Posted by Graham Cox
Leg Two of the Mini Globe Race is drawing to a close, with just two entrants, Josh Kali and Gary Swindail, still at sea, apart from Mike and John Blenkinsop, who are in Tahiti aboard DELJA 99 and DELJA 100, but not racing this leg. This last week has seen a flurry of activity at Vuda Point Marina, as the middle pack began to arrive in close proximity, with six 580s arriving between the 17th and 22nd of June. It was hard to discern if their smiles of delight were generated by the warm welcome of the marina crew, or because of the prospect of several weeks ashore, where they could tie up their tiny yachts after almost 7000 NM, and relax without having to think of squalls, sail changes and navigation decisions.
Dan Turk sailed through the barrier reef into the lagoon off Vuda Point at around 2030 Fijian time on 17 June, and crossed the finish line in the dark, to another midnight welcome from Don and Jane. He said the last 48 hours had been very challenging, with little sleep, adding to the usual relief of safely making it into another port. When he arrived at the Customs wharf the next morning for his official clearing into the country, to be met by the usual welcoming choir, he did an impromptu dance around the deck. It looked like a traditional dance, telling the story of his passage perhaps, complete with seabird impersonations, which delighted the locals.
Christian carried a fair wind up the west coast of Viti Levu, running with his A 7 poled out opposite the A 5, and a reefed mainsail sheeted amidships, perhaps to dampen ARGO’s rolling, or perhaps to have it ready if he had to change course suddenly. All those reefs to leeward would be enough to sharpen anybody’s reflexes! It was a glorious tropical day, with the trade wind keeping temperatures down and boat speed up, a bright sun reflecting off the dazzling blue sea, plus the green hills of Fiji as a backdrop.
Christian, looking tanned and fit, despite his ongoing health issues, was understandably ecstatic, feeling awed that he had managed to sail his home-built plywood boat halfway around the world, if you take into account the qualifying race across the Atlantic in 2024, overcoming numerous setbacks along the way. “If you are thinking of doing something like this,” he said to camera, addressing his internet followers, “just buy yourself a set of plans for $300!”
ARGO sailed through the pass in fresh conditions, and was permitted by Customs to pick up a buoy inside Vuda Point Marina, due to the boisterous onshore winds in the lagoon. He passed through the breakwaters at 0300 Fijian time on 19 June, securing 6th place for Leg 2.
Jakub Ziemkiewicz and BIBI crossed the line 18 hours after Christian, scooting in through Navula Passage, the buoyed big-ship entrance to the lagoon. He was becalmed in the lee of the island for an hour afterwards, but soon the SW seabreeze picked up and he crossed the line in fine form, flying his faded A 7, with the jib set inside of it, and full mainsail. He was wearing a cowboy hat (you never know with Jakub, the joker of the MGR, what outfit he will be wearing), and flying so many flags that Don suggested that if he attached sheets to them, he wouldn’t need his regular sails. The biggest flag of all, of course, was his beloved Irish ensign.
Like all the skippers, he was delighted to finally arrive at the end of Leg 2, plus he had moved up into 7th place, not bad for a skipper who was uncertain at the beginning if he would have what it takes to sail around the world, and a boat that carries all of his possessions aboard. Judging by the perfect set of BIBI’s sails, and her scintillating performance on that sunny day, approaching the finish line off Vuda Point Marina, Jakub has come a long way since his little Biscay gale on the trip from Ireland to Portugal. The Happy Shark (see BIBI’s graphics) is finally earning its keep.
Next over the line was Adam Waugh, late that same afternoon. LITTLE WREN came gliding up to the finish line out of the sunset, her normally bright livery enhanced by the glowing rays of late afternoon sunshine. Adam took a cautious approach to landfall. He originally stood in towards Navula Passage, the big ship channel, but eased sheets and headed further north, feeling uncomfortable that he’d have to tack in the middle of the passage, and being uncertain if the breeze would hold.
Given that he did not have sufficient power to motor any significant distance with his electric outboard motor, and that Jakub and BIBI had been becalmed for a while after entering, it was probably a wise decision. He sailed further north to the Malolo Passage, leaving Tavarua Island to starboard as he entered the lagoon, as several other MGR skippers had done before him.
Eric Marsh brought SUNBEAR in 18 hours later, once again at night, to claim 9th place. It has been said that there is no rest for the wicked, and Don McIntyre must have been quite wicked at some point in his life, give the number of night-time entries in this race! Or is he just being punished for waffling? (The latter comment is an in-joke for those who regularly watch Don’s highly informative tracker updates, who will remember the less than flattering comment from one viewer!)
Eric had been lying in 7th place for much of this leg, but made a tactical decision to head south of Kadavu Island in the approaches to Viti Levu, while leading Jakub and Adam by a few miles, while they chose to head NW between Frigates Reef and Vatulele Island, to the north of Kadavu Island. The wind had been fickle, and Eric was concerned about drifting onto one of the numerous reefs scattered around the northern route, while Jakub and Adam gambled that the forecast southerly change would shove them through, as it did, with both of them moving up the leaderboard as their reward.
That’s racing for you, but worse was to follow for Eric. While his two fellow-entrants managed to squeak through the wind-shadow of Viti Levu, across the lagoon and into the delights of Vuda Point Marina, SUNBEAR came to a complete halt. With insufficient power to motor the remaining miles, he drifted for 24 hours, losing some ground in the process. Worse still, when the wind did come back up, he narrowly avoided hitting a reef after oversleeping his alarm.
Unbeknown to Eric, there appeared to be a light breeze in the lagoon, while he drifted without steerageway in the island’s wind-shadow further offshore. He seemed philosophical about it all as he drifted around. His biggest complaint was that he was unable to catch any of the large fish jumping around the boat. All’s well that ends well, though, and he was smiling as SUNBEAR crossed the line under the glare of Jane Zhou’s spotlight in the early evening of 20 June.
Meanwhile, TREKKA, helmed by Ertan Beskardes, was steadily eating up the miles. After a slow start in light winds, especially when the wind came in from the west, the strong southerlies arrived and sent TREKKA scurrying on her way. Running under just a partially-furled jib, Ertan spent his days lying in his ‘cot’, the bed he makes up on the centreline of the boat (nowhere to fall, and it is the spot with the least motion). He led two lines back to his bunk from the Hydrovane, so he could give it a bit of assistance if needed.
The breeze held all the way around the SW coast of Viti Levu and up into the lagoon, though TREKKA did slow a little once she came into the wind-shadow of the island. By 2140 Fijian time on 21 June, TREKKA had passed through the Malolo Passage, choosing to sail south of Tavarua Island, where the pass is around 1 NM wide, and was sailing slowly across the lagoon at around 2 knots, with 13 NM to go to the finish, and a cruisy 10th place.
He crossed the finish line at 0400 on 22 June, sailing to windward against a gentle, warm breeze under full mainsail and jib, while Don McIntyre and Jane Zhou swatted suicidal fish that kept jumping into their escort boat, attracted by Jane’s spotlight. Ertan said the last 24 hours had been very relaxed, as TREKKA slipped along in an easing breeze, though in my experience, Ertan always looks relaxed and in total control. He really is in the groove, making his grand tour of the world. Customs directed him to pick up the buoy outside the marina, given that the conditions were so settled, then at 0900 he came alongside to clear Customs and receive the traditional Vuda Point Marina welcome.
When NUMBATOU was about halfway between Vavau and Fiji, Jasmine’s mother reported: ‘Jasmine finally has some wind in a roughly helpful direction. Unfortunately, she’s feeling like Goldilocks – first there was too little and now there’s too much! Combined with the 30-knot wind, there are 3 – 4 metre swells from the side, so it’s rough. She’s sailing with just her jib at the moment to maintain control, even though it means a slightly slower overall speed.
‘She is using the Hydrovane self-steering again (she hand-steered in the light conditions), so can shelter in the cabin rather than getting soaked from the waves. However, this wind means she’s finally escaped from the islands around Tonga, and the active underwater volcano on Home Reef, which was billowing smoke only a few miles away. It was becoming an all too familiar sight when progress was slow or backwards in no winds or headwinds. Jasmine is now heading SE to keep her away from as many atolls and reefs as possible. The wind is due to drop off in the lee of Fiji, so this passage is very unpredictable.’
At 2250 on 21 June, Jasmine was just west of the northern tip of Vatulele Island and its fringing reef, sailing at 3.9 knots with 65.7 NM to go. The wind had fallen light and swung to the NNE, knocking NUMBATOU’s course further west and closer to the reef. She later reported that things got a bit sketchy there for a while, but the wind picked up and she worked her way further NW.
She sailed up the west coast of Viti Levu under jib poled out opposite the A 5, glad to be out of the swell, which had been, at times, the biggest she has seen since leaving Portugal, with the sea breaking into the cockpit several times. Her take on the stage from Tonga to Fiji, confirmed by her experiences between Tahiti and Tonga, is that these short passages can be far more demanding than longer ones, such as those NUMBATOU has made across the Atlantic, or to the Marquesas.
That comment reminds me of what Bernard Moitessier wrote about JOSHUA’s passage between the Galapagos and Marquesas archipelagos, recorded in his book, Cape Horn the Logical Route: One must have sailed far away from any land to know how full and rewarding a day at sea can be without anything happening. It is so different from coastal sailing where one is always a little apprehensive, tense, prepared for anything.
The wind eased for a while, and it began to look like NUMBATOU might not arrive until sometime in daylight on Monday 23 June, at least saving Jasmine from more overtime fees (she had arrived and departed on the weekend in Vavau, an expensive exercise) but the wind picked up a bit, advancing her ETA. She had 30 miles to go at 1930 local time, and was making 4.5kts, giving an ETA of around 0300 on 23rd June.
Just before the wind picked up, Jasmine had a welcoming committee of beautiful dolphins to lift her spirits, but approaching the barrier reef fronting the lagoon on a dark, windy night, made her anxious. She decided against entering Navula Pass, saying that it didn’t feel right, so she tried for the Cloudbreak pass further north. Again, it didn’t feel right, so she carried on to the third pass north of Tavarua Island, and made it successfully into the lagoon, though her mother reported that she did get very near the reef at one point.
During her final approach, she was struck by a squall for a couple of hours, and ended up being soaked to the bone. However, she was happy to get through the reef and pick up the Customs mooring buoy eventually. She said she looking forward to a proper breakfast on land after clearing in later that morning, then a lovely, long sleep.
Josh Kali on SKOOKUM has had plenty of wind since leaving Neiafu, and at 2250 Fijian time on 21 June was south of Monothaki and Ongea Islands, in the southern Lau group, sailing west at 4.1 knots, with 279 NM to go. By early morning on 22 June, SKOOKUM had slowed to 1.5 knots, which he says was the only frustrating time he has had on this passage. The next day, he found the fresh southerly wind that had been forecast, and took off again at 5 knots, sailing with three reefs in the mainsail and a partially-furled jib poled out to windward.
It was raining when he made his scheduled call. The sea state was pretty rough, with two-metre waves, but the period between crests wasn’t too bad, probably around five to seven seconds, with the wind blowing somewhere between 16 to 20 knots. I asked him if he’d managed to keep SKOOKUM dry below, given the boisterous weather, rain etc, and he said that the boat was always dry below, even though he didn’t have a spray dodger. “I just shut the hatch,” he laughed, “and dry off with a towel as soon as I get inside.”
He had been thinking of sailing south of Kadavu Island, which only added 15-20 miles to the course, but the advent of fresh, steady winds saw him alter course sharply to the NW on the morning of the 23rd, planning to pass between Vatulele Island and Frigates Reef, which lies south of the ‘mainland’, as Viti Levu Island, with its administrative capital, Suva, is sometimes called.
One interesting point is that he never took his mainsail down once during this boisterous passage, choosing instead to sail with it triple-reefed most of the time. He made sure it did not put pressure on the spreaders by triangulating the mainsheet and the preventer, which angles forward, thus pulling the boom down and flattening the sail. With this set-up, and as much jib as the boat could manage, the windvane could always manage and SKOOKUM never broached.
Having started out from Neiafu with a triple-reefed mainsail, he slowly shook the reefs out as the wind eased, but then put them back in once it increased again. At one point, before he went back to three reefs, SKOOKUM was hitting 6.7 knots, but when the boat began to round up in the gusts, he reduced sail again, not wishing to hand-steer for long periods.
He has not spent a lot of time on deck on this passage. For the most part, he has been listening to audio-books and music down below, just coming out every half an hour or so to make sure that everything was going the way he wanted it to, to watch the sea-state, and the islands going by. He mentioned he had rather enjoyed this more intricate passage, with island and reefs to dodge, offering a bit more strategic thinking than the long, open-water passages. He’s going to love the Torres Strait!
As usual, he is at home in his little boat, and in no hurry to get in, though he is looking forward to spending time with the majority of MGR skippers at Vuda Point Marina, something he has not enjoyed since Panama. Usually, those that were still in port when he arrived left soon afterwards.
In a video call to Don McIntyre during the latter’s tracker update on 20 June, Gary Swindail reported that QUESTION 2 was running with just a scrap of the jib unfurled, making around 4 knots under Hydrovane while he sheltered in the cabin. He was around 100 NM astern of Josh. He had not been on deck for the previous four days, but all was well aboard. The inside of the cabin was suffering from a bit of ‘salty damp’, though nothing was wet. He was occasionally able to crack the hatch open for some fresh air. As he noted, although it is small, his spray dodger does a sterling job of protecting the companionway from spray.
He was running just a little off dead downwind, to steady the motion. As he put it, by doing that, he only got thrown to one side of the cabin when a wave struck the hull, whereas when he was running dead downwind, he was getting thrown from one side to the other. If the price was gybing back toward the rhumb line every now and then, so be it. He looked quite relaxed in the video, but mentioned that he occasionally got a bit anxious, especially when QUESTION II fell off a particularly gnarly wave and slammed into the trough.
As Don McIntrye often says, it is not as easy as social media posts make it look. It is possible, from the comfort of your warm, dry, armchair, to think, ‘I could do that, there’s nothing to it.’ You probably could do it, if you built a 580 according to class rules, and prepared it and yourself according to the stringent standards required to participate in this race, but don’t be fooled into thinking it is easy. One of the brilliant features of the MGR is the way it offers a structured experience to people who might not otherwise embark on such a voyage, but when you are out at sea alone, nothing is certain, and it is a feeling that keeps you on your toes.
Leg 3 will start outside Vuda Point Marina on 26 July, and sail to Cape Town via Thursday Island or Darwin, Cocos Keeling Atoll, Mauritius and Durban. It promises to be the most adventurous leg of the MGR. If you have enjoyed the race so far, stay tuned! This will probably be the last weekly report I write until the start of Leg 3 on 26 July.
