Rough Start

So we have been bound for Marquesas for about 36 hours now. We had a terrifying start to our passage yesterday when leaving the pass in Makemo. The reason we were leaving for the Marquesas at that time is because there is an unusual north west wind that has been blowing due to some systems far south of us. This was helpful because it allowed us to sail east the first 24 hours, which is typically the direction of the prevailing winds. The one problem with this north wind though is that the pass we needed to exit faces north. This means that the wind driven swell was being pushed hard into the pass regardless of whether the tide was ebbing or flooding. We wanted to time our exit for slack tide, the very brief period between where the tide is transitioning, but a squall hit us at the time we wanted to lift anchor. So we sat out the squall which delayed our exit, we had no idea what the 30 minute delay would mean for the pass. By the time we headed for the pass, slack tide had ended and the tide was ebbing. The result was that the water inside the lagoon was being pushed outside at the same time a 20 knot wind was pushing water into the lagoon. This created very steep, short duration, confused seas in a tight pass with reefs on both sides. In other words, SCARY!!!

Our friends on Sugar Shack went through the pass ahead of us. I don't think it helped watching them get tossed around ahead of us considering they are 10 feet longer and likely 6 feet wider than Maple with much higher freeboard (the space between the water line and the top of the deck). But we didn't want to miss the weather window and the seas would only continue to build as the ebb current continued to strengthen. We had all windows closed tight, the girls were safely inside watching a movie, typically means they are oblivious to what we might be dealing with outside. D was hand steering, doing a stellar job of keeping calm, while my only job is to stop my nervous chatter that drives him crazy. I really can't put into words how scary it was as we started to get tossed around in these steep waves like a toy boat. Just as we were hit broad side on the port side by a huge wave, a huge bottlenose dolphin jumped right off our starboard side, distracting me to the wave that was coming. Fortunatley D did see the wave approach and did his best to steer into the wave but at this point our port hull was lifted far out of the water as the wave raced beneath us. Sugar Shack later told us that it literally looked like we flew a hull, which I can assure you our model of catamaran is not designed to do.

At the moment that Maple tipped precariously onto her starboard side, Iris and Ella both let out ear splitting screams from inside. I figured for sure all of our computers and other electronics had spilled to the floor. But the girls were reacting to what they realized was not a natural tilt for Maple, the first time in 4 years that they really even noticed something out of sorts. In the end the only casualty was a small picture frame that smashed to the floor. Thankfully we had done a decent job of stowing before we left knowing that it could be a touch bouncy. We also lost a wake board that was clearly not well secured and blew away. As you can appreciate the conditions were not really conducive for attempting a man overboard drill to recover the board.

Once safely out of the pass, the conditions were still unpleasant to say the least. Didn't take long before Ella was looking green, but the crew were all rock stars! Conditions now have smoothed out beautifully, the girls even managed an hour of school this morning. We have now turned north on almost a direct line to the Marquesas. We hope to arrive the morning of November 8th if all continues to go as forecasted. Can't say I will entirely miss the Tuamotus in spite of their beauty. Looking forward the ease of approaching the Marquesas islands without their barrier reefs or coral bottoms to foul our anchor.