LEOPARD 38
Multihulls Magazine November - December 2009 edition
US Virgin Islands to Tahiti on a Leopard 38
By Captain Ian Engelbrecht
It
was back on back deliveries for Worldwide Yacht Deliveries and so right
after crossing the Bay Of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea, myself and
my worthy First Mate flew into St. Thomas, US Virgins Islands to take
delivery of a 7 year old Robertson & Caine Leopard 38 catamaran. I
was intrigued about this vessel as I have delivered three of them
ex-factory previously. This vessel had spent 7 years in charter
operation for a renown charter company, so I wondered how it had stood
the test of endurance. I probably cannot mention the charter
company's name, but when we arrived the vessel was on the Moorings. I
went forth with my usual survey to at least assure myself that the
yacht would float for a bit. I was actually surprised as the condition
of the vessel was quite good. She was surely a second hand boat but no
lessor than other second hand purchases other than a more than usual
amount of engine hours.
After the usual procedures of dieseling
and stocking and watering and ............. we set sail for the Panama
Canal. The passage started smoothly and I settled in for a comfortable
voyage - very naive of me. I set course not too close to South America
as I wanted to avoid any fishing vessels and logs which notoriously
come out of the Amazon river. This was a pay-off as I knew by doing
that I would hit a little bit of head current. We did hit the current -
and exactly the same time that a large offshore system was pushing in
really big waves. The effect of the head current on these waves made
them enormous breaking at the tips. I was hesitant about the stability
of our vessel as I peered upwards into turquoise framed breaking lips.
We took some interesting roller coaster rides and the vessel took the
situation acceptably but not totally relaxingly if you know what I
mean. So maybe the head current plan was not such a good idea,
especially seeing that after that I had to dodge many a log anyway. It
is not a comfortable feeling at night when you know that during the day
time a few logs were already spotted.
We made our way through
the log mine field and were happy to approach Crystobal, Panama. We
made our way into the Marina to meet some fellow South Africans who
suffered very bad rudder damage from hitting a log - no surprise there.
I spent the following week playing the bureaucratic Panama games pretty
much digging in to my pocket on a continual basis. The agents and
authorities in Panama were actually very friendly, but as I say
expensive and surely bureaucratic. I eventually got through all the
formalities of measuring up the vessel, etc. and headed for the waiting
area of the canal armed with the most paperwork I have ever collected
in a week. The rules are quite simple in Panama. You pay for everything
and in return you get duplicate paperwork, with some pages so long they
don't even fit on a photo copy machine.
We started with our
canal transit and all went well with us navigating the first three
chambers and mooring in the lake for the night. The next day we set off
only to get an overheat on the one motor. Fearing penalty charges if we
delayed I frantically set about tracing the problem. I battled to keep
the motor running the whole day which made all the major manoeuvring
one has to do even more gruelling. I somehow managed to get through it
all and was very happy to throw anchor off Flamingo Island to rest and
execute motor repairs the next day. Talk about operating under pressure
- whew.
We set off into the sunset and started our crossing of
the "Mother Of All Oceans" sailing right in the ITCZ and getting the
obvious thunder storms accordingly. I saw one lightening strike about
half a nautical mile from our vessel that struck the sea and held it's
attack for what seemed like three seconds. I cringed at the thought of
if that had been us. I did my best for the next 10 days to work my way
as south as possible which was a mean task as due to the time of year
we were experiencing the expected headwinds and currents. I played a
couple of low pressures and eventually we were happy to pass the
Galapagos Islands and get some south easter winds. We had a few
electrical and mechanical failures but we managed them accordingly
offshore. The biggest disaster for us was auto steering failure which I
could not repair offshore as it was the course computer. As we were
only two up we had low hung faces knowing that we now had to manually
steer across a seemingly endless cavity.
As for the Pacific
Ocean itself, I love it and have a lot of respect for it. It has an
abundance of healthy fish and bird life. It is surely fact that the
absence of man produces life in abundance. I noticed a massive flock of
birds seemingly on a mission all heading only in one direction -
obviously migratory. This proved to be a trip of some interesting
sites. The one day I saw three waves of about 12 foot each travelling
90 degrees to the existing waves. I wondered if they were tidal. We saw
a ship heading seemingly nowhere going south at idle speed. Prior to
that we had wind shifts so I assumed the ship was avoiding hurricane
activity north of us. Having lunch the one afternoon I heard an
aircraft which appeared strange. I clamoured up to get a view and it
was indeed strange. There was a small helicopter heading straight for
us. When I say helicopter it was more of a giant mosquito. The pilot
hovoured about 10 meters off us. We gave the normal waves and thumbs up
and off he sped again. Amazing, in the middle of nowhere with the
nearest land about 1500 NM away. I assumed it must have been a fish
spotter from one of the large fishing ships we had seen operating in
the area. To add strange to strange the same helicopter found us again
about a week later. This time as we were old friends he gave us a bit
of an aerobatic show flying backwards to either side of us.
We
eventually hit the Marqueses Islands and all were in favour of
acquiring a bottle of rum and getting a good nights sleep. This we did
with the rum being the most expensive in the history of mankind I'm
sure. We rested up for two days and then headed on to the final
destination - Tahiti. Before we could land on Tahiti we had one more
surprise in store for us. We had 24 hours of 35 knot winds. This
increased to 60 knots for 12 hours and then dropped to 35 knots again
for a further 12 hours. With the fetch of the waves and the 60 knots we
had the biggest seas I have ever experienced in my 350 000 NM history.
I have been in bigger winds but these seas were enormous and dangerous.
The term I would use is that we had to negotiate each wave with the
vessel received huge slams and blue water crossing the vessel from bow
to stern. I was impressed by the way the vessel stood against some
serious waves, but I was extremely wary of the situation. To say it was
very bad would be an understatement and you can talk to people who have
sailed with me - I'm generally the last to get nervous. I am not even
going to mention the footage of these waves as I'll surely be called a
liar. We thankfully endured the storm and arrived in Tahiti right at
the end of the blow. The marina in Tahiti reported that they had 55
knots of wind and they are sheltered.
This delivery proved to be
a one of test and so we were respectfully thankful to hand the vessel
back to the owner in Tahiti. We still have back on back deliveries and
so we immediately flew back to the Caribbean to collect another vessel
on which I am sitting right now typing this article. This delivery will
also be an interesting one as it is from St. Lucia, Caribbean to
Richards Bay, South Africa. In other words we will be sailing the wrong
way around. I will not be able to share this voyage with you in this
magazine as it is on half a boat or a monohull as some people would
refer to it as.
Captain Ian Engelbrecht
www.worldwideyachtdeliveries.co.za
Multihulls Magazine November - December 2009 edition***BACK***