Day 2 of passage for Opua, NZ
24 October 2014 | 19 23.13'S:176 21.99'E, offshore
Colin
Day 1 (Fri) was spent checking out with officials at Vuda Pt, who were nice and efficient,but made it clear that we had 3 hrs to get out of Fiji. So with that, we hightailed it to the open sea, lashing everything down as we motored across the lagoon. Outside it was a washing machine! 25-30 kts TWS, big 2-3 meter waves and naturally our course was close hauled... We did most of the night at avery pedestrian 4-5 kts, deeply reefed and flying my new storm jib (Ihad to try it). At that pace it wasn't too uncomfortable, but sooner or later we have to start putting miles in the bank. This morning we struck the storm jib and shook out a couple reefs, then promptly got plastered with a squall (25-30 kts again). All morning the wind has swung back and forth through 90 degrees and from 10-30 kts. The weather guy says we have a trough/front from 18-20 degrees south. We are now at 19 degrees 20 min S, so hopefully we'll see some clearing and steady wind by tonight. Despite the weather whining, all is well aboard Bangorang.