Saturday 3 June 2017
60 miles SW of Isle of Pines (New Caledonia)
Lat -23.39584 Lon 167.58676
Hi everyone
Today we celebrate 7 days out of Sydney !
Yesterday evening the wind died off and remained less than 5 knots all night. We motored for 14 hours until midday when a gentle 10 and sometimes 15 knot south westerly arouse which enabled us to hoist the mainsail, unfurl and pole out the jib and get sailing again.
We are still under sail only managing 5 knots or so but it is comfortable, the decks are dry and hatches open. The last forecast we received suggests we can expect much the same wind strength and direction for the next 3 days. This is OK provided the swell stays small. If the swell builds or the wind drops even a few knots Chimere starts rolling too much, the sails slat and bang so we must take them down to avoid doing any damage.
So while the conditions are pleasant we keep busy doing small jobs on the boat, washing, yarning and resting. Yarning has been a treat! Our crew of 5 has enough good stories to fill a decent sized book.
Today we exceeded 1000NM since departing Sydney and at the time of writing have 356NM to run to Port Vila. That’s about two and a half days. Our average daily run has been 149NM which is a respectable speed of 6.1 knots. To do this we have had to motor for 72 hours since leaving the Cruising Yacht Club.
The Vanuatu Customs arrival paperwork requires a list of the crew and their job title. I had given Bruce title of Cook but decided to change it to Chief Baker.
That’s about it for today.
Until next time,
Blessings,
Cam.
PS In looking at the position tracker you can start to see Vanuatu AND New Caledonia on the same page ! Just a few more sleeps and we’ll be in Port Vila