Yacht Delivery Blog

The GRIB files have been spot on since we left, and we're currently in a large area of blue on the weather map, indicating almost no wind. It seems like the breeze won't return until tomorrow as we approach Vanuatu. We've had a quiet 24 hours, without even a chance to trick Rhona and getting her to stand under the boom. The only excitement has come from dodging fishing boats. Last night, we encountered a 25 nautical mile stretch of sea so crowded with fishing vessels that we had to navigate around it; I'm not sure we could have squeezed through between them. I hope this isn't a sign that there are no fish left in Asia so they are over here taking the South Pacific fish. I am sure Fiji , Vanuatu and the rest of the Pacific islands don't have the resources to monitor their waters, and even if they do then actually getting out to sea is a different story. The Fijian 'navy' recently put their latest high tech patrol boat through initial sea trails which unf...

We cast off on time yesterday! A sea breeze was blowing as we hoisted the reefed mainsail and made our way towards the pass. We did a bit of a test sail and unfurled the headsail in the protected waters of the bay before heading out to the open sea. But as we reached open water, things were looking a bit "spicy," so we put in the second reef. We made good time heading west for a few hours at 8-10 knots, and, of course, I fell into my usual trap of calculating our arrival time (never a good idea!). Gradually, the wind started to increase and shift further east. Keeping our angle to the wind meant we were steadily heading further south, and as the wind started to pick up so we slowly started to furl the headsail as we went. By around 4 pm, the sky had darkened considerably, looking particularly ominous to the south. With the wind starting to gust to over 30 knots, we put in the third reef and gybed. With almost perfect timing, the wind eased right off, came around to the north,...