We departed Apia, Samoa in the morning on Saturday 7 May after staying up late and saying good-bye to our friends and cyclone buddies from s/v Nefertiti. It was a fast and bumpy one night passage upwind into a steady 15-16 kts of SE trades. It certainly wasn’t one of our worst passages, but it wasn’t one of our best either. The forecast predicted a slight unfavorable wind shift, so we pointed as high as we could until we were about halfway there and then fell off the wind a bit. The shift never really materialized, so the second half of the passage was slightly more comfortable than the first. You can see our track in the satellite image below. We arrived about noon on Sunday, and since it was Sunday, we laid low and didn’t go ashore and disturb anyone.
Track of our passage from Somoa to Niuatoputapu
Passage Summary:
Duration 1 day 5:01 hours
Log miles 190 nmi, Avg Speed 6.55 kt
DMG 184 nmi, Avg VMG 6.34 kt
Track miles 188 nmi, Avg SOG 6.48 kt
Engines – SB only 5:28 hrs, Both 1:25 hrs
Gresham Family Exodus 