The race is over--we made it!!
16 August 2011 | Into Suwarrow
Bill Hudson
The race is over and we made it in!!! We gybed our sails about 0700 and headed almost straight west for Suwarrow Atoll. The winds had shifted a bit and were now coming out of the southeast so we could make some good time. I tried to start the engine to give us a bit of an extra boost and the electrical system to start it had failed again. You could hear the selenoid spinning in the starter with the power turned on but that was all. There was smoke coming out of the "on-off"switch under the nav station. I quickly turned off the power and went in search of the problem. After working on the wires that go to the starter, when I turned on the power at the switch again, the smoke no longer appeared. Apparently there was a short between two posts on the starter and it had drained off some of the power from the batteries. The batteries were to low to properly crank the engine to get her started. Up on deck I went and hauled the Honda generator out and tied it down a midships and cranked her up. She doesn't like to run if we are rolling and that was just what we were doing. She started anyway and I rushed below to get the circuits on and power flowing as quickly as possible. After a short time, the generator quit(as expected)but had put in enough power to allow us to get the engine started. We ran it the entire rest of the way to the atoll. The winds had risen to the mid 20 knot range and swells were growing toward 10 feet or taller. They loomed over Zephyr as we moved along quickly passing under our hull. Up and down we went with speeds varying from 5 knots at the bottom of the swells to 12 knots as we raced down the opposite side. It's a bit strange to be on top of a swell one minute and the next being in a valley with water looming over your heads and the waves breaking all around you. Up and down all day long. We were constantly at the wheel making corrections when necessary. Amazingly, "James", our Hydrovane steering system that hangs off the stern steered Zephyr just about perfectly for us. We only had to make minor corrections along the way. We were 63 miles from Suwarrow and needed to make good time to get in by 1700 hours while the Sun was still up. Our speed just kept on going up and down but we were making some of the fastest speeds we've ever made on Zephyr and that was with just the main sail up and it had two reefs in it. At 1600, we entered the rim of the atoll and slowly made our way past two or three reefs that lie within the lagoon of the atoll. Luckily, our charts were spot on again. As we entered the anchorage(just off Anchorage Island) we found 23 other boats at anchor!! It's a busy spot. We were directed to a spot by one of the other boats and dropped our anchor amidst a bunch of coral heads. We were told that the bottom was hard but that we would stop when the anchor hit one of the rocks along the bottom and that was just what happened. The bad thing is that as we were dropping back(at an angle to the chain) Zephyr snapped to a stop and swung the bow around cracking one of the teak pieces that make up the cap rail on deck. Chain has no give to it and when the anchor hit the rock, we stopped with a sudden jerk. Now I get to epoxy the cap rail back together. So far today, four boats have left and more are scheduled to go as the weather is shifting again and people want to get out between fronts while the winds are good and the seas a bit calmer. We know of only one boat that is headed toward Suwarrow and they won't be here for a few days. We heard on the net this morning of a sailboat called "ReRe"being lost on the reef at Palmerston Atoll yesterday. We have no particulars to the sinking but as we get more info we'll pass it along. We do know that most boats that go there are required to use one of the buoys in the anchorage west of the atoll. We do know that the crew are all safe and sound on shore. For the full story on Palmerston Island (and it's interesting) Google Palmerston Atoll. Tracy is under the weather with a nasty cold or flu or something so she will be resting for a few days taking lots of different medications to try and fight this thing. It'd been coming along for the last few days but she is now officially under the weather. Suwarrow is one of the National Parks for New Zealand so we will be checking in with the park rangers sometime today and paying our $50.00 fee for the park. It allows us to anchor here for up to two weeks. The Park Rangers(James and John) take visitors around the atoll and on excursions to snorkel sights. They also have pot lucks twice a week on the beach as well as having "Happy Hour" on the beach regularly with other cruisers bringing snacks and drinks to the shore to share. We look forward to participating in a few days once Tracy is all well. The "kids", Snowshoe and Blue are doing well. They get a bit seasick during the first few hours when we leave an anchorage but once that phase passes, they do just fine. Blue spend the evenings(they both sleep all day) up on deck when we are underway touring the decks as we move along(unless it is too rollie for safety). She just sits on the back deck staring out over the water. Snowshoe, on the other hand, never comes out on deck. He prefers to sleep in the stern bunk but gets banned from it for the first few days out as he has left us some "presents"some times when he gets to stressed to try and make it to the cat pan. After a few days out, we let him in and he is much happier. The hairy slug just sleeps around the clock --unless he gets hungry and then he jumps down, noshes a bit and returns to the bunk for more sleep. It is a rarity that he ever comes up on deck as we sail or motor. Sleep is his priority. So now that we are here, we will probably spend a week or so enjoying the atoll and attending the parties(once Tracy is well) and meeting up with friends we have made along the passage. We're currently at 13 14.925S 163 06.559W having traveled 738 miles from Bora Bora.