Day 4 - New Caledonia to Australia

Today was nicknamed Storm Runner because for most of the day we tried to avoid a huge squall which we spotted over 15nm away. To make it even more strange is that the squall was in front of us and the wind we had was coming from directly behind us. So for every reasonable person the squall should have been getting further and further away. Well because we were flying our huge big spinnaker which we had done all yesterday and through the night last night we are very vigilant to ensure we aren’t caught by surprise by some strong wind we didn’t see coming. And squalls can often come with very strong wind. Today’s squall was a perfect case study of how a squall can move on its own pressure and not be guided by the prevailing wind on the water. So in todays case the squall was moving very slowly in westerly direction. The wind was in a northerly direction and we were moving south. These are all approximate to give you an idea. Now normally the squall (or big group of clouds) would move in sync with the wind but this wasn’t and slowly but surely it got closer and closer to us until we we’re forced to bring down our spinnaker and turn on the motors in case there was very strong wind in the squall.

There was strong wind but not crazy strong but it was in a completely different direction and would have cause the sail to collapse anyway. The kids know all about this phenomenon because we have been watching squalls since the day we set out sailing over 2.5 years ago. So nothing new here for them but thought I would share with you all.

So at around 4:30pm today we dropped the sail and after the squall passed we have been completely becalmed. So we are motoring with one engine doing at sad 5.5knots. The good news is the wind is around 5-6knots from behind us so it feels like no wind on the boat so we setup the projector on the flybridge and watched Jonny English. Great fun.

Other than that there was more backgammon and chess and lots of music through the day. The temperature feels significantly warmer and I am now only wearing one pair of trousers. Please don’t ask about fish!

Food? Chicken casserole of sorts with rice and the eggplant slides with fish on top. I am sure I am not describing this at all well but it was delicious. I will let the pics tell the story.

We are now less than 48hours away. 2 more sleeps. So goodnight everyone from SV Arabella.

Parasail & Swedish Twin (Our nickname for the engines which are 2x 150hp Volvo diesel engines

Moon - waxing crescent moon and setting at around 1am

Sunny and warm with squalls

Every chance of rain but none hit us

Position 26.43S 158.08E

DTD -260nm

DMG - 547nm

AWA 175P ° When there was wind

AWS 8-10 knots

COG 225°

GPS Speed 6-7knots under sail and now 5.4knots under motor