July 26-29, 2014
When we left Suwarrow, we were part of a community, with most of the boats going to Apia, Western Samoa, and a few heading for Pago Pago, American Samoa. Lady Carolina was in Pago Pago and True Blue V was in Apia, so we decided to let the weather decide our ultimate destination.
We left towards the back of the pack at about 10 am July 26th, and by noon, both engines were off, and we were sailing along nicely. Then by 7 pm we had over 20 knots forward of the beam and we were reefed down and still pushing a speed over ground of 8 knots. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it’s always nice to see the miles tick away, especially at the beginning of a long passage. On the SSB radio net, all of our monohull friends were really complaining about how uncomfortable it was, so either they are just bigger whiners or catamarans ARE more comfortable. At least in these conditions. Even though the seas were bigger this passage, Brenden and I weren’t feeling nearly as bad as on our passage from Mopelia to Suwarrow. It’s not always about the size of the seas, but the direction and frequency. Random, high freqency, beam on swells are very uncomfortable in Exodus.
By 6 pm the second evening (July 27th) the wind had shifted behind us, and we were moving along nicely under headsail alone, but that didn’t last long. The night brought sporadic wind and lots of squalls, and by morning (July 28th) we were motoring without sails. Unfortunately, our configuration stayed that way for about a full 24 hours. At this point we knew we’d be going to Pago Pago since the wind wasn’t cooperating for us to make it all the way to Apia.
We finally got wind again the following morning (July 29th). It was pleasant sailing for a brief time, but then conditions deteriorated, and we got seriously slammed on our final approach. After motoring for a day we were so happy to get wind again, but sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. By the time we passed by the east tip of the island we had 25-30 kts of wind, 4-5 meter seas (the biggest we’ve seen since our San Felipe passage), pouring down rain, and fog. And to top it off we had a 2+ kt current pushing us north making it hard to round the island. We still had to use the engines in order to point at our destination! We were close enough that we had VHF ratio contact with Lady Carolina, which made those last few hours a little more tolerable. It was seriously uncomfortable and we couldn’t get there quick enough, but it was never scary.
When we made the turn into Pago pago harbor, the sea state changed instantly and we had a nice motor to the anchorage, except for the fact that it was so foggy we could barely see. My log keeping wasn’t very good on this passage, and I don’t really remember the details, but by the time we arrived BOTH of our head sails were torn, so we limped to the anchorage with scars to document our experience.
Gresham Family Exodus 