Baguette search success

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Well there you have it. Goal achieved

Baguette has arrived

Arrived yesterday morning, as planned, through pass at sunrise, can’t see the reefs until you are right there and just a change in wave behavior above them

The light house is there to guide you in.

Lighthouse at daybreak

Welcomed into the lagoon with this sight.

A welcome squall

A crazy run around to get immigration process complete before they closed at noon? Best government job ever.

A couple of beers and pizza with friends who met us at the dock and grabbed our lines and secretly dropped off some French pastries for breakfast. There was a band at the marina bar, started at 6pm… don’t think I was awake for the end of the first song.

What started out as 880nm trip, turned into 1047nm. I took the scenic route. Don’t know if it was more comfortable or not, I do know it was full day longer than following the direct route. There was some nice sailing in the middle part, but the beginning and end were definitely not champagne sailing, you would have missed your mouth with the champagne flute on every sip. We averaged 7.5 knots for the trip which is pretty good for a long passage.

Anyway cheers signing off till our next passage.

Baguette search day #6

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Last full day of core exercise.   The swell found us or did we find the swell?  

We have been doing the time warp all day long.  

It’s just a jump to the left

And step to the right

With your hands on the boat

Lock your knees in tight.. 

But its the floor you trust

Is driving you insane

Let’s do the Timewarp again. .. and again and again.

For every 3 meter wave that catches you off guard.

Finally found a rhythm that was semi-comfortable, and boat at a decent pace to arrive at daybreak the following morning.   There is a lot of charts and talk that its well marked and lit, can easily be done in the dark.  If the sea wasn’t as angry I imagine we would go that route, but with the sea state and possibly the swell at the pass, I just want to have a look and make sure there are no standing waves or big current coming out as we will be a few hours after slack tide when we arrive in the daylight.  

The Rocky Horror exercise routine was partially attributed to mother nature trying to make up for neptunes tempertantrum.  Neptune would make a bunch of racket and stir up the waves that splash and cover sugar shack completely..  Seemed like there was water falls at from every horizontal surface at points during the day.  The new solar panels were a water feature, salt water creating a curtain of water right in to the dinghy.   Mother nature must have felt sorry for us and promptly rinsed it off with drive thru boat wash, and then showed us she still cared with many colorful signs. 

Reward or Apology?

Then it got to be a competition, I think neptune must have summoned up some siblings and started make waves from a couple directions at once.  

Spicy cajun pasta for dinner, double checked the freezer we have indeed exhausted all the swine related products. My favorite is to show the bio officers the Trader Joe’s veggie chorizo, that always confuses everyone.   Looks like pork but…  🙂 

All good, another 12-15hrs and it’ll be time to find a cold beverage, a hot shower, and a bed that doesn’t try and throw you like an 8 second bull, and of course the long awaited fresh baguette.  

Baguette search day #5

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Still no baguette to be found not even the smell of fresh ones baking in the distance.  

As day broke, you could see rain squalls on all sidss, I think I counted a magical 7 of them, suited up for battle.  Foul weather gear ready for day of rain.  Happy to report I won the battle, the rain mainly just sprinkled a time or two early in the day and put up the surrender rainbows.   Surprised as the forecast had a bit of rain all day long.  

The battle I did lose was the waves, I stood tall and said go away, but they came anyway.  3 meter waves relentlessly kept appearing out of magical hiding spots.  We were running in retreat which was actually toward out destination as luck would have it.  Found a nice rhythm and boat speed that made most of them tolerable.  I tried to take a picture of the horizon lost with nothing but wave touching the sky, but simply didn’t do it justice.  

Another round or sea sampling was on the agenda.  It’s recommended not to sample in big seas and fast speeds.  We were just under the guideline of less than 12 knots of boat speed, we surfed down a swell at 11 knots on one of the samples.  

Played chicken with 2 cargo ships one in the dark, eventually Christine told him she had right away, well not exactly like that.. simply asked if he saw us on his screen which he said yes ma’am.   We took that as a win and no insurance exchange was necessary.

Grilled our last pork chops and blanched some fresh green beans, and by grilled I mean pan-seared.  Hard enough to cook at the stove that keeps moving about as it goes over 3 meter waves.

Just over 230nm to go, too far to make in the next daylight so shooting for a Friday day break arrival at outer reef, then another 17 miles to the customs and immigration offices.