Tuesday 16 October Bonjour Nouvelle Caledonie

The last 20 hours of our passage where more thrilling than a visit to Alton Towers or Disneyland! The wind whipped up to 25 knots, seas never got big, with gusts up to the mid 30s. Under just reefed headsail and mizzen sail we were flying long in the pitch black; not a star to be seen through the heavy clouds which were depositing rain on us. Our dry cockpit means we laugh in the face of these adversities. However...at 2am David was offwatch and I had the helm, or more correctly, watching the instruments and keeping an eye on wind speed and direction. Under the scraps of sail we were doing 8 knots COG (course over ground) but it just felt faster. Check the analysis page of the Raymarine and there's a different story. We have 2 knots of current setting against us so the boat is doing 10 knots through the water which comes out as 8 knots over the ground. Add to this we don't need to arrive at the pass into New Caledonia until lunchtime tomorrow we needed to take in more sail to slow down.

The South Pacific - not the North Sea

With the shortened sail and lightening wind as dawn came up we did arrive at the Havannah Pass at 1pm. At Havannah pass water pours into and out of the lagoon at speeds up to 4 knots. The wind and now bigger seas were on our beam. We're still reefed and our instruments indicated slack water at 2pm. Hmmm! OK we line up on the leading line and watch the depth gauge come up from 180m to 100m and then to 20m quickly as we approach the break in the reef. This break is almost 1 ½ miles wide so not an issue. We looked. We saw a lot of white wave tops. We approached the shallowest part and boat speed dropped, more sail, more speed to maintain steerage. In the end Jackster was flying ahead of the seas at over 8 knots while the out going current was pushing us, and the in coming waves, back out at a rate of 4 knots. Jackster handles it all like the champion she is. Weeee! What a ride and suddenly we're behind the protection of the reef and enjoying a great sail.
Arriving is always a happy time for me. In the which do you prefer debate, landfall vs passage, I'm the landfall girl while David loves the passage. He handles our boat so well and keeps me safe and happy. My Dad calls him Popeye. I call him my guardian angel.