As a new day dawns, we’re finding that no one day is alike on board on this trip, and that goes for the weather and sea conditions too.
Yesterday saw the return of the three-metre swells, in which we have now perfected the art of “Surf Sailing” down the waves. This entails a large wave coming up from behind and lifting the boat up, so we quite literally surf down it, often doing a very undignified ‘arse-slide’ at the bottom and culminating in a cheeky corkscrew flick before straightening up. It’s definitely got Olympic potential on awards for style and technique and our top speed down a wave so far this trip is 11.2kts!
We planned this particular sail to Fiji with friends from three other Ocean Cruising Club boats (all s/v Leela, s/v Perigee and s/v AriB) and, while we left Tahiti on different days last week, we’re only a few hundred miles apart from front to back and are in constant contact. It’s lovely to sail in c ompany and we’re enjoying lots of camaraderie on daily position updates and having regular email chats on what to do about the weather ahead, which seems to be ever-changing.
Today, the wind and swell decreased again, enough for us to fly our gennaker (and with that, a shout out to our lovely friend Kaia, whose magic hands worked wonders on sewing a patch onto this sail, which we had almost written off).
We know we’ve got a period coming up of no wind, which we’ll have to motor across and then, as we enter the Fijian waters, it looks like we’ll be racing to get in before some very windy and mucky weather comes through. But that’s looking into next week, and the weather is very fickle at the moment, so can quickly change.
In other news…I love how we are always learning while on our travels and this trip has been no exception. Today, Skipper and I sat on the bridge with a book about astronomy wanting to know more about the stars and constellations that we can see while on night watch. The sky here is so clear and is awash with twinkling stars and planets.
The last couple of nights, we’ve seen a mass of shooting stars and meteors rehearsing for The Perseids, a two-night extravaganza taking place later this week, when up to 50 meteors an hour will race each other across the night sky. It’s sure to be a star-studded performance!
Total miles sailed in 48 hours: 302 miles
Date: Monday 9 August & Tuesday 10 August
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