Tuna fishing in the North Sea

A happy fisherman

 

We were delighted to reel in our first ever Tuna yesterday evening. These fish are pure muscle so very heavy for their size and this one, though relatively small, put up a good fight before we finally reeled him in. When Graham gutted the fish, its stomach was full of 2" sprats so our squid lure was its last, fatal snack of the day. We now have six very nice Tuna steaks in the fridge for when we get into Niue later this morning.

 

We decided to leave Beveridge Reef yesterday as the forecast was for increasing wind and larger swells; it seems to have been a good decision. We've sailed goose-winged all the way and during the night the wind increased, with occasional gusts of Force 7. We're therefore well reefed down but still charging along at close to our hull speed and Winnie is doing an amazing job at keeping us on course.

 

As light dawned this morning we seem to have accidentally sailed into the North Sea – the sky is grey and a big (3m) swell is crowned with white caps of surf whilst a light and relatively cold drizzle envelopes us. We're looking forward to a sheltered (we hope) mooring spot on the west side of Niue.

Safely(!) anchored in Beveridge Reef

Current position: 20 degrees 01 minutes south, 167 degrees, 45 minutes west

 

Do have a look at this location on Google Earth, if you get a moment. We can't quite believe where we are!

 

It goes completely against the grain to purposefully sail towards a coral reef in the middle of open ocean. Particularly when said reef is about 2 miles adrift from its charted position, is unlit at night and has nothing more than 50cm above the water line; only when we were about 4 miles away did the surf pounding on the coral show up on radar, so our decision to heave-to for 6 hours last night, in order to make a daylight approach, was a sound one.

 

This reef must have claimed many ships and the lives of their crew. By the time an alert lookout spotted the line of white surf (if they were lucky enough to approach in daylight), the unwieldy sailing ships of the 19th Century would have struggled to change course and manoeuver clear. For those unlucky enough to hit the reef, there would be no land for temporary refuge, only razor sharp coral, and no prospect of rescue. There's a wreck of a sizeable modern trawler still visible on the eastern rim and no doubt the remains of other ships beneath the water.

 

Given all that, it was a slightly heart-in-mouth approach that we made this morning, armed only with a sketch-map downloaded from the internet which purported to show the true GPS coordinates of the reef and its entrance to the pass on its western side (we were relieved to find that it was in fact accurate). The pass itself, a quarter-mile wide between two coral banks that were dazzlingly white with crashing surf, had a strong tide and choppy water and, as we slid into the lagoon, the water was so clear that the 7m depth looked, disconcertingly, much less. However, our heart-rates subsided as we moved into the relatively calm water in the lagoon and anchored close to the inside of the SE reef; Graham dived over the side to check the anchor and we attached a fender to the anchor chain to buoy it up over a couple of coral heads below the bow before finally relaxing with a well-earned beer on the foredeck. 

 

So we find ourselves in a refuge of calm in the middle of the ocean where the swell remains at about 2m and the wind is blowing a steady 18 knots. What should such intrepid sailors do in this situation? Go and drink, of course!  So we're invited aboard Genesh, anchored close by, for sundowners this evening and then have a team-effort supper planned aboard Stormvogel; after a sleep-deprived passage it should be a fun evening!

 

We'll stay here tonight and, perhaps, tomorrow night before the final 100 miles or so to Niue where we should have internet access to post a few photos....

 

 

Rarotonga to Niue - Day 4

Position as at 1100 UTC

 

19 degrees, 55 minutes south

168 degrees, 25 minutes west

 

Distance travelled in last 24 hours: 130 nm

 

The latest computer weather models are amazing. The GRIB forecasts we downloaded yesterday suggested that we'd hit the frontal trough, with a big wind direction change, around early evening and sure enough at 8.00pm we sailed into a big black cloud, got rained on a bit and saw the wind swing round, very quickly, from NE to SW. We were able to tack and continue on our course, this time with the boat healing to starboard. The great thing was we were fully prepared for it so there was no drama; if we hadn't had the forecast it would have come as a bit of a shock.

 

The night's sailing wasn't great as the new wind direction was fighting with the old swell direction so it was quite lumpy and uncomfortable. The crews on Maunie and Stormvogel compared notes on the vhf this morning and both agreed it had been a bit of a crap night. However, today we're making better progress and are less than a mile apart, having lost sight of each other in the night. At the moment our speed and course will get us to Beveridge Reef at about 4.00am (which wouldn't be a good idea for an unlit reef that isn't where the charts say it should be) so we're making best speed now and then will heave-to (effectively parking the boat with the sails working against each other to hold us relatively still) tonight for a few hours to make sure of an arrival in good light. Ideally the sun should be reasonably high in the sky to allow us to spot shallow patches in the pass and lagoon. Our only concern at this stage is that the swell is relatively high (over 2m) so this may make an entrance to the reef too difficult, in which case we'll continue onwards to Niue.

 

Many thanks to those who sent us news updates on Syria – we now feel well-informed but, like everyone else, can't see a tidy solution in the offing. We'll go back to worrying about wind and waves!

 

Rarotnga to Niue - Day 3

Position as at 1200 UTC

 

19 degrees, 40 minute south

163 degrees, 55 minutes west

 

Distance travelled in last 24 hours: 131nm

 

Absolutely lovely sailing for the past 24 hours! The nice thing about having the wind from slightly ahead of us is that Maunie just leans into it and charges along, with none of the tiresome rolling associated with downwind sailing. So, once you get used to the angles, it's very comfortable and we are both sleeping well on our off watches.

 

Stormvogel is just 3 miles behind us and we suddenly have another yacht about a mile to starboard. She's called Genesh and is skippered by rather an infamous American chap called 'Fatty' Goodlander! If you Google 'Cap'n Fatty' or look on the website for the San Francisco sailing magazine 'Latitude 38' you'll find his writing - self-deprecating humour with a lot of sailing experiences thrown in. We chatted on the VHF and learned that this is his third circumnavigation; he's spent over 46 years living on various yachts ("I don't go ashore much, as I tend to get arrested") and this one, a Waquiez 43 ketch, is new to them this year. They are heading to Beveridge Reef too so it'll be interesting to meet Fatty and his wife Caroline in person.

 

It looks as though conditions should be about perfect for a stop at Beveridge Reef, once we break through the frontal trough that's approaching us from the west this evening and after that we should have favourable conditions for the 100 mile hop to Niue. It is, as they say, a small world. Graham's Godmother, Sue, has two sons, both working in New Zealand. Alan, who Graham last saw probably 20 years ago, is a doctor and we've just learned that he spent 3 months on Niue as the island's doctor. 'The Rock', as it's known, sounds a really interesting place (limestone caverns and clear waters with visiting whales) so we're really looking forward to seeing it.

Rarotonga to Niue - Day 2

Position as at 0200 UTC

 

20 degrees, 7 minute south

162 degrees, 9 minutes west

 

Distance travelled in last 24 hours: 140nm

 

We left Rarotonga yesterday lunchtime with some sadness – we felt that there was a lot more we'd like to do on the island (we didn't manage to do the cross-island hike, for example) but we decided that one northerly blow in that terrible harbour was enough. There was another northerly due today so we got out in calm conditions and are now heading west.

 

We're facing some intriguing wind conditions – the direction, as forecasted, is going from NE through N and is now just W of N so we are hard on the wind, sails sheeted in and boat heeling over to port but going well. There's a very light swell so we are making comfortable progress at the moment. Tonight and tomorrow the wind will go further towards the west so we'll find ourselves unable to point at our destination and will be heading S of W so for the past 24 hours we've been heading N of our proper course to gain some northerly miles in hand.

 

If conditions allow, we'll make a slight detour for an interesting overnight stop about 100 miles before Niue. There's an isolated coral reef, just awash, called Beveridge Reef that offers a shelter anchorage (from swell not wind) in the middle of the ocean. Finding it might be tricky as it's reported to be up to 3 miles from the position given on the charts and it won't show up on radar! We'll approach with caution.

 

As we left Rarotoga we had a long and friendly chat with the immigrations officer who was trying to make sense of world politics in the wake of the Syria news; we weren't much help! If anyone can email us with a brief synopsis of the latest news (or a cut and past from the BBC website) it would be good to have – we're feeling pretty cut off from the world, particularly at sea, whilst Big (American) Things are afoot. No doubt the Ftse is in turmoil and oil prices are reaching record levels but, like the lady in Rarotonga, it's be nice to be able to make sense of it all. Any emails, as ever, of any content would be very welcome to maunie (at) mailasail.com

Video of the Avatiu Harbour washing machine - and planning to move

We've posted a video of the harbour during the northerly wind - you can view it by clicking here Sorry it's a bit low-resolution but the internet's too slow here to upload a bigger file.

The weather, we're glad to report, has since calmed down and the harbour is once morelike a millpond. However, the unsettled weather patterns continue and there's another northerly due in on Friday; we're not keen to hand around for a second dose. We think there's a little weather window to head west tomorrow, though it'll involve some sailing to windward and heeling over rather than the nice tradewind reaching and running that we'd like. Our target destination in the independent island of Niue, about 620 miles from here, which should take about 5 days. So today we'll do some food provisioning at the good local supermarket then do the rounds of the harbour office, customs and immigration to clear out of the Cook Islands; we'll be sorry to leave.

Celebrating our first year - then suffering in the Avatiu Harbour washing machine

Above: Maunie rocks in the washing machine and the specialist baker's stall at the market

 

Yesterday  (the 30th) was the first anniversary of our leaving England at the start of this little adventure. It was also 12 months to the day that the Biscay Alliance with Stormvogel began, so it was fitting to go to a really lovely restaurant (run by an English couple who previously had a restaurant on the Isle of Arran in Scotland) with Peter and Heidi to celebrate. We'd hired very good 125cc scooters (only £12 per day) so had been exploring the island and had been recommended to go to the Vaima restaurant; the 20 minute ride to the south of the island was well worth it as the meal was delicious.

 

We've really enjoyed Rarotonga so far. The locals are lovely and the Kiwi influence means that there are some great places to eat – even lunchtime cafes have delighted us with fresh salads and puddings to die for. We've even been to the cinema! 'White House Down' was from German director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow so the all-action, God-Bless-America plot was pretty much what you'd expect but we enjoyed the novelty of a proper 150-seat cinema, with about 12 other people.

 

Today, unfortunately hasn't been such a good day, though it started well enough with a walk through the excellent Saturday market and we stocked up on fresh veg and salads plus some very tasty bread, quiche and cakes. The problem has been that the harbour is, as we knew from the pilot guides, absolutely useless if the wind comes from the north and today that's where its blowing from. The excellent harbourmaster, Mr Rasmussen (known to all as Ras, he looks like an ex-rugby player and previously skippered the government fisheries patrol boat) reassured us that the wind would veer from NE to NW through the day but wouldn't exceed 20 knots, so it'd be a bit bumpy but ok. We should explain that yachts moor stern-to at the concrete quay so we drop the anchor in the middle of the harbour and reverse, throwing stern lines ashore and leaving the boats about 3m from the wall, using our dinghies to get ashore. Well, so far the wind has got as far as due north so is blowing straight into the harbour and the wind-driven swell is making life very uncomfortable aboard and downright dangerous to climb the ladders onto the quay from a surging dinghy. The problem is exacerbated by the waves reflecting back from the quay wall so we have a horrible double swell making the boats corkscrew around, with big thumps on the transom as the waves cannon back on to us.

 

Knowing this was coming, we took the precaution of laying a second anchor out yesterday afternoon so are safe enough but others haven't been so lucky. Stormvogel's anchor dragged and she thumped the concrete wall with her stern rail a couple of times (luckily with only minor damage we think) before they could get the engine going to clear out and re-anchor. A ever the other crews were all ready to help, taking shore lines and giving encouragement We daren't leave the boat in case we, or the neighbouring yachts, have problems so we're stuck in what we are now calling the washing machine. As we write, the frontal trough has arrived and its now raining hard (so this must be the rinse cycle!); we're praying that the wind will swing around as quickly as it did the other evening when we were at sea and that we'll have a quieter sea and a night that allows us to get some sleep!!

 

Graham's shot some video of the bouncing boats which we'll upload when we can but in the meantime the photos above give you an idea of the harbour.