Sunday, August 8, 2010

Melbourne to Vanuatu Yacht Race - Day 10 - Gone Sailing / Reef Hopping


Gone Sailing / Reef Hopping - Issue 10

As the weather was looking stable (and our sudden compulsion to try even harder to mow down some boats in front of us), we decided on taking the quick route through the reef in between the main island of Noumea and the southern Isle of Pines group. The passage is around 8 miles long and 4 miles wide at the start then narrowing to 2 miles before popping out the other end. It is a reasonably well marked pass but with waves breaking over gnarly reef on both sides and shooting through doing 8-10 knots under spinnaker in the middle of night made it another 'all hands on deck' affair.

We were all set up for it and everyone was looking forward to a bit of action despite it being the middle of the night. It was an exhilarating feeling - kite up, deciphering the blinking navigational marks, peeling to the number 3 headsail for the short dog leg beam reach then back to kite as we shot out of the narrow northern gap.
Amidst this excitement there was a radio sched that again confirmed we have clawed back a few more miles on competing boats. This combined with the first sight of land in 8 days as the sun peeped over the horizon had the happy hour bell ringing all before 6.30am. A celebratory sip was complemented by bacon and egg sandwiches ala Jess and Nick. A great way to start the day!

Our welcome to the tropics:
We had an enormous ferry/cruise ship heading straight for us this morning doing about 30 knots. After making radio contact to ensure he saw us, he confirmed he was just coming over to say hi and give his passengers a closer look at us. Big arms waved from both vessels as he gave us a toot and warm greeting. Very odd but very pleasant welcome to the islands.

Current Situation:
Dave Gray's tunes are filtering through the boats speakers, the sun is shining, the spinnakers full and the mild sea state and angle has the bouncy castle working in slow motion allowing us to open some hatches and air the good ship. Bloody beautiful! It really is one of those "you wouldn't be dead for quids" moments and reminds you why sailing is so special!

Everyone is in go slow mode after a long night on deck - Leon is asleep in the saloon quarter berth - he has been the main navigator through the night so would be feeling a big sense of relief, Mike is in the forward cabin catching zz's, Rick in port aft cabin and James in starboard aft cabin snoozing too - it's an opera of snores sounding like a country fair wood chopping contest! Jesse is in the shower sprucing himself up, captain Stoopy is on the wheel and Nick on deck reading, keeping him company and doing the odd sail trim. A very happy mellow ship!

The Tucker:
Dinner last night was another Easy Foods meal of lamb and current stew, this was complimented with fresh bread made by our resident "masterbaker" Mike from bread mix kindly supplied by Lynda - many thanks Lynda, it was like heaven after days of eating the bland mountain flat bread!

Nature Spots:
Flying fish galore - literally hundreds all around us.
Islands and reef!

Tropical paradise:
I think today will mark the last of thermal underwear and we will be sailing the last 280 nautical miles in shorts and t-shirts - the moment we have all been waiting for! If we maintain our current speed averaging 8-9 knots we are now thinking we will arrive tomorrow night (Thursday). If after about 4pm we will be too late to clear customs so will have to spend the night on the customs buoy and do the formalities Friday morning. Everyone is getting very excited about arriving and particularly seeing family and friends who are flying across specially to meet us!

We are now approaching the Loyalty Islands and all we have to do is miss Lifou Island and Mare Island and do some more reef hopping through a few coral islets in between and we are on the homeward stretch.

Looking very forward to our arrival!!

Signing off on behalf on the Samskara Crew, The Ships Cat.

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