
would now be eight passes we had tackled, we would turn south east to go
down the west side of the atoll. We were in the lee of Rangiroa for 20 miles or
so and were enjoying sailing in 22 knots of wind on our beam with flat water,
close into Rangiroa's western shore. We left the pass third in a group of three
and there was an Oyster a couple of miles further up the track. Well, red rag to
bull, we stonked off and charged past them very close to their port
side where we got some good photographs and video of her at full tilt and
they photographed us charging past at 10.5 knots, with a well reefed in main and
two reefs in the genoa. We hope to meet them again so we can swap photos,
they should look good.
Most of our trip so far, for the long passages we
seemed to be continually wishing the wind was 10 or 20 degrees forward from
where it was. Today we would be wishing it was 20 or 30 degrees further
back than it was! Never happy - eh!
Having sailed the 20 miles in the lee of Rangiroa
we passed it's western point and into the lee of the Antarctic some 4000 miles
away! It's true, check the chart! The seas were quite large, but were from a
southerly direction while the wind was directly on or even slightly forward of
our beam. This made for a very uncomfortable motion as the waves hit us on our
port side forward, occasionally slamming into the hull and many many times
breaking on us and sending white water rolling down the deck over the coach roof
and crashing over the spray hood. I had known it from the forecast that it was
be a bumpy ride and so it turned out to be. We joined ou our spray hood to our
bimini and put up one of the bimini sides to keep the worst of the water and the
torrential rain out of the cockpit. This was very effective and as Trish was not
very comfortable and this effectively was "the first day out" so normally she
would take a stugeron or two till she found her sea legs and so it was. Also it
was her "first day out " in three weeks as since arriving in the
Tuamotos we had had to motor between the atolls in windless flat water or the
passages were very short. So she was lying down mostly sleeping in the cockpit
and once again our bimini arrangement came into its own. Not pretty but very
practical.
The wind built as promised to 25 knots, then stayed
steady at 26 - 28 knots and we saw 30 knots also in some of the squalls. This
was a solid force six and it was going to be a long night but hey it would only
be 24 hours or so and I would take the boat the whole way. We have really been
lucky so far with the weather on our circumnavigation and this was no big deal
either it was just a bit uncomfortable and we had really been spoiled to date so
I have absolutely no grumbles at all. At some point we will get really poor
weather and we will just get on with that when it comes. We will feel very
grateful always for the fact that we are in a big and very comfortable boat and
in that respect are very much more fortunate than most of our fellow
cruisers.
So on through the night we went making very good
time. I tried slowing the boat a couple of times but most times when I reefed
the speed just slowly climbed back up to 9 - 9.5 knots, until of course I
reached the point a couple of times when I over reefed and slowed the boat too
much, which wouldn't do either. So finally Tahiti came into view in the
moonlight. It was a full moon and between squalls and when there was no cloud it
lit our path beautifully. The skies eventually cleared and the stars and the
full moon cast a bright light over us and lit up Moorea over to the west. As we
approached Tahiti, out off the lee of the Antarctic and into the lee of Tahiti,
the wind fell away and I got back out the genoa and the full main and we glided
along at 8 knots in 10 knots of wind slowly decreasing the whole time. The full
moon was now starting to set to our west and the sun was rising behind us from
the east.
I think for the first time on the trip I did not
try to speed up the boat, I was totally relaxed, and we sailed her to a
complete standsill just outside the harbour at Pape'ete as we savoured the
moment, the moonset and the sunrise, the outline of Tahiti and her lights
emerging into the sunrise, and reflected on our extreme good fortune to be able
to do this trip, to have done so on a ship that had so far been safe and
very happy. We had a good cup of Scottish blend tea and oatcakes and cheese to
celebrate. It was 0600 and the past hour had washed away any thoughts of a tough
passage. We had made it! We have sailed
almost 14,000 miles in 8 months so far and now with Caledonia calling us we have
to go home lest we become strangers.
Tha mi a'dol dhachaidh agus chi mi an
ath-seachdain sibh.
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