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Mischief - A little bit more Mischief Log 10



Day 19 Sunday 18 March 2018. Difficult night; bread causes depression; Dave extends the journey; Land Ahoy!; phone signal; cross finish line; more sail trouble; Trevor's hot air put to use; we stay aboard.

I had a feeling it was going to be a difficult night and I was spot on. As dusk fell you could tell where those squalls were south of 10 degrees with big black clouds which really played havoc with the wind all night. The wind switched from SE to NE and back again, and everything in between, and fluctuated from 17 knots to 8 knots with vivid lightning lighting up the sky ahead. This all meant constant course changes and several gybes requiring visits to the bow to deal with the spinnaker pole in the dark, so sleep was hard to come by and there was a real danger of losing the sense of humour.

Thankfully, from 0500 the wind settled down in the NE and we have been sailing reasonably quickly since although we have had a lot to catch up to make our daylight landfall this evening. The SSB net at 0700 confirmed that everybody still out here had had a similarly frustrating experience with some electing to motor through the worst of it and others, including us it must be said, being sorely tempted.

As I was still on watch as the sun rose I decided to lighten the mood after a hard night by baking some bread, as you do. I beat the dough to death as a bit of exercise and put it into the sunshine to prove for 40 minutes and hey presto……nothing! Just a splodge in the bottom of the baking tin, it hadn't risen at all just like last week's efforts. I was already tired from last night and now I was both tired and particularly peed off! So, I went and sat on the bow for half an hour (and did a rig check) then came back for a re-match. Dave said that if this one doesn't work either he will have to hide all the knives especially as the wind is dropping off as I speak to boot!! Result: hide the knives!! It is as dead as a Dodo. But the sun has come out and has saved the day.

As at 0800 we had 61 nm to cover which at an average of say 6 knots and accounting for the time difference to UTC -9.5 we ought to be in around 1630. However, at 1100 Dave altered the waypoint on the chart plotter as the one we have been working towards for the last 3,000 miles is not actually the one we need. The proper one is another 10 miles further on so all my arrival time calculations are out. We now have arrival at an average of 7 knots at 1645 local time and at 6 knots 1845 which is after it goes dark so hope the wind holds up for the rest of the day!

1310 LAND AHOY!! I spotted land off the starboard bow as clouds lifted about 15 miles off. Blue Peter Badge for me! We then got hit by a rain squall and got soaked to the skin again with 25 knots of breeze which pushed us along a bit but thankfully it didn't last too long and soon we were sailing along the coast towards the finish line. Apparently, this anchorage is more crowded than fleas on a dog's back and we will probably need to anchor outside the harbor wall which will make it rolly, but they say it is rolly everywhere you anchor so we shall see.

1530 Suddenly, Ping! Wendy's phone picked up some signal and she went loopy and everyone made a grab for their devices - that stifled the conversation, like a load of teenagers at the dinner table!

It seemed to take forever to sail down the coast which was shrouded in cloud but revealed enough to suggest it was a mountainous very pretty island with layered volcanic rock covered in green. I wonder why it is all so green? We rounded the corner to Taahuku Bay marked somewhat incongruously by a French Naval Frigate with a big gun pointing in our direction, and crossed the finish line at 17 39 local time. Hooray, we have finished!! 18 d 9 h 17 m. We have crossed the Pacific! Strangely, there was no leaping about with a real sense of achievement as I really think we were all too tired.

As expected the anchorage was rammed. So we rounded up into the wind and I jumped on deck to drop the mainsail when suddenly Bang, Crash! The mainsail headboard broke and down came the mainsail in a heap which took some time sorting out and we were running out of daylight, still needing to anchor. Having sorted that problem we motored around to find a spot to drop anchor not too close to others as boats were swinging independently around 360 degrees. The mainsail headboard just adds to the list of issues regarding sails and needs someone to go up the mast to retrieve the halyard but potentially, this could have been a lot more serious mid-Pacific than 50 metres from port!

We secured the anchor near to a cliff on the edge of the bay and got the dinghy out of the locker. We realized we then had found a use for Trevor's hot air as we needed to blow it up to go ashore which is precisely when it started to rain, and did it rain! Now we know why the island is so green. Poor Trevor was on deck in the dark and pouring rain with the foot pump beavering away. However, having pumped up the dinghy we deemed it too dangerous to ship the outboard given the rolling and pitch black night so we decided to stay on board, have a beer and some pasta then go ashore in the morning. I was fast asleep in no time!

So here we find ourselves in Hiva Oa, French Polynesia with the prospect of a full night's sleep. I fear that the rolling at anchor is as bad if not worse than it was at sea so if we sleep at all its because we are that tired. 'Night all....

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