Our trip from Tahuata Southeast to Fatu Hiva put us pretty hard on the wind, at times not even laying the course. Wind was up and down with several squalls and the seas were 1 - 2 meters forward of the beam, so the ride was rough and lumpy. We began with a full main sail, then reefed, then reefed again and furling part of the jib to manage the big gusts in the squalls. By the time we had arrived in Fatu Hiva Celine made it clear that she wouldn't be interested in a trip to Gambier if those conditions prevailed. In truth she wasn't alone, as none of us was up for a 5 - 6 day beat to windward, regardless of the prize at the journey's end. We're out here cruising for goodness sake, the very definition of which is "downwind sailing is the rule, not the exception". Beating to windward is hard on JollyDogs and it's hard on her crew - that's a point of sail for your racing folks, thank you very much.
We were hard on the wind for 2 - 3 days back in October returning to the Marquesas for cyclone season. Wasn't fun, and we're still sorry Shawnee had to spend her hard-earned holiday enduring that trip. Darned weather just didn't cooperate with us, as generally we should have had much more favorable conditions. If there's anything I truly hate when flying or sailing, it's having to operate to a hard schedule. Makes things hard at times, and generally increases risk of mishap.
We were keen to sail to Gambier, but the nearly 800-mile voyage was only to be attempted with a favorable long range forecast which simply refused to appear. That factor combined with an evolving family situation back in England helped us rethink our plan, and now we're going to lurk the Marquesas before enjoying a nice downwind sail to the Tuamotus. There's plenty we haven't explored here, and while Pat sailed through here about 30 years ago, Celine hasn't seen any of it.
Yesterday we would up our time at Fatu Hiva and said goodbye to lovely Hanavavae Bay. We spent the day sailing at about 120 degrees apparent wind up to Hanatefau Bay on the West side of Tahuata. This is a place Isabel has been Jonesing to visit, and finally we're here. Pat and Celine got to see what JollyDogs does in good cruising conditions, and we blasted along at up to 10 knots surfing down waves with full main and jib in up to 20 knots true wind and 1 - 2 meter seas on the starboard stern quarter. Fun fun fun, easy on our girl's rig and Chevy the autopilot.
One of our operational procedures out here is to be very careful about sailing in the lee of these islands. Our course line had us very close to shore on our departure from Fatu Hiva and our arrival at Tahuata. There are several canyons on both islands where the Easterly wind gets seriously amplified before exiting on the West side of the island. It isn't uncommon to experience steady state winds of 10 knots with gusts above 30, so our tiny brains say "diesel is cheap, sails are expensive". We motored until we were away from Fatu Hiva then deployed full sails and had a great day. Arriving near the South end of Tahuata we fired up the diesels and came head to wind, dropping main and furling jib before motoring on to the lee of Tahuata and several miles up the coast to our preferred anchorage. Good thing we did too, as the wind direction was all over the place, and passing a couple of those "amplifiers" found us in winds rising from almost calm to 26 knot gusts in just a few seconds. No time to throw in a reef in those conditions!
Anyway, we had a killer sail (and motor) trip logging almost 45 miles at speeds up to 10 knots. Nobody got wet and nobody got beat up. We fished without luck, but as they say, a bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work.
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