We tried to sleep in this morning because we have our overnight sail tonight. We made it ’til 9. First thing we did in the morning was lower the swim platform and replace the gas cylinder so Rick could make coffee! Then we prepped for our overnight sail. The trip to Lifou is about 100 nm (nautical miles or 110 miles) and we figured we could make about 5 knots (nm/hr) so the trip would take ~20 hours. Rick has sailed through the night many times on his two trips from Rhode Island to the Bahamas. I haven’t.
At night we plan to wear harnesses so we could clip onto lifelines on the boat. If, god forbid, one of us fell overboard the other one would never find him or her in the dark, hence the harnesses. So we got out the harnesses and adjusted them to fit. Then we installed jack lines, lines that run forward the length of the boat that we could clip to and adjust anything on the foredeck if need be. Rick tied extra ropes around the dinghy to try to prevent the jib line from getting caught on it. Rick also checked engine vitals such as oil and coolant levels. We were ready.
While we were readying the boat we saw a dolphin or porpoise in the bay so we stopped to watch him. Unfortunately he never got close enough to the boat to take a picture.
Our route took us through the Havanna Channel where the currents can be pretty dramatic, particularly around the full moon, so we needed to time our departure just right. Also impacting our timing was the fact that we didn’t arrive at Lifou in the dark. Heading into a bay surrounded by reefs in the dark is not recommended. We raised the anchor at 1:15PM and were on our way by 1:30. We motored through the channel and then raised the mainsail. We didn’t pull the jib out because the wind was too far behind us. I took the wheel while Rick cooked the steak for a late lunch/early dinner. Tasted great, very fortifying!
We sailed for the rest of the afternoon. The sun sets early and it is dark by 6:30. We enjoyed another beautiful sunset this evening.
I stayed up and sailed with Rick until about 7:30PM. Then I headed below with the goal of sleeping through Rick’s first shift, which ended at midnight. I think I only slept for about an hour and a half. The seas were very confused. We were rocking and rolling and the boat was making a lot of noise as we rolled with the waves. I came up at midnight. Rick stayed up until about 12:30 and got the sails and our course adjusted to make our sail a little more comfortable. Then he went to bed. I woke him up at 2:30AM. It had started to rain and I was afraid of a squall It turned out to be just a sprinkle and he headed back to bed. During my watch one other boat passed us, I think it was a tanker or cargo ship but it was probably at least a mile away. Otherwise everything was quiet. I had to adjust our route and the sails a couple of time, but otherwise I was alone with my thoughts. I was going to listen to a book but decided that would be too distracting for my first overnight sail. It was very peaceful sailing at night.
Rick woke up around 4AM. He said he felt like he had 4 hours of deep sleep. I went to bed and slept for about 2 hours. Here is the gps about 3/4 of the way. It was what we navigated by in the dark.
By the time I woke up the sun had risen. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I kept Rick company as we neared the bay on Lifou. Here are sunrise pictures.
We arrived in Doueoulou around 11am.
We anchored the boat and had some lunch. Then we took a two hour nap. When we woke up we decided to move the boat to the next bay up, Chepenehe, because Doueoulou will be a good place to depart from . We’ll spend more time here the day before we make our return voyage back to Grand Terre. Chepenehe looks like a nice little town.
We got the dinghy off the deck and decided to leave the motor for tomorrow. I took a shower and relaxed until dinner. We listened to the kids playing on the dock and enjoyed the sunset.
Dinner was great! Rick has made some really amazing meals, especially considering the size of the kitchen!
We had made it to Lifou without any problems! What a day, actually two days!
Here’s a map of our route.
