Passage Day 10 to New Zealand
10 November 2016 | Pacific Ocean
Jeanette
I am writing my blog now as the seas are building up for tonight's front. We have had long discussions on what to do, how to sail and should we go more west, straight south or start heading a bit east on a rhumb line to Opua. The winds at the moment are downwind, but after we had started setting the whisker pole up, I had reservations and said to Neil I think with such rolly seas it will be too hard to take the pole down. Neil thinks maybe that putting it up could be risky if the seas get too rough and then he can't manage it on the deck. The pole is very heavy and when Neil is undoing things he can't hold the swinging pole and in rolly seas the pole then swings wildly from side to side and smashes into the stay. The way of deploying it is ok in normal conditions but in the future we need to change it so that it can have a line attached to it that runs to the cockpit and then I can control the swinging action. The pole being so heavy is also hard to get back into its position on the mast. I am usually controlling the halyard to lift it and lower it while Neil guides it and attaches the lines to it. I do this from the cockpit. So, at this stage we are still sailing a little west and when the wind turns we can start heading directly south aiming for North Cape.
Lunch today was tricky with the roll and plates sliding everywhere, so I just put crackers, slices of cheese, tomato, salami and apple in a bowl. Not buttering or actually putting the tomato and cheese on the crackers, as nothing would stay still on the bench.
Last night was a little frustrating as we couldn't sail properly because of lack of wind. I tried and then put the head sail away and then on Neil's watch he wanted to try. By the time we tried different things and him going out on deck three times, getting me to see when the winds would change on Predict Wind on my computer, we still ended up just motor sailing. I didn't get to bed until 2am, 2 hours after my watch and hence I am very tired today. Tonight and tomorrow night I think we will both stay in the cockpit while we are in the front. Not much sleep for us again for the next couple of days. I might sign off now and try and have a nap before tonight.
Our current position is 30 degrees 05.708 minutes south and 172 44.701 minutes east. We are on a heading of 188 degrees True with a boat speed of 5.9 knots in a North wind of 10 knots. Seas are 1.5m but are confused and rolly from the north. We have 80% cloud cover and the barometer is falling and currently at 1009. We have approximately 306 nm to Opua as the crow flies.
Be kind to us wind gods and not too forceful and a WSW would be better than a SW for an angle to sail on as we head to Opua.