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Not a lot to say. Winds were very, very light for most of the day and night. Without a light air sail we’ve been pushing the boat a little bit to get an extra knot. The winds have picked up this morning so we are now sailing. We should arrive in Pape’ete tomorrow afternoon. One big worry for us has been news of a strike in Tahiti which closed the airport to International flights for the last few days. We got news this morning that the strike is over. Phew. I was awoken by John at 5am for my regular shift. He had experienced some squalls during his shift and from the radar we still had some around us. Just what we wanted as we approached land. In the light of the full moon I could just make out a line on the horizon – our destination Kauehi. Shortly before dawn I felt we had missed the nearby squalls or more likely, they had missed us, so I made myself breakfast. As I was halfway through my bowl of cornflakes we were suddenly hit by a squall. The wind came up fast and the boat started flying. Both nuts dropped and at least one had a fish on it. I left my breakfast and first looked after the boat by falling off 30 degrees to reduce the apparent wind from the mid twenties to high teens. The downside of this maneuver was it placed us on a course for the shore. The shore was a few miles off but I wasn’t keen on using up our margin in case we had prolonged bad weather and perhaps ran into difficulties. The dropping nuts had brought John and Helen out. By now we were reeling in a fish on the starboard side which turned out to be a fair sized mahi mahi. Sadly, this one too got away as it got close to the boat. As they do, the mahi leapt into the air shaking vigorously and sufficiently to throw the hook. Soon the squall had abated and I had the boat heading away from land this time a little off our course to build some more distance from the atoll. The next couple of hours saw the skies clear as we rounded the SE corner of Kaeuhi. We made it to the pass two hours before low tide and three hours before slack (where the water would be practically still). Looking at the pass from a distance the NW third was a turmoil of standing waves and eddies but the SE two thirds looked non turbulent despite moving out quite rapidly. I decided it was worth trying to enter early as there was room to maneuver if we ran into trouble and the conditions looked manageable. I hoped to be able to sail through but I started the genset so we could apply maximum power if required. We sailed into the pass keeping close to the SE shore. The water was crystal clear and we could easily see the reef at the bottom. Once in the pass we were in three and a half to four knots of counter current. The wind decided at that moment to drop to nine knots and we ended up standing still. We were making four knots through the water but we were in no mood to just sit there and hope for the best. I engaged the motors and pushed us through into the broad expanse of water in the lagoon. Once inside we were again sailing. In Kauehi there are two main anchorages. The first is the town across a cleared channel from the cut. There is also the ‘southern anchorage’ where we wanted to go first. This is not so much an anchorage but a long strip of land and motus behind which boats can shelter from the wind and swell with lots of distance between each boat. While the channel between the cut and the town is clear of obstructions, the broad expanse of water either side is not. Nor is it all surveyed so the possibility of sailing into coral heads or submerged rocks is a real one. Still being the morning we could not head directly to the southern anchorage as the sun would be been in our eyes and it would be impossible to see any underwater obstructions. We therefore sailed the cleared channel nearly to the town before tacking and sailing across the lagoon which all eyes ahead looking for hazards. We had to tack twice more before we reached the anchorage. We had spotted a few coral heads along the way which would have done us no good if we’d hit them but we safely avoided each one. There were four other boats spread out across about a mile of the anchorage when we arrived. We picked a spot to ourselves and anchored just before midday. We soon had lunch and a beer each having been again dry for the duration of the passage. After lunch we dinghied ashore to take a look around the small patch of land we were anchored behind. The land turned out to be a rubble of dead and broken coral which was in no way barefoot friendly. It took about twenty to thirty minutes to walk all the way around our little motu. At each end a shallow reef connected us to the next patch of land. I waded around one of these spotting two small black tipped reef sharks. We’d all decided it was worth building a fire out of some of the dead wood here and perhaps cook our dinner on it. We pulled together some firewood ready for the evening. We snorkeled back to the boat where I spent a while scraping barnacles off the props and the weeds from the sides of the boat. Then it was time for an afternoon snooze. Later, John and I went ashore to collect more firewood and start the fire. While I was asleep Helen and John had prepared food to be cooked on the fire. The very dry wood was soon aflame and cooking embers building. There we met an Australian couple, Greg and Sheila, from Fine Gold who we’d passed on some info regarding the passage into the lagoon. Once the embers had built John cooked up the potatoes, sweet corn, burger and fish which we ate back aboard the boat. After dinner we watched the movie Batman – Dark Knight before crashing to a needed sleep. We now have about two weeks in the Tuamotus. It is a chance to finally slow down. We reckon on staying put where we are for at least three nights before moving over to visit the town for a short while. Our next stop will be the larger atoll Fakarava which has a bit more going on than here. This is the last full day of our passage to Kauehi in the Tuamotus. One could say we’re already in the Tuamotus as around sunset we were no more than 13nm away from Tikei. This is a tiny splash of an island which was impossible to see at that distance. Our expected arrival time at the passage between Kauehi and Raraka to the south is still around 7am in the morning. That’s about as good as it gets for us. We managed to catch another skipjack tuna today. It was the biggest we’ve caught so far but I was disappointed it wasn’t something else. As stated before we probably have more skipjack in the freezer than we’ll ever eat. I also started shopping in my Defender catalog. If Ben does in fact join us in July then it will be a great opportunity to have some gear brought in. Not a lot else. When I get bored enough on passage I usually end up fixing something minor or whipping the ends of lines (look it up). Today I did both. I ran the morning net for the second time today. Turns out about half of the boats are on their way to the same place as we are heading. The ones we are talking to are all behind us so we should get a day or two to ourselves unless there are others there ahead of us. We may be in a remote part of the world but this is the time that cruisers head on through and quite a lot of us are converging on Tahiti for the puddle jump party on the 18-20th of June. One new milestone passed today. Today marks the first time I’ve managed to send and receive emails via short wave stations in New Zealand. Another one of those same day at sea days today. One bite on the fishing lines which triggered the nut alarm. Nothing on the end of the line though. Absolutely nothing. Lure, weight, leader, swivel and clip all gone. Put on another set but nothing else for the rest of the day. On the morning net we learned that the boats that set off a day behind us have had to motor some of the time. Looks like we got lucky. The wind has died down a little so we’re doing less (but some) regeneration. We’re still on track to arrive earlier than slack tide on the 29th but by less of a margin. I also learned that slack water is about an hour to an hour and a half after low water and at the same time as high tide. This gives us an extra margin for entry into the lagoon at Kauehi as we’re scheduled to make low tide around 11am. The pass at Kauehi is quite wide so we may be able to enter it before slack but we’ll figure that out when we’re there. Our skewed luck with fishing continues. Just before dawn I put two lines out. That’s all we do these days as when we have four out we often get tangles. Within an hour one nut dropped then the other. The first line was loose but the second was quite tight. Something was on it. With Helen getting the knives and tethers out I hauled the beastie in. As I brought the fish close to the boat I saw it was a Shortbill Spearfish somewhat larger than the Wahoo caught (and lost) the previous evening. We woke John to get involved once I had it aboard. It was about 5 feet long and I reckon must have weighed about 30 odd pounds given that the Wahoo had weighed in at 20. Unfortunately, as the fish reached the wash at the foot of the steps it shook itself free of the lure. It too was gone but free to fight another day. In hindsight this was perhaps for the best. If we’d have killed and butchered it we’d have far more fish meat than we’d eat in months. We’d be happy to give some away but I’m happier the creature is free to roam the ocean. Just before lunch we had two more near simultaneous hits on the lines. This time we had fish on each. John and I hauled them in. Mine got away but John landed his. It was a Skipjack Tuna. We still have some fillets of that in the freezer so we let it go. We had two more strikes in the day but neither resulted in a fish on the line. There are some big beasties out there. We hope we can land a decent sized tuna one day soon. The wind in general remains in our favour. It occasionally dies down a bit and varies direction quite regularly by 10-20 degrees keeping our attention on trimming. We’re still due to arrive about 10-12 hours before we can enter the atoll at slack tide. This would be on day 4. If we’re still making this kind of progress on day 3 we’ll deliberately slow down. For now we’re regenerating more than we would normally and using the microwave to heat soup, etc. which we don’t normally do. It’s looking more likely that our second son, Ben, will join us aboard before we leave French Polynesia and probably remain until we get to New Zealand. While this means we have to surrender notions of us sailing the Pacific as a couple this year we’re more than happy to have Ben join us. The only problem is our supplies of beer/wine are not sufficient for all of us and costs are unknown, probably expensive, this side of New Zealand. This morning was internet (very slow), shopping, getting gas for the dinghy and boat prep. After lunch we were off on our way to the Tuamotus. The wind was fair and we’re making around 6 to 6.5 knots. It will be nice if we can cover the 500 odd miles in four days. Just under in fact as we need to hit slack tide to make it through the pass in whatever atoll we decide to arrive at. Our current target is Kauehi – the entrance being at S15 56.954 W145 10.837. About 15nm west of Ua Pou our luck with fishing took a new turn. The nut alarm was triggered and I found we had a fish on the line that stayed on the line. I hauled it in slowly as it was putting up a bit of a fight. I knew it wasn’t a mahi mahi as it wasn’t leaping out of the water to through the hook. When the fish was near the boat I realized it was a decent sized Wahoo – a good eater and the first we’ve ever caught. I managed to get it aboard and put our large safety pin through it’s jaw which tethered it to the boat. We weighed it at 20lb before slitting it’s gills and chucking it in the water to bleed out. I pulled it in again and gave the cuts a second go. Not much blood this time but I put it in the water again. As I was lowering it down the steps the link between the pin through it’s jaw and the line to the boat failed and we lost the fish. Boy were we all disappointed. It’s one thing losing a live fish but having a dead fish escape really sucks. Particularly 20lb of delicious wahoo. We’re back on our regular watches. Nothing much else to report for day 0. (I like counting from day 0 as it makes the arithmetic easier later on). The notion that you’re free to go wherever you want, whenever you want in a sailboat is a myth. Well you can as long as the wind and weather lets you. We set sail this morning at first light assuming the winds would be similar to yesterday. They’ve turned out quite light so we don’t have enough time to make Ua-Pou before sunset. We’ve changed course to Baie de Vaipaee, Ua-Huka which is a slight shorter distance but puts the wind more on our beam enabling us to travel faster. Even now our ETA is after sunset and we’re relying on the usual pickup of winds in the afternoon to get us there in time. We’ll see. I woke up for my morning shift to the rumble of the generator. We were motoring. Steve must have decided that our sanity was worth burning some precious fossil fuel. We would reach landfall today. Today today today! It was still quite dark and gloomy when I took over the helm. The sky was covered in dark ominous looking clouds. Steve said he had to deal with a couple of small squalls but it look like it was clearing up. Checking the sky I noticed that most of the squall clouds had passed us except for one large squall behind us. Looking at the wind direction and the radar it looked like it would just miss us. We were motor sailing at this time. Wing on wing. Sometimes the wind picks up and gives us an extra push. The wind speed was showing 5 knots. I suddenly felt the boat surge forward. The sails billowed full. The wind speed now showed 20 knots. Steve rushed out shouting ‘make sure we don’t jibe’. It felt like the boat was about to take off. I DID NOT LIKE THIS! I saw the wind clocking behinds us. We were about to jibe. I went to press the Manuel button to take control of the boat and froze. My mind went blank. I was like a deer staring at headlights. I heard Steve shout at me and then take over the helm. He managed to get control of the boat. I couldn’t move. Ten minutes later the squall passed us. We had only got the edge of it. It took another half an hour for my heart to calm down. I realised that I’ve never had to control the boat in a crisis situation before. I wasn’t prepared and so panicked. Steve said that will have to be remedied. After the squall Steve wanted to continued charging up the house bank. Since we were running the generator and the sea was pretty calm he asked if I wanted to do a wash. Oh Yes! Once the washing machine was going, Steve decided he might as well make some water. This was when we discovered there was something wrong with the water maker. Something seriously wrong. Soon after Steve noticed that the batteries weren’t charging. This was when we discovered there was something wrong with the house bank charger. This was getting serious. Then it seemed as if the solar panels weren’t charging either. During all these unwanted discoveries, the clouds and mist cleared and suddenly I saw the faint outline of land. My stomach did a funny turn. Land ahoy! Land, land, land! It was exciting. But I must admit our excitement was subdued by all the problems starting to pop up on the boat. For me not having a water maker was the worse. It was about eight hours from land sight to reaching landfall. We watched as the island grew nearer and nearer and the landscape became clearer and clearer. Entering our anchorage was amazing. It was quite beautiful. Stunning really. Almost Jurassic Park. Can’t quite describe it. The only negative things was that there was a lot of other boats here too. Still we saw a couple of old friends who had made it here as well. After anchoring, zipping up the sail bag, putting away the lines, we cracked open the beer. That first sip was nectar. For dinner we treated ourselves to a BBQ. Ribs and chicken. And of course I had my bottle of wine. By the end of the evening, that three week crossing seemed so long ago! Finally Made It!!!!!!! The last day wasn’t all plain sailing. I’m sure Steve will explain in greater detail, but the result is that the house charger isn’t working and the water maker is broken. We sailed around the island to the west side where the anchorage is. It’s beautiful, stunning cliffs, and steep hills covered in lush green foliage and palm trees. Merlin, a boat that we have seen and heard loads during our travels, were in their dinghy and came to say hello, there are a few boats that we’ve seen about before and some that had just left to move on to other islands. I sure that we’ll bump into them at some point. We anchored, cracked open some cold beers and started to cook our BBQ. It was delicious. I had a very nice sleep, the only time I was interrupted was to close my window due to rain and I feel pretty good this morning. Steve and I will sort out the dinghy so we can go ashore, I think we’re going to trek to a waterfall. We all have some boat chores to do, I’m sure we’ll work through the list over the next few days. We all welcomed day 21 with hope and optimism. Steve confirmed that we should see land by tomorrow morning and make land fall by tomorrow sunset. Tomorrow! What a wonderful word. Today would have been a better word but tomorrow is good enough. All we had to do was average three and half knots for the rest of the trip. Easy peasy. Yeah. Don’t forget we’re in the twilight zone. |
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