Camille

Once past the south of Moorea, the wind picked up and we attempted a first hoist of the spinnaker which resulted in it immediately coming down with a tear in the leading edge, making it unusable. We took out the next one. It lasted half an hour, just enough time to take a picture of it. Still, our average is pretty good: 7.4 knots over 24 hours. But the sea is uncomfortable and the Lagoon leaps as if she was on a hellish rollercoaster ride. At the end of the afternoon, a school of pilot whales visited us. We have just passed the Cook Islands. As announced, a big swell forms and the catamaran climbs the waves before sailing down them. The sail area is well reduced but despite this, the speed regularly exceeds 10 knots. Today, started badly: the bow of the dinghy is completely deflated and I also realized that one step of the sugarscoop has come off and disappeared! The gennaker is rigged, hoisting it goes well and it has no holes in it (!). It propels us along at a good speed. Nightfall treated us to a beautiful moonrise. The opposite of the sunset. I took some pictures. The gennaker is lowered for the night. In the morning, I make myself a coffee, start my bowl of cereal when Florent cries: “Oh sh...!”. Breakfast will have to wait. The bow of the dinghy is dragging behind the catamaran. We will have to get her up without falling into the water (the step is broken!). We must slow down, think and act. Putting bits and pieces all over the place we try to save what can be saved, especially the engine: it’s now too late for the dinghy. An hour later, my cereal looks like porridge and I wonder how I’m going to break the news to the owner. We’ve arrived at the date line, and are moving from west longitude to east longitude. We change the time and skip a day too, going straight from Tuesday to Thursday. That doesn’t prevent us from averaging 8 knots over 24 hours. Not bad! We’re already at the southern tip of New Caledonia, entering the Dumbea Pass. A few hours later we took a buoy in front of Nouméa, where we are quarantined.

Who: Camille, Catherine, Florent
Where: From French Polynesia to New Caledonia
Multihull: Lagoon 400