We’re about 150 miles from entering the pass into New Caledonia’s southern lagoon. From there, it’s another 40 miles or so to the big city – Noumea. We hope to get to the pass tomorrow morning with the incoming tide.
It’s been quiet out here. We’ve only seen three ships so far this passage – a fishing boat and two cruise ships. We took some pictures to show how hard it is to see even huge ships on the horizon. We’ll put them together into a blog post when (if) we get good internet access. This ship, Rhapsody of the Seas, passed about a mile from us. We couldn’t make out people on board but we still waved like silly sea monkeys. (OK, metaphor troubles. I have at-sea brain.) -Rich
Indecision may or may not be our problem. We’re leaving Suva, Fiji in a few minutes and we think we’re headed to Noumea, New Caledonia, but as we looked again at the weather this morning, we were still looking at two destinations…
New Caledonia or New Zealand?
We’ll at least start out for Noumea. The weather for that passage looks pretty good right now. If all goes well, we should get there Monday. From there??? -Rich
November 24 2014 while sitting in Suva, waiting for weather…
Coin Flip (full) – a highly accurate, weather prediction app.
In the almost three years that I’ve been keeping statistics on weather prediction, I’ve been correct about the weather 19.276 percent of the time while Coin Flip (full) has been accurate 50.012 percent of the time.
Ok, maybe I’m lying, but it’s a lot of fun. Just last night, we let it decide who got the first shower.
Speaking of weather, here’s the current scoop. We got the word from our weather router, Bob McDavitt, that a passage departing Suva, Fiji for Noumea, New Caledonia on Wednesday was likely to be OK. Noumea was in our plans way back when we left for the tropics but went away as we spent too much time in Tonga. It’s back! Sailing to New Zealand right now looks unconfortable so we’ll wait in New Caledonia for a while. If weather gets better over New Zealand in the next few weeks, will go there from New Cal. If not, maybe we’ll head to Australia. Stay tuned. -Rich
We’d been anchored in Suva for a while. It had blown and we hung solid on our anchor in just 10 feet of water. According to forecasts (ha, ha, ha), it was going to blow a little bit today, maybe 15 knots, but nothing we hadn’t seen here already. We had no worries so we went to see Interstellar.
Like a good movie-going citizen, I turned off my phone at the start of the show and settled in for what was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Like a good internet citizen, I turned my phone back on as soon as the movie ended.
First message: Call us – your boat drug anchor!
Second message: Legacy is OK. The marina staff and a few neighbors got her floating and tied up to a mooring.
With lunch plans canceled, we headed back to the yacht club, slightly panicked and not really knowing the state of our floating home.
A Rockna 20 ( like ours only cleaner!)
This was the first time we’ve really drug. We’ve had the anchor “ooze” a bit during blows – you know, creep maybe 10 feet, downwind – but never drag. Our anchor is a 20 KG Rockna (44 pounds) with 1/4″ high-test chain. It’s been great in that it sets easily and holds flawlessly, until now.
The wind turned south, the seas built and neighbors told us waves were breaking over the anchored boats’ bows. We don’t know how strong the wind got, maybe only 20 knots or so, but it seems like it’s the combination of the wind and wind waves that caused the problem.
We’d drug towards the breakwater surrounding the marina and grounded on the soft, shallow mud this side of the breakwater. Neighbors alerted the marina, the marina sent out two guys on in small skiff and between the efforts of the marina staff and two of our neighbors, they were able to get Legacy’s engine started, the anchor and chain pulled in by hand and then safely tied up to a mooring buoy.
Once aboard, we anxiously inspected our boat for damage and found none, except a little orange smear of paint on our bow that will easily wipe off (if we don’t choose to leave it there as a reminder that maybe we aren’t as safe as we think we are). We moved to another bay near Lami so we’d be out of the waves and the next morning, I snorkeled to inspect the bottom. Perfect. Not a mark.
Why did our anchor hold through so much and then let go? I really don’t know. When we pulled our anchor up after re-anchoring at Lami, there were two plastic bags on the anchor. Maybe that’s the Universe’s way showing us what happened. Maybe when the wind clocked from east to south, the anchor snagged some debris and couldn’t reset in the new direction. (Everyone knows there’s a lot of debris in the Suva harbor.)
I think I’ve lost my ability to live in anchor denial. Now I can’t believe that just because it’s always held, it always will. Now it hasn’t always held. I think I’ll try to buy my denial back by purchasing the next size larger anchor and chain in NZ.
I use an anchor alarm a lot of the time, and even more now. I wrote about an anchor alarm I use on my Android phone that I’m happy with and because it’s on my phone, it uses very little power. It can also send a text message if we drag while away from the boat (like at a movie!). We’re using that feature now and I had it running yesterday when we saw the new Hunger Games movie (that’s right, we worked up the courage to leave the boat to see another movie).
Thank you dinner. Left to right: Barbara, Dennis, Marc, Kat, Cyndi, Me and Becky.
I’d like to offer another big “Thank You” to Tuuletar, Land Fall, and the guys at the Royal Suva Yacht Club. We brought Kava (and some cash) to the yacht club guys and took Tuuletar and Land Fall out for dinner. This is an amazing community out here and these are fine examples of this community’s best citizens. Because of them, Legacy is around for more adventures. -Rich
I just want to take a moment to rave about our new favorite piece of equipment! Well, I don’t know if you’d call it equipment exactly. It’s a canvas curtain that goes over our companionway. It was Rich’s idea, and I have to admit when he first talked about having it made I didn’t quite get it. Now I wouldn’t be without it!
The Magic Curtain.The curtain can partly cover the companionway.
The curtain stays snapped to our cabin top, under the dodger, and folds back out of the way when it’s not needed. When it is needed, it can be adjusted to cover as much as the companionway as we wish.
The curtain keeping the sun off the computer yet letting air in.
The main time we need it is when we’re underway. When it’s rainy or rough, we’d have to put in our hatch boards to keep water from coming in the boat. It’s a pain to keep those boards handy and maneuver them into place while the boat’s pitching around. We’d then have remove them to go outside, which is not a good thing if we’re in a hurry.
Now we just pull the curtain down and getting in and out is fast and easy. There is a gap between the bottom of the curtain and the companionway step for air flow, but if it’s very wet or cold, we simply fill that gap with the bottom hatch board.
The curtain from inside.
Over the months to come we found many uses for the curtain. It actually helps keep the boat cooler in sunny weather, yet warmer in cold weather. That’s why I call it the Magic Curtain. It’s also very nice for privacy or to pull over the companionway if we’re leaving the boat but don’t want to lock it up. This curtain will definitely go down in our history as one of Rich’s greatest ideas. –Cyndi
The curtain is perfect for squally weather.And when it isn’t squally, the curtain is folded back out of the way.
Wendy from the Canvas Locker in Tauranga NZ made the curtain for us and did a wonderful job. Thanks Wendy.
