October 2011 Issue No. 197 - Navigator Publishing

OCEAN VOYAGINGDavid Lynnmakes friendswith a pair ofmollymawksat ChathamIsland.and were still sometimes cold.Continual showers rendereddozens of rainbows, but leftus damp. Hundreds of birdsgraced us each morning,especially albatross. The tipsof their great wings comecentimeters from touchingthe water as they glide overthe waves. They dip lowin the troughs of the hugesouthwest swells and are lostmomentarily until the wavescrest, then fall and the birdssuddenly reappear. Comparedto their graceful winging, theflitting, fluttering, dipping andweaving of the Storm petrels isamusing and tiring to watch.A delay in arrival due toa faulty oil cooler had uslimping into Waitangi Baywith 25-knot winds on thenose well after dark. As werounded Hanson Point andpassed the well-lit wharf, wewere like horses close to thebarn, anxious to settle in andcall it a day. Chatham Islandat last.The wind howled inthe rigging incessantlythroughout the night. Ourfirst view of the Chathamsfrom our rocking boat thenext morning was somewhatobscured in 30-knot windsand heavy rain. We couldsee the small settlement ofWaitangi with moored fishingboats in front of the wharf toour west. Red-earthed cliffsprovided a sharply contrastedbackground to the weatheredport buildings. Grassy duneslined the east end of thehorseshoe bay with the littletown protected behind point.Gale warnings were in effect.The forecast called for NE 30knots all day with a switch toSW 40 during the night andcontinuing for the three-dayforecast period. To add to theexcitement, Cyclone Bune wasexpected to dip south to paythe Chathams a visit as well!The windy islesWe understood why they callthem “the windy Chathams”...it’s because it’s really, reallywindy! Throughout the nextday and night, the windprogressed from snarling inthe high 20s to shrieking inthe mid-30s to wailing inthe low 40s. Regular checksof the anchor and snubbershowed Nine of Cups washolding in place. The rainwas as heavy as we’d everencountered and pounded thedeck in sheets. A SW windchange occurred late morningand the swell subsided a bit,though the wind, now at 45to 50 knots, kept us alert.We laid out more scope andNine of Cups, as usual, seemedto be weathering the blowbetter than her complainingcrew. It was an odd daywith alternating bright sunand blue skies changing ina flash to heavy rains totallyobscuring the shoreline. Wehad still had no opportunityto go to shore. Cyclone Bunecontinued her approach, buther winds were weakening.At last...on our third day,it dawned sunny, bright andmoderately calm. CycloneBune had dissipated. Wefigured we had passed the riteof initiation in the Chathams:If you don’t blow away inthree days, you can go ashore.We met John Day almostimmediately, a crayfish trapmaker with a shop on thewharf. John was a fine firstintroduction to ChathamIslanders. Our oil coolerneeded a new fitting and Johnhanded us the keys to histruck along with directionsto the Waitangi Garage. We22 OCEAN NAVIGATOR OCTOBER 2011 www.oceannavigator.com