Day 26-27 - Wednesday & Thursday, September 20-21
Day 26 found us departing Nuku’alofa at 6:15 am for the 9 hour sail to Nomuka. All went perfectly as we hit the ocean with the wind to our front side. This meant that with 3 to 4 Meter seas and 25 to 30 knot winds we would be in for a rough ride.
It only took 90 minutes for an extraordinary event to occur… WE HIT A WHALE!! Seriously, there we were cruising at 8 knots and suddenly the boat went bow first into a wave and we immediately slowed to 2 knots.
Then Carol heard what sounded like a moan off the side of the boat and a whale surfaced next to us. It even gave Mickey the “stink eye”! It swam away and we saw no blood, so hopefully there was no permanent damage. We don’t know if he/she was playing with the boat and misjudged (unlikely), or if it was asleep, or if it just didn’t hear us.
We immediately concluded our keel must have hit the whale and began to asses any damage. We saw no signs of water breach and nervously sailed on through the day.
Then as we got within an hour of Nomuka the bilge alarm started going off telling us the bottom compartments of the boat were flooding and there was a leak. We still saw no evidence of any water breaching the areas around the keel or the hull and Xavier decided it was a leak in the salt water pumping system, and not a result of running into the whale. We turned off all salt water intakes and pumps and no more water entered the bottom compartments.
Once we finally anchored Xavier dove under the boat and confirmed that everything was perfect. He saw that the rudder had been hit as it has a built in flexion for impacts of 300 cm but had only moved 20cm. WHEW!!!
Later that night we think we isolated the water leak culprit to the galley salt water pump and will plan to work on it in the morning. Fingers Crossed!
Thursday, September 21
We got up early to continue isolating the water leak. Turns out, it was not the galley salt water pump after all. We pumped the water out of the compartments until the pump got clogged and had to finish with buckets and sponges. So glad I got up early to shower and put on clean clothes! That was a bust.
After some work, we decided to turn off all the pumps and sail to our next destination, pondering what could be the problem as we sailed. Our sail to Ha’Afeva, one of the islands in the Ha’apai group, was delightful. We encountered heavier seas out in the channel and a little calmer as we neared some of the many, many islands along the way. The islands provide a little shelter from the wind and generally slows the wind speeds and calms the seas a bit.
We saw 3 whales along the way and 2 as we were leaving our last anchorage. Including the one we hit yesterday (so sorry whale), we have spotted 15 whales so far, several in full breach. So cool!
We arrived at our anchorage at the island of Ha’afeva and actually saw 2 other boats anchored in this remote lagoon. This is our first encounter with other sailboats on anchor that wasn’t in a harbor. Once we settled in, got the sails stowed, made sure the anchor was set and generally organized everything,
Carol went to our cabin and realized our mattress and bedding was soaking wet. It appears there is a discharge port for the “water maker” (the desalination system). When we are port heeled (leaning to the right and that side of the boat goes into the water) the valve may have allowed water to enter the port. So it was soaking into our bedding. That provided a lovely opportunity for us to haul all of it out of our cabin, wash all the bedding, hang it to dry and remake the beds. If you’ve ever slept in the cabin of a boat, that’s not an easy task. But it had to be done.
While the clothes were drying, we took our dinghy to the island and had a little trek to the village. It is quite small in people population, but quite large in pig population. I suspect they eat a lot of pork.
We returned to the boat and continued searching for the leak that continues to fill the bilge with water. If you’ve ever owned a boat, you know that work is never ending. It just takes time and persistence to figure it out.
Mickey cooked us a wonderful dinner of lamb kabobs and an Irish potato/cabbage/sausage dish called Colcohnan. All I can say is that we’re eating so well with Mickey as chef.
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