A Sailing Saga

Townsville, Australia to Noumea, New Caledonia
Distance 1300 nautical miles
Hours engine used 34 hours
Fuel used 100L

We sailed out of Horseshoe Bay in the early hours of a Sunday morning heading for the Palm Island Passage that would take us safely out through the great barrier reef and into open waters. We knew the first couple of days would be fairly high winds and were ready. Throughout that first day I felt really good. I had decided before leaving to try some new sea sick pills and would take one first thing in the morning and again in the evening. They seemed to work as the first 12 hours saw me sitting up, looking around, watching movies and eating, and then came evening. That night was very rough and noisy, that coupled with autopilot problems (the damn thing kept turning itself off) there was little to no sleep for either of us.

Day 2 I felt very nauseous and threw up for the first time. Did absolutely nothing except lie there and feel sorry for myself while Craig set the sails to get the best of the wind and tried to figure out what was going on with the auto pilot. That night still really noisy and rough with continued auto problems so again very little sleep (night passages noises like the wind in the sails and water slapping against the hull seem exponentially louder than those same noises during the day).

Day 3 I felt a little better and was able to listen to audio books and comedy shows and that night actually got some well needed sleep. During the night the winds changed to Southerlies which meant instead of tacking we could set the sails and just sail towards our destination. Another bonus is the autopilot was now behaving itself as Craig had sorted out the problem (loose wire).

Day 4 we went past a research boat that have been exploring the reef for the last two weeks. Craig chatted to them over the radio and we were the first boat they had seen for that entire time. They were kind enough to give us an updated weather report. That night was quite bouncy for the first half of the night then smoothed out. Woken up twice by a.i.s. which tells us when boats are within 14nm (distance decided by us). We can see what type of boat it is and which direction it is heading.

Day 5 we had a nice and smooth start to the day, calm enough to have a coffee. Apart from day 2 I had not been sick again and although at times have felt nauseous as long as I don’t move around I seem to be okay.

Day 6 had southerlies again all night which is brilliant for us as we clipped along doing 5-6knots. In the morning the wind died out completely leaving us still on course but doing 1.5-2knots. Wind picked up again slightly in the afternoon and evening. All looking good for us to arrive in Chesterfield ahead of schedule in two days time.

Day 7 The wind has gone. Back to doing 1.5-2knots, at times during day and evening we would run the engine for a couple of hours just to keep us going forward.

Day 8 Absolutely no wind. Turned everything off and just bobbed around for the majority of the day. All that day and night no wind – so frustrating.

Day 9 We decided in the early hours to put engine on to motor for a bit only to find it wouldn’t start. After checking a few things Craig deduced it was because we didn’t have enough power to start it so continued to bob around waiting for the sun to hit the solar panels. Note: Every day while sailing we drop a little more in power. Although the batteries get charged during the day, with the fridge and auto pilot running continuously they slowly drain more each day than they are getting charged.. Normally it is not a problem for us as we only sail 4-5 days maximum and then sit on anchor where they get fully restored, however as this is our biggest sail we have ran into this fun new problem.

Over the last 2.5 days we have sailed (drifted) a total of 15nm. I have to keep reminding myself we will get there………..patience! Early evening saw the wind come back and we held steady at 5knots meaning we would finally arrive at Chesterfield at 6am in the morning – wahoo!

Day 10 At 4am the wind completely died yet again….NOOOOO. So close yet so far. We cant turn the engine on until mid morning and the batteries have had some charge put into them. So instead of an early arrival we slowly drifted along. At mid morning Craig tried the engine but nothing happened. It wasn’t a lack of power this was something new….WT actual F?! With no engine and the minimum of wind we finally managed to slowly sail (1.5knots) into Chesterfield just after lunch and dropped anchor. That afternoon we just relaxed and caught up on our sleep.

Day 11 This was a very stressful day for us. Our main focus was Craig trying to figure out what was going on with the engine and getting it to work again. My main focus was not to freak out and to keep out of his way. My brain kept going to different scenarios of us not being able to get the engine going and then us having to only use our sails to get to Noumea and the winds would be against us and all these other horrible things happening – my brain is definitely not my friend at times. Finally just after 2pm I heard the most fantastic noise – the engine started. Craig is the guy to have in situations like this and he can now call himself a diesel mechanic. He just slowly and methodically went through checking different wires and parts of the engine until he finally came across the problem and was able to fix it. It turned out the wire to the ignition switch had to be replaced. Afterwards he did confess that he had been quite worried himself – thank goodness he didn’t share that thought with me! We celebrated by going for a snorkel and taking the tender onto the beach and stretched our legs with a little walk. That night we both slept so well!

Day 12 Was spent doing other little jobs. On the way over the main sail got a small tear in it which Craig sewed up, meanwhile I was under the hull scrapping the last of the Aussie growth of it. We also cleaned the solar panels and re-stowing items that had moved about in the first section of our trip. By mid afternoon all tasks were done and we decided to set sail as the last two days had been south easterly winds and we figured that with those winds we will be tacking a lot to get to Noumea and so will need all the extra days we can get. We left Chesterfield all sails up clipping along at a brisk 6knots for the remainder of the day and into the night.

Day 13 we had another big ship pass us by in the early hours of the morning. Once again we hailed them on the radio and was able to get the latest weather report. If all goes as they say the wind is going to change and actually blow favourable for us meaning no more tacking for a while. At this time however there was little wind so Craig went to put the engine on and once again it didn’t go. Oh man just what we need. Later in the day we had strong SE winds which lasted the remainder of the day and into the night. It was rough sailing with every 7^th wave or so crashing across our bow making a huge boom sound keeping us awake.

Day 14 in the early hours of the morning the wind direction changed which meant we can head directly towards our destination. By mid morning however no more wind and we were bobbing around for a couple of hours. Mid day the winds picked up and again was favourable with the extra bonus of Craig has once again sorted out the engine (this time it needed an additional earthing wire). Mid arvo wind died once more and we could see rain approaching from the side. We managed to put our pipes out and collect the fresh water into our tanks and following on from that we got some nice strong wind. Blew all night with us averaging 6-7knots in the right direction – superb.

Day 15 still cruising along in the right direction with good wind. Craig made a chocolate cake to celebrate us being out on the water for 2 weeks and then what do you know in the early afternoon bye bye wind leaving us (yes you guessed it) floating along with no where to go. We were able to however put the engine on for a couple of hours. That evening saw the wind come back but not from a good direction which meant we were still able to sail south however at a slight angle away from New Caledonia……am feeling like we will never get there.

Day 16 woken by ais with cargo boat passing close by (heading from NZ to Hong Kong). Chatted to them and got the updated weather. Its going to be easterlies which is exactly what we don’t want. Means we have a lot of tacking in our near future. That day saw us sailing on a parallel course to New Cal, so close yet still so far…….thank goodness there was still some chocolate cake left 

Day 17 we had light winds blowing us south until mid morning when obviously it completely died out. Oh well its too far to engine all the way there, thats the sailboat life, at the mercy of the wind. Afternoon the wind came back and was actually blowing us towards Noumea. Late in the day we were buzzed by a French navy plane. They flew past us really low (which was cool to see) and hailed us on the radio just to check our name, destination and eta. That evening saw us 100nm from our destination – wahoo.

Day 18 we started off the day with suitable wind which meant if all went well we would arrive in Noumea in the early afternoon – whoops spoke too soon, of course the wind died out and yeap you guessed it the engine wouldn’t start. We needed to wait a couple of hours for the solar panels to charge the batteries which we did and they did. We ended up motoring sailing for 8 hours which saw us dropping anchor in Noumea just after 8pm. All in all the last section went very smoothly despite coming into a new place in the dark. Using our spotlight we managed to find a space between some other boats to drop anchor,

We had planned on 22 days for the trip so despite the fickle wind we still arrived early which was a bonus. By spending the entire trip naked meant we have minimal laundry to do now we are here  Along the way we saw some amazing sunsets and sunrises and even though the wind was all over the place and most days completely died out because the ocean was so calm the majority of the time I felt really good which was brilliant. All in all a pretty good trip.

A new country and the beginnings of a new sailing adventure for us.