No respite in South Pacific horrible windward weather

This leg will be remembered as the ultimate test of patience and resilience, it’s been just over a week since we left Wellington, two boats have turned around and headed back in the first big South Pacific blow whilst we pressed on with the full knowledge that it was not going to get better any time soon. After a little break of lighter conditions when the wind switched from South Easterly to North Easterly, we are again beating our brains to mash in 30-35 knots of wind under triple reefed main and staysail.

Ahead of us Cessna Citation sailing at similar speeds to us, behind Phesheya Racing has encountered some very nasty cross seas and has been forced to heave-to, heaving to is a school book technique to basically stop the boat and wait for things to get better, it is surprisingly comfortable and after all the slamming and banging all goes quiet and you can preserve boat and materials in conditions which may otherwise be too risky to sail in…

We are doing well on board and have adopted a 6 hours on and 6 hours off watch sistem, this allows to eat, trim, email, check the weather and perhaps watch a movie during your watch followed by a long rest in the bunk, you don’t really get to sleep the entire time as the slamming and banging is so loud and uncomfortable that you just drift in an out a weird

state of daydreaming.

We have another 12 hours before any significant improvement, as usual we simply hope meanwhile everything holds together as we venture further and further away from any land, we are now 1700 miles directly south of Papeete in the French Polynesia.

Posted by: firstclass