Saturday 26th July
It’s blown old boots all night and is still pretty blowy when Phil wakes us up before dawn for our planned early departure. We decide to wait until it lulls then we head to the fuel dock for 6.30am. As soon as we’re fuelled up we’re off, motoring out the harbour by 7.30am on our way to the pass through the reef. The wind has abated but it’s still blowing 15 – 20 knots - we get the sails up and once we’re through the pass it’s a big, confused sea. One of the weather men has given us a waypoint at the north of the island 150 miles away - this is to take us north of the expected lows due in a few days time – so we’re steering a course of 270’. We sail on a close fetch, slamming into the waves. It’s squally too, with the wind constantly changing from 10-15, 15-20 knots. Ian, Annie and Alex are doing 3 hour shifts with Phil and Kevin overlapping every 1.5 hours. It’s an uncomfortable sail; Annie’s feeling queasy when down below, Kevin’s sick in the heads, Alex‘s sleep is disturbed when Phil drops the whiskey store lid on her foot and Phil is rudely wakened by the flag pole which is stowed under his mattress and by Avril the sail rolling onto him! At 11.30pm, while Ian is on watch, the plotter loses it’s fix, the auto-helm switches itself off and we involuntarily gybe. Alex and Annie get up to assist but while trying to reboot the chart-plotter Ian notices that the vang has broken away from the boom. Ian immediately makes the decision to turn back for repairs so we tack and follow the opposite compass heading, now 90’. There’s still no fix on the plotter so Annie helms while Ian and Alex try to get the handheld GPS up and working.
Sunday 27th July
Ian goes down for some sleep at 2am. Annie stays on the helm while Alex perseveres with the Garmin GPS and eventually manages to get the correct charts downloaded onto the handheld – well done Alex! Alex and Annie then continue to helm an hour each until dawn when Ian gets up and takes over. There’s about 10 -15 knots of wind and even with our disabled mainsail, with a bit of tide with us we’re going along nicely at 8-9 knots. Just before dawn the wind drops to hardly anything so we switch on the engine. We reach the pass into Noumea at 2.30 pm and motor back to Port Moselle. As expected, the marina is now full so we anchor up in the bay, put the dinghy in the water and get the outboard on ready to head ashore in the morning. Ian has a look at the plotter to try and diagnose the problem then removes the vang fitting. We’ve notified our weather advisers of our return to Noumea – one of them gets back to us to tell us it’s just as well we’ve returned and to “sit tight” as there is now a nasty trough forming between here and Brisbane. Everything happens for a reason! No-one has the energy to go ashore tonight so we enjoy a sun-downer sitting up top watching the various boats returning to harbour, and the peace of being on anchor! As we’re watching a neighbour negotiate his way into a Kayak, he falls in then calls for help. Ian and Annie go to the rescue – Mike is a Polish man who’s lived in Oz since 1981. He’s taken time off as an architect and is bound for Vanuatu but has had a difficult few days – his dinghy is damaged, his outboard isn’t working and the rucksack containing his money and passport has been stolen. He was loaned the Kayak but now wants to return it and go ashore for a shower – he’s tired and exhausted. Ian and Annie take him ashore and offer to return for him in an hour. However, while there, a friend offers to lend him a dinghy for a couple of days. Later, when we see he’s back aboard, Alex and Annie run over with some dinner for him – thankfully he’s feeling better. We eat aboard then everyone trundles to bed at about 8.30 pm!