Australia to New Caledonia - A perfect passage!
by John Hembrow on 15 Jun 2016
Down Under Rally - Australia to New Caledonia John Hembrow
Our passage from Southport, Queensland , Australia to Noumea, New Caledonia saw us log just under 900 nm. We had winds from the westerly quadrant for all but the last day of the passage, which brought SE winds 15 kts. The westerly winds were from NW, W, SW.
Max sustained wind speeds we experienced were around 20 kts with a few gusts to 30 kts on the first day, we had 2-3 M swell during first 24hrs with small sea then 1-2 m swell with virtually no seas for the remainder of the passage.
Songlines just loved the angles and we completed the voyage in four days, 22 hours with our top speed recorded on night one of 15.3 kts , we were frequently sailing along at eight - ten knots .
One of the Songlines crew, Kate enjoying a cocktail to celebrate her birthday (virgin cocktail of course!) Motor Sailing on a flat calm ocean with a perfect sunrise to start the day. Thanks to the calm conditions and the galley skills of Leanne and Alexis we ate very well!
So Calm Leanne was even able to practice her yoga on passage. The sun sets on yet another calm sea.
Arriving in New Caledonia lagoon with Amedee Lighthouse in the background.
Down Under 'Go East' Rally participants Warren and Debbie aboard s.v 'Phase 2' departed at the same time as us but travelled a little slower and arrived 24 hours after we did. They did experience some gusts of up to 33 kts on their last day with seas of about 3 m.
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