Worrall Wind Update July 24-25, 2010 Huahine Bound

Arriving in Huahine, end of the rainbow, after another white knuckle adventure.

UTC/Local Time: 2000/1000 July 25
Latitude: 16 51.210 S
Longitude:151.05.117 @
Course Over Ground: 314
Wind Direction: East, South East 18-25 knots of wind
Sea Swell: 10 feet East
Starboard tack, beam reach
Sky: partially cloudy
Barometric Pressure: 1019

Update:

July 24 - 7:30 p.m.

We are currently at sea sailing between Moorea and Huahine. We have traveled 20 of the 80 miles to our first outside mark which according to our sailing calculator we should reach around 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. We have a stiff breeze of 18-25 knots of wind on our starboard stern quarter, broad reach. The sea swells are 9-10 feet, coming more towards our beam. The boat is rocking from side to side, and every few minutes a set of rollers pass under the boat heeling us to port where we are taking some water over the bottom rail. Our hydrovane (Hydie), windvane steering system is working well.

We have less than 50 percent of the jib out, and a triple reefed main, no mizzen because of our almost downwind sail. Even with the sails reefed, not only for comfort, but because we are trying to keep our speed down to 5 knots, we are coursing along between 5.5 and 6 knots. We are moving well, although the rocking is a bit uncomfortable...so what else is new? After having been in port and on land, this is our first overnight passage in 2 months, and just the two of us again. We were both a bit anxious with nervous energy. That always seems to be the way of things after having stayed in one place for so long. The sail to Moorea on Friday was a nice warm-up.

Moorea had a beautiful moonrise last night and clear skies this morning.

I have first watch this evening. It's pretty early for Russ to be sleeping, but he is trying. We didn't sleep too well last night because there were some party boats in the bay last night playing music and talking loudly until 2:00 or so in the morning. Also our anchor alarm went off a few times. When we got up this morning it appeared that our anchor had drug a little, getting us a little to cozy with Pincoya, so we pulled up the anchor and repositioned ourselves for the day. It was a good thing because the wind really piped up by 10:00 a.m. and we were firmly anchored.

Our sea life entertainment today included flying fish, a pod of 4 dolphins swimming through the anchorage, and a white spotted ray jumping about 4 feet out of the water within 10 feet of the boat. Went ashore to find a geocache, but unfortunately we did not find it, not for the lack of trying though. I think the cache was gone. The last cache seeker also could not find it on July 9, according to the online log.

Dragon of the West & Out the Golden Gate and Hang A Left Travel Bugs outside the geocache that had disappeared.

Too Bad!  But they got a nice view from the beach of Worrall Wind.

July 25 - 12:30 a.m.
 The wind and waves have gotten progressively stronger. Some of the rollers are moving incredibly fast, one right after another, mounting up to be super sized and breaking as they roll past, under us, in front of us, or worse from the side. One of the large rollers that hit us from the side popped open the v-berth door and it slammed back against the galley wall making such a racket that it woke Russ about a half hour before I would have awakened him.

We discuss our progress. Even though the seas are rough we're doing fine, but about 4 miles to the right of our course line. I've been having to hand steer the last two hours because of the shifting winds and the rolling seas that keep taking us off our wind line and Hydie is having difficulty recovering. We need to tack, but for right now, we'll stay the course we are on. The moon is still out, but there are more clouds coming up behind us.

1:00-3:00 a.m.
I'm sleeping downstairs in the main salon trying to keep from rolling from side to side with pillows squished behind my knees and back and in front of me. Russ holds the course for two hours then the wind really starts to pickup and shift around. Yes, you guessed. A big honking squall is on our port quarter and starting to obscure the moon. The boat is rocking wildly and we are recording gusts of 40 knots, 30 being the sustained winds. Sure glad we are triple reefed. Even with that we are now moving at almost 8 knots and the waves are well over ten feet, and we are rocking toe rail to toe trail with water coming over both sides and streaming down the deck. By this time, I am up with PFD, gloves, shoes, and long pants.

3:00-3:30 a.m.
We don't like it. There is no end in sight of the black squall line behind us. It's scary as hell, but we're dry inside and the boat is taking it like a champ, even if we are white knuckled. Hydie is needing constant help now.

3:30-5:00 a.m.
 During a lull of 25 knots, (ha ha, seems like it is hardly windy), we clip in and go outside on the fantail (back deck) and take over steering from there. I go out first and secure the upper helm. Russ follows. We sit for a few minutes getting a read on the situation. We have a cruise liner, the Paul Gauguin, coming up on our rear. He should be crossing behind us less than 4 miles. Russ calls him on the radio and he sees us on the radar. We pull in the jib and see if we can get a bit more on course as we keep rounding up pulling us farther off course. This helps a bit, but it slows our speed down considerably and in the end slows us too much for us to either gybe or come about, which we need to do. So we rest a little as the wind howls around us, and we basically fore reach (into the swell and close to the wind).

We wait for the wind to subside. It doesn't. Paul Gauguin passes behind us. The black squall line is still there with no light coming from the horizon It's a dry squall, only a few rain drops. We decide to turn the motor on and power around. It take Russ a few minutes to go in the engine room and open the thru hulls. The engine comes to life...such a reassuring sound. We power the boat through a gybe, put the engine in neutral, reset the jib, and adjust the windvane. At last we are moving back to our course line.
The wind and seas are now consistently on a broad reach on a port tack. Eventually we will need to gybe again.

5:00-7:00 a.m.
I go back to bed. The boat courses along at 5-6 knots, wind around 25. At 7:30 we gybe again. The seas and wind are still strong, but it always look better in the daylight and the sun scares away the squalls. We can see Huahine in the distance.

10:00 a.m.
We are within a few miles now of Huahine and our outside mark. We are looking forward to a quiet anchorage on the lee side of the island and a little rest. It's been an exhilarating ride. I need to post this while still in open waters as I don't know what the radio signal will be once we are in the Bay.

12:30 p.m.
I am unable to send the log at 10:00, so I postpone until I have an Internet connection in port.  We are now at anchor in Huahine.  There is a large mountain at the base of the  bay creating clouds and winds.  Because we are behind the reef, there is no swell, but the winds here are pretty stiff.  We don't care, we drop the hook.  We're done for the day.

All is well on Worrall Wind.