The lessons we should not forget

Sailors have famously short memories. Arriving in New Caledonia after blast-reaching in near gale conditions up from New Zealand, we had that slightly wild-eyed, salty-haired look that comes with an eventful passage. And we weren’t even meant to be in New Caledonia. A weather forecast shortly after setting out from Opua showed a low forming just off these islands, deepening rapidly and moving eastwards. Our planned passage up to Fiji would have meant we would effectively be ‘racing’ this weather system to Fiji. Our ETAs would be pretty much equal. Not good.

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Deciding discretion to be most definitely the better part of valour we altered course to bow graciously behind the low, and to change our destination to whence the low came – New Caledonia. It would still be a windy old sail, but we would have favourable winds and an easy escape route if necessary. To say it was a fast trip is a bit of an understatement – three reefs in the main and a scrap of jib had us scorching along in the gusty conditions.