5 October 2024 –Tahiti – Niue

Before I start I have another need. Someone now cannot make the New Zealand to Sydney leg in early January 2025 so I need ideally a sixth person. You would have to be in Auckland, New Zealand by about 3/4 January 2025 with a view to us leaving for Sydney, weather permitting, by about 7 January 2025. We should get to Sydney by about 14-16 January 2025. If anyone is interested please email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com  Thanks

We sailed on through the night heading as best we could on our course of about 235-245 degrees toward Rarotonga. Sean and I had the 11.00am to 2.00am slot and then we were on again at 8.00am for the day shift until 12.00noon. I had caught Keith’s cold which he had caught off Joyce. This meant that I was struggling a bit to keep awake and my nose was streaming. It was also weirdly cold and I had to put a jumper and a jacket. Bed could not come quickly enough when we finished our watch.

I was up again at 6.00am and chatted with Keith and Joyce who were still on watch. I checked the weather and it was time to gybe really. We could not sail the angle of the models so I pondered sailing as best we could on a starboard tack in one go and then gybe on one tack to Niue. This would mean a sail of about 340nm on one tack and about the same down to Niue. I worked out on the chart when we would need to tack and set up a waypoint. Keith, Joyce and I set about gybing and before long we were on our starboard tack and zooming along about 7-9 kts with the waves helping us from behind and so we were surfing down the waves when they came up behind us.

The sun came out and Sean and I had a busy watch with doing the daily checks and cleaning the saloon. The sea was a deep blue with lots of white from the waves and the waves were still in the region of 3 meters. I cooked bacon and egg for breakfast hand the morning passed quite quickly and we then had chicken and avocado for lunch.

After lunch I had to send a few emails and then I had a rest. When I woke I had a shave and a shower and sat and chatted in the cockpit. I then had a look at the weather and the models suggested we gybe again to take advantage of a slight change in the wind, slightly south of East and which would give us some advantage. We therefore gybed and monitored the situation with the aim being to gybe back again when we come off watch at 11.00pm. After a few hours it did not seem to me to be that much difference and it was about to get dark so I decided to gybe back again and we will continue on this tack probably for a day and a half.

The waves are still quite large and we will be sailing along quite easily and suddenly a big wave swerves the back of Stormbird and then the autopilot reacts and we sway and things can move around. It is quite a difficult motion.

Carolyn made an aloo gobi which we had with chicken and chorizo which was delicious. Whilst she was cooking we had some Tahitian music and everyone was tapping away.

We are settling in for the night and hope the waves calm down more.

The picture of the day is us sailing along and the picture does not really capture the waves.

Crewing Opportunity Year Two

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 then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. 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 then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com