23 November 2011
A lively sail
Well, the winds lessened to 25 knots for a while but they're back up to 30 again so it's been a lively sail all day at about 7 knots. We still have 3 reefs in the main but are due to arrive in Minerva at first light tomorrow to join the other boats that left the day before us.
When Heartbeat left (a day ahead of us), we gave them our satellite phone to use as they did not have any way of getting weather info or updating their current position. Given that Sophie is pregnant, we wanted to be reassured that they had a way of contacting land if they needed. Jacolette from Goody back in South Africa kindly agreed to be our shore support, receiving texts from Heartbeat and sending them to us in e mails and vice versa. Last night was quite rough, so I did not check my e mails for a while as I was feeling quite sick, so we were surprised to receive an update from Jacolette to say Heartbeat had lost their forestay and what was our position, would we be near them soon? Unfortunately, some time had lapsed before we got the message, and when we got an update as to their position, they were now further North from us, so it appears they are heading back to Tonga. We are waiting for good news that they have arrived back in Tonga safely. This morning on the Southern Cross SSB net, I was able to relay their situation, so other boats in the area can be alert. This is the one leg where there are other boats around as New Zealand becomes a bit of a bottle neck for yachts escaping the cyclone season of the South Pacific. I think we'll get another position update at 6pm local time, so am checking my e mails regularly. Otherwise, all well onboard Pegasus. We're really pleased we are stopping at Minerva now to wait for good winds to take us down to Opua. Curr position: 22.42S 177.36W