Bonjour Mahuta
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He’s come a long way!
After five weeks at Pago Pago in American Samoa, Tom commenced the third leg of his Pacific crossing on the morning of 1 July Samoan time. When he arrived in American Samoa from Penrhyn he was exhausted. Not only had the rowing been hard but he had suffered from a staphylococcal (staph) infection which led to infected open sores and swelling of limbs. Fortunately, appropriate preparation meant that Mahuta was able to obtain text-message-advice from a doctor friend in Brisbane who prescribed the correct medicine from his on-board first aid kit. Although the sores had healed by the time he reached Pago Pago, he was still suffering from the effects of the infection.
When he left American Samoa, Mahuta was feeling strong and looking forward to this third leg. He was fortunate to have moderate winds and currents that meant he could row south to a latitude that enabled him to pass close to northern Fiji.
Rather than trying to go south of New Caledonia on his way to the Queensland coast, Tom has elected to stay further north. While the shore team was not sure about this decision, they were pleased when meteorological guru Bob McDavitt suggested to Tom that he stay north where he could expect to experience better winds and fewer adverse currents. A beneficial aspect of this route is that there are likely to be fewer vessels in transit that need to be watched and fewer large fishing vessels.
At the time of writing, Tom’s position is approximately 15S 179.6E or about 85 nautical miles north of the northern tip of Vanua Levu – Fiji’s second largest island. It looks likely that he will not need to make a choice about whether he calls in at Fiji – recent strong south easterlies have pushed him north and away from that possible stop over.
During the last couple of weeks Tom has experienced winds which were so strong as to prevent him from rowing. He tells us that the bonus is that Maiwar is a dishwasher – under these rough conditions he’s able to leave his dirty dinner plates in the cockpit overnight and they’ll be clean by morning! More recently, lighter winds performed a counter-clockwise boxing of the compass to go from south-east through north-east to north-west, then south-west and, finally, back to the south-east. The effect of this on Maiwar’s course can be seen in the screen shots below. It also means a wasted couple of days.
The place marker shows Maiwar’s position at 0600 on 23 July UTC (Day 22).
A close-up of Tom’s rather interesting detour.
Not long before he made his interesting detour, Mahuta was buzzed by a French military aircraft with which he made radio contact. Apparently he was close enough to the island of Futuna to be in French territory and was advised of this fact in a friendly French accent by the plane’s crew.
Unlike his first leg, Tom cannot reasonably expect trade winds to blow in the same direction at moderate speed day after day. At his current latitude, weather systems that can affect him are continually moving from west to east bringing changing conditions as they pass. As you can see in the screen shots above, Tom actually spent four six-hour shifts travelling south-east. This was the first time since he left Peru that he was moving away from his destination rather than towards it. Such an occurrence is not uncommon for rowers completing long ocean passages, and it is possible that this will happen to him again.
At the time this was written - Day 24 - Tom had travelled 560 nautical miles from Pago Pago at an average speed of just over 1 knot. Since leaving Peru he has been “on the oars” for 220 days. He celebrated 200 days on the oars on 5 July (Day 4 of his current leg). On that same day, he crossed the International Date Line which takes an eastern detour from the 180 degree meridian to pass between Samoa and American Samoa. On Day 17 the Shore Team was able to advise him that he had received communication from the Australian Wooden Boat Festival organisers who have invited him and Maiwar to participate in the February 2025 event.
Tom has just passed the 180 degree meridian where he moved from the Western Hemisphere (west of Greenwich) into the Eastern Hemisphere (east of Greenwich). Depending on where he makes his landfall, he has 1,800 nautical miles to go, more or less, to reach Australia.
Mum’s going to see this photo so I’d better find my hat!
Tom and the Shore Team would sincerely like to thank the people of Pago Pago for welcoming him and ensuring his safe departure on this third leg of his Pacific crossing.
Yours sincerely
The Shore Team
July 2023
For background Tom’s journey visit the archives