Pitufa.at

We set out from Palmerston this morning into squally weather with strong winds and lumpy seas, caught a tuna within the first hour and did some extreme-fish-filetting (maybe a new discipline for the olympics?)
We all got slightly seasick, so it seems it’s not the sailing that makes us seasick, but the breaks in between. Now I understand the motivation for these non-stop-round-the-world events.

We were racing all day long yesterday averaging 6 knots, but we still didn’t get to Palmerston before midnight. Fortunately a boat we know from the Marquesas and the radio net gave us the exact coordinates of the mooring here, so we managed to pick up a buoy in the dark.

Surprisingly enough the dreaded journey eastwards turns out to be more pleasant than the passage in the ‘right’ direction two months ago. Instead of the sickening rolling motion that we were used to downwind, Pitufa is now ploughing along in fortunately light winds (15 knots from the SSE) doing steadily 60 degrees on the wind. We’re not heeling too much and the boat seems calmer than in the anchorages in Beveridge or Niue…

Later this week strong southeasterlies followed by easterlies winds are forecast, by then we must be tucked away in an anchorage to wait until the wind clocks around again. After pondering this morning’s weather forecast we think we won’t be able to make it in time to Aitutaki, so we have set the course to the tiny atoll of Palmerston. 180 nautical miles to go!

We set out at noon again, going through the pass with 20 knots of wind against current was quite exciting–fortunately we had all hatches closed tightly and we hadn’t lost our sea legs thanks to the bouncy anchorages… We had a humpback whale jumping next to Pitufa right after the pass, caught a big yellowfin tuna half an hour later — looks like it’s going to be a fabulous passage.

Early this morning we reached Beveridge Reef with the last dying breeze. Just in front of the pass two whales surfaced just next to the boat, spouted a few times and disappeared again with a last wave of the gigantic tail fin.

We have used this welcome break in the passage to wash some things that got salty underway, air out towels and clothes, go through our veggie storage, wipe the boat (Leeloo normally sheds part of the fur outside, on passage everything stays inside…), wash our own hair, etc. etc.
It looks like tomorrow the wind will set in from the south again, so we’ll head out on the next leg–we’ll see where the wind will take us (Palmerston or Aitutaki, Rarotonga lies to far south and Suwarow way up north would only come up as an emergency plan in strong southeasterlies).

The wind has finally shifted to the north, but we were pushed too far south already to reach Beveridge Reef before dusk, so we’ve slowed down to get there tomorrow morning. Entering an uncharted submerged atoll at night didn’t seem very tempting, despite the fact that we have our old GPS tracks to follow.

We left Niue at noon today and are sailing in SSE-SE direction. Hopefully the wind will shift further N soon to allow us more easting.

Yesterday it was blowing hard from the Southeast again, we set the windvane to ‘go-as-hard-as-you-can’ and Wayne Vaney sailed Pitufa straight towards Niue. When we contemplated the evening grib, we found that he was probably right: there’s a phase with easterly winds coming up–no good beating into that. Instead we decided to take a break in Niue and wait for the next clocking of the wind.

In the evening the wind freshened up even more during a squall, of course just then the fishing line stretched out and Christian and I cried out at the same time: oh, no! Fish always seem to bite in the least convenient conditions. Christian had to tie himself to the backstay with the harness, while he was fighting the biggest mahi-mahi we’ve caught so far. Butchering the 1.5 m fish on the stomping aft deck was a bloody mess, but at least we have the fridge full of fish again, a very happy cat and enough to give out some to our neighbours in the buoy field of Niue.

We arrived in Niue at 2 o’clock in the morning, but knowing the mooring field from our last stop here (who would have thought that we’d come back so quickly…) it wasn’t a big deal to pick up a buoy in the dark. This morning we cleaned the salt of the decks outside and the passage-chaos inside and now we’re waiting for the officials to check us into the country.

Tonga’s a developing country, but the hospital is surprisingly well equipped, the staff friendly, services are free for locals and very cheap for non-residents, but they don’t have enough doctors (a few GPs, one ear-nose-throat specialist, a pediatrician, a radiologist, one surgeon who has to play specialist for everything else and two part-time surgeons) and therefore the waiting halls are full–we spent 30 hours in July just waiting for appointments. Dr. Kolini (the surgeon) was willing to find the reason(s) for Christian’s nonspecific symptoms (back problems, stomach pains, weight loss) and tried a blood analysis, ultrasound, a CT scan (yes, they even have a scanner) and even an endoscopy, but to no avail. Everything seems normal, but Christian’s still not feeling better. In Tahiti the medical system is at a European level–it’s just cheaper and waiting times are shorter than e.g. in Austria. In the meantime we try back exercises (well, not during this rough passage now) a
nd a gluten free diet (today I made a tapioca-rice-flour flatbread with Pitufa stomping 40 degrees on the wind in 25 knots apparent and heeling quite a bit).

Hundreds of boats sail across the Pacific towards the west each year riding the easterly trades, but only a handful sails eastwards–at least in the trade wind belt. Tough boats from New Zealand who want to sail to French Poly take a ride on the westerlies way down south in the ‘roaring fourties’ and ‘screaming fifties’–their names speak for themselves… When I checked in on the radio net for boats on passage this morning, I had to repeat our course twice, until the moderator finally believed me and added ‘oh, you’re going in the wrong direction’.

We didn’t take this decision lightly, but Pitufa sails well to windward and we’ve done it before when going from Tahiti to the Gambier and from Tahiti to the Marquesas. We set out yesterday in full foul-weather gear into a southerly wind of 20 knots in pouring rain and only about 18 degrees Celsius at the end of a trough that brought nasty weather, but we wanted to get a headstart going with this system. We got seasick like never before with this rough start–poor Leeloo was the only one to throw up though (3 times, to make up for the rest of the crew), but at least we made 120 nm on the first day. Today it’s much more pleasant, sunny and light winds (Leeloo’s already munching cat food again), but while the grib files insist that we have 15 knots from the south, we get 10 knots from the east-southeast instead–and are driven way to far north. Well, Wayne Vaney the windvane is set on a windangle of 50 degrees and we’ll see where he’ll take us. The Cook Islands are spread out f
rom north to south, so we’re bound to manage to get to one of them.

Cruising’s not much fun when you’re not fit and Christian hasn’t felt well since May. We tried everything out the Tongan health system has to offer, but still have no diagnosis. After long pondering we’ve therefore decided to sail back to Tahiti. New Zealand would have been another option, but it’s winter there and difficult with the cat, sailing to Fiji and flying back to Austria would have been other possibility, but then who knows how long that quest would have taken.
Tahiti’s the only option where we can all go together, but it won’t be easy sailing 1500 nm against the prevailing winds.