Summer Diaries: Sailing the Remote Pacific

Somewhere between Vanuatu and the Louisiade Archipelago, on a boat that's already logged tens of thousands of ocean miles, Project World Sail are deep into the second half of a circumnavigation. This is the remote stretch: dugongs in the shallows, an eight-hour hike to an active volcano, squall lines at night, and days that don't go to plan nearly as often as you'd hope. We caught up with JP & Charlotte aboard their Fast 500, Jacqeau to talk through the preparation, the highlights so far, and what a summer sailing the South Pacific has taught them about sailing, kit, and keeping the bigger picture in view. 

Tell us about your summer sailing plans. Where are you headed/have already been, and what is the plan? 

Our plans are quite exciting for the next few months. We are currently in Vanuatu. We'll make our way up to the Solomon Islands, then to the Louisiade Archipelago in Papua New Guinea, eventually making our way towards the Torres Strait, where we will have a bit of a reset. Then we'll be making our way up through Indonesia, a couple thousand miles ahead of us. So we're excited to carry on our journey and keep making tracks on our circumnavigation. 

What were you most looking forward to before you set off – the destinations, the people, a particular leg of the trip, or just being back on the water? 

For us, one of the most exciting things is getting towards the more unexplored islands. We recently had an experience with a local community here in Vanuatu, who were able to show us some of their more traditional ways of having fun and living, and just their lifestyle. So that's been really amazing so far. We're really excited to see a little bit more of that as we go up the coast and get to explore all these remote destinations. And with that comes the weather it brings, and the struggles of finding food and fuel, etcetera. So yeah, they're all exciting challenges that we have ahead of us. 

Tell us about the prep for this adventure – getting the boat ready, planning your route, etc. 

The preparation for this next leg has been pretty extensive because we knew we were coming into a much more remote part of the world. The simple things that you can get in more popular cruising destinations are nigh-on impossible to get out here, and that's if things go right. When things go wrong, it's even more difficult. 

So we put a lot of work in, in Auckland, New Zealand – we repowered, new auto hounds a lot of stuff that went in. I won't bore you with the list, because it's extensive, but it took months and months to prep the boat for this stage of the trip, to the extent that now we trust the boat, we feel like we can take it anywhere. 

She's ready for the other half of the circumnavigation, which is the main thing for sailors who are trying to sail around the world: you want to be able to trust the boat and trust the equipment that you have for safety. And yeah, it's a massive part for us. 

What's been the highlight so far? A moment, a place, a passage – something you know you'll be talking about long after you're home. 

A highlight so far of our sailing summer has definitely been swimming with an animal that we didn't even know existed before. We sailed up to this island in Vanuatu that's famous for these things called dugongs. We met some locals, and they took us to where they all were. There were about 20 of them swimming around with us in the shallows, staying with us. The mothers have their babies – they only give birth every three to seven years – so to see them with their babies and swim with them was just a truly magical experience. 

Walk us through a memorable day on board. Take us from the morning to the evening – what did the day feel like, and what stood out? 

So I'm going to walk you through a memorable day on board Jacqeau this summer. One that really has stuck out is our first landfall in Vanuatu. After quite a challenging overnight sail, we arrived at this island called Tanna, which is famous for its active volcano. We spent the next day doing an eight-hour hike straight out of the anchorage, arriving at sunset at this incredible active volcano. We got a truck back down to the boat in the evening with all the locals, and it just felt incredible that we had sailed our home all of these tens of thousands of miles – this felt like a true adventure. 

What conditions have you faced (or are you bracing for)? How did you handle them, and what did the boat – and the kit – need to cope with? 

So sailing in the South Pacific this summer with the Super El Niño has brought us an array of challenging and varied conditions. For a while we were pretty much consistently sailing in 30 knots plus, and we had quite a lot of swell at quite a short period, which made for some pretty uncomfortable rides. At night you're usually dealing with multiple squall lines, and sometimes it's just hard to keep the boat going and stay safe. 

But on the other side of things, we've also been sailing within the archipelago of Vanuatu, which means protection from the swell within the islands, and we've really reaped the benefits of that. So we've pretty much been sailing in all conditions – we've worn every single bit of gear that we own. One moment we'll be in our UV Tec tops, and the next moment we'll be in full foulies. We're still loving our thermal mid layers; we wear them all the time. 

What's something this trip has taught you, or reminded you of, about sailing in the summer? The unexpected lesson, the small thing you'd do differently, or the reason you keep coming back to it. 

One of the biggest learnings – I guess we seem to learn every week, and all sailors will know this, dealing with such a changeable environment – is that nothing honestly ever really goes to plan. We've changed our plan for our whole journey maybe seven or eight times, probably double that if you count the small ones. But big, thousands-of-miles changes, and changes that have shifted our timeline by months or years. 

I guess it's just learning to try and roll with the punches and look at what's ahead of you, and really just look at the bigger picture and try to keep that in your mind – that you're not going to be able to see everything, you're not going to do everything, you're probably going to do it much slower than you expected to. But as long as you get there in the end, that's the main objective, and you get there safely. 

So that's the main thing with weather, equipment changes, and breakages – the journey you have planned out in your head is more than likely not going to be the one you actually end up doing. So being able to just go with that, keep positive, and make sure you're pushing forward and getting towards the destination, even if that means not moving for a while or going a different route – that's one of the biggest takeaways that I can offer to everyone watching.

If you could sum up the trip in a sentence, what would it be? 

Oh, it's a hard one. I think I could actually do it in two words: "truly unique." I don't think we're going to ever experience what we're experiencing this summer again in our lifetime. So yeah, truly unique.