Dani and I do our first passage just the two of us – and it was rough!

Sorry, no photos for this post, only words. I put the GoPro in our stern locker and was unable to open the locker due to rough seas. I really wish I could have done a video for you, because it was NUTS!

So how did we find ourselves caught in rough seas? It really was avoidable, but here is why we decided to go anyway. We were anchored in Tapuamu Bay on the island of Tahaa. We needed to make our way back to Tahiti to meet our friend Jessie who was flying in on September 4, and we needed to do some projects on the boat before she arrived that requires a dock.

The challenge was we needed to sail southeast, which is directly into the prevailing south east trade winds. When we had visited Tahaa last month, we just waited for the wind to shift north and we had a nice down wind sail to Tahiti. This shifting of the trade winds seems to happen every 2 weeks or so based on my observations. We had time so we were just going to wait for the shift. But after 10 days of strong southeast winds, this wind shift was still nowhere on the forecast.

We were experiencing what they call the Marmu winds, stronger than normal trade winds that happen in the winter months (yes, it is winter here…) So instead of trade winds of 15 to 20 knots, we were seeing winds of 25 to 30 knots. Not anything you would want to sail upwind in.

Tapuamu Bay was on the northwest side of Tahaa, so theoretically we were anchored on the leeward side of the island and should have been protected for these strong winds. The problem was, these tall islands with mountainous peaks and deep valleys (which make them so beautiful), can actually accelerate the winds as they compress between the mountain tops. These accelerations come in strong bursts. So as we sat at anchor in calm conditions, we would be SLAMMED with 30 to 40 knot gusts of wind every 10 minutes or so It really is a bit like torture. You are thinking “Ah, it has calmed down”, then minutes later the boat is spinning, shaking and heeling over from a tremendous gust.

I have a LOT of faith in our anchor. It has always held our boat securely (thank you Mantus!). But still, when the boat is getting slammed by that much force, you can’t help but think, “is this thing going to let go??!!” Which would then send us drifting across the bay and potentially into other boats. Thankfully this never happened. But it was still stressful.

After more than a week of this we say a let up in the strong winds forecasted for Friday the 23^rd of August and into Saturday. The Maramu winds would then come back early Sunday morning, so we had a small window to make it. The forecasted winds for our passage were 12 to 15 knots, and out of the north east. This would still mean we were heading up wind, but at an angle the would allow us to sail.

BUT, there was one problem. The big winds we had been experiencing had generated BIG waves. This would make our passage a bit comfortable and we bounced up and down the waves.

This is a quote from the software we use that helps us plan our passages –

“Acceleration due to waves make it dangerous to perform tasks and can cause worsening seasickness”

We have experienced large waves in the past, and we figured we would just hunker down and deal with it. The software told us it would be a 20 hour passage.

Our alternative was to wait another week, and then the winds would calm down a lot. But this forecast was for a week out, and the weather models (we have 5 different ones we look at) were not yet agreeing that it would be calm.

So we decided to go.

Friday evening we pulled anchor around 5 pm and set off in the calm of the lee of the island and surrounding barrier reef. It would take us nearly two hours before we would make it out of the pass on the southwest side of Raiatea. We had a beautiful smooth motor sail. Danielle prepared us dinner as we watched the sunset.

Then we made our way out the pass, and we were immediately greeted with steep waves. The boat would ride up the wave, then drop off the back and slam into the water. It was not a fun feeling. But we were still near the island, and the waves are always worse close to shore, so I wanted to wait till we were in open ocean before I judged how things would be. We always had the option to turn back, but that meant anchoring at night. We were familiar with the area, but anchoring at night is always a challenge.

Well, it did not get any better. I honestly don’t think I have EVER experienced seas like what we had. The waves were actually not all that big, maybe six feet or so, but they were STEEP, frequent and coming from several different directions. And of course the wind was higher than forecasted, which I expected, but not too crazy, in the high teens to low 20s. I opted to motor sail, with 3 reefs in the main (it seemed like the main was the size of a postage stamp) and the engine at low rpm. This gave me more control over the boats speed. If we went to fast, the boat would drop off the back of a wave and slam even harder at the bottom. So I keep our speed at 5 knots, instead of the typical 7 or 8 that we sail at.

Even at these slow speeds the boat was tumbling and bouncing everywhere. It felt like the agitation cycle of a big washing machine. The was no rhythm or pattern to the waves, just rolling and bouncing about.

It really is hard to describe the slamming that happens when the boat does drop off the back of a wave. It hits with a hard crack and feels so violent you wonder how the boat does not split open. I really hate doing this, it is not good for our bodies or our boat, but at this point we were committed to our path.

I have not been seasick in over 25 years, but given bad enough conditions, any one can get seasick no matter how salty they are. I was definitely feeling it and knew I had to stay up on deck with the wind in my face.

I stayed on watch till about 2 am, when Danielle came up to relieve me. I tried to sleep, but it was next to impossible with the boat jerking and slamming so hard. Just think about trying to sleep while ridding on a roller coaster!

Danielle got me up around 6 am. She had gotten seasick and threw up for the first time on our entire trip.

It was nice to have light out, and according to the forecast the waves and wind were to be settling down soon. But that did not really happen. I was still forced to keep our speed down to the 4 or 5 knot range to keep things tolerable on board. This meant we might not make it to Moorea before sunset.

Throughout the rest of the day things did slowly calm down. I turned the boat more south to get us in the lee and shelter of Moorea as the weather routing software recommended. This did eventually work, and the last 5 hours or so of the trip everything settled down to a more manageable sea state. And the good news was we were going to make it well before sunset!

We pulled into the calm of Cooks Bay and were greeted with about 30 other boats in the anchorage. This was a big anchorage, but with that many boats around Danielle and I had to pick our spot carefully as to not swing into any other boats around us.

This was the first time for Danielle and me to anchor just the two of us. We weaved in an out of the other boats and measured distances on our chart plotter. We find a nice open spot. I went to the bow to drop the anchor while Danielle steered the boat as we set the anchor down.

We found ourselves perfectly placed in a nice CALM anchorage. I can’t even begin to describe how nice a calm anchorage feels after a rough passage. It is like lying in a nice soft bed after a long hard day!

We got the boat cleaned up and organized. Danielle cooked us some dinner, and at 6:30 PM I was in bed and fell into a deep coma!

So grateful to be in a safe clam anchorage. For now…