Sailing South for Cyclone Season

⛵️ Kalea, our sailing home 49’ Catamaran, left New Caledonia and headed back South to Opua New Zealand. We had to say goodby to the warm tropical waters and beautiful coral sealife, to seek safety from the upcoming cyclone season. Most cruising boats leave the region of Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia by December and head south, to NZ or OZ, all hoping to return in May, when it’s safe again.

This journey started as a 20 knot bash, meaning close hauled, with not much swell, heading east at first. Rather uncomfortable and loud. As we tacked south, the wind shifted and we still were bashing. Still uncomfortable. Finally the 3rd day we were blessed with a speedy downwind blow but with 3 meter swell forward of the beam. A bit calmer feel, but you still need to keep a seat or hold on while moving about. Every angle of wind and swell is a different feel on a boat, especially on a catamaran. And as most of you know, bashing is never comfortable, in either boat.

Some friends asked about the most used sailing tools that we use. As you can imagine, paper charts are a thing of the past, since Starlink. Our most common tools are PredictWind, Open Cpn, Navionics and out boats Chartplotter program. Also handy are:

You wonder what we do for 5 days in a boat beside sail? Mainly sleep (or try to) eat (or try to) read (or try to) cook (or try to) and maybe watch a few downloaded movies. I have been successful at ocean water sampling for Citizens if the Sea, a fun side hobby so far. If you know me well, I did finish my puzzle the first day, played rummicub the second day, and I tried bananagrams, but it was a bit too lumpy that day. But overall, I am still enjoying the ocean, sunrises, sunsets, stars, my amazing captain, our passage crew friend from California, and our sailing home.

Then, it’s Land Ho! We Motor sailed the last few miles into Bay of Islands, aka Opua, New Zealand. All is well, nothing broken, just ready for some land time. Not much to report about for sealife, one squid on the bow and a few black seabirds, and no fish caught. Oh well, the lamb and meat pies are sounding great! 😋

And last but not least, my favorite video this year, taken on my go pro 12 in New Caledonia. Most of the little islets, as the this French colony calls them, are homes to multiple endangered migratory seabirds and friendly Sea Turtles! We only got to stay a week waiting for the weather window to jump south. So we will be back in May!