So this post is way overdue and as a result will probably be a bit of a tedious read.
Part 1 – The Preparations
We last left off in the marina in Opua and I
had a scheduled departure for Saturday 10th May. I had to get some re-work done on the new
hatches as there were a couple of leaks and this was to be done on the Thursday
or Friday prior. At the last minute
Mahmood – the hatch guy – called to say he had to delay until Tuesday the
following week. There was not much I
could do about it and so I delayed my departure again until Wednesday the 14th
May.
I spent the time waiting for departure day
making final preparations for the passage to New Caledonia. Checking gear, making last minute
adjustments, cooking and freezing food and checking all the comms equipment
because once we were out of sight of land our traditional comms were useless
and I needed to be able to download weather data daily and have an emergency
voice/text system operating. I had two
primary communication systems onboard – the satcom system which is an Iridium
GO and a Garmin InReach mini tracker. I
had the Iridium GO unit which came when the boat was purchased and had got an
external antenna for the unit installed in Auckland so that I did not need to
take the unit on deck to get a satellite signal when at sea. (The crew from the Dulcinea Atlantic passage
would appreciate that). This would have
been the only comms device I needed until someone told me that the GPS tracker
for the GO unit did not work well in aluminum or steel boats. So I then had to purchase a Garmin Mini
InReach tracker which would be permanently located under the spray dodger. To cut a long story short I had one unit (the
GO) for voice/data/text and the other (the Garmin) to track my position on an
hourly basis.
A lot of my time in Opua was spent pouring over
the Predict Wind weather charts and weather routing plans and agonizing over
the departure date. Each morning I would
wake up and once the forecast had been refreshed I tried to convince myself
that the planned departure date and proposed route was realistic. Basically it remained the same and was based
around fresh conditions for a day, a day of variables and then three days of
rough weather (4.5m waves and gusting 36knts) followed by settling conditions
for the last couple of days. The bad
weather was all from the south which was good and made it doable. The forecast predicted a very uncomfortable
ride for 80% to 90% of the journey. I
figured that I had to make a move as there was no better departure window in
the foreseeable future. In addition
while it may be uncomfortable it would be a good test for both boat and skipper. Each day I would srutinse the forecast to
hopefully see milder conditions but it just firmed up around the initial
predictions but at least it did not get worse.
While I had the additional time in Opua I also
put out some feelers for possible crew.
The last resort was always going to be a solo sail but if I could find
crew for these passages it would make things much safer, less stressful and
more enjoyable. The initial ads I had
posted on a couple of crew sites had not resulted in any meaningful contact but
I knew that in Opua there would be people looking to crew as there were many
boats planning to depart for the islands over the next few weeks. It was just a matter of connecting with any
interested people. I had an ask around
the marina and the cruising club and came across a couple of notices of
possible crew. Its pretty important to
get someone who is boat savy and has some sailing experience. If you engage with someone who does not have
the skills and/or experience you are essentially just taking on more
responsibility and making the voyage harder.
I had a number of possibilities but eventually settled on a young Welsh
lad called Owen. Owen was a traveller –
easy going guy with a millennial / hippie type vibe - and was working his way
through Asia, Australia, New Zealand and places beyond. He had done some sailing in Thailand and gone
to the effort of obtaining certification and racking up some coastal sailing
miles. My only reservation was he did
not have any ocean experience but his enthusiasm made up for it. I outlined the possibility of the less than ideal
expected conditions and subsequent high possibility of sea sickness but this
failed to deter him any so I signed him on as crew.
Two boats down from Sea Otter in the marina was
another Koopmans design. This was
unusual as you typically do not see many of them around especially outside of
Europe. Avalon was a 45ft steel Koopmans
(pronounced Kopmans I was told) and was owned by Geert and Judith, a Dutch
couple who had sailed her from Portugal over the past three plus years. I did not realise until Geert knocked on Sea
Otters hull one morning and introduced himself.
We hit it off straight away and spent many hours looking at and
comparing each others boats. The designs
were almost identical apart from Avalon being a couple of feet longer giving
her a bit more internal volume.
Over the next few days I picked Geerts brain
for tips and experiences he had gained sailing Avalon over the past few years
which I could use on Sea Otter. I also
reviewed the passage plan with him to get his impression of the weather. The best he could say was that it looked like
a rough crossing which whilst not being a ringing endorsement was still a
positive response in my books. Avalon is
heading to Australia in a month or so and hopefully we will catch up again.
Owen moved onboard on Sunday 4th May
and made himself at home in the port side cabin. This gave him a few days to get used to the
boat and more importantly for me to give him an induction into all the vessel
operating and safety systems. After
spending time with Owen I was having reservations as his sailing knowledge was
quite rudimentary but we were committed now and at the very least he would be
able to stand watch and allow me to sleep some.
Mahmood the hatch guy arrived as promised on
Tuesday 6th May and repaired the outstanding leaks. Him and his guy spent the morning on the boat
and were finished by lunch time. Owen
and I made a last outing to pick up fresh provisions and a couple of cushions
for the cockpit to provide some modicum of comfort during the sail then it was
back to the boat to make her ready for departure in the morning.
Hard to describe the feeling the night
before. Certainly anxious but also
confident that we could complete the passage.
The worrying element was how uncomfortable/tolerable it would be, if we
could handle the boat in a seamanlike manner and get it sailing efficiently
without breaking anything and that the onboard systems worked as
anticipated. The next few days would
tell.
Part 2 – The Passage
Needless to say I was up early on the 7th
– departure day. We had a meeting with
NZ Customs and Immigation booked for 0900 and I did not want to be late. I also downloaded the latest forecasts and
scanned them for any possible reprieve in the anticipated weather. Unfortunately there was none but again it had
not increased and the models were converging signalling confidence in the
forecast. To provide some context – the
Predict Wind forecasts provide many data points for reference and one of them
is the anticipated roll of the vessel due to the seastate. They suggest that anything more than 4degrees
is considered “uncomfortable and makes perfoming tasks around the boat
difficult and more hazardous”. Apart
from the first and last day of the passage we had roll of around 6 degrees to
6.5 degrees anticipated. But I had no reference
as to what this meant practically so figured we needed to find out.
At the appointed time Owen and I presented at
the Customs office in the Marina and were duly stamped out of NZ by a very
efficient customs officer. I must
mention that the NZ Customs service personnel and processes I have dealt with
throughout have been extremely efficient and a pleasure to deal with.
With our exit now officially sanctioned we had
to leave immediately – do not stop, do not pass go.
We were seen off by Geert on the quayside and
were moving out into the Bay of Islands by 10:00am under power. We rounded Cape Wiwiki marking the northern part
of the Bay of Islands at 11:15am and set a north westerly course in a
freshening Easterly breeze. We set the
boat up with reefed main and jib to keep the ride as comfortable as possible
and were still making circa 6kts. There
was a short chop on a longer swell giving us a short sharp motion and it
immediately took its toll on Owen who by the first night was not feeling to
good. I usually would have felt sick too
but was only slightly queasy – I had taken a couple of sea sickness tablets but
was also wearing the wrist bands which seem to work for me.
Sea Otter ploughed along all night and the next day with the wind slowly settling into a more North Easterly direction. Owen spent most of his time on deck trying to keep his seaksickness under control. Even though he was feeling lousy when any sail configuration changes were required he responded immediately. By midnight on Thursday we had passed the North Cape of New Zealand and were pointing in the direction of Noumea. The cartoon below by Mike Peyton is very apt.
Using the Iridium Go system I downloaded the
weather from Predict Wind every day sometimes twice a day and reran the sail
routing prediction using our latest position as the starting point to confirm both
current conditions, expected conditions and our general course. To my great relief the satcom performed flawlessly
and allowed us to access up to date weather information on demand. We also had the Garmin tracker sending off a
position report for the vessel every hour.
This allowed Nik and others to keep an eye on our progress. The positioning information was also being
sent to a service called Passage Guardian based in New Zealand. This company provided a free overwatch service
for vessels undertaking these kind of passages particularly for solo and short
handed vessels. They monitored our
passage using the tracker positional information and a daily text report I sent in from
the vessel and would in case of any emergency be able to alert any rescue
services.
Friday saw the winds die and slowly move around
to the south as forecast. We motored for
a while due to the conditions but also to provide some charge for the
batteries. By evening time following a
rather unnerving squall the wind was set into the south and blowing a constant
20kts to 30kts with wave heights building to what would become constant 4m to
5m seas. These conditions remained with
us for the next three days with the peak wind gusting at 38kts.
I had issues getting the wind vane to set
properly and so set the autopilot instead which ran great to start with. On hindsight the reason the wind vane would
not set was due to the weather helm being experienced from running under just a
double reefed main. Whilst the autopilot
worked in this condition it was under a fair amount of stress and on Sunday
morning, four days in and just as we were passing Norfolk Island 50NM to the
west, it stopped working. Well it was
working but not as it should be, making a horrible grinding sound and not even
close to being able to keep a heading.
There had been a number of “Rudder Limit” alarms going off but I had overridden
these during the night.
It had all been going so well. This was during our peak wave exposure and
very soon after the autopilot shut down we took a wave over the starboard side which
filled the cockpit. Luckily only a
little water went below. Next thing
though the bilge alarm was going off and then the gas alarm – its always in
threes right.
Owen took over the helm and I looked into the other issues. I thought the gas detector went off because the sensor was wet so was not too worried about that. I opened up the cabin soles and inspected the bilges and they seemed OK. Sea Otter is usually a very dry ship. There was some water in the bilge around the keel hinge but nothing alarming and water in the central bilge but again nothing alarming. I checked around the hull and all the skin fittings for integrity and could see no leak path. The bilge water was not too salty so suspected there may have been a leak from somewhere on deck and rainwater was getting in through one of the hatches – Oh I didn’t mention that we had passing rain showers constantly aswell some of them with abrupt wind shifts.
Next item was to get the wind vane working
otherwise Owen and I faced a unenviable task of hand steering for the final
three days of the passage. It took us
the best part of that day and night to final get a balanced set up and the wind
vane functioning. On the bright side Owen
was starting to feel a bit better, we had passed the worst of the weather and
the outside temperature was rising.
On Monday night the conditions started to ease. By Tuesday we were in very gusty 20kt winds
still with a big sea but one where the swell dominated so a bit more
comfortable. By Tuesday we were in the
15Kts to 20kts range and by Wednesday it was a comfortable 10kts to 15kts. On Wendesday we had the same issue with the
wind vane i.e. not being able to get it to hold position and so I made the
decision to motor the last 60NM to Noumea.
As luck would have it I gave the autopilot another go and it managed to
perform in the lighter conditions – it would periodically raise an alarm when
the rudder adjustments required got to onerous but we could just reset it a again.
Slowly on Wednesday the outline of distant
hills under long white clouds took shape on the horizon and drew closer as the
morning turned into the afternoon. There
is a fringing barrier reef around New Caledonia and we had to navigate through
a pass in the reef to the lagoon and then transit another 10NM to 15NM to
Noumea the only designated port of entry.
I did not want to enter Noumea and anchor at dark and so getting the
timing right was critical. I had figured
if we could enter the lagoon mid afternoon we would be OK.
The barrier reef around New Cal is extremely impressive. Lines of breaking surf appear in the distance
and draw closer. Modern navigation aids
make the task of locating the passes very easy but care and a vigilant eye is
still required. We were making for the Passe
de Boulaire a series of three sperate channels allowing access to the inner
lagoon. We had to battle the current in
the pass but once into the lagoon we picked up speed again noted the channel
marks and headed for Noumea. The sun was
setting and disappeared over the horizon about an hour from the anchorage. It was going to be tight. The anchorages in Noumea lie around a
headland if approaching from the South as we were. Thoughts of a nice quiet entry to Noumea were
dispelled when we drew near to the headland and it became clear a fleet of
racing yachts were heading for the same point.
To make matters more interesting a couple of rowing boats were also
paralleling the coast heading for the inner harbour.
As we rounded the point the dwindling dusk
turned into full on night time. We were
in the midst of the fleet but avoided the boats as best we could and then
picked our way slowly to the anchorage area.
The moon was not yet up and so it was difficult to make out the other
yachts in the anchorage so we moved as close as we dared and then dropped the anchor
to bring an end to the passage. We hoisted our yellow quarantine flag and set
some lights on deck as we were situated a little outside of the main anchorage
area and after a quick tidy up hit our bunks.
I wanted to be up early the next day to shift closer to the marina where
we had to check in.
So that was it – the maiden voyage for me in
Sea Otter. Approximately 1000NM in 7.5
days. I was generally happy with the way
it had gone and had learned a lot about the boat and my sailing skills which I
would work on going forward. I think
Owen was as relieved as I to be on the anchor and finally able to get a solid nights sleep..
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| Opua to Noumea Passage |
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