Wednesday 8 October – speedy day in higher than forecast winds

Rowan had an action packed early morning shift with loads of big squalls, pouring rain and loads of scary lightning about, soooo glad it was not on my shift. The winds were in the twenties most of the day which PolePole just loves. A lot of the day we were doing at least 10 knots of boat speed. In the afternoon we put another reef into the main sail and reefed the jib in, as big squalls loomed. We were very pleased we did this as the boat handled all the weather perfectly. The sea got all churned up and the swell became quite choppy, we were really picking up speed down some of the waves. It reminded us of our sail from Suwarrow to Samoa, big seas and wind too. It has been such a change from the gentle winds we’ve had since arriving in Vanuatu in May. I’m humbled thinking of Claudette handling this all on her own in a small boat, but luckily she learnt to sail on the South African coast at Durban, which is one of the toughest. Very tricky sea along that coast, she used to be in a racing team, which is even more gruelling. She has done the whole South African coast endlessly, up to Mozambique and the Seychelles, down to Cape Town many times along the Wild Coast, so she really is a proficient sailor. She checks in every now and then as she does not run her Starlink all the time as it chews up so much power. She sounds absolutely fine, going slowly, which is sensible with her dodgy shroud and rudder!

We were going so much quicker than expected that it looked like we would arrive at Biak in the dark around 2-3am tomorrow. We hoped the second reef would slow us down, but it didn’t seem to. Biak is an island off the main Papua Island that is joined to PNG. The harbour where we go to check in is behind a reef, it is a big town, so we are expecting a lot of fishing boats and local boat traffic. Much easier to do in day light.

Just as it was getting dark the wind and squalls picked up, we were entering an area between islands and were expecting to have to be extra vigilant for Fishing boats and FADS (Fishing devices anchored out at sea), we had already seen a few during the day. We decided it would be a much easier night shift if we got the sails down, we wouldn’t have to worry about wind direction changes in the squalls, or having to make quick diversions to avoid anything in the water. Of course as we decided to get the sails down, the rain poured down, we had the deck lights on, but still a huge effort in the dark in bouncy seas, in 24 knots of wind. Besides getting a reef line caught, it all worked fine. We just got soaked! We consoled ourselves with delicious slow cooked beef cheeks for supper with mashed pumpkin, a delicious big pumpkin we were given in the Ninegos. We have cleared out most of the fresh veg, except for our mountain of aubergines, which we love. We’ve run out of garlic and a few basics, at least we have enough eggs for breakfast tomorrow. We are definitely looking forward to a supermarket shop and eating out at Indonesian restaurants, much more appealing cuisine than the basics we have had coming through the islands.

My shift until 11pm was very easy with the engines on, and thankfully I never saw another boat or fad.