Category Archives: New Zealand to Vanuatu

6 Days at Sea

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Matt and I left Marsden Cove Marina on a beautiful day.  We cleared out with Customs and had to leave immediately after fueling.  No time to dilly dally.  The passage from NZ to Vanuatu was scheduled to 8 days according to Predict Wind (using our customized boat polars).  Ugh…being at sea is my least favorite part of being a cruiser/sailor.  Sounds ridiculous right? But we are only at sea about 20% of the year and the other 80% is truly enjoyable.

Our first day started out rather nice. We had consistent, medium strong winds (18-20kts) on the beam with a 1m swell both coming from the SW.  Pushing us along really nicely.  In fact on the first 24 hours we averaged 8kts and we made the elusive 200nm day.

Alas, it is still super cold so I find myself bundled up and hiding from the wind.  A few of you have inquired as to what we are wear during these cold and chilly passage days at sea.  Long under garments (merino wool), pants, and my foul weather overalls (plus socks and rain boots). On top I have 2 merino wool long sleeve shirts, a jumper (sweater), and my foul weather jacket plus ear coverage.  Matt has long undergarments, jeans, 2 shirts and his dry suit on.

The moon is almost full and lighting our way at night which is lovely.  

First Breakage

Day 2 found our first breakage.  Our pretty new Harken jib car lost a nut and the piece broke off.  We had to do a “make-shift” solution until the sun came out and we could fix it properly.  Of course our jib sheet is under a lot of pressure as the wind is howling!

There is a lot of pressure on the working jib sheet which then gets transferred to the jib car.  Now she has a backup line in case she decides to quit on us again.  Which she did the following night.

With so many storms came lots of rainbows and even a moonbow at night.  Night 2.

Night 2 at sea

Night 2 at sea

Doing our daily dance with the squalls all night.  At least it is a full moon so we can see to the horizon and prepare ahead of time.  The two photos on the right are from sunset night 3 and the one on the left is the beautiful moon at daybreak on day 4.

Day 5 at Sea

Somewhere in the early evening of night 4 we lost the wind and could not find it anywhere.  We knew this was coming as it was on our weather models but it still was a bit disappointing.  We had such great conditions and boat speed for almost 3 days.  Running the motor has its pros and cons.  Pros: still gives us forward movement and it gives us a good night shifts as you don’t have to worry about constantly trimming the sails.  Cons: it is loud, vibrates the boat, costs money and we don’t go as fast as when there is wind in our sails.

We flew both our 125m2 and 175m2 parasails to see if they could fly in the light winds and the answer was not really.  So not even enough wind to keep our light sails full.   This is our brand new ISTEC Parasail and she is gorgeous!

Day 6-6.8

The wind tried to come up several times.  Each time we would unfurl the genoa bring back the engine and give it a whirl.  It would last for a few hours and then the wind would disappear again.  This went on until our last night.

On our last night the wind picked up!  At first we thought it was a massive squall but to be honest we were not sure.  We were seeing 30-35kts of wind and 3.5 meter seas.  Absolutely horrible conditions.  We really wanted to arrive after day break so we kept furling the genoa (the main was already down).  Finally around 3am we rolled up the genoa and turned on the engines and kept them in neutral and we were still making 6kts! Crazy.

We had all of our equipment on using them for navigation into this new pass.  (2) iPads, (2) computers, Garmen, B&G, and my phone.  Each had a different chart of the same area.  This ensured we stayed safe and off the reefs.  Lucky for us, the winds calmed to 20-25 kts and the seas came down to 1.5-2 meters.  We had a safe entrance and are anchor down.

Vanuatu

Port Resolution is on the island of Tanna.  It is famous for Mt. Yasur a very active volcano.  As we approached the island we could see the bright red and plumes which was so very cool.  On the top photo you will see the volcano and the little nook (far right) where we anchored.

Passage Stats:

  • Total Moving Time:      6.8 days (marina to anchorage)
  • Total Miles Sailed:      1,030 (only had a 17nm cross track)
  • Estimated Miles:         1,013
  • Max Speed:                 14.7
  • Average Speed:            6.4 (first 3 days average speed was 8kt)
  • Sails Used:                  Working sails (main & genoa), 125m2 & 175m2 parasail
  • Hours Motors:            Port: 30 hours & Starboard:  34 hours

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events. This passage at sea took place the  few weeks in May.  In our last blog post you can read about formalities clearing out of NZ and clearing into Vanuatu.

Arrived ..

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Anchor is down… breakfast before bed.

Anchor beer.

Blowing snot and big waves for the past 6+ hours. When your 23 knot high wind alarm goes off and you reset it to 30, and it still,goes off. The original 23 alarm seems so benign.

Cheers.

Mystery island is surrounded

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Surrounded in mystery that is for sure, or maybe just clouded in mystery.

Mystery island surrounded by clouds of mystery

Seems Daphne, Fred and the whole gang should be living there somewhere.

Well, morning came we waited still no word about permission to clear in with the cruise ship. Waited still office hours and Christine made some phone calls, and got the ball rolling. Not long after, the approval email came in, excitement was finally here. A destination instead of the unknown floating slowly along in building seas.

Alas, the excitement was short lived. A second email came through 5 minutes later saying disregard the first email and proceed directly to Tanna for customs, stating there is some weather coming on Thursday and the cruise ship stop maybe cancelled.

I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for them “Meddling Kids” (and Mother Nature) in the magical mystery machine van.

Bummer! But still we had a plan, now it was too late to make Tanna, Port Resolution in the day time, so the one more night out still held. We sped the boat up just enough to arrive at day break. The Port Resolution bay looks easily do able in the dark, we are not in that much of a hurry that a couple of hours makes a difference. There are 3 boats there currently, something like 6 left yesterday, so there will be plenty of space to anchor.

We did get caught by a weather trough, that has brought some crazy squalls all day and continues into the night. Gusty winds, near 30 knots and sloppy seas, the only saving grace is we are going with the waves and not into them. We have only a bit of head sail, jib, up and we are getting pushed toward our destination. At times too fast, arrive before sunrise and at times too slow arrive well after lunch. Here is hoping the law of averages works out and we arrive at day break.

During the email exchanges, and organizing customs for us at port resolution, we learn that we will arrive on a holiday and fees are doubled. Doh! So I guess the Vegas house wins again.

It is what it is, and it ps time to put some beer in the fridge so that there is a nice cold anchor beer ready for when we arrive. It might be a breakfast beer, before a long solid sleep. Which might be interrupted by the formalities of clearing into the country.

Anchor down beer

20 miles left