Mon May 08 2023 00:46:00 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
17 57.886s 159 14.950w
We left Bora Bora a few days ago to make the 8-10 day passage to Niue. We did all the typical things to get ready for a long passage: clean the boat, organize the cupboard, buy provisions, inspect the sails, rigging, and other key systems. We watched the weather closely looking for patterns and possible go times.
May 11 was the last day we could be in French Polynesia and we didn’t want to be forced to leave in bad weather. Then go time arrived and we submitted paperwork to check out. It’s a pretty straight forward process. Fill out some documents, submit, wait for the people in Tahiti to send back the exit document, have our passports stamped and mail one of the original forms to Papeete. General checkout time: 1-3 days. Average 2. Ours took 3 because the one person who signs the exit document was out for 2 days.
Finally it was go time. Release from the mooring ball, raise the mainsail, exit the pass, and set our course west. We had a bit of a rough start. It’s clear Graham and I have to learn to sail as 2 instead of 3. No more Kirsten to help manage the lines or helm or a dozen other things reliable crew does.
The first 2 days were rough. Big swell, 2-4 meters. Variable winds. Squalls. A rocking rolly boat downwind. Graham was seasick the first 48 hours and that never happens. I, in turn, was super cranky as I adjusted to type 2 fun. You know, the type of fun that isn’t fun while your in it, but in retrospect is fun, or at least funny.
There is a rhythm to passage making. Each boat finds their on. It’s harder to find that rhythm when people are sick and cranky. The result of expectations not met.
But here we are at the end of day 3. I am on watch. Winds are up as we ride the edge of a squall. More type 2 fun. Stars peak out from the dense clouds periodically. The moon is so bright I could read by it. It was a good day. I spent it on my lovely home, in the middle of a vast, beautiful blue ocean, with my partner in adventure.
~Karri
S/V Pulsar 