We were doing a pretty respectable job of pulling ahead (Again! The last time we had sailed in company with them was leaving Port Resolution in Vanuatu). Then they raised their sails and it was neck and neck, except it wasn’t because we had a mile head start. Then we cleared the protection of the Noumea peninsula and we both sped up. We sped up a little. They sped up a lot. They have a longer waterline and long, thin dagger boards, which allows them to sail faster AND closer to the wind than we can.
After their first and our second tack, we converged from our respective horizons on a collision course. Since Begonia was on starboard tack, Muse had to lose some ground to give way to us. That was the end of our lead, but it was a great opportunity to get pictures of each other under storm sail.
Poor Muse. The wind was way worse than forecast, occasionally nudging into the thirties. We went down to two reefs in the main and three in the jib, which is 31% of full sail. They appeared to do about the same. Even though we were in the lagoon, it is so big that the waves had built back up to two meters or so by the time they got to the two of us. We gave up and slowed down a little to go easy on the rig. They did the same, but their slow is faster than our slow, so they were still punching into waves more often than we were. For us, there was no way our small motors would be able to make headway in such conditions. Sailing was still the better way to go. It’s slow and it’s a bit of a beating, but it’s steady and it gets the job done. We know what we’re dealing with and just put our heads down and settle into our routine, adjusting our expectations to where making it twenty miles upwind in daylight is a pretty good showing. Muse, on the other hand, was out there getting beat up because we were out there getting beat up. I felt a little guilty about making the whole family put up with it because I know Muse could probably have motored the distance just fine in less time.
By the time it was getting to late afternoon, Muse had disappeared over the horizon hours before. They dropped anchor in the big bay on the leeward side of Ile Ouen. We knew we wouldn’t make it there by nightfall, so we tucked in behind much smaller Redika Island, about ten miles behind them, but more on the direct line to Ua.
Redika for sunset
The wind died during the night and we awoke to more normal sailing conditions where we could use the whole 100%. We set off early to help make up our deficit and had a lovely sail weaving between widely spaced reefs. When Muse popped up on AIS after having a guest-friendly lie-in, they had about the same straight-line distance to go as we did, but more reefs to weave through and a worse wind angle. We just managed to get our dinghy into the water when they dropped their hook.
Ua Island
So we were all here. We had made it to Ua. It’s nice. The beach is blinding white, the snorkeling on the coral is pretty good. The best part, of course, was getting to spend the day with our good friends. They had to return to work again soon and so would be leaving for Australia before us. We knew it would likely be a few months and more than a thousand miles before we all saw each other again, so we made a point of really savoring the moment.
Ua under the water
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