Coral Sea Crossing - Southport to Noumea

Tuesday, 7 June to Monday, 13 June 2016

We cleared customs at 1000 on Tuesday morning as planned and crossed out through the Seaway at about 1100. Songlines was a few miles in front and we set course for the first of MetBob's waypoints. Bob McDavitt (MetBob) provides weather forecasting and routing services and this was part of the reason we joined the Downunder Rally - Go East run by John Hembrow. Bob provided reports to John on Songlines who sent them to us as texts via our satellite phone. Bob had set a course taking us initially south of the rhumbline to Noumea so that we had a good sailing angle when the SE wind came in late in the trip. At noon we were 767 nm from Amadee, the entrance into the Noumea lagoon we would be using.

Songlines departing SYC

We had a 15-20 knot westerly so we made good progress during the day and stayed in contact with Songlines on AIS. At nightfall, we put in a double reef and had a comfortable first night at sea (even though the wind got up to 25 knots and we had a 2m swell) as the wind was coming from astern. I was feeling a bit queasy so ate carefully - apple and dry Jatz for lunch. Warren was cook the first few days until my tummy settled and he did a great job.

By 1000 on Wednesday we had set the spinnaker in a lightening SW wind which was dead astern so we had to gybe downwind. By midday we had covered 150 nm in the previous 24 hours and were now 632nm from Amadee.

By 1530 we were motoring in a light SW and settled in for a quieter evening, we even watched a movie to pass the time on watch (checking every 20 minutes that no other boats were around). We didn't see any for the next 4 days until we approached Noumea.    

Thursday dawned as a beautiful day but with no wind so we continued to motor. At noon  we had covered another 148nm  and were now 513nm from Amadee. At 1220 we raised sails and motorsailed for a few hours before dropping sails again on Thursday evening. Warren pulled out the jib when a light NW wind came in about 0200 on Friday.

When the sun came up, we gave the motor a rest, set the spinnaker, and made good progress to our final waypoint before altering course to Noumea. The Friday noon summary showed another 148 nm covered and Amadee now 371 nm away. We were making steady progress even when motoring on one engine. With the wind forecast to die again overnight we dropped the main at dusk and settled in for another quiet evening.

By Saturday morning, we had 266nm to go, so needed to make great time if we wanted to get to Amadee in daylight on Sunday. A 200nm day was needed – a possibility if the SE came up as predicted. We changed to the genoa, altered course to head directly to Amadee at last and waited for the wind while still motoring along. A frustrating day with wind around the 5 knot mark all day. By nightfall we were back to motoring with a double reef (still waiting for the SE change). When it finally arrived just before midnight, we got sailing again and killed the motor.

On Saturday morning, we realised we were not going to get to the lagoon before it got dark so we started to reduce sail. 8-9 knots under double reef and jib was slowed only slightly when we went to the third reef. At this point we need to average only 5 knots for the last 24 hours so we went to our storm jib, a tiny sail that still had us reaching 7 knots at times in the 25 knot SE winds.

We dropped the main altogether at dusk and tried to sail with just the storm jib but the seas were now up around the 2.5 to 3m mark and the auto pilot was struggling to stay on track. We started a motor and had it just ticking over all night to keep us under 5 knots. It was a very uncomfortable night – no movies - and waiting for light so we could enter the lagoon.

We arrived at the Amadee waypoint at 0600 as planned and were glad to see the seas calm a little as we sailed up the lagoon to Noumea, arriving at 0900 after 877nm in 142 hours.

A big thank you to Peter Mott (Northland Radio in New Zealand) who we reported our position to daily and who relayed MetBob weather and routing reports via HF radio. Also thanks to the good folk at Charleville Radio who also took our position reports and passed them on to our son, Ben who kept our family informed of progress and updated Skipr for us.

PS. Songlines arrived on Sunday morning, avoiding the rough night at sea - the advantages of a 50 foot cat! Print this post