Day 3: Passage New Caledonia to New Zealand

Overnight, continued our same course and sailplan (a reefed main and genoa), waves still forward of the beam. At one point, on my watch, the winds kicked up along with the seas prompting Calder out of bed to see what was going on. He said his feet and legs were lifting off his bed as he lay there! After he ensured all was okay, he went back to his “roller coaster cart” bed he declared.

In the words of Kermit the Frog, “It’s not easy being green.” Calder is the only one of the four of us who is fully functioning well! I’m glad that I meal-prepped, as there is no cooking in these seas. Though I also don’t feel like eating, all of us eating what sounds good. Potato chips are Cora’s main meal right now; she says they settle her stomach. I’m liking granola bars. Fruit is tasting good to all of us, mainly pears. And the baguettes that I froze from New Caledonia have been a hit.

We are not just playing with the wind, but also riding current bands. Overnight, we had some current against us, but were able to “cross” the current stream at the narrowest point. Now, we are heading toward a “slingshot” of current that we hope will give us up to 2 knots boost for many hours.

We wave goodbye to Norfolk Island, needing to push east, storm line on our tails. The further south and east we get, the severity of the storm band decreases. And we needing to get to NZ on the other end before another system moves in. This makes us sail faster which, in these seas, means chunkier. But we are making great time! There is also the possibility of a cyclone forming over Norfolk this weekend and we want no part of that. In fact, there’s already a cyclone near Darwin, Australia and two other hot spots up near Fiji that may turn cyclonic. It serves as a reminder of why we are heading south and makes this nauseating seastate more bearable.

Overnight, 4 hours of rain, but only rain – no elevated CAPE or thunderstorms, didn’t even show up on radar. Excellent. Continued to make awesome time in a band of current that gave us an additional 1-2 knots speed in the right direction. Our weather router, Jamie of TRU, provided us a waypoint to aim for to catch this slingshot of current, so I’m naming this 10-hour ride “Jamie’s Magic Carpet Ride.” Yee-haw! Thanks Jamie!

Miles in last 24 hours: 206.7 nm (a new record for us!!!)

Average speed last 24 hours: 8.6