can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Firefly - en route to Suwarrow



Firefly lead the fleet across the start line, with Susie helming and Paul trimming sheets, at 1100 on Tuesday 13th May at the beginning of leg 4 to Suwarrow. Broad reaching in flat water conditions and with a strong favourable current, Firefly pulled out a good lead on the other 13 boats as we sailed out of the pass at Bora Bora. The wind then dropped in the lee of the island and the engine came on for a short while before the breeze kicked back in. We are now sailing in a tradewind breeze of 15 knots, goose winged with both the jib boom and mainsail prevented as we are in a moderately rolly sea - heading right towards the sun which is due to set about 1800 society islands local time (about an hour from now).

We are in group 2, the other half of the fleet left 48 hours earlier - the reason being that the next 2 destinations (Niue after Suwarrow) are limited in terms of anchoring and mooring space. Having sailing almost 40 miles from the start we are in close company with 5 other World Arc boats - Ghost, Brizo, Hebe and Chikalu - Firefly doing very well as usual to keep with the bigger boats. Earlier, Ghost sailed very close by and cameras came out on both boats - we discussed the photography session over the radio and decided to redo it with the washing removed from the guardrails! Ghost have recently announced landing an 18kg Dorado so we know what they are having for dinner tonight.

With Peter safely back in the UK after his long trip home, Firefly, like a good number of World ARC boats is now being sailed two handed. This is the first long passage that Paul and Susie have undertaken without additional crew. Bora Bora to Suwarrow is 690nm and will take 4 days at 7 knots so considerably longer than our previous longest, 100nm from Salcombe to Scilly. We anticipate maintaining something around the 7 knot average given a currently favourable wind (13 to 18 knots from the East) and ocean current forecast (0.5 knots from the North East).

The most difficult aspect of two handed sailing is the need to maintain a watch at all times and with two people this can get tiring. We have been discussing the different watch systems with the other two handed couples to see what they employ - we have plans in place to run 3 hour watches at night, but will modify our schedule if it does not suit.

Suwarrow is a small atoll in the Northern Cook Islands, its really 'off piste' and is currently uninhabited. Its relatively well known due to a Kiwi gentleman called Tom Neale who lived alone there in the 50's for about 6 years. He wrote a book called 'an Island to Oneself' and we have a copy on board which has proved compulsive reading - we are about to start reading it again before we arrive!

Finally, as we start our two handed sailing, Susie and I would like to thank our 'long passage crews' who have helped sail Firefly almost half way around the World. Murray, David and in particular Peter (who has done the whole trip so far) - have made a tremendous contribution to getting us safely to our destinations and we have had some excellent times/experiences in some stunning places - Thank you Peter, Murray and David.

Paul and Susie

Previous | Next