Worrall Travel R's

Worrall Travel R's
Roz and Russ

Worrall Travel R's - Kicking the Bucket List

Monday, August 29, 2011

Worrall Wind Update - On Our Way to Noumea, New Caledonia

August 30, 2011 - Goodbye Vanuatu - Hurry Up and Wait!

Latitude: S 15 50
Longitude: E 167 90
Wind Speed: 10 knots from SE, Motor Assist
Course over Ground: 180 S
Boat Speed: 6 knots
Waves: On the nose, 1.5 meters

We left Luganville this morning. Yesterday was the perfect day to leave, however, there was an unexpected holiday that no one seemed to know about except for customs and immigration. Of course, they were closed when we got there bright and early. So we had to scrap our plans as we could not leave without clearing.

We were back at customs at 7:30 this morning with a handful of other cruisers chomping at the bit to check out as well. If we weren't back on the ferry by 8:30 to Aore resort, we would be stuck in Luganville until early afternoon. So we were on a mission to get cleared in one hour. We had picked up the exit paperwork when we checked in a couple of weeks ago and had it all filled out. Customs was pretty fast because we were prepared. We went directly to the port captain's office only to find the door locked. After sitting for 10 minutes, thinking he would be there at 8:00 a.m., we asked one of the dock workers what time the port captain opened. He told us "When he feels like it!" Great!

We went back to immigration to see if they could call the port captain. Instead, they decided to let us pay there and stamp us out....what a concept! Why didn't they do that in the first place? Of course, we have to wait in line again. It was now 8:10, and we still had to get to immigration which was on the way back to the ferry. We got to immigration at 8:15, had more paperwork to complete and then while Russ was finishing up, I hiked back as quickly as I could to the ferry dock to beg for a few more minutes. I got there at 8:24, Russ got there three minutes later. We made it with a few minutes to spare! Yes, things were looking up.

The boat was there but the captain wasn't. Swell! He was running late and we didn't leave until 9:00 after we helped him load the boat with groceries for the resort. South of the Border time makes Island time look like a speed warp. Now we had to get across the channel, check out of Aore Resort, unleash ourselves from our mooring buoy, and try to get out of the channel before the incoming tidal current got to strong. Had we left yesterday in the afternoon as we planned, we would have been carried out with the current. We pushed the throttle forward to a 7 knot cruising speed and by the time we got to the western end of the channel we were doing 1.5 knots against the inbound current. It was a little squirelly as we went through swirl pools that pushed the bow 30 degrees to starboard, we had to crab through the current. OK! We are now 24 hours behind and are going to have to push so we can get to NC before a weather change comes in by weekend. Instead of lolling at our normal slow speed, we want to average about 6 knots an hour.

Right now the wind is light and with sails only, we were only going about 3 knots, so we've got Lehman running, the main and the mizzen up, and auto pilot on. We started off with 15 knots of east wind, Hydie hydrovane steering, and were bounding along between 6.5-7.5 knots. We're hoping the wind changes back to a more easterly 15 knots which is what we thought we would have from our weather files. We'll see. In the meantime, we are off. There is a high overcast, mild wind, mild seas for the next few days, then it starts to pick up a bit. We'd like to be on the inside of New Caledolnia's reef early Friday. That's the plan for now. The wind and waves at the moment are right on our nose and we are hobby horsing down the course. But...

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

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