May: new islands & sailing level up !

We are now back in the safe lagoon on Huahine that we left almost 2 months ago. During these 2 months, we sailed over 1,200 nautical miles which is quite a stretch for us. The first crossing from Maupihaa to Rurutu was over 375 nautical miles and took us 3 days and 3 nights to complete, sailing along side another sailing boat for our peace of mind and safety. This is not a well travelled route but we did cross a couple of sailing boats, most likely on their way to Cook Islands or New Zealand; we also saw a French Navy warship patrolling the area. After sailing between the Australes Islands over the month of May, we headed back to Huahine on another 340 nautical miles sail north. This time we did not see any other boat until the last night, when we got within 30 nautical miles from Huahine. It was just the two of us…

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Every passage brings new experiences and new learnings. Our main challenge this time around (other than sailing into the unknown in fairly remote parts of the Pacific Ocean) was weather planning which is important for many reasons. First, to have an idea of when to leave and when we will arrive, which is Important to get organised and get the logistics right. Second, for safety as we need to make sure that we are not going to find ourselves in some dangerous weather system that could put Wallis (and ourselves) at risk. And finally, for comfort. Sometimes delaying our departure by a few days can make a major difference in terms of sailing conditions: perfect wind conditions, smoother swell, less wind shift and therefore less changing of sail configuration while under way… This applies to any crossing but becomes more challenging when planning long passages, as the weather forecast becomes less accurate beyond 3 days. This implies comparing different forecast (we typically use up to 3 different models on Wallis) and ideally updating these forecast while under way. Fortunately, modern technology makes things a lot easier. We use a weather routing tool called PredictWind that can analyse several routes based different departure dates and applying different forecast, and can always connect to Starlink while sailing to get the latest updates. It was not so easy only 10 years back !

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Another great discovery was our self steering system, which we tested for the first time. On crossings, we would typically use our built-in autopilot to steer the boat for us, it does a much better job than we do and does not need to rest… The only downside is that it draws electricity from our on-board batteries, which is not really an issue when sailing in the South Pacific Ocean with good solar panels. Still, it is good to have a back up plan in case of failure that does not imply one of us having to steer 24x7… A self steering system is a mechanical contraption that steers the boat to maintain a set angle to the wind (check out the photos). These systems were used by cruisers for decades and work surprisingly well. It is magical to see the boat steer itself for miles and miles, with the invisible help of the wind.

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Our experience is building up with every crossing. We are now more familiar with the boat and how it sails. It is amazing to see that we can go the same 6kt speed with 10kt of wind, flat seas and all sails out; as in 25kt of wind with reefed sails (reducing our sail area). As you can imagine, the level of comfort is not the same in these two situations. We also learn how to deal with issues that pop up on Wallis, some of them can be fixed on the spot (like a punctured dinghy), while other will have to wait until we get back to the shipyard or get new spare parts. We need to change our jib furler that is not furling anymore. We also noticed that our dagger board compartment is leaking (!), we had to soak up a bucket of water every 24 hours on our sail back to Huahine. Not ideal when you are on a sailing boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean :)