Yacht Ambler: September 2016

Monday 19 September 2016

Noumea, New Caledonia

Bonjour

We arrived at the entrance to Havannah Passage, New Caledonia at first light on Sunday morning having had to motor since 2.30am to make the flood tide in the pass, as the wind had died out. We began the next 40 nautical miles of navigation through reef and island passages, arriving in Port Moselle to anchor at 14:40.

Since last Tuesday's post we sailed in beautiful sunny conditions with just our genoa set in the 20 plus knot winds through to Thursday morning when the winds began to moderate to around 15kn. We then set a double reefed main through to Friday midnight shaking out the reefs as the wind moderated further. We enjoyed watching the full moon rise and set each night. At first light on Saturday we exchanged the genoa for our 0.5oz code zero sail. The breeze continued to fade throughout Saturday and disappeared on Sunday at 02:30. At this point we started the engine and passed an outbound cargo ship heading to Vanuatu. We were able to shut down the engine at 09:00 Sunday in favour of the code zero and full main again. The sailing was enjoyable as we cruised past many anchorages and bays we hope to explore later. The lush tropical bush gave way to eroded multi coloured rock and soil hills and gullies, perhaps mined in the past for the rich deposits of nickel.

As we neared Noumea there were hundreds of sailing vessels out enjoying the good trade winds. They ranged from wind surfers through to super yachts. It was a great sight with sails billowing on the iridescent blue waters.

Today we went into town and visited the Immigration, Customs and Quarantine Offices to clear in. It was a nice, easy, welcoming and free procedure, so refreshing. After that we practiced our basic school grade French on the shopkeepers. We're glad most of them speak English!

We covered 678nm in 5 days and 8 hours on the passage from Fiji.
All is bien on board.
Kathy and Wayne

email is via our slow and limited* HF radio email system. * Limited by the atmospheric conditions and propagation of the ionosphere.

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Wednesday 14 September 2016

At Sea, Day 2- Fiji to New Caledonia

On Monday afternoon we cleared out at the Port of Lautoka in Fiji and spent the rest of the afternoon working to windward towards the main shipping channel through the outer reef. After a vivid sunset we discovered we would have some moonlight for at least half the night. We gained the channel but discovered one of the lazy jack cords holding up our mainsail bag needed re-stitching and there was a ship about to enter the narrow channel, so we turned landward and decided to anchor in Momi Bay to sort things out. Momi Bay was really protected and qualified as an allowable anchorage being part of Veti Levu (anchorage is forbidden in the outer islands of Fiji once outbound customs clearance is granted). Besides it sounded and looked a bit rough out there with the breaking waves visible in the moonlight breaking on the outer reef. Thanks Emma for your comment confirming our suspicions.

At first on light Tuesday we departed Momi Bay, with full main and genoa in the now lighter conditions, thanks to the overnight decoupling of wind and sea surface. The sea was running at about 2.5 metres and the wind filled to the predicted 20 knots which had us reefing twice then stowing the main altogether by 10am. The conditions were a bit lumpy but with the wind just aft of beam on, it was comfortable enough.

We have now covered 200 miles at 1700 Wednesday, with another 435 sea miles to go to the entrance of Havannah Passage. Today has been overcast with passing showers. Everything is shades of grey out here.

All is well onboard as we settle into our Swedish watch system.
Kathy and Wayne

At 13/09/2016 7:07 AM (utc) our position was 19°23'S 174°07'E
email is via our slow and limited* HF radio email system. * Limited by the atmospheric conditions and propagation of the ionosphere.

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Monday 12 September 2016

Departing Fiji for New Caledonia

We have just cleared customs at Lautoka, Fiji and we have set all plain sail, working towards the main shipping channel entrance through the reefs of Fiji. We are expecting South East trade winds of up to 20 knots to help us on our way once we clear the outer reefs. We expect the voyage to take up to 7 days.

We hope you enjoyed the photos

All is well onboard
Kathy and Wayne
At 28/08/2016 5:35 AM (utc) our position was 17°39'S 177°21'E
email is via our slow and limited* HF radio email system. * Limited by the atmospheric conditions and propagation of the ionosphere.

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radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com