Our first extensive blue water sailing over to Rarotonga left me feeling like a husk of a man upon arrival. Our passage over had been 5 days and 4 nights and Leigh reckoned that the crossing was his 3rd most uncomfortable in all 12 years of his sailing… The curse of the Whites strikes again!

Our first day at sea had seen decent weather with swells from two different angles. We were expecting the trade winds to help us on our way but the wind was hard on the nose of the boat so progress slow slogging up wind. The swells came from the aft and port side of the boat and meant that the boat pitched not only side to side but forward and backwards in no certain rhythm. The head wind meant no spinnaker but the mizzen staysail could be hoisted for an extra bit of speed. At night our watches were split up in 20:00-23:00, 23:00-02:00, 02:00-05:00 and 05:00-08:00.

Katie took the first watch and I took to my bunk to try and sneak in some sleep. When Katie woke me at 11 she said that Leigh had set the sails the wind had not changed and there was a small dot of light on the horizon on the port side of the boat that could either be another distant boat or a very low star. During my watch, we started to slowly pass this distant spot of light and I decided to keep an eye on it as it seemed to be getting closer and brighter. About an hour later you could see that the light indeed was closer and had changed to a green light. This means that the boat the light was attached to, had turned and was now heading towards us. The light got brighter and from my reckoning it was looking like it would get to the same tiny area of the South Pacific at exactly the same time as us. The boat got closer and closer still, never once changing its tack to pass our stern. I decided that I should get some advice from Leigh about who has right of way and what to do. Leigh told me that we shouldn't worry until we could see the outline of the ships hull in the dark. 2 minutes later I could see the outline of the ships hull and it was heading straight for our port side. Leigh tried to radio them but got no response. There was no sign of anyone on deck through the binoculars. The boat got closer still. It was travelling at quite a speed. With some urgency in his voice Leigh told me to start the engine and quick… With the engine barely started and on full revs we motored forward to have the approaching yacht pass by our stern about 5m. That was too close for comfort. It appeared that the crew of this yacht had just set their boat on autopilot and gone down below for a nice uninterrupted nights sleep, blissfully un-aware that they nearly had a mid ocean collision with another vessel.

It actually turned out that the boat that had come within 5m of us would be the one and only vessel we would see on our entire 5 day voyage! The next morning the wind started to change direction and the swells got bigger. With not much to do during the day once the sails are set and the boat is cruising nicely you tend to just look out to the vast expanse of sea where you see nothing in any direction. No land, no boats, nothing, until we were joined for about half an hour by a small school of dolphins. There were about 6 in total that would swim along just of the bow of the boat and then jump out of the water over each other and land in the water on the opposite side. Occasionally they would surface and surf along the bow wave then dive back down and fly up out of the water in a true "flipper" style!

The swell continued to get worse and the wind got stronger but sadly still on the nose of the boat. This meant that the boat was running heeled over at about 45 degrees with the water up to the gunnels on the starboard side. I really didn't like this and nor did my stomach. What really saw me off was trying to have a game of Chinese Chequers below deck in a rolling sea. I apparently went mildly transparent and had to sit on deck for a while. There was nothing for it. The digit had to be inserted into the oesophagus to stop the nausea and not to soon after I took to my bunk for a rest. I slept whilst between them Katie and Leigh took the night watches during some of the worst weather I have ever had the misfortune of hearing from the warmth of my bunk. I will get Katie to describe the nights sailing…

With Paul out of action, Leigh took first watch and woke me at about midnight.I hadn't been on deck long before a rain squall came in. It was fast and strong, chucking the wind and rain at us in unpredictable directions. Leigh was out of bed and up before I could shout for him and he went about reefing in (reducing) the mainsail before settling back down inside. The rest of my watch was distinctly uncomfortable with the rain constantly lashing away and the boat still at an extreme angle, but I hung on and actually found myself laughing out loud and grinning. Fleetingly, I wondered that my sanity had left me…

Upon waking the next morning I (Paul) was surprised to find some genuine concern for my physical state from Leigh who I thought would just rip me for being a "Whinging Pom"! The boat continued to get pounded by the swells and the wind stayed on the nose all the way for the next 3 days and two nights with the boat constantly heeled over towards the starboard side.

We finally arrived in the dark at Raratonga harbour around 9pm of the 5th day and after a well deserved beer and a feed we took to our now horizontal bunks for some quality uninterrupted rest. Although Rarotonga is in the middle of the South Pacific, our first day on the island felt like we were back home. People drive on the left side of the road and more importantly… They speak English! We spent most of the day cleaning the boat and working up an appetite so to complete the feel of being back at home we decided that we would take Leigh out for a traditional English dish of Curry! The next day the anchorage started to fill up with the arrival of Soren Larsen next to us. The Soren Larsen is an old British built square-rigger that was then registered in Denmark. The boat has seen its service as a cargo vessel under sail and now has been purchased by a New Zealand company offering sailing trips for paying customers and crew alike between New Zealand and Easter Island and back again. To the other side of us we had the yacht Don Pedro pull up who we had over for drinks at sunset. I got talking to a guy called Patrick from Don Pedro who lived in Banff for a few years and was giving me tips on how to be a professional ski-bum around British Columbia and how to get free heli-skiiing trips… Handy man to know so in order to glean more information I decided to head out for a few beers in town with him. Research purposes of course. Around 1am we staggered back to the boats with another Katie who was crew on the Soren Larsen. As soon as we got into the dingy to head over to Patrick's boat for more drinks, Katie (the crew) fell straight overboard in one graceful move. I thought that wasn't the first time that had happened!

Waking up the next morning my head was rather thick and receiving some limited sympathy from Katie (as she had taken the sensible decision of staying in) we just spent the rest of the day reading and topping up our tans on the boat. It's a hard life you know! During our time spent on the island we took the now almost obligatory cross island walk. This walk would take us into the lush and green interior of the island and up to a place called the needle. The walk up was steep and rooty and for some reason the sun had decided that it would blaze down on us for a change! We reached the needle approximately 2 hours later stopping at a sign claiming that it was the end of the trail and anyone passing this point would be doing so at their own risk. Looking around we wanted a better view to show for our toil so we laughed at the sign and pressed on up the side of the rockface. We weren't disappointed in the results as a small bit of danger resulted in a perfect view back down the valley and across the island.

We returned from the walk to find that we (Mi Querida) had been invited to the yacht club along with a select few other boats from the harbour for drinks and free food and to check out some local dancing. Once we had had our fill of food the dancing started. I was happy to watch but when they started to drag out people from the audience to join in I made a hasty retreat to hide behind a pillar along with most of the other sensible people. After all the festivities had finished it was back to the town for continued drinking with most of the people we had been out with including Leigh. Around 1am we staggered back to the boat. Somehow myself and Katie had managed to almost adopt a 3 legged dog and therefore our progress back to the yacht was slower than everyone else's. We found that on our arrival the cockpit of the boat was full of people with a rather drunk Leigh dishing out more free drinks. Not wanting to seem rude we joined in! Next day our heads were a little bit thick but Leigh was suffering the most. The captain doesn't handle his drink very well the next day and he hardly left his buck for more than 5 minutes!

We had extended our time on Rarotonga in order for me to get my PADI Open Water Diver qualification and during the last 3 days of our stay I was off watching training videos, doing scuba skills in the shallow lagoon, sitting exams and doing 4 open water dives to practice my skills and generally enjoy myself. During my dives I was swimming with turtles, barracuda, giant trevally and countless smaller reef fish. For my final dives on day 3 Katie joined us to take a separate dive out at one of the reef spots. At the end of it all I was awarded with my Licence to dive having scorched through the exam with a 96% pass. It was quickly back to the boat as we needed to set sail to catch the high tide at our next port of call so we wanted to leave immediately. After taking nearly 3 hours to fill the water tanks with the worlds slowest hose we crept out of the port and on to Aitutaki well behind schedule!