Passage Honiara to Luganville, August 2009

We left Honiara August 1st and made our way Eastward passing North of San Cristobal to have the advantage of the land breezes, also to get a better angle in the wind. Along San Cristobal we had Easterly winds, and as we past the Island the wind shifted SE for a change. The best course we were doing was south.

August 6th around 10 o’clock in the morning, as we were sailing thru squalls with two reefs in the main and half the genoas rolled in, we got hit by 50 knots of wind one of a sudden, this was not forecasted.

As I was looking to put the life jacket on to go out to take the third reef in the main, the autopilot failed and I had to take over. By the time we hived to, the main sail exploded. Ones the yacht stabilized, I could go out to take the third reef in the main. We hived to until 6 o’clock next day, waiting the sea to calm down. We drifted 72 miles westwards.

Pui got the fright of her life, I was happy that she staid inside the yacht talking to Buddha to be merciful to us. Then winds turned SSE and we could make it to Luganville. Later it came out that the profile from the roller furling got twisted at the base.

We arrived in Luganville August 10th by mid day at the quarantine buoy, position 15°30.92 S; 167°11.00 E.

We made the passage in 9 days 4 hours.
Distance 871 Nm
We motored 88 hours (3.6 days)