Biggest Waves Ever!!! 4 Days Living At Sea

jason wynn sailing the south pacific on a catamaran in stormy seas

Adventure, Cook Islands, Ocean Crossings, Sailing, Videos

Biggest Waves Ever!!! 4 Days Living At Sea

December 15, 2019

5.6k

It has been said a thousand times and it shall be said a thousand more, a life at sea is full of extremes. This four-day passage was no exception.

We thought we knew a thing or two about sacrificing civilization for freedom, but Palmerston takes a life at sea to a whole new level. Living on a remote island far away from civilization, no matter how good the internet is, requires determination and a unique frame of mind.

It’s one thing to live on a boat and sail about the world. We spend a lot of our time isolated and far away too, but our floating island can make its way to civilization.

And speaking of making our way to civilization, our time in the Cook Islands is up. Time to get this ol’ boat moving again. Next stop is the world’s smallest independent nation of Niue. Approximately 400 nautical miles away.

True to the nature of sailing, it’s a passage that goes from heavenly to heavy.

Oh how heavenly it all started. Beautiful downwind sunset sailing, fresh yellowfin tuna…what more could any seafaring traveler want!?!

And how quickly it all changes.

One day we’re going to learn how to capture the magnitude of the swell and waves. Because while these might not have been the behemoth waves that make one fear for their life, they were enough to send our 60 pound freezer flying from out of its holster from port to starboard. It’s an absolute shame we didn’t capture THAT on camera. And a miracle it didn’t put a huge hole in our cockpit!

🙏 Thank YOU!

We keep creating and sharing because of you. Each time you read, watch, comment, share, shop our gear store or put tips in our production jar you make this all possible. If you like what you see, click here to learn how you can show your support. Thank you for being a part of the journey!

🎶AWESOME tunes:

Source: http://bit.ly/artlist-gwtw
- Artists – Giants & Pilgrims (intro), Michael Shynes, Tristan Barton, and Tomer Katz

⛵ SAILING REPORT

To see our full map with interactive pins, click here: gonewiththewynns.com/map

Nautical Miles Sailed: 415
Date: July 2019

Get Your Swag On!

Comments (26)

Mark of SJC

Dear Nikki and Jason:
Thanks SO MUCH for keeping my vicarious “sea life” alive (and in living color – with local sounds of the areas, no less!). Your story telling is as epic as the storybook dream you prove to be an alternate, but achievable reality.

Out of curiosity, when you have high winds like that – do you make better time? Or are the oceans so rough it’s cancelled out by the peaks and troughs? I’ll never forget sailing in a monohull when we suddenly caught a strong, consistent wind on my friends 38′ – not only did we fly like a skipping stone across the (much smoother) water, but the sails had us at such a strong angle that we were actually dipping the leaword safety rails in the water! (That was when I was glad it wasn’t MY ship!)

Thanks so much for the vibrant stories you continue to share!

- Nikki Wynn
  
  Awe, thanks so much for the love! We do maintain a nice little clip when the winds pick up. For comfort, we like to be at 9-10 knots of speed. If we’re feeling great we’ll push it a little more. Fastest we’ve been in our boat is 16 knots and it was too much! Felt like a rocket ship!
  
Harris&Jan

So enjoy your adventures. Great job from both of you!

Deran Eaton

Jason, Nikki,

Smooth sailing and horizon sunsets… Ahhhhhhh!!!!! Fresh tuna! Raw ambrosia to Singa and Cleo — a cats’ idea of Christmas short of shore leave on Sandbox Island! Could almost savor that seared tuna through the screen, too.

From the storm footage and description of its upsets, it sounds like “Curiosity” got whacked with at least one rogue wave on the Niue passage. Always encouraging to know you made it through such stuff safely. Thanks for the example of using lifelines and harnesses.

A “Semper Paratus” book title for you and others under sail: “The Finest Hours” by Michael Tougias and Casey Sherman Imagine waves 60-70 feet high in the vicinity of 41 deg 37′ N x 69 deg 55′ W, during a February 18, 1952 nor’easter. Chart = https://charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/13237.pdf Now imagine four USCG rescuers recovering 32 souls on a surfboat only made to hold 16 — compass destroyed, barely a radio, radar a novelty and neither GPS nor LORAN-C existed. The 2016 movie does the actual history justice except on eight points, one being the USCG rescuers sang the hymn “Rock of Ages” heading CG36500 out over the Chatham Bars, at night, directly into those big waves…

Cape Cod and Nantucket Sound are S/V Windwalker’s home waters, and still are for the CG36500: https://www.orleanshistoricalsociety.org/aboutboat.

Dropped some treasure into your tip jar. Thanks aplenty for the top quality videos. Merry Christmas!

- Heather Stewart
  
  Deran, thanks for posting that information and link…you captured my Sunday morning into lunchtime! LOL!
  
  I had not heard of the book or the movie…and you’ve sent me off on an exploration for the last 3 hours! Studied the chart you posted, went to the Orleans link you shared and looked at the press info & interview, amazed at the size of the boat and what she accomplished, found a bootleg copy of the movie on YouTube, watched it (and knowing it’s a movie, yet a true story reflected well as confirmed by another Coastie who was out that night, was pretty freakin’ amazing!), read some of the comments that mentioned the name of the sea chanty they started singing called “Haul Away Joe”, went to find out more about the song, found a group called “The Longest Johns” https://www.thelongestjohns.com/ who are an a cappella group out of Bristol UK that sing sea chanties, and then bought one of their albums!
  
  HA…what an internet trip! Thanks!! 🙂
  
Qin

Hey Nikki & Jason, some..thing very exciting… ta da internet access… the secret…not really but very few know about….. internet via ham radio… need a Dstar system, can be inexpensive depends on what hardware you get, but the best part no subscriptions…hahaha laff your way to the bank. which means you can talk, browse internet…okay it is not fast, no you still cannot upload your vids to youtube as it will crawl. but hey it is pretty niffty comms. tricky part is you need to be near enough to a repeater or don’t know if you buy a repeater you can get virtual access to internet anywhere? maybe…I don’t know. dig a little. hopefully, you guys catch this message while you are still on land in texas. then you have a chance to dig a little on the internet. just found out about this today and I thought hey wouldn’ t Nikki and Jason love this? so here I am banging out this message. much love.
https://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/dstar/dstar/default.aspx

cheers
Qin

- Curious Minion
  
  Hey Qin. That is a pretty good way to get weather info and check your e-mail, but it can’t handle a video upload. Good idea though!
  Curious Minion
  
Mark-Andrew

So we are on catchup as we went back 3 years and binge watched from the purchase of the boat, ive watched since the RV but my girlfriend wanted to see what was what and boom, here we are watching video after video, we still have a year at least to watch before we’re here. One thing we do say after each and every wonderful video is….. cooking channel, recipes, Nikki, i think you need a new page of recipes on here 🙂

Mike

I found your channel several months ago and now can’t get enough! I’ve been able to catch up on all your postings since buying the boat. Easily the best voyaging videos out there.
In 15 years I have not been able to get my boat beyond the Chesapeake Bay, but now I get to see the world through your eyes. Thank you!

Alan Solomon

Waves over the boat, yup, that’s a radical reality.

At 19:16 Jason’s zippered sweater matches his eyes perfectly. That must be the reason you got it for him Nikki?

Best,

Marilyn

Once again you’ve taken us on a fabulous journey. As a devoted fan from your RVing days I’ve so enjoyed watching you both grow into your new mode of exploring this world. How about that fresh tuna. Do you share your creative talents in the kitchen?
To both of you, thank you

Dennis

The power of nature. I’ve climbed mountains, backpacked for two weeks and winter camped in below zero but watch the waves in your video made me nervous. I’m looking forward to your next video. Nuie looks so awesome. Supposed to be some of the clearest water in the world so diving and snorkeling should be awesome.

YDion

Beautiful images: days 1 to 3, the sunset, the night shots… incredible; you have outdone yourselves! And the waves and wind on days 3 and 4 !!! Whenever I go on a chartered boat (scuba diving), after a day or two rolling and pitching, when I get back to land, every ‘fixed’ objects continue moving for many hours (sometimes days) – it must be incredible to get back to land after the waves you guys have experienced ! What do you do in such situations?
Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. It’s like vicarious living…

Marjorie Nehlsen

Fantastic. Watched twice

Robert Regan

Fantastic great to see the diversity of the ocean the way you set up for the storm great really enjoyed this video was all most like experiencing it myself thank you.

Deborah Kerr

I Love the night-time video with the stars, moon, glistening water and sounds of the sea!! That fresh tuna recipe looks awesome! Those were some scary waves, but you were both calm and in control. Thanks for sharing 😃

Lee Parlow

Another great post from an extraordinary couple.

Greg and Gretchen

Wow! Must have been hard leaving your new family. Sorry they didn’t answer your final goodbye call. Gretchen and I like sailing on the open ocean, BUT, not like your sail! Yikes. Looking forward to next Sunday!!!’

Roger B

OK, now that I’m seasick, please get me onto solid ground. Poor kitties. I hope they don’t get seasick.

Michael Magill

Another amazing video, thanks for letting us tag along. Really rough nite glad you two made it through safely. I would have been really wound up, night sailing and all the bad weather not my cup of tea at all, But you caught a small tuna fish and Nikki you made it inot a great meal. Hope yo two are well safe seas and safe sailing!!

John K

Huge fan….watched all your vids. I have to say you all are getting the max plan at what life can be. Fun job well done.
Fair Winds and Following Seas.

Hunter

That tuna dish looked delicious!! Glad you made it through rough seas!

Diana Rodgers

Love following your journey !

Laura

Another fantastic video. Love the music it really helped to set the tone!! Great looking fish. Now I wanna go get some!! Thanks for your work here, I love my Sunday morning dose of Gone with the Wynns.

jim Ege

Did the following seas cause problems with your auto steering? We always had trouble in those conditions. The auto steer had to work overtime. Just when you think Mother Nature is benevolent she smacks you in the ass just to remind you who is in charge!

MOGAL65

Incredible, incredible sunset capture! Kudos!!