The Trip From Hell

The Trip Home
Sailing from Noumea to Opua aboard the 10.5 m yacht IDUNO August 2007
Grant Looker

Monday 20th of August.



Up early, out and about to finish the last few jobs, like provisioning for the trip home, last minute jobs like packing the dinghy etc. Duthie, Kev’s brother sent a text to Kevin. It was a 5 day forecast which was OK but not fantastic. At 11am we checked the weather report on the notice board at Port Moselle, the worrying D (French for LOW ) over Queensland from yesterdays forecast has disappeared. Kevin didn’t seem 100% relieved and I questioned him about the advantage or disadvantage of not waiting another 24hrs to see what the weather did. Soon another txt from Duthie arrived, “forecast looking better”, the clear weather fax and Russel Radio declaring that the scruffy stuff off Brisbane would come to nothing, the decision was made and we were off, leaving Port Moselle about Midday. Usual 20 knot Southeast trade winds blowing, good sailing out passed Amedee Light-house and through the outer reef at about 1430hrs. Good sailing 1-2m swell and slight seas, winds remain the constant trades, making good progress at about 7.5 knots, not making course to NZ of 140T Heading about 150T.We have the headsail and full main up. Had our usual 4 o’clock drinkies followed by dinner of cold roast chicken on fresh baguettes, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and dressing, very nice. We all worked a 2 on 4 off roster. Other duties fitted in. I did most of the evening cooking, Kevin did lunches and most of the sail work. Blair was the DMO (drinks management Officer) & MMO ( music management officer) he would remind us regularly (especially when we woke him to make our 4 o’clock drinks) how he was expected to do everything. I did the 2200 until midnight shift and always took over from Kevin this night, like most others followed a familiar pattern. I awoke from my sleep thinking “it sounds like the winds picked up, we seem to be banging around a bit” Arriving on deck Kevin informed me that everything was just fine. Kevin goes off to bed and is back up on deck before long saying “we are banging and crashing a lot, we don’t want to break anything” The outcome was we put a reef in the main. We have an uneventful night of good sailing.

Tuesday 21st of August.

Nice conditions sunny skies steady Southeast trades of 20 knots, 1 -2 m swell and slight seas, still not making course but Kevin unconcerned. SE winds expected until we get to lower latitudes and hopefully get some westerlies. Settling into the routine of 2 on 4 off, weather schedules via radio at 6 am & 6pm. A wee red wine pre lunch, cheese toasted sandwiches and drinkies at 4pm. We had chicken boiled in soy sauce with garlic ginger & chillies with fresh spuds and salad, very nice. Cooking on a yacht under full sail is challenging but worth the effort.

Wednesday 22nd August.

Nice weather today, sunny, brisk SE winds 25-30kts, swell about same 1-2 meters seas up a little, nice sailing. Blair and I had a bucket shower on the aft deck. The water still quite warm, and wind a little chilly.



Thursday 23rd August.

Constant SE winds 25 – 30 knots, not easing, cloudy periods, and occassional showers. Wind is supposed to swing more east, no sign of it yet. We are getting pushed a long way east ( not unusual apparently). Went below Norfolk Island today, tacked toward it passing about 10 miles away. That was about as close as we got. Caught several skipjack tuna today but threw them back. We pulled the line in to avoid catching any more. Blair hooked a good sized sail fish (bit like a marlin) it jumped several times and got off, just as well. The seas were quite choppy as we went under Norfolk. Kevin cooked a nice beef curry. Tuned in to a Norfolk Island radio station and heard a worrying weather report.Talk of a rapidly deepening depression in north Tasman Sea due to hit Norfolk on Saturday. Discussed the weather report with Russell radio at 6pm, they did not think it was a problem, we would be well away by then. Awoke for evening shift to lots of banging and crashing, winds up to 40-45 knots, Kevin unconcerned but then again he was up in the night to change sails. We have had a pair of Albatross following us since New Caledonia and several other birds (magnificent Cape Pigeons) really beautiful, they came very close at times and you see them even at night.

Friday 24th August.

Winds are up still, SE 40 -45 building during the day. Swell and sea rising. Weather report says things should improve but not much sign of it. Blair caught a nice 10-15kg big eye tuna today. Crew working hard now as conditions becoming boisterous. 2 on 4 off but lots of interrupted sleep.( except for Blair who seems to have slept just about every spare minute the whole way). A frustrating day about 250 miles NWof North Cape. We’re not making much progress due to the bloody SE wind,. We need it to go Sou West or something. Winds seem to be increasing during the day. # 4 Jib only now but still going fast, about 7.5 knots. We discussed strategy. Kevin is concerned about the weather but we will await Russell radios’ assessment at 6pm. If it’s not good we may head for New Plymouth to avoid storm.
Cooked a fish curry with the tuna, very nice. Still managing to fit in our red wine and drinkies. Forecast was for weather to improve. Kevin has decided to carry on. I am not convinced. I would rather turn tail to New Plymouth, I am grumpy and I think Kevin can sense it, even if he doesn’t understand why. Awoke for evening shift, lots of banging and crashing wind up over 50 knots, Kevin not worried. Kevin is back up about 11pm, “banging and crashing to much, don’t want to break anything now”. We all went forward and sorted out the foredeck. We lashed the number 4 headsail securely and put up the storm jib, only about 2 square meters of sail, doing 4 knots, swell definitely still building probably 4 meters or so with breaking crests..

Saturday 25th

Went to bed after shift a 6 am, short sleep and awake for radio schedule to hear weather report at 7 (shifted to 7 and 7 with time zone), getting frustrated with weather reports, “will improve” still no sign, winds are strong now about 60 knots from SE at times, swell and seas are increasing, makes living difficult, cooking, eating, peeing even getting in and out of bed is a challenge. Tried a tack today, made a little progress towards Northland, not much, still doing about 4 knots but going nowhere fast. Getting pretty wild on deck, quite a bit of water coming over, Kevin and I decided it is important to keep up standards so we had our 4 o’clock drinkies on deck and Blair heated the left over curry from last night, pretty wild but all in good spirits. Awoke before my shift at 10pm, wild like being on a roller coaster, the wind seems to get up every night, I don’t like going out on deck at night (in rough conditions), its OK once I get out there, but waking and getting dressed I feel apprehensive.

Sunday 26th

Finished my watch at 6am, it was a wild night out there, sailing on storm jib only and still doing about 4 knots, made I think about 30 miles toward Northland in last 24hrs. Had breakfast and glad to get into bed, find it hard to hard to sit up. Listen to forecast with Russell radio. Winds now over 60 knots and sea not getting any smaller, forecast was that things might improve later today or tomorrow “Yeah right”. At 10 O’clock Kevin came off shift and decided to abandon watches, getting to wild, to dangerous out there, close the hatch and all below decks, sounded good to me, didn’t fancy going out there again. Kevin notified Taupo Maritime Radio of our predicament. TMR issued a notice to mariners. A 10.5 meter yacht at pos xx south xx east restricted in her ability to maneuver and unable to display lights or keep watch. Basically we just lay around, talked, played cards, slept, and had pre lunch wine. Blair was feeling Nauseated and tablets not helping, we didn’t want him sick down here, so made him give himself a Stemetil suppository, he was not keen and came back from the toilet looking down, I think he felt violated (it was his own finger for Christ sake), of course Kevin and I teased him endlessly about this, it did work to. Kevin cooked a beef curry, a bloody miracle in the conditions. We had been taking some pretty good slaps all day and the occasional knock over, maybe not all the way over but far enough. We had our 4 o’clock drinkies and all went to bed early after radio schedules with Russell radio and Navy Great Barrier. We asked Navy Great Barrier to contact our families and tell them we were all well and in good spirits. The Weather report was not good, everybody is a bit down. I tried but could not sleep, to anxious, got up and put lifejacket and boat shoes on. I wanted someone awake and ready in case I had to go out and secure a line or something in a hurry, in saying that I’m “about as much use as tits on a bull”. The seas had been building during the latter part of the day, it was bloody wild. Kevin got up about an hour later, I was sitting on the side of the bunk just waiting, listening, freaking. We talked a lot which helped ease my anxiety, something to think about, I don’t know if Kevin was anxious or not. Hard to tell. Kevin would eventually fall asleep but wake up after a particularly bad knock, the winds were howling, seas very rough, it was very noisy inside the boat, the comparison to a roller coaster was now an understatement. This was the cyclone passing over us. By about 3 am I was exhausted and this overcame my anxiety and I fell asleep, curled on the end of the bunk.

Monday 27th August. I awoke at first light, with a sense of relief, “we had made it through the night”, things always seem better in day light. Still scrunched at the end of the bunk with Kevin occupying the other end of it. Winds still howling maybe eased a little but over 60 knots, still bucking and pitching and taking the occasional whack. Blair described us as like a couple of Lion cubs purring. Kevin got up and let me stretch out and get a little sleep, whilst he mopped out the bilges and checked for leaks etc. Listened to weather report, possibly some improvement later in the day, so we all stayed below decks, played cards etc. Blair feeling nauseated again so same treatment, took much less cajoling this time, afterwards we teased him that he was starting to like it. I have to say a pretty cool young man, doesn’t get ruffled ( very easy going ). Kevin and I were bored so we polished of the last of the wine about 10 o’clock (1.5 bottles) felt much better after that. Kevin cooked toasties again, the man is a legend, it was hard enough trying to eat them, let alone stand over the stove to cook them. The winds and seas did not ease and by afternoon , we were starting to get some good knock downs, by that I mean occasionally knocked flat, green water visible over all the portholes at once, starboard port and roof. As the afternoon wore on everybody’s anxiety was starting to rise, we could tell weather was getting worse, we were all waiting for the weather schedules. We contacted Navy Great Barrier, Kevin was trying to be positive but you could tell he was feeling low, Dennis read us the weather report from Duthie (Kevin’s brother and head of Auckland Coast Guard) “the cyclone has split in two, one part is headed back north, you could not be in a worse place “, I like to think Duthie didn’t intend for us to here the last bit. Anyway after hearing that our morale dropped further and my anxiety notched up higher, “Bloody hell its coming back”, we all just sat there and said nothing for about 15 to 20 minutes after that. I had this sense of dread, acid in my throat, but you can’t do anything, you can’t run away, you just have to face it. As the evening wore on the wind increased, the seas increased and the Iduno was starting to crash out the back of waves, followed by a sickening weightless drop and a loud crash at the bottom. Kevin was very worried and we all had our warm gear and life jackets on sitting quietly. Kevin decided the risk of “pitch polling” (this is where you roll end over end) was to great (apparently this is not a good look with a yacht), Kevin decided to put out a sea anchor, he dug out all the required gear, about 50 kgs of chain a long heavy duty rope, 2 full 20 litre water bottles and we got it ready. The idea was to drop it off the back of the boat and this would slow us down about 1 knot. We planned how we would do it and who would do what, this was not going to be easy, pitch black, huge seas, wildly pitching boat, waves coming over and winds in excess of 70 knots by now and torrential rain, we did not want to lose anybody or damage the boat. My anxiety level was getting up there. Kevin went out the hatch first and quickly ascertained that it was going to be impossible to do anything on deck in these treacherous conditions. Change of plan he called, he had decided to take the tiny storm jib down. I reminded him to take extreme care as he was the only one who could sail and Blair and I would be up shit creek without him. Kevin crawled forward, Blair and I stayed at the hatch, Blair was trying to keep an eye on Kevin but could see nothing really due to the driving rain, wind, water and absence of any stray light. We did not want to shine the torch and blind him.
At this stage I remember saying to Blair, “this is fucking freaky man, I wanted to have some excitement but I didn’t want to climb Mount Everest or anything”, I think this was the first time anybody had verbalised their fear, and I don’t remember Blair saying much in reply.
Anyway I got the idea to shine the torch up through the front hatch onto the mast to give Kevin some indirect light, which I went forward to do. I shone the light up through the hatch straight onto Kevin’s bollocks as he was wearing undies only under his wet weather Jacket and squatting over the hatch as he attempted to sort things out, the wind was howling there was a constant sheet of spray, it looked so wild and bloody hard for Kevin as he had to tie down the other headsail which had come loose as well as take down the storm jib. We were all very relieved when Kevin made it back inside. Kevin had put the Fleming (wind steering device) hard over so we were now “laying a hull”, this means that the boat lies partly on its side and side on to the waves. The theory is that the boat will get blown sideways, the disturbed water created by the keel disrupts the wave energy.
The most immediate and obvious effect is the sudden increase in sideways roll, we rolled side to side violently. The number of slaps increased significantly as well. There were several different types of slaps, there was the rumbling approach of a wave that struck the bow or stern with an accompanied violent twist of the boat. The rumbling approach of a wave that hit amid ships with lots of noise but not much motion. The worst was the silent attack, they struck without warning, and you would suddenly hear a loud crack like thunder, as the wave hit followed immediately by a violent rotation of the boat. Many times we were laid flat, more than 90 degrees, with the mast lying in the water, one second Blair would be lying in his bunk beside me, the next he would be on the roof, I would be holding my breath thinking are we going all the way over ( not desirable they tell me), but we always came back. Kevin was worried about a roll over and we stashed everything that could come loose, all breakables anything that would present a hazard if we did, like pens and pencils on the floor. We discussed the implications of a roll over, loss of power, communications and navigation, the risk of loosing the mast and its implications, we also discussed evacuation plans like grabbing the lifeboat and emergency grab bag with the satellite phone,VHF radio and EPIRB in it and very importantly, the need to tie the liferaft to the yacht before throwing it over. It was between 10 and 11pm by now and the wind had increased further it was screaming, who knows how fast, well over 70 knots (130kms), the next 6 hours were the worst, Kevin was really worried and so were we, I didn’t fancy trying to get into an inflatable lifeboat in these conditions.
We were knocked flat numerous times during the night, to many to count, occasionally you would hear another loud noise and we would anxiously check that the window shutters had not been knocked of , this would have been a definite turn for the worse, but luckily they held. This was the only night we did not have a cooked dinner, surprisingly no one felt like cooking or eating it. Eventually we all fell asleep about 4 am, Kevin and I sharing a narrow cot.

Tuesday 28th August

Awoken about dawn after a couple of hours of disturbed sleep by a large wave hitting us, startled I farted on Kevin’s leg and woke him from snoring. A sense of relief, we had made it through the night, everything always feels better in daylight, the wind seems to have eased a bit, not screaming like last night, still “laying a hull” and rocking constantly, everybody is in good spirits, joking and teasing and discussing the night before, still to wild to do anything. After a while I got up and looked out the window and nearly freaked, there were huge breaking swells rolling toward us and the boat sitting there side on, I had to look down, it just didn’t seem right, I am glad we had not been able to see the swells during the night, we had all got used to the motion and the noise of the waves hitting us, but to see it was something else. Did radio check with Russell radio at 7 am, Des was glad to hear from us, the forecast was for the wind to ease during the day. About 10am the wind had eased further, about 50 knots or less so we raised the storm jib and we were off sailing at about 4 to 4.5 knots, the seas were still very big and breaking, but it was nice to be on the move again. About midday the wind had eased further and we raised the deep reefed main and really took off. Now we were doing about 8 knots, this was exhilarating, sailing over huge swells, travelling fast taking the occasional good slap, lots of water coming over at times, heading for home everybody was enjoying it. My 10pm to Midnight shift was great, wind was still up about 45 knots, seas had eased a little, not so much water coming over, sailing fast, when I first came out Kevin said the moon had gone behind a cloud, which seemed odd as it was a clear moonless night, few clouds and lots of stars, the phosphorescence was very bright, dolphins followed us for a while and their phosphorescent trails looked amazing. Awhile later some clouds went over and when they cleared there was suddenly a ¾ moon high in the night sky, which is when I realised we must have witnessed an eclipse of the moon.( Kev reckons I should stop popping pills from the first aid kit )

Wednesday 29th August

Finished my 4 to 6 shift, wind has eased to about 35-40 knots, seas easing gradually, making good time about 7.5-8knots, nearly at North Cape, still running storm jib and deep reefed main. Everybody is desperate to make Opua as soon as possible so we can clear customs, have a shower and get a drink, as all supplies exhausted, so we are going for max speed all the way. The wind slowly dropped to 25-30knots and once we got behind North Cape the swell and sea dropped, we pulled out the main and put up a bigger headsail. We could see by early afternoon that we would not make Opua by 6 pm so Kevin got hold of his mate Boydie and has asked him to buy us some booze and pass it to us on the customs quarantine wharf, but customs scuttled that plan, we were not allowed any contact until cleared the next day, boohoo. We arrived in Opua about 8.30 pm and parked on the customs wharf about 100m from a bar and restaurant, torture.

Thursday 30th
Left Opua after finally clearing customs and MAF about 10 am, sailed straight to the wharf at Russell, to rough to moor so Kevin dropped Blair and I off, Blair got LPG while I restocked the alcohol and got lunch, I got a nice bottle of shiraz as a wee celebration for surviving, this was opened and consumed pretty much as soon as I got back on board. The sail down to Tutukaka was beautiful, the wind was a little patchy but mainly around 25 knots and we cleared Bay of Islands around midday, fantastic scenery along that piece of coast. We caught a Wahoo of about 3 kg just before Tutukaka, put up a good fight for a small fish, man they have nasty teeth, I am sure glad the big one we had in Noumea got away, it was about 7 ft long and 60 or 70kg.
Arrived in Tutukaka about 5.30pm and it was straight to the showers for a good long soak for all. We met Blair’s parents about 7 and went out to a local restaurant to celebrate, we had made it. The memories of the storm were already beginning to fade and Kevin is making plans for the Sydney to Hobart race in New Year, and I am thinking yeah, I would be keen. Kevin is a bloody legend, I would go anywhere with this man (sailing anyway), that’s not to say I enjoyed the worst 2 nights, I would gladly have been anywhere else, but I firmly believe if not for Kevin we would have been toast. I have to admire his fantastic little boat Iduno, his father described Iduno to me as strong, that is definitely an understatement.


Grant Looker .