Saturday, August 30, 2014

30 August - The Best Passage Ever

0600 position 23-49S 147-41W. Off Raivavae

More of the same beam reaching today in light southerly winds and pretty
smooth seas. The wind came forward for about an hour during Matt's
morning watch and for a while we were concerned that we wouldn't lay
Raivavae on starboard tack. But it lifted us back up and more, so it has
been an easy reach into the island.

Matt is being his creative self with the ahi. Last night it was delicious
seared ahi steaks with a mayo-shoyu-wasabi-sugar sauce, pasta, and slaw.
So ono.

As I write this in the wee hours of Saturday morning, we are creeping in
toward Raivavae with just a double reefed mainsail up and sheeted hard
trying to go slow so we don't arrive at the lagoon entrance pass before
first light.

The trip here from Vava'u has been the most satisfying sailboat passage of
my life. What conventional wisdom says is a 1500 mile beat to weather
that only a masochist would attempt was for us a downwind sleigh ride
better than almost any Transpac Race. We were certainly lucky with the
weather, but we timed our departure and purposely sailed hundreds of miles
south of the straight line course to put ourselves in a position to get
lucky. Had we left when we were ready and sailed a conventional route,
most of the favorable winds we enjoyed would have passed us by and this
trip would have been weeks longer and a whole lot less enjoyable. I wish
my father, Bob Leary, a Transpac Race weather routing pioneer, could have
been here with us. He would be as pleased as we are.

The masthead light is out and one of the solar panel support tubes got
bent by a breaking wave, but these will be easy to fix. Otherwise, the
Mighty Moku pe'a came through the passage unscathed. I am grateful that I
had a partner with Matt's skills, focus, and commitment to get us through
the sketchy periods. I suspect the repair list would be a lot longer if
he hadn't been here.

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