People always advise you to wait for perfect sailing conditions. “The patient skipper always has good wind,” is the saying. But what are perfect sailing conditions? Based on our six years of experience, there is no such thing as perfect sailing conditions. As in real life, compromises are always necessary. The willingness to compromise correlates with the expected defects on board.
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| South Pacific |
So we compromise and set off on our trip from Fiji to New Zealand. Clearing customs and immigration goes smoothly and is done in half an hour. We organized our departure at the marina beforehand and are allowed to stay at the buoy a little longer than usual. The wind is weak, and we plan to motor the first leg to the outer reef. The weather forecast predicts moderate winds of 15 knots from the south. Not exactly our preferred wind direction, as we want to head south, but that's part of the compromise. The lack of wind in Denarau proves deceptive in the channel, with winds blowing against us at 11 knots. That would be northwest, which is perfect for our plan to sail south. However, the wind follows the coastline and, after the first few miles, continues to turn south until it finally comes from the south-southwest. So, sailing is out of the question for now. The outer reef also protects us relatively well from the waves. That changes when we pass through the pass in the southwest of the main island of Viti Levu. A short wave only 1.5 meters high but coming every three seconds from the southeast awaits us and shakes us up considerably. There's no time to get used to it; we're hit with the full force of it right away. Fortunately, the wind has shifted further south and is now coming directly from the south, allowing us to sail southwest. Instead of the forecast 15 knots, we now have 21 knots. To avoid sailing completely west, we are taking a 60° close-hauled course. This is a reasonably acceptable compromise for a catamaran, as the speed decreases rapidly when sailing even closer to the wind. In addition, we already have an apparent wind of 25 to 27 knots acting on the rig. The slack in the starboard shroud is somewhat worrying. The Katinka Enjoy is sailing towards the afternoon sun at up to eight knots. The wave pressure under these conditions is enormous in this region of the South Pacific. The blows under the bridge deck are violent and frightening. Inside, we can only move around on all fours. Outside, we always need one hand to hold on. Fortunately, at least the sun is shining. The wind increases to 25 knots true wind and 30 knots apparent wind. This is not the compromise we had imagined. The conditions continue for four days and nights. The only difference is that the wind shifts to the southeast and then to the east-southeast, which gives us the opportunity to set a direct course for our destination, Opua in New Zealand. With the small detour we had to take at the beginning, that's a mere 1,100 nautical miles. On the morning of the fifth day, the wind suddenly dies down. The sea slowly calms down, and we also start to relax a little. Conditions like these are particularly exhausting for a small crew, because even at night, many tasks have to be done in pairs, which means you hardly get any sleep.
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| 330 nautical miles to New Zealand |
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| Bridle secured |
The violent impact of the waves beneath the bridge deck and against the hulls tore away the deflector plate of the bilge pipes for the cockpit and, on the starboard side, the anchorage of the bridle from the hull. Now, when a wave hits the bridge deck from below, a fountain shoots out of the bilge pipes. The problem is that on a Lagoon 421, these pipes are located in the entrance area to the saloon. So this can sometimes be a rather wet affair. There is little we can do about it except stuff the holes with cloths, which carries the risk of not having sufficient water drainage in the event of a wave coming over the top. We accept this compromise, as otherwise the entire saloon would be flooded under these conditions. We consider the probability of a wave coming overboard to be rather low.
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| Drain pipes in front of the saloon entrance, Lagoon 421 |
Water keeps pumping into the ship through the hole left by the torn-out bridle, which then activates the bilge pump. With the swell now exceeding three meters, it's a hairy business to be up front on the foredeck. However, what needs to be done must be done. While recovering the bridle, I notice that the line of the furling genoa has been damaged by the rope. This line also needs to be replaced.
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| New rope for the roller-furling genoa |
Then our dinghy took quite a beating from the short, violent wave. The dinghy, which was already suffering from a slight loss of air, was completely rubbed raw by the wave and lost air in two chambers. We'll probably need a new one in New Zealand. Last but not least, one of our toilets broke down. AI claims that in most cases the vent is clogged. After I confidently tackled the problem and found myself up to my elbows in shit, I came to the sobering realization that AI is not yet what some computer geeks would have you believe. The black water tank is still clogged, and I have a bad feeling about what this problem will bring. But before this gets too unpleasant, I'll leave it at that for now. An emergency call we received proves that things can get even worse. A yacht about 100 nautical miles ahead of us has suffered rudder damage. An emergency rudder has been built, but it only seems to work when the engine is running. As the diesel seems to be running low, we were asked if we could spare some diesel. We can, but then we won't be able to motor as much during the calm. Now we are slowly catching up again, as the yacht was faster under emergency rudder and motor than we were under sail. In the meantime, however, a yacht from Opua rushes to the aid of the two Frenchmen on the yacht. We keep an eye on them anyway, in case they still need something. Well, compromises can cost a lot of money on other yachts too. The main thing is that no one gets hurt. After two days of light winds, we finally have some wind again and are sailing through the South Pacific at five knots. Another 300 miles to Opua. We can do it. We wish you always fair winds and keep a stiff upper lip.
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