Not facing my fears...
18 May 2014 | 01 21.334'N:173 01.965'E, Parliament House, Ambo, Tarawa, Kiribati
Andy
Majuro to Kiribati, what can we say... we got here! The reasonably benign forecast that had made leaving seem a good idea on Thursday afternoon, turned out not be be so. The mysterious ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone), 3000 NM to the east at Kiritimati Island when we left Majuro, suddenly turned up, at it can, overnight, just after we left. Winds, predicted to be 10-15 for the whole trip, turned into 20-25 with banks of squalls adding to the excitement.
Marco, the autopilot, our beloved third crew member, also decided to take a holiday soon into the trip, leaving us hand steering, two hours on, two hours off, for 36 hours. Thankfully the seas settled on Saturday morning enough for Tony to get a chance to pull out Marco's control head and convince him/her that we really needed him/h back on deck! The seas between Majuro and Milli seem boisterous compared to other parts of the ocean, maybe as a result of sea mounts and upwellings, and different wave trains were moving IM in jarring and difficult ways. It was still exhilerating helming, and a really good work out for the upper arms. Certainly made us apreciate Marco a whole lot more!
Traditional Pacific navigators mapped these different wave patterns to help locate themselves, and the Marshallese have lovely schematic wave charts made out of cocount battens (dotted wth shells to mark the various atolls).
The stronger than forecast winds and Marco's little nervous breakdown wasn't to be the end of our trials. After thankfully managing to cook and eat a reasonably substantial dinner, Skip Tone was just getting ready for some shut eye around 7 pm when the winds started to climb again and the rapidly developing black squall to our east suddenly took over the whole sky. We barely got the third reef in and the headsail pulled into a handkerchief before we were in a howling gale, and heavy rain. With winds consistently 35-40, gusting to 47.4 knots at their peak, it was half an hour before the rain eased and we were still in 30-35 kts of wind with the seas running to 2- 2.5 metres. I admit I wasn't a happy camper by this stage and lost my nerve for about half an hour just after the peak gust - sitting tethered in the cockpit in a near foetal position with my eyes squeezed shut as the worst of the wind roared by, leaving Skip Tone and IM to brave the elements. Just immediately be fore the big gust hit I had (accidently) put the boat into a heave-to position, but this turned out to be a reasonable solution as the front moved over us.
With the boat stabilised I was eventually able to open my eyes and take in the awesome beauty of the huge waves effortlessly lifting IM. Several deep breaths later, and reassuring words from Skip Tone calmed me enough to take over the helm again so he could go forward to disentangle a snagged headsail sheet and we could get the boat sailing again. I have decided I don't like winds above 40kts at night, (daytime is not so bad) and I have some work to do on my fear management strategy - any advice gratefully accepted! I haven't had a chance to read solo female sailor Lisa Blair's blog yet, but her admission that winds over 50kts in her recent tran-Tasman crossing temporarily reduced her to tears before she knuckled back down to managing the boat, makes me feel a little better! As Eleanor Roosevelt so wisely said, "all we have to fear is fear itself".
IM was bouncing and crashing through the waves and it was 11 pm before we were able to relax a little as the winds came back down to a steady 25kts. As we were so reefed down, and with more squalls in the offing, despite the good strong winds the rough seas meant we couldn't take advantage of the conditions to race on to Tarawa, and so settled into a slow but steady 3-4 kts for the rest of the night, before eventually becoming becalmed and drifing for 5-6 hours... such are the vagaries of wind!
While routinely checking the boat's power we realised the wind generator had blown its 'foo foo' valve, probably during the 47k peak gust, and with raining overcast skys, and so no solar power input, we were going to have to shepherd our on-board power very carefully to ensure enough power for navigation equipment and other vital boat functions - and that dear friends is why we decided not to distract ourselves with getting a blog done. All through the trip we were reporting morning and night over the HF radio to the Majuro and Vanuatu cruiser nets, so at least someone knew where we were! The nets are fantastic, volunteer run, and very reassuring to hear those friendly calm voices with weather updates and locations of other boats underway, along with the conditions they are facing.
Once we had passed Butaritari the ITCZ influence decreased and we were blessed with a lovely SUNNY sail back into Betio, Tarawa, reviving both us and the onboard power levels. Check in with Customs, Quarantine and Immigration all went smoothly and by 7.30 pm Monday night we were safely at anchor of our old home locale, Parliament House, Ambo. More news next blog!