Monday 19 August 2019, Coffs Harbour
At 10:30 Kathy and I rowed ashore from the courtesy mooring just outside the marina, armed with our passports and new ships documents. After conducting a search around the marina building we discovered a set of stairs leading up to the customs office. We were greeted by the border force official with "ah you must be off Ambler". They had a great view over the harbour from their office and were expecting us. There were of course forms to fill out and a few lengthy phone calls from the officer in regard to how he was to handle our very new passports. Once clearance was completed we rowed back to Ambler, lashed the dinghy on the deck then had an early lunch. We let the mooring go at noon with a calculated 859 nautical mile voyage to the Amedee Pass at the outer reef of New Caledonia ahead of us. Once clear of the outer harbour breakwater we set sail (a mainsail with 1 reef and a full headsail) in an 18 knot south easterly which soon built and veered to the south to over 20 knots. We took a second reef to better balance the boat in the rough sea. At 16:00 the sea was quite boisterous as we were passing over the continental shelf. All of a sudden the headsail sheets fell to the deck and the headsail began flogging wildly. We soon realised the webbing holding the stainless clew ring had parted company with the sail so we furled the headsail and lashed it to prevent it unwinding. We then unfurled the staysail and set it while we assessed our options. We could have returned to Coffs but the 21 miles we had come would have taken a lot longer (working to windward) than the 4 hours it took to get to this point. We decided to push on as we were still making good speed and we would deal with the headsail once the conditions abated. We carried this sail configuration through the night.
Tuesday 20 August
We shook out the 2nd reef in the mainsail at 07:40 as the wind had eased to a southerly of 15 knots. We felt a bit underpowered at this point but the sea was still randomly breaking across the foredeck.
Our noon to noon mileage was 131, which isn't bad for a bird with a broken wing. The sea and wind had subsided enough, so we unfurled and lowered the Genoa. Ian Short had originally built the sail in 1999 and had put a big stainless eyelet through many 10oz sailcloth layers and that had served well for 17 years. Back in 2016 the sailcloth was noticeably soft and fraying around the perimeter of this eyelet, so the eyelet was cut out and a new stainless ring was laced in using webbing that was then sewn onto the multiple layers of cloth by a sail maker in New Zealand. We started sewing new straps on by hand but it would have taken us ages as we had trouble getting the needle to penetrate the layers of cloth and webbing, so thinking of the great service that the original ring provided, we instead decided to punch and islet 9 new 10mm holes through the sail fabric radiating from the ring. We then laced the stainless clew ring onto the sail via some 4mm cord tied through all these new holes. We dragged the sail forward then hoisted it again at 13:30 and imediately set the pole to run wing and wing with a full main.
Unfortunately the wind continued to abate during the evening and we were left with a confused sea and not enough breeze to keep steerage way so at 20:00 we decided to motor which would also recharge the batteries as the cloudy conditions today hadn't helped our solar panel's capabilities. An hour and a half later we reset the sails to a light north westerly and a calmer sea.
Wednesday 21 August
The seas continued to abate with a westerly of 15 knots at midnight and it was was pleasant sailing for the first time on the passage. By noon we had covered 127 nautical miles in the last 24 hours. The westerly built up to over 20 knots during the afternoon and we had 3/4 of a headsail set on the pole and 1 reef in the main which we carried through to after midnight.
Thurday 22 August
At 01:30 we lowered the pole and unfurled the headsail as the wind had decreased a bit and veered to the north west. We were beam reaching in 15 knots through to just before noon when the wind began to build again. At noon our daily run was 157 and we had 2 reefs in the mainsail and a full headsail. At sunset we decided to lower the mainsail as the wind was predicted to rise further. I then felt something hit me in the back, I turned around then looked down, it was a flying fish at my feet in the cockpit, I sent him back to the Dorados which may have been giving chase at the time. The sea and wind continued building as we furled away some headsail through to 22:30 when a south west change at up to 30 knots hit with a cold rain squall (perhaps a farewell gift from Tassie).
Friday 23 August
The cold south westerly with a few accompanying squalls remained with us through to the afternoon as we continued sailing with a reduced headsail. We had covered 154 nautical miles noon to noon. The wind began to back to the south and moderate allowing us to open more headsail to suit the conditions. At 22:00 a glow was seen on the horizon directly in front of us. This soon became a row of square lights which looked strangely like a house. I altered course 20 degrees to keep a safe distance and made a call on the radio three times before getting a response. It turned out to be an Asian fishing vessel and he confirmed there were no other fishing vessels in the area.
Saturday 24 August
As the wind was forecasted to back further to the east on Sunday, we altered course to steer more to the south of our lay line. We were sailing still with a reduced headsail which we were able to unroll completely by dawn, we then raised a mainsail with 2 deep reefs at 09:15 as the wind had eased further in strength. We were then close reaching in a warm south easterly. At noon our daily run was 133 nautical miles. Our battery power had suffered due to the lack of sun on our solar array so we deployed our tow generator. Basically it is a propellor on a shaft attatched to a 30 metre rope which spins a permanent magnet motor mounted on the aft railing, this is wired in to a regulator to put power back into our batteries. At 13:30 we raised the full main. The wind direction continued backing through the night and at midnight we had the sails sheeted in hard going to windward.
Sunday 25 August
The breeze continued easing in strength and it became dificult to keep the sails from backing as we went over the large swells from the south. We had to do some motoring in the light conditions before dawn to help. At 07:30 with more breeze, we engaged our Fleming windvane "Kev" and he managed to adjust the course over each swell a lot better than we could. He sought out and followed all the wind shifts too as we got ever closer to New Caledonia. At noon our daily run was 129 nautical miles with just 40 to go to the Amedee Pass. We then had to put a reef in the main and added another reef half an hour later to keep the boat balanced as we worked to windward in 20 knots. On Kathy's watch the clouds on the horizon ahead of us began to look like land during the afternoon . So she gets the icecream. We advanced the time 1 hour at 1600 to agree with New Caledonia time. We found Kev had done a marvelous job getting us directly to Dumbea Pass at 20:30 even though we had originally intended to enter via Amedee Pass which was further to windward. There were enough lights to guide us in on this seconday pass so we disconnected Kev and entered. Once inside the reef the wind abated rapidly so we decided to continue under motor through the marked reef chanels and entered Port Moselle, Noumea and found a convenient empty mooring just before midnight local time. We had covered 56 nautical miles since noon.
In total we had covered 885 miles in 6 days and 10.5 hours with an average of 5.7 knots.
Monday 26 August, Noumea
First thing in the morning we hoisted the anchor up from the forepeak with a halyard and re fitted it to the chain (which hangs from a hook in a rubber bung blocking the spurling pipe when we are at sea) and moved off to anchor nearby. We launched the dinghy and made our way to the three offices of Customs, Immigration and Quarantine. The latter was closed between 9am and 12:15pm for morning tea. So we had a wobbly wander around town and found our favourite pattisiere that sold chocolate croissants. After lunch we revisited the Quarantine office who organised us to go alongside the marina for inspection and final clearance at 14:30. We then moved back to anchor and began the big clean up and wash down of salt over the next 3 days between trips ashore to replenish supplies, stretch the legs and explore.
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