Cruisers Slammed by Unexpected Conditions

"The South Pacific Convergence Zone went crazy on July 19," report Robby and Lorraine Coleman of the Honolulu-based Angleman ketch Southern Cross. "Eight boats on their way to Suwarrow from French Polynesia got hammered by 30- to 40-knot winds and even stronger squalls. One boat reported an accidental jibe, and another a knockdown and cracked mast. While they were having strong souhteasterly winds, the wind came out of the northwest where we were at Manihiki 200 miles to the north. It left us on a lee shore, with our stern coming perilously close to the reef and breakers. We tried to raise the anchor at dinnertime on the 18th, but it was severely stuck. Fortunately, we were able to the use line we’d attached to the anchor float to dislodge it it. Whew! We then motored southwest for three hours, and finally hove to. We got underway the next morning under blue skies and light wind. By evening the boats nearing Suwarrow reported winds continuing in the 30+ knot range with rain, and still have 30+ knots of wind and rain just 140 miles to the south of us. So we hove to again last night, not wanting to sail into that kind of mess."

Singlehander Wayne Meretsky of the Alameda-based S&S 47 Moonduster was one of the eight boats in the strong winds on the way to Suwarrow. "There has been plenty of wind — 25 to 35 knots — the last three days, and I’ve had really good daily runs of 203 miles, 196 miles, and should do about another 196 today. Prior to this, I’d never had a 200-mile singlehanded day before. I’ve had the boat completely shut, with even the washboard in place, and I’ve never done that before in all my singlehanding miles. But with so many waves washing over the boat, I didn’t want to risk taking a wave coming into the nav station and wiping out all the electronics. The reports on the net today were that two Seattle-based boats, Mike Scott and Liz Strash’s Seattle-based Cal 40 Argonaut, and the Seattle-based Bristol Channel Cutter Little Wing, took knockdowns yesterday. They didn’t come on the net this morning, but Little Wing reported by satphone that they would both be in Suwarrow soon. I just spoke to Steve and Wendy Bott of the Seattle-based J/44 Elusive, who reported they were just finishing a jibe when a squall hit and caused the boat to jibe back violently. The result was that the gooseneck broke, the mainsail track tore, the clew reef points were pulled out, and a running backstay was busted. They’re already at Suwarrow, which is 400 miles away and where I’m headed. It’s been rough, but my biggest adventure today will be swapping propane bottles. I made some biscuits for lunch yesterday, and when I went to heat some soup last night, there was no more propane in that tank. I’m not complaining, as I’d been using that tank since February 10 in Mexico. By my math, I’ve only got another seven months of propane on board, so I don’t worry too much."

Also caught in the blow was Ron and Mary Ellen Leithiser’s Norseman 447 Island Time. "We’re currently in the thick of things, although conditons seem to be getting better, with the wind down to 25-35 knots and the seas down to 10-12 feet. But breaking waves continue to hammer our boat and fill the cockpit. We’ve already had our engine start switch and some cockpit instrument displays knocked out. But we’re relatively unscathed compared to the others. We know that the following boats all left Bora Bora on July 15: Island Time, Scarlet O’Hara, Elusive, Blue Plains Drifter, Fearless, Little Wing, Argonaut, Windancer, and Tracen J. There are other boats on the same passage, but we don’t know who they are.

How did we all get caught out here? Two days into the passage, the GRIB files suddenly showed wind on the way within 24 hours, but underestimated how hard it was going to blow. At the peak, we had 35- to 40-knot sustained winds, with seas to 20 feet. The sea state was confirmed by BuoyWeather.com. The most eye-opening thing to us has been the unpredictable nature of the weather here in the South Pacific Convergence Zone. Because of the conditions at the anchorage in Suwarrow, we’d decided to continue on to Pago Pago."