S/Y New Dawn: Niue Island.

Friday 29.08.2014 at 21:15 (LT):

Kai did not feel well the last days and thought he had a Sinus infection, but it turned out to be an ear infection, so I gave him a bottle of the Polydexa and asked him to see the village Dr, whom confirmed this to be correct and the Polydexa to be the correct treatment. He also have fever and the Paracetamol sorted that out.

Thus, as we might have a sail of 1.300 NM, I decided to stay a while in Maupiti until he would feel better and he stayed in bed for most of the days. But today he felt better and we left this morning at 11:00, as we had a window that looked good to exit the difficult Pass. I set the course for Niue Island, a good thousand NM from Maupiti on a WSW course. The forecast was for S wind up to 22 kn, but we soon got a Gale and had to reef the sails a lot. The waves are three meters, so life on board has become complicated. The wind should moderate during the week-end, but the waves are expected to remain at three meters.

Leaving the Maupiti Lagoon.

Even going out and with a following current of 5 kn, it is like sailing in a washing machine.

As our course is 258° T and the wind comes from south, so we are making good progress with about 7-9 kn.

I found the people of Maupiti friendly and I went to a home that had a huge Mango tree in the garden and asked if I could buy some, as the shops don’t sell fruits, since everybody have their own trees in the garden. The chap said that would be OK, so I returned to the boat with a huge shopping bag full of Grapefruits and Mangoes, costing me Fr 1.500 (EUR 12), which was more than I had expected to pay.

Saturday 30.08.2014 (Day 1):

So far, the last two days have given us a rough time. Winds topping 32 kn and waves of up to four meters, with loads of Squalls and rain. We have not seen the sun, starts or moon since leaving Maupiti. On a more positive note, we are making an OK progress with the usual about 155 NM/day.

The watch system is four hours on and four hours off, which is OK, but will cause some sleep deprivation in the long run.

Sunday 31.08.2014 at 07:30 (Day 2):

One thing I have read for years is that the Pacific should have nice sailing conditions; hence the name. However, having sailed here about 6.500 NM since April, I have not yet seen the promised Pacific sailing conditions. Since we left Maupiti, three days ago, we have had North Sea conditions, except it is warmer. But we have had 7-8 BF (Gale) all the way, Squalls, rain and large waves, so far. On top of that, we have had SW, S and SE winds and not the easterly Trade Winds, I have read about. So where is the Pacific nice sailing conditions?

In any case we are coping and the routine has settled in and we sleep a bit more, although the boat’s movements can complicate life on board. This morning the waves have moderated to 2.5-3 m and the SE wind dropped to 23-26 kn, so a nice improvement.

I have tried to call Mor in the hospital via the Sat Phone, but she can’t hear me, or she is too tired after her operations.

We are still heading for Niue Island, but if this S swell continues the only anchorage there is impractical and landing the tender will be impossible. So if the conditions don’t improve, when we get there, I plan to bypass the island and head for north Tonga, about a further 260 NM further west.

Tuesday 02.09.2014 at 06:20 (LT) (Day 4):

The last 24 hours has seen an improvement in the weather. The south swell has moderated and the wind has turned to almost east followed by the wind waves. This has given more pleasant movements of New Dawn, so yesterday we pooled out the Genoa to port side and since are sailing Wing-On-Wing. This configuration increase our speed by about 1-1.5 kn and stopped the Genoa flapping.

Kai had never pooled out the sail on a big yacht and was amazed of the size of the pool. We went through the maneuverer and all went well while installing the sheets, out and down hauls. Like with Jon it will take a few times pooling out and in before it will go smooth.

As the wind had dropped, it is now warmer, but jeans and jumpers are still needed during the night watches. We are still in the Tropic (17° 40.21 S; 161° 17.91 W) and it is surprizing how cold the nights can be, especially when it is windy. In addition, the night’s humidity is amazing and as soon as the sun sets around 18:20, the decks get wet. As soon as the sun raises around 06:45 the decks dries out quickly.

As to the cooking, we have not yet got this coordinated well. Kai is a 100% vegetarian and seems to prefer to cook Ratatoye looking meals each day. He made a Polenta for two days and it was interesting to try it for one day. Otherwise I feel it is a bit trivial cooking. I eat what Kai cooks, but also cook my own dishes, to get a more varied diet. I have bought so much meet and cold cut as well as cheeses, that I thin,k I will have to dump, before we arrive in NZ/AUS., as nothing seems possible to import and will be destroyed upon arrival.

Since we left Maupiti almost four days ago, we have not seen and yachts nor ships. We were three yachts leaving the island at the same time, but, as we are faster, they must be somewhere behind us. I have tried to call one of them in the VHF, but received no answer. He is a German single hander and I guess does not listed to the VHF when he sleeps. However, from the SSB and HAM nets, there are many yachts in the distance, but they are too far away for the VHF. Some, of the nets are very active and it is interesting to see how much these cruisers spend chatting on these nets each day. I can’t get bothered and have only a few times joined when I wished to obtain certain information on, for example, the anchoring conditions in Niue, which - like so many other Atolls/Islands in the Pacific – can be highly problematic. There is always someone out there, that can answer my question, but one risk to be caught in a useless conversation with them.

As I am writing this, we have sailed 524 NM (GPS straight line –GPSSL) since leaving Maupiti in 3.75 days and have 110 to Palmerston island WP, 489 NM to Niue island and 726 NM to Tonga. NZ is about 1.300 NM SW (GPSSL). I have now sailed New Dawn a total of 52.000 NM since end 2003 and about???? NM since leaving the Golf of St Tropez on 20 September 2013.

Wednesday 03.09.2014 at 04:20 (LT) (Day 5):

We passed Palmerton Atoll at 02:00 at a safe distance of 13 NM. It is very low and only parts of the Atoll can be seen on the radar, mainly the parts that have Coconuts trees on them, which, is usual 15-25 m high. Most of the Atoll is reefs without any vegetation, which make it yet another very dangerous Atoll top sail pass at dark. The story of Palmerston, is that an English man came there with his three Polynesians wife and made 26 children. They lived many years there and still about 50 inhabit the Atoll today. He divided the Atoll into three parts, one for each “family” and set the strict rules for inter marriage between them. There is no pass for a sailing boat to enter the lagoon and only a dangerous day anchorage is available on the SW side. So this is not where I would stop.

The wind dropped at 04:00 to only 9 kn and our speed followed suit to only 5 kn.The swell is still present and we roll a bit.

Unfortunately I have noted that the batteries for the 24 V bank starts to loose the voltage and now needs to be charged more often than usual. This is a big problem as the fridge and freezer stops when the voltage drop below 24 V. This is not a good time to have battery problems as there are no shops to buy new batteries before NE/AUS. I am surprised about this problem as they are all new and bought during the last 12 months. They are the big Vetus batteries and I suspect, as this is not the first time, that these batteries are no good. They cost around EUR 400/each and I guess after testing, I will need 6 new batteries. Damn.....

Finally the weather is OK again with 15 kn E Trade Wind and acceptable sea of two metres. Last night I had numerous Squalls carrying rain, but only wind up to 24 kn, which was fine to handle The temperature is warmer again.

We have 144 NM to the WP I have set at the SE tip of Niue Island and another ten NM around the S and W coasts up to the anchorage at Alofi town. Thus I start to have a dilemma. Either we accelerate trying to get to the WP by 16:00 tomorrow, so that we can arrive in daylight, or we slow down to arrive Saturday morning at sun raise. I believe it is impossible to arrive at daylight tomorrow Friday, but I am trying and have rolled out all the sails. I will reconsider the situation Friday afternoon. the Island don’t have any navigation aids one can rely on, so we have to be careful.In addition, as with so many other islands here in the Pacific, the anchorages are in very deep waters and almost impossible to use ones own anchor. The Niue Yacht Club has, however, put 18 moorings yachts can use – at a cost – meaning we have to arrive in daylight to find one. I emailed the Yacht Club trying to reserve one, but the email bounced. Nicolas is currently emailing them, if he can find their correct address, as to be more sure I get an answer by Friday during my usual time when I download emails.

Friday 04.09.2014 at 07:25 (LT) (Day 7):

We have the luck of enjoying, the last days, the Trade Wind, that is 11-17 kn easterly and the waves are moderate of two metres, giving a pleasant sailing. The water colour is a beautiful dark blue and the nights sky is lid with stars and the moon shine all evening and right until around 01:00. Remember, as the moon circumnavigate the earth in 23 h and 10 min, we enjoy the longer each night, at present. During the day, the sun warms us up again and we can drop the jumpers and jeans and exchange them with T-shirts and shorts.

As I am writing this the sun is raising over the horizon and we will have about 12 h of it, or rather it will give us light for about 13 h to come. However, as I mentioned yesterday, we have about 90 NM to go and I still doubt we can make the anchorage in daylight. My current calculation tells me that we will be about two h short, which would mean hove-to all night to enter when the sun rice Saturday morning, or risk the entrance at night. I still have set all the sails trying to maintained the speed, but I doubt it will be enough, as the wind is forecast to moderate during today.

Saturday 05.09.2014 at 05:05 (LT) (Day 8):

In the end I slowed down to about 3-3.5 kn, meaning only a m2 mail sail up. At that speed we became victim of the swell and waves which pass us at a bigger speed that we do and we troll a lot, but that can’t be helped.

I took my watch at 04:00 and within an hour I could see the first light of a house on Niue Island. There are, as in most of the islands we have visited, no navigation aid lights, so one need to be extra careful about the navigation here. The WP’s I had made were, as usual, on the safe side, keeping us several NM away from land until sun light. At present, I estimate we should arrive one NM west of Alofi town at sun rise. That is exactly what happened and we had a wonderful sun raise, as we picked up the mooring I had reserved, with Nicola’s help, at the Yacht Club.

The trip from Maupiti to Niue Island is about half the distance of an Atlantic crossing.

The Niue Island is one of the smallest nations in the world. Captain Cook failed to get on to the island and he found the islanders unfriendly. Niue has a close association with NZ and they enjoy NZ citizenship. There are about 1.100 inhabitants living here, but 20.000 live in NZ and a further 2.000 in AUS. We hired a car last Monday and drove the 60 km around the island. There are many caves and tunnels and it was quite hard work to see the most important ones. The water is very clear and we are on a mooring on 30 m depth and can easily see the bottom. Humpback whales are around us and most have their Calf with them. They come here to mate and give birth (11 months pregnancy) to the calf. When they are born they weight about 1 ton and are 3-4 metres long and can drink 500 litre of their mothers milk per day; the fat content is four times that of human milk. The grown ups are around 18 metres long and can weight up to 40 tons (according to a brochure I received).

Yesterday as we were getting into the harbor we witnessed a wonderful show of a mother Humpback Whale on the surface and her calf was jumping out of the water all the time. The mother also gave us a free show by flapping her side fins from side to side and splashing the water white. They obviously had a nice time playing around us. I shot a video and will try to get it on YouTube one day . PS: See below, but you need good eye sight.

First sign of Niue Island on the radar.

And as it starts to get light.

We picked up one of the Yacht Club's moorings. It is too deep to anchor and there are many holes that will likely take the anchor so one can't recuperate the anchor;

A complicated crane to haul out the tender, especially when the swell comes in.

This is the "Washaway" Cafe and restaurant. It is called that as most people thought the owner would loose it as soon as a storm comes. It is a help yourself to the drinks system and you pay afterwards.

Our car hire for the day.

Another crane to lift out the fishing man's boat. He had cought 5 large fish which he sell to the nearby resort for NED 15/kg. They use the fish for raw fish dishes.