Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Category: Cruiser Connections

  • The Boating Life

    The last 24 hours has been interesting. We started the day with a wash which meant running the generator. We turned on the water maker to catch up on the recent water used and that from the wash. Not long after running the water maker the circuit breaker tripped. It’s done this a few times since we repaired our last problem but always ran ok when the breaker was reset and the water maker restarted. With no other apparent issues I put this down to an over sensitive breaker. This time however the (original) motor connected to the recently replaced feeder pump started losing power and the pressure dropped out of the pump. Not good.

    This was the beginning of a day of troubleshooting. The basic question was were we still being plagued by a problem which caused our original pump failure or are we seeing a problem that was created as a result of previously running the system with a blockage. Throughout the day I checked as much as I could, changed all the filters (again), checked and checked but the water maker persisted in only running well for about 5 minutes at a time – barely enough to replace the initial fresh water rinse it performs on start up.

    I have a favoured hypothesis as to what the problem is. I suspect (but am not sure) that we damaged the motor at the same time as the pump assembly. Specifically I think it overheated and fused some of the coils. Until recently, when starting cold with the lowest resistance it soon trips the circuit breaker. Once warmed up the resistance was high enough to prevent tripping the breaker and the damage slight enough not to be noticed. I further wonder if running the water maker while charging, which resulted in a higher voltage than normal, running through the pump caused further damage and now the motor is close to death. I really want to be sure about this as this will now mean shipping out a new motor to us. Regardless, we’re now back to rationing our fresh water. Fortunately we still have some water from the Marquesas but not a lot. We have a full tank and a bit on board so we should be ok for a while.

    On the up side, during the morning John and Lucy from Tyee (last seen in Las Perlas Islands, Panama) came by. They’re anchored about 1/2 a mile away and we hadn’t realized until now. It was great to see them. John invited us out to play with his array of kite boards which John and I agreed to do after lunch.

    Before lunch we all went off snorkeling nearby where there was a lot more coral in shallow water. It was great swimming amongst the coral in the clear water. We all spotted a large grouper and Helen spied a black tipped reef shark – a small one so she had the thrill of seeing a shark close by in the water without the fear of being eaten.

    After lunch and some more faffing around with the water maker John and I headed over to Tyee to see what we could learn about kite boarding. As we had no experience at all we were shown the practice kite which we played with for about 2 hours standing in a shallow reef. This skill has to be acquired long before trying to use the force of the kite to go surfing on the board. While we were there Kamaya showed up. This pleased the Tyee kids no end as they’d been without friends their size for a while. Tim was soon out on his kite board racing John out on the lagoon showing John and I what could be done with a lot of practice.

    Back on Dignity we settled down for an early evening. I found it difficult to get to sleep worrying about the water maker. When I finally slept it was fitfully as we ended up with a night of thunderstorms. Laptops and hand held VHFs/GPS went into the microwave. Occasionally I would check. Around 1am I was woken by VHF chatter from Bristol Rose out at sea being pounded. Helen woke me early when we were in 40 knot winds. I called Bristol Rose to see if they were ok and while chatting our anchor popped and we were dragging. We quickly let out more chain and ended up stuck fast 0.2nm away from where we were anchored.

    We learned that Fine Gold, nearby, had popped their anchor a few hours earlier and had ended up a mile away in very shallow water before getting back under control. They’re now anchored further away where they’re better sheltered from the wind. When things subside we may well join them as we’re too far out from the protection of the land for comfort.

  • Kauehi, Tuamotus

    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.

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  • Daniel’s Bay

    The sail around the island to Daniel’s Bay was fairly uneventful. The winds in the lee of the island were fluky which was to be expected. In fact for a good distance, the easterly trades were curling over the top of the volcanic ridge creating a light westerly wind.

    We arrived around 3:30pm and found a spot close to the shore amongst a pack of around 15 boats. With not a lot of daylight left we went ashore to stretch our legs along the short sandy beach. Along the beach I spotted a fair sized crab sitting there that appeared unafraid of my approach. I was able to catch it by pressing down on it with my flip flop then holding it by it’s carapace.

    Once I’d carried the crab along the beach and back to the dinghy where I deposited it I noticed John and Helen had disappeared. I ran back down the beach to find them. They had been exploring a dried river bed which had lots of crab holes and they’d spotted a few scurrying around. We soon found quite a few crabs hiding under the coconut fronds and sometimes two or three to a hole which meant the top one was quite exposed. I managed to grab five more crabs handing them over to Helen and John to hold in each hand.

    We dropped the five crabs into the dinghy to make six in total. We headed over to Kamaya to say hello and ask about the nearby walking trail. They gave us directions and showed interest in the crabs. We soon had their son, Kay, aboard so we could meet his Dad Tim who would kayak ashore and collect some too. We headed back to Dignity to drop off the crabs and grab a few spare eggs for Ruth on Kamaya.

    Soon John, Tim, Kay and I were back with the crabs this time with buckets to contain them. We managed to collect at least twenty more of which John and I took another seven back to the boat.

    We soon had our crabs on the boil. Although they tasted nice, the meat to shell ratio was quite small so it took a lot of effort for a little return. Helen had also cooked up noodles and we were quite full long before the crabs were finished. John and I finished off by collecting the meat from the remaining crabs for future use.

    Today we’re off on the nearby hike to the dried up water fall. We’ll probably go along with Stuart and Sheila from Imagine who sailed around the island at the same time as us yesterday. We’re also thinking of moving back to the main town of Taiohae this afternoon after the hike. It’s about 6nm away so it won’t take long. While the anchorage here is (again) stunning we’re keen to get ourselves sorted out and on our way to the Tuamotos.

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  • Another day in Baie d’Anaho

    Helen and I decided to go for another walk. John preferred to stay aboard so we headed off to the beach together. Having just the two of us to haul the dinghy up the beach makes such a difference as we can only lug it inches at a time rather than drag it up in one go. Fortunately Stuart from Imagine was there and gave a hand.

    We walked along the beach with Stuart & Sheila for a while chatting about plans, etc. We’ve agreed to run a controlled net from here to the Tuamotus and possibly on to Tahiti. This will start up next week. We parted company when they headed off to the town in the next bay while we carried on along the coast. Our destination was the leeward beach to the east which required following the coast of this bay for a while before climbing a low saddle and out to the other side. I think I sound like a stuck record when I say the scenery and views were stunning. But they were. Unfortunately the leeward beach with it’s crashing waves also had it’s collection of trash. It was not as bad as elsewhere but even here, thousands of miles out into the Pacific, plastic bottles, old rope and other items had washed ashore.

    We walked to one end of the beach before resting in the shade of a tree, taking water then turning back. On the way we found what we think was the skeleton of a horse.

    After returning to the boat I popped over to Jackster to borrow some tools so I could open up our old water maker feeder pump. While in the middle of opening the pump Gary from Inspiration Lady called about some problems he had with his email software. It turned out he needed a file so I invite him over to collect the file and see how to apply it. Dave from Jackster popped by then too and hung around for a while during which time he invited us out to dive round the corner later in the afternoon which we accepted, particularly considering he was offering to fill our tanks afterwards.

    Having pulled the pump apart some of the bits inside were flying around. They could have been lose as a result of my dismantling but I figured out how to put it all together. Maybe it works now but I have a suspicion some of the metal is worn and output pressure will be poor.

    After lunch we got our dive gear together and around 2pm John and I were out in the dinghy – Helen preferring to read. Our first port of call was to stop by the nearby boat “Secret agent Man” which had tangled it’s chain under a coral head. I’d free dived down to take a look and realized it would take some moving of the chain and some hard pulling to remove from under the coral head under which the chain was tightly wedged.

    Dave and I donned our scuba gear and we went down. We shifted the chain and anchor to create some slack on the chain one side of the coral head. I kept this up while Dave pulled the chain out from under the coral head. Then we gave the signal to Eric on Secret Agent Man to up anchor and move. They were off. We waved goodbye, got back into our dinghies and headed off to our selected dive site.

    The dive was murky but we did get to see a lot of fish. At one point we found a lion fish and while we were looking at that a manta ray snuck up behind us so we had two good sightings in one. I also spotted an octopus which is always fun and I managed to spot a second, larger manta which was in view for just a few seconds.

    Once we were back on the boat we received a call from Eric on Secret Agent Man inviting us over for dinner. He was thankful for our rescuing him from the reef. He’d tried for ages the previous day to free himself to no avail. While he offered us the few beers he had we declined suggesting instead he ‘pass it on’ to the next person he found that he could help. They’d cooked us a chili dinner with rice which was nice. We’d brought chocolate cake for dessert which went with their banana cake.

    I was quite exhausted by the end of the evening and was quite glad to lie down and sleep.

    Today we’re heading round the island anti-clockwise to Daniels Bay which has received praise from other cruisers as well has having a great hike to what some have said is the third highest waterfall in the world despite it having no water. We’ll see. We’ll do the hike regardless as it’s supposed to be quite good.

  • Hatiheu

    The boat needed a bit of a clean up so we spent the first part of the morning washing the decks and cleaning the interior. Once this was completed we set off for our walk to Hatiheu in the next bay.

    The beach is accessible by dinghy through one small channel as the rest of the area is all shallow coral. We landed on the beach and secured the dinghy to a tree before walking along the beach looking for the path that would take us over the hill. There is a small village here if you can call it that – just a few small buildings and a church. We found the path up and began the climb. According to my charts the climb is about 250 feet but in the heat of mid morning with the sun on us it felt much higher.

    As we climbed the view of Baie d’Anaho and it’s surrounds became progressively more impressive and stunning. Reaching the saddle where the trail peaked was a relief as it was now downhill to Hatiheu and, even better, it was shaded.

    The view of the surrounding geography was even more stunning from Hatiheu. Volcanic rock formations towered over green hills and a sleepy little village. Typically there were a couple of small shops and an impressively built church.

    After exploring the village we started climbing again up the track out of town towards where there were some ancient Polynesian ruins. We expected just a few rocks but found the base of a what must have been a town for several hundred if not thousands of people. It was a haunting reminder of the culture on these islands that was decimated by the arrival of Europeans, their diseases and their ideas. Contact was inevitable and cultures are inevitably impacted but it is still sad to see the result. While wondering the ruins we met Frank and Margo from Silver Lining and ended up chatting for a while.

    Back in town we looked around for somewhere to eat. The only place open was a large dining area with meals for around $25-$40. We passed on this deciding to have a curry back aboard the boat.

    We struggled back up to the saddle again now in the midday heat. On the way back down we came upon a French lady who had lost contact with her party. She looked exhausted so we offered her some of her water. It turned out she had no water as it was the rest of her party who were carrying it. We ended up giving her our bottle as we were on our way down and there was abundant free fresh water from taps by the beach. She was very grateful for this. Once we’d left her behind we realized we’d not seen anyone else on the trail so if she was behind her party it was a long way behind. Still, with a bottle to carry water she would make it.

    Just before reaching the beach I managed to stub my little toe tearing the nail off and causing a bit of a mess on my flip flop. There was a shower on the beach of which we availed ourselves rinsing off all the grime (and dried blood in my case) and taking our fill drinking straight from the flow.

    We’d bought some empty bottles and cans to fill. Despite now having a working water maker we still can’t pass the opportunity to carry more – particularly water so fresh and clean.

    Back on the boat we had dinner. The wind had picked up earlier in the day and John found the snorkeling to be a little murky. We rested the afternoon before entertaining the Jacksters, Inspiration Ladys, the Bristol Roses and Jack from Anthem celebrating Dave from Jackster’s birthday. Another good time was had by all.

    This morning we’re a little hung over so today is set to be a day of rest.