Faaite -Tuamotu to Tahiti 23 July 2024

It is my Mum’s birthday today so happy birthday Mum and I hope you had a great rest of the day after we spoke.

After supper we were into the night watches and the waves were quite large (estimate 3-4 meters) and due to our course were hitting us in the side and  rolling us quite a lot. This made life quite uncomfortable. We had shortened sail we were roughly averaging 6 kts so it was not our speed but it was the fact that we would be rolled by one large wave passing under us and before we had fully recovered the next one came. Everything was clanking in the boat and the contents of cupboards were rattling. If you tried to rest or sleep you were rolled around in your bed even though we had lee cloths to stop us falling out.

If you were in the cockpit you had to be careful of falling off the benches and initially you could not see the waves due to cloud, but you could hear them coming as they were breaking nearby with a bit of a roar and you can sometimes hear them hitting the side of the boat.  There is not a lot you can do in these situations but grin and bear it and try and make it as comfortable as possible. One thought I had was to go off our course and to have the waves coming more toward the stern sort of behind us. This helped a little but they came from different directions and it did not completely resolve the problem. The wind was due to reduce to a maximum of 22 kts but we had gusts of 32.5 at one point. (force 8) This was not forecast nor were the wave heights which were to only be about 2.8 meters. Waves are created by wind and if the wind stays strong so do the waves.

We passed an uncomfortable night with very little sleep and withstanding the conditions. There were no other boats around and no radio traffic. The moon did come out later in the night and we could then see the disturbed sea and the waves coming toward Stormbird. Stormbird took it all in her stride and we were well reefed down and you never felt unsafe. 

The sun rose and we could see the waves again fully and as the day wore on they gradually declined as did the wind. We were still on course for Tahiti to arrive at first light and we adjusted our speed to try and maintain that situation. However, whilst the wind was supposed to be East South East  it was in fact the North side of East and occasionally Northeast. This meant we could not sail direct to our waypoint off Tahiti and had to tack across on the opposite tack for an hour and a half. This meant during that time we were no closer but getting ourselves to an angle where we could tack back again and sail to the waypoint.

After our tack all went well until the wind shifted again off course and we discussed what to do. We thought sail as far as we could and then motor or continue to tack but this would delay our arrival. This wind shift was not forecast which was frustrating. However, to our surprise and luck the wind heard us and came round again so we were able to sail direct to our target.

As the sun was going down we had to deal with some menacing rain clouds which increased the wind and we had to reef down and then after they had gone put out more sail to maintain our speed to the waypoint off Tahiti.  

We had supper of chilli and rice which was warming. We have noticed as we have got closer to Tahiti that the evenings and nights are cooler and we  needed to put on a jacket or extra clothes.

We settled down to our second night and hope to reach the entrance to Papeete at about 7.30am tomorrow.  It will be exciting to see Tahiti in the light as we are approaching in the dark. We have some more roll again but not as bad as last night.  

The picture is the night version of our chart plotter.

Crewing Opportunity Year Two

In addition, in year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and probably across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town and I will need some more crew.  

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk