agility @ sea

For the first time we have 6 on board our Atlantic 47 Mastfoil. All of the systems are working pretty much as expected and we had a somewhat boisterous first crossing from Moorea to Raitea a couple of days ago. After a full day of activities and a lovely curry chicken and rice dinner we set off around 7:30PM for the 100 Km passage. Winds were blowing about 25 Kts and the swell was 2-3 Meters but the point of sail was a broad reach and the swell was roughly inline with the winds so we had ideal conditions for a crossing. We were a little lucky to have this forecast because we had to get to Raitea a day in advance so that I could scope out an anchorage good for a 4 hour board call at 4:00AM the next morning.

I was able to hike out both jibs with the jib boom vangs and snatch blocks to the outboard cleats which setup the perfect sail shape and most comfortable ride. We had 1 reef in both sails and were sailing about 9 – 11 kts for the first several hours. Several succumbed to the male de mar, but after about 4 hours everyone found a location and position that allowed them to rest if not sleep. We’ll experiment with Transderm-Scopolamine patches for future passages. Luckily, I was still fine with my trusty Accustrap bracelet even though others didn’t find the relief I enjoy from the accupressure.

I was particularly tired from a full day of activities in the sun and the normal stress and anticipation of a crossing, this time with both kids and their significant others. It was not comforting and added to the stress that we got our affairs in order before we left the USA. For those that take on this task, there is a process of determining how everything gets taken care of depending on who dies at what time and every variation of 1-4 of us passing and the use cases of all the different variation but I digress.

When you are the captain and your crew have entrusted you to get them safely across a big ocean you have to be as prepared as possible. When things go wrong on a boat, inexperienced crew can add a new dynamic that complicates the safe operations of making a crossing so you try to think through and anticipate any problems you might have during the crossing.

As it turns out, we set sails and pretty much kept going until the middle of the night after I had put in second reefs. At first the second reef slowed us back down to about 8 kts but after a couple hours when I was asleep we slowed to about 4 kts. Since we were ahead of schedule Jerri didn’t add more sail and I was able to sleep well for an hour or two.

When I got up, I added full sails and with 15 – 20 Kts we were back to 8-10 kts and would reach landfall by about 9:30AM. We came in a smaller less documented pass which is always one of the more risky times of a passage but had no issues and looked at about a half dozen potential anchorages. They were all far from land and didn’t seem to have good cellphone coverage so we passed. Finally we came to Baie Faaroa and anchored in about 50 feet of mud along with a half dozen other boats. A couple from Laguna Beach told us the lay of the land and we did the vanilla farm tour and lazy river exploration that was unique, educational and allowed our crew to get a feel for life in a remote island paradise.

On the passage we made about 100 gallons of water, charged up our batteries with our watts&sea water generator, did a load or two of laundry and each slept the expected amount. All-in-all, a successful passage but as the Captain, I’ll try to improved the comfort of all, perhaps get the kids more involved with watches and try to explain more about what’s going on with the systems and sailing of Agility.

The pictures today are from Magic Mountain which is predominantly displayed on the 100 Polynesie Francaise coin worth about $1. In the background and in the other photo is the anchorage and beach we’ve spent about a week at over the last month just outside of Opunohu Bay. Our local guide says that Captain Cook first anchored in this bay although the bay to the east called Cooks Bay incorrectly get the credit.