September 5, 2009

Bound for Noumea
At 07:00 Saturday morning, Sept 5, we dropped the mooring line in Port Vila to sail for New Caledonia. We'd been watching the weather prognosis, and could see a low pressure system south of us, moving east, which would turn the wind from southeast to nearly east in the next few days. The wind Friday was very strong, up to 30 knots, but was expected to drop off by Saturday, so we cleared customs for departure. The sailing yesterday made it clear that we'd been a day premature. For the 3rd time in 18 years, I took a seasick pill. We had to sail as close to the wind as possible, with very little sail up, because the wind direction was still SE, and gusts were still over 20 knots. The sea was still very short, steep, big and confused, so in any case we had to keep boatspeed down to around 4 knots to keep from stuffing the bows under the waves. It was pretty wet, and doing anything at all was hard work. Between gusts, the wind would drop to about 15 knots and back around toward the east, so the sail area was never just right, the trim was always wrong, and the poor autopilot just couldn't get it quite right. We trimmed and corrected all day. Fortunately the wind eased a little, and the sea smoothed off a bit as night approached, so things got a little easier. With the moon only a few days after full, and the cloud cover lightening up, we could see enough to run the boat fairly well, and we held course until this morning. The wind continues to slowly back, so we can go a little faster, with a bit more jib out. We need to do as many miles as possible today, so we arrive at the entrance to the Havanna Channel with enough daylight left to enter and find a safe place to anchor. The wind seems to be following the forecast, still gusty but easing and ever so slowly backing, so if we're careful we should be inside the reef at New Caledonia before dark tomorrow. The fact that I can type is a good sign. Now we'll see if I can connect a winlink station to send this. More later.....Ted