Last night was rough. The 11ft seas from yesterday’s forecast materialized, tossing Sabado in every direction. It was difficult to hear anything over the roaring sound of waves breaking and the howling wind. As the sun began to rise, I realized one of our lazy jacks had become disconnected and was dangling below the boom. If we needed to drop the sail or reef again in these conditions, we’d risk the mainsail spilling out to one side. This is not the first time we’ve encountered this issue. I apologetically woke Ray up, knowing he’d want me to send him up the mast to fix it— a tough start to the day.
He attached the topping lift to his bosuns chair and used the spinnaker halyard as a safety line. We should have taken a minute to think before getting started because I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the winch, wind, and waves, and he couldn’t use hand signals because he needed to cling to the mast so as not to get thrown around with the motion of the boat. We should have grabbed our headsets. Instead, he yelled as loudly as he could, and I pretty much just stopped and started the winch when I saw his mouth open. It was not a perfect process. We were both frustrated, but we had to work through the situation at hand. I brought him up past the spreader, and he was able to reconnect the lazy jack and descend to safety. He got tossed around pretty aggressively, so I’m sure he’ll have some bruises tomorrow. He laid back down for a while before making us some coffee and relieving me from watch.
I sat in the cockpit, sipping my coffee and marveling at the ginormous waves. I ooh’d and ahh’d at them as they rose above the solar arch, curling at the top before breaking and sending us soaring forward. Unfortunately, our ETA was not panning out in our favor. As is, we’d arrive at the pass at sunset, forcing us to drift around for 12+ hours waiting for daylight before entering. We decided to drop the sails so we could motor dead downwind, directly to our destination, shaving several hours off the trip. We caught our first glimpse of land just after lunch.
We raised our Q flag as we entered Tongan waters. The clouds parted as we navigated the pass, so we had excellent visibility to avoid the reef on either side.
The current was strong, but Ray used both engines to keep us on course while I watched for hazards from the bow. There was only one other boat in the lagoon, so we dropped anchor, kicked back, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. The wind picked up, bringing us a nice cool breeze through our open hatches. It smells clean and fresh here. We’ll sort out the check-in process tomorrow, but for now, we’re going to sleep!
Here are our stats from this passage, courtesy of Saillogger—
Distance: 1375.4 miles
Duration: 9 days, 7hrs
Avg Wind Speed: 18.1kn
Avg Speed Over Ground: 6.1kn
Thanks for following along! We’ll resume regular video/blog postings next week. :)