PASSAGE TO SEYCHELLES
June 17th to June 25th 2002A:
We left Chagos on the 17th of June, cleared the Salomon Atoll pass at noon and bore off for the Seychelles, 1,000 nautical miles to the west. Although our destination is about one degree north of our departure point we intended to keep to our latitude or even head a degree further south to pick up a favorable current and keep ourselves in the trade wind belt. Initially we hardened the sheets to keep a more southerly course as we had to clear Peros Banhos Atoll before setting our desired course to the Seychelles. At 1600 hours we had Peros Banhos on our beam to the north and by 1700 were well clear of it. We eased the sheets a bit and bore off on a broad reach with following seas and made an easy 5 to 6 knots with the windvane doing all the steering. The southeast trades were sustained at15 to 20 knots through the night and we made good 125 nautical miles that first day.
June 18th was pretty much the same. The winds eased a bit and shifted to the east so we were pretty much dead downwind and rolling along wing on wing but only doing 4 or 5 knots. At 930 at night a squall with heavy winds and torrential rain beat down on us until 11 PM and then moved on. The squall was followed by a calm and from 11 PM until 3 in the morning we drifted, making about one knot west with current. As we needed to charge our batteries anyway, we started the diesel and motored in light and variable winds until 6 AM when the southeast trades filled in and we soon had 20 knots of wind, 10-foot seas and speeds of 7 knots.
Since we were becalmed for a while, we made only 87 miles the second day.
The 19th was a variable day. Always enough wind to sail but it was a day of changing sail configurations and switching back and forth between the autopilot which steered in light airs downwind and the windvane which steered all the rest of the time. The windvane does 95 percent of the steering while we are under sail and uses no energy but the wind itself. Early in the afternoon we caught a 32-inch barracuda which managed to razor cut my finger while I was removing the hook. I always keep my hands well away from the mouths of fish and use a pliers to remove the hook but some combination of the boat lurching the fish thrashing and me stumbling got me a bit too close. Fortunately it was a small clean cut and easily managed.
The wind built through the night and we had a very fast rough noisy night. Squalls and rainstorms came twice during the night, first at midnight and then again at 4 AM. Lots of sail trimming and reefing and vane adjusting accompanies these little storms as the wind increases and the direction varies. We made 120 miles this third day.
The 20th began as a windy and rough day but by late afternoon the seas were flatter even though the wind was undiminished. The boat consequently was a lot more comfortable. A noon a pod of dolphins played in our bow wave for a while and we sat on the bowsprit and watched, always with a faint desire to join them. The wind continued fine through the night and we made 138 miles.
On the 21st we crossed the half way mark; 500 miles to go. A school of leaping dophins celebrated the event and we continued making good time with the trades holding steady and no squalls for over 24 hours. Covered 126 miles.
The morning of the 22nd saw some very light winds and we motored for an hour and a half to charge the batteries and wait for the wind to fill in. While we are underway like this, the solar panels do not keep up with our energy use unless we have clear sunny skies which we have not. We run several lights all night, play music or listen to the short wave radio and keep the GPS and VHF radio on. Also now that we have fresh fish, we are running the refrigerator which consumes a lot of power and during periods of light winds we use the autopilot.
By afternoon the winds filled, the engine went off, and it blew grandly through the night; giving us 142 miles for the day.
June 23rd dawned windy rough fast and very wet outside. At 930 in the morning we landed a beautiful 20 inch albacore tuna and steaked it out. Kate baked cornbread. By evening, winds and seas had built considerably and the occasionally rogue wave would slam the boat with a great hammering sound and dump a few hundred gallons of water on the deck. We kept the hatchboards in place so as to keep the water outside the boat. It continued that way through the night and we made 154 miles
On June 24th at 4:15 in the afternoon we crossed on to the Seychelles Bank. We very much wanted to do this in daylight as we had some kind of nightmarish vision of what crossing on to bank would be like. The ocean floor rises very steeply here. Although there is no land yet in sight, the depths change rapidly from 12000 ft to 9000 ft to 6000ft to 3000ft to 300ft to 150 ft to 60 ft. deep. Given that the southeast trades had been tossing large ocean swells at this shallow bank, we expected the bank to be awash in confused and frothy white water waiting to swallow us up. We had a contingency plan of heading north around the bank and into its protected lee before attempting a crossing. But oddly enough, the transition onto the bank was smooth, perhaps a little more chop but nothing more.
The sun set and we crossed the bank, sailing all night with a full moon, pretty flat seas and a steady 15-knot breeze. It was a crisp and bright night and our chart showed that all was well with the depth and we sped through the dark waters, leaving a sparkling wake astern.
At dawn, the stunning cliffs of Mahe Island loomed ahead on a sparkling sea. The trip was done, the landfall stunning and we were flooded with good feelings. We knew we were going to like it here.
The passage was good. A wet, windy, roller coaster sort of a ride but generally very fast and we had a big bright moon, almost full, for the entire trip. It felt good to be going so fast for so long: It’s exhilarating to be on deck at night with a bright moon, a strong breeze and large seas. The sounds of the hull hissing through the water, the waves hammering the boat, the wind humming through the rig and the windvane’s metal on metal clanking as it turns this way and that to keep the boat on course is she skids down the face of the ocean swells. There is much to appreciate and often very much to do. It’s so much better than the frustrations and stress of calm.
Summary:
Distance: 1000 nautical miles
Time: 7 days and 20 hours (188 hours)
Sail: 183 hours
Motor: 5 hours
Avg Speed: 5.3 knots
Two fish
No vessel damage