On our way to Suwarrow
11 August 2011 | West of Bora Bora
Bill Hudson
We left Bora Bora on Tuesday right on our schedule. We headed out the pass and with the winds off our starboard stern, we raised the main and rolled out some of the Genoa. After an hour or so of that, we decided to pull up the spinnaker. We rolled in the Genoa and up went the spinnaker. We got hit by a gust of wind that almost knocked us over. The port side rail was well under water coming up to our port holes. I don't think we have ever healed over so much. Off came the spinnaker and out came part of the Genoa again and off we went. So far, it has not been a pleasant sail. To go the direction we want, the winds would hit us right on the stern. That angle of sail is almost impossible to maintain, we we've had to jockey back and forth with the main and genoa. We have it out over the starboard side for several hours and then over to the port side for a few hours. We're making lots of boomerang shapes on our chart plotter as move along. The winds are about 10 knots so we're not going as fast as we would like, but it beats going slower. Every now and then ,a gust hits us the the boom jerks out to the ends of the lines with a resounding boom. All day and all night. It makes sleep a bit harder to get. Tracy's prep of the meals before we left was a smart idea. All she has to do is reheat and serve. Much easier than hunt up all the ingredients and try and make it out here with Zephyr rocking and rolling from side to side. We ended our 24 hours at 15 46.801S 153 16.200W having made 102 nautical miles. In the last 24 hours, we are now at 15 24.008S 155 04.571W having made 117 miles and a total of 219 with 485 to go. One boat that is going to the same place we are, got to the outside of the reef during the night and spent the rest of the night sailing back and forth along the north side of the island. It's not well marked for a night entrance. We'll start making our arrival calculations when we are about 2 days out so we get there during the mid morning. It's easier to see the coral bommies below you as you go in the pass.
So that's what is happening here as of 0915 Tahiti time(-10 hours UTC). We'll let you know how the day progresses.