Passage to Niue - Heavy Weather and Diesel Mechanics

Heavy weather is something that all cruisers fret about prior to leaving their home ports. With some common sense and careful monitoring of weather information, the risk of experiencing such conditions can be significantly reduced. That being said, you have to be able to handle it when bad weather hits. Since Palmerston was not a good anchorage to weather a storm, we chose to head to sea and face it where we couldn't hit land (one hazard eliminated). We were in radio contact with Speedbird and Gavia Arctica (another BC boat that happened to be making the passage at the same time – although they did not stop at Palmerston) to discuss weather forcasts, routing strategies, and exchange position information.

The three boats decided to alter our courses from SW to NW to avoid the 50 kt winds predicted for the low’s southern quadrant. In anticipation of even higher winds, we had cleared the decks and stowed everything below, including the dinghy, and done a practice run with the storm trysail to ensure all the lines, etc were in place. The gale hit on the second day at sunset with winds up to 30 kts, rising to 40 kts at 2 am with the seas building to 3-4 m or so (the photos below were taken as things started brewing in the afternoon and sunrise the next day). Lots of lightning made for an exciting time. Wind intensity dropped to 20 to 25 kts the next day before dying completely the day after.

With the seas still rough, we decided to motor-sail to power through the waves, but the engine kept dying. We struggled to fix it for two days while bobbing around in the residual swell from the gale, moving forwards slowly with the gennaker. We were still at it when the gennaker ripped, the stove konked out and the wind vane controls lines popped loose. Ahhh! One by one, we fixed them all, but not after tiresome hours of hot, sweaty, grimey, diesely work, and still beating our heads against the wall to identify the engine problem. Our determination to fix the engine kept us from our daytime naps, so we were both running on only our night time 4 hr sleep. All in all, this was our most difficult passage yet.

When we finally triumphed with the engine, we shut it down, dropped the sails, stopped the boat, put down the ladder and went for an open ocean swim! Waaaa! It was soooo deep and blue! Wow. Incredible! It felt so exhilarating to wash off the diesel grime we’d been living and sleeping in for 2 days. We motored through the night and arrived in Alofi, Niue in the morning to a warm welcome of cruising friends awaiting our arrival.