After the TPR Regatta John and I sailed Spirit down to Moorea where we hung out for a day before sailing onto Tahiti. I had another 6 weeks of work on Ethereal there before we were able to sail to the Tuamotos. We were able to get over to Moorea though a few times and had a ball sailing between the two Islands. With Tahiti being such a huge Island and quite high there is a large area affected by the wind. As the trades are from the SE this area normally extends to Moorea and can have a huge effect in the wind directing and speed. Sometimes we would depart Moorea with a North wind and within two miles of the coast it would have swung to the SE and then halfway across it would die out leaving a residual swell that you would accustom to 25kts of breeze. And anyone that has been on a trimaran knows that they hate wave action without wind to life the float. So we had a few testing trips across with the float slamming a lot and no wind. As it's a 10nm trip it was just bearable and knowing there was cold beer at the other end made it easier. One of the really amazing things in this part of the world is the clarity of the water. We would motor through 20mts sometimes and you could see the bottom clearly. Here the boat is in 2ft of water and our dagger board is 9ft so there is another 10ft below it! Just amazing you feel as though your going to hit the bottom when you dive in until you put your mask on or look at the sounder and realise how deep it is. After the 6 weeks of work on Ethereal we sailed off to the Tuamotos. The sail over was awesome and the time we had there was incredibly. I'm sorry for the slow updates but honestly sitting at the computer and putting this down is the last thing I want to do when there is clear water and blues skies out side. I'll be doing a few updates over the next few days so keep an eye out. Fair winds Spirit!
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One of the aims was to return to Spirit for the Tahiti Pearl Regatta better known locally as the TPR in May. So after the delivery from the Galapagos it was a quick flight up to the boat, which was still on the hard at the CNI shipyard here in Raiatea. Spirit was in fine condition having been looked after by Cathy while I was away. We decided not to anti foul the boat as I dive on her weekly and scrub the bottom. So it was a couple of days before she was i the water and ready to go. My good mate Johnny joined us for a couple of months sailing and it was great to have him onboard helping out. There was a lot of work to be done to her rigging and sails as it had all be in stowage stripped before we left her here last August. After a week of work we had everything sorted and were off doing some sail trials and getting everyone up to speed on the boat and her layout and sailing abilities. The weather for the regatta looked awesome light winds from the north east to south east and perfect blue skies. Early in the season is definitely the best time to cruise this area. You get the lighter airs as the trades haven't settled in yet and it's a much nicer way to see the islands. Later on you get the stronger trades from 20-30kts and they can hang in there for 7-10 days! The TPR is run over 4-5 days depending upon whether you count the practice day. We had a practice race on the first day around the lagoon in Raiatea and then the races were as follows. Race 1 - practice race in-between Raiatea and Tahaa in the lagoon about 7nm long The first race started with very little wind. It slowly built and by the end we had a nice 10kts of breeze and the boat was powered up nicely. Spirit sprinted away from everyone in the light airs and took the first race easily beating every boat across the line by more than 20 mins. It was a great start to the regatta but showed us that we had no real competition, which was a bit of a shame. Race 2 - race from Raiatea to Bora Bora 25nm We had a late start but by the first mark we were in front and with the light airs and our big WMD's as we call them we were off. We have named our light air reachers WMD's as they truly were that in this regatta. As soon as they were up our apparent just came around and increased and we were off in our own breeze scooting along. It was an awesome run out of the lagoon and across to Bora Bora in the light airs. We were doing more than the wind speed and Spirit loved the flat conditions and long sprint across to Bora Bora where we finished more than an hour in front of the next boat and up to three hours in front of some of the monos! Race 3 - race from Bora Bora to Raiatea 20nm This race had some nice breeze at the start with the wind coming down the valley in Bora Bora onto the start. We had another late start but weren't too worried about it. We thought it better to be late and keep away from everyone else especially while doing 10-15kts along the start area. Spirit rounded the top mark in front and took off running deep as we could to the lagoon exit and along the reef where we then headed out and across to the reef entrance in Tahaa. This race was crazy as we even beat the comity boat to the finish line and had to radio in when we thought we had crossed the finish line. Lots of fun in the higher breeze of around 15kts. Again we took the win for first across the line, which really meant we just got more drinking time in at the end of the days racing! Race 4 - race around Tahaa within the lagoon 20nm Another awesome day with clear skies and 15-20kts of breeze. We did two races this day and short windward and leeward course followed by the around Tahaa race. We won both easily and took to the anchorage where we had nice cold beers and a swim. In summarising the regatta we all had the time of our lives. It's a very well put together regatta around some of the most beautiful sailing areas in the world. We have sailed some pretty cool places and done some of the big name regattas but this left them all for dead. The parties each night, the organisation and scenery is second to none. If your in the area or looking for a regatta to do in a beautiful spot this has to be on your list. The regattas back home in Australia are also pretty good but the clear lagoons, flat water racing and the parties each night leave them for dead. The only thing we missed was some serious competition and some later start times. Each morning we were up very early for 8:30am starts! I have to say the regattas in Thailand are also pretty good. There is a great multihull scene up there, like back in Australia and the scenery and parties are very well organised each day and just cap the racing off perfectly. So all in all we had the time of our lives. We took the trophy for the "Temps Real" which means for the fast boat around the course in real time. And got three nights in the Le Meridien resort in Bora Bora. Not bad for a fun filled three days doing what you love! The plan was to get back to Spirit in time for the Tahiti Pearl Regatta, which my mate John had planned to join us for. We were both super excited to be doing it as we share a love for sailing fast and having fun.
It wasn't to be though as early one morning about a week before I was meant to fly out I had a call from a close friend down in Sydney. He had an email from another good mate that runs the beautiful Super Yacht called Ethereal. Anyone that knows Super Yachts knows of her as she's one of the prettiest and high tech yachts that has been built to date. She came out of the Royal Huisman Yard in Holland in 2009 after four years in the making. She's just under 200ft in length and carries a huge amount of sail area within her nearly 500ton hull. So two days later it was a flight to the Galapagos that I was boarding via LA, Miami and Guayaquil then onto Tahiti via yacht not plane, which sounded awesome! The flights were bloody long and after about 38hrs I arrived in Guayaquil where I had a hotel for the night then I flew onto the Galapagos early the next morning. My bags had been lost the night I flew into Ecuador so I was a bit stressed about getting them back to the yacht. After a few worried days onboard they turned up in the Galapagos and we were off. After two days of readying the yacht we were off. The nights at anchor in the Galapagos were awesome with the underwater lights we could see as many as 7-8 sharks swimming around the boat chasing seals and also trying to catch the occasional pelican. The delivery went super well. Being onboard such a lovely yacht with a wonderful chef and cool crew made the journey fun and extremely easy compared to the last time I'd done it on Spirit with the bear minimum. We had no issues at all on the crossing with daily jobs each day and our watches the time flew past. It was so nice to be at sea again and to have that connection again. It's missed and you don't realise how much until you get back out there and breath that salt air and see those amazing sunsets and sunrises. The first few days were spent motor sailing and then we found the trades, which ended up being about 3 days south of our departure point. We tried to sail as deep as we could but on such a huge boat you have to play safe and this means angles of around 140 true. With the easterly breeze this gave us a fairly south westerly heading, which was not on course for the Marquases like we had planned. So after about 6 days of sailing we headed Rangiroa in the western Tuamotos. Once we were a about a day out we could see though that the weather wasn't going to be very nice for our trip down to Tahiti in three days time. The Captain called for us to keep sailing straight onto Tahiti. It worked out well though and after 16 days at sea we pulled into Papeete. The trip on Spirit took the same amount of time and this showed us again how quick she is and how great it is to cruise on a boat that can do those miles each day unpressed and with such ease. It's now the beginning of June and we have spent the last month here doing work on Ethereal. But we did however get away for two weeks of race in Raiatea and Tahaa for the Tahiti Pearl Regatta. I'll be doing another update within the next two weeks with photos and news on this regatta it was awesome and we couldn't recommend it more to anyone coming to this part of the world that loves sailing, wait till you see the photos!!! It's probably about time I updated the blog with some news of what's been going on. But before we do I have to say that so far I'm super impressed with the communication and level of service the yard CNI in Raiatea have been giving. I get updates every month from them and Cathy whom is keeping a close on eye her by airing her out every two weeks and checking her for mould or anything that could create problems. Cathy also sends photos at the end of every month of her interior and exterior. It's wonderful to know there is good people keeping an eye on the wonderful Spirit while she's on the hard. When I flew out of Raiatea the first stop was in Tahiti to spend a few days with Butch onboard Racket Roller then a flight to Phuket in Thailand to spend a two weeks organizing things before heading to Sardinia to join SY Panthalassa for the Perini Navi Cup. Panthalass is about 18 months old and weighs in at just under 500t. She's 56mt in length and believe it or not she sailed surprisingly well for such a big girl. We did have race crew onboard for the regatta, all of whom are all super experienced and that normally race onboard a smaller Perini Navi that was designed by Philippe Briand called P2. After the racing we spent six weeks in the Perini Navi yard in Viareggio and then went onto be hauled out in La Spezia before a short hop to Palma then Gibraltar and on to Antigua. It was great to sail on such a luxurious yacht after the few months roughing it onboard Spirit. The simplicity of Spirit is great though and shows that you can get out on the water and cruise for very little costs and without all the mod cons. It also creates less stress having fewer things but there is some issues like anchoring where you need that extra help of an anchor winch or at least an anchor roller. These things have caused some stress and will get rectified when I return in April. Being back in Italy was great. We spent most weekends out walking local trails and sightseeing. Walked Cinque Terre for a day, swan eat great Italian food on the water front and tried to hold the heat back by eating lovely fresh local Gelato. It's a massive walk and by the end of the day we were ready for a shower and bed. The delivery across the Atlantic proved the be a non event. It was calm most of the way with the only true breeze we saw over 25kts within the area from Gibraltar to the Canaries. It's know as bit of a milk run from East to West as your in the trades for the majority of it. We had thirteen crew onboard for the delivery across which was way too many but it made for an easy time for the crew. And as they were about to go straight into a boat show and busy season it was welcomed.
The male crew onboard as seen above on arrival in Antigua. We made a packed when we were in the med not to shave until we arrived so that's why we're all looking a bit rough and dodgy. After a bit of work I hope to be able to return to Spirit around April 2012, which will mean she's been on the hard there at CNI for nearly eight months! |
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December 2012
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